Our weekend!

The beautiful birthday girl, Dalaynie P.

The theme of the party was a "Jr. Chef Party" so the kids all got to make dirt cake. Here is Laine's beautiful flower pot full of dirt cake. :)

Dominick, the adorable birthday girls' brother!
He was SO THRILLED with his balloon!

Four of the bows I made this weekend. I'm trying to go "basic" so she can wear them with several outfits. Most of my bows are going to be solid colors.

Hello! Been a bit since I've posted! Sorry!

We had a great weekend! Benjamin was finally off after 10 long days and we were so happy to spend some time with him!

Saturday was a busy day filled with a birthday party of a friend, Dalaynie P., and then a Hairbow Making Party for mommy!!!!! WOW did I need that! A night out with a great friend, Amber D, and even better, making hairbows for a baby girl finally! I'm not an expert by ANY means, but I didn't do too bad! My dear cousin, Andra, hosted this incredible bow making party and taught about 20-30 ladies in her very own cozy home how to make these bows! Had so much fun. I made the red one AT the party Saturday night and since I've been home, I've made 3 more! It's a slow process for me, I'm a bit of a perfectionist, but again, I am LEARNING! :)

This week will be busy packing for Iowa! Can't wait to go "HOME!" Oh, how I miss my dear state of Iowa! Looking forward to a relaxing, yet fun-filled week with my boys! Laine and Ezra are both going with me! We will miss daddy SO MUCH, and Chavalah! :( (My mom looks forward to a week with just Chavalah though! :) ) I don't blame her!

Our princess!

Chavalah Lyn - 6 1/2 weeks old

I haven't posted lately about Chavalah. She is doing SO GREAT! Sadly, I've missed the last several weeks of her GROWING, but she is so beautiful and I'm actually forcing myself to take the time and hold her while she grows in these last several days. THANK YOU for praying! I'm firmly believing now that the more she's held, the more she's turning the corners from her withdrawal symptoms! She's really been a mild case, and for that we are thankful. But, still, there are some!

Chavalah will be 7 weeks tomorrow!!! WOW! Where did the time go, and when we went to a dr visit a few weeks ago (maybe 2 1/2), she already weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces!!! So she's got to be closer to 8 by now! She is eating super well if you can't tell with the plump little cheeks you see and she still sleeps quite a bit, but also is awake, probably a total of about 2 hours a day now if you combine all the little "increments" of sleep throughout the day. She is sleeping through the nights now without any feedings but is super hungry when she wakes up! She is smiling TONS and is actually cooing if you really get to talking to her. It's priceless. The boys continue to LOVE HER UP with lots of kisses. Laine has held her several times and enjoys that, and Ezra can't leave her alone when she's in her carseat. Or when she's laying on the couch, he'll go over and lay his head gently next to her so their cheeks are touching and say, "Awwwww." Just TOO CUTE! Enjoy the pics!

Our school boy, Laine!

WOW! Now what do you say to that!? :) This mama is PROUD!

p.s. In case you're wondering why my boys aren't wearing many clothes in the video clips, it's still HOT here in Arizona! It's taming down, we're about 99-101 now in the afternoons, but that's still HOT! :)

Tradition

Our family has started a new tradition at our dinner table. Every time we eat dinner, after praying as a family, we sing a little jig. Ezra, one month ago wanted nothing to do with even holding hands and closing his eyes, let alone SINGING after our prayer when he's SO HUNGRY. Well, I'm happy to say that one month later he LOVES singing along with us, and often, you will hear him walking around the house trying to sing the song! Too precious! We are SO THANKFUL for a God-based foundational example that we can now pass along to our own children. We only pray DAILY that our children will learn and grow to know Jesus as their personal Savior and desire to ask Him into their hearts one day soon!

Petition To Adopt!

We received the DRAFT of our petition to adopt! Talk about emotional! It's the document we give to the court to request "legal guardianship" of our sweet Ezra! It petitions also to change his name to our chosen name of Ezra Daniel Baltzly! WOW! LOVE IT!

We signed the verification this morning and will mail it to our attorney tomorrow, once she receives it and signs it, she'll finally file it with the court to give us our hearing date. In the petition it says no later than 60 days from the filing, but it shouldn't take that long to set the hearing AT ALL. I've heard they are about 30 days out. One month, so not bad. Can't wait for this to be final!

Keep praying for our sweet Chavalah now. There is another hearing October 8 to finalize the publication, and at that point, we're praying judge has favor for our request to schedule a termination hearing immediately. I'll be in Iowa during that hearing, but I plan on calling the attorney and asking what resulted from the hearing and will try and post from Iowa when I hear.

This is all for now, but I'll keep posting as I can. Hopefully some pictures of the kids next time!

WE'RE IN!!!

Well, not necessarily the way we had anitcipated, but guess what! All of my stuff from old house is officially in the new! Just in a disasterous way! :) We had some movers scheduled to come at 8 AM yesterday and they never showed. Apparently their "system" went down and they lost our information. So, because the hearing for our "kick out" was yesterday WHILE we were intending to move out, I was too nervous about waiting even one more day to reschedule them and have them come back out. I was too afraid that the judge would've sent a sherriff out that night, so we went up and rented a Uhaul and literally started loading ourselves. We had to stop at 1:00 as Benjamin had an interview at his work for a promotional position and then he came back home and we were blessed with some people from our church lifegroup to help finish it up. We were "in" and officially here and locked our front door at 10:30 PM! Shew! This morning I'm "catching my breath." I've unloaded about 15 kitchen boxes, but have about 20 more, then the rest of the house! :) FUN! It's different though when "you own" and can actually feel like it's "permanant." Such a different feel! I LOVE IT!

Will post pictures when I get them taken! :) Unpacking for the time being!

OFFICIAL HOMEOWNERS!!!!!

WE GOT OUR KEYS TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

We'll be moving in gradually over the weekend. My posts will stop until we are in our new home officially next Tuesday! Between now and then, WE'LL BE BUSY!!!!

Until then, wait in anticipation for some photos of our new home! :)

I've posted several new posts, so read back! :)

RAIN!!!! (aka Monsoon Season in AZ)

Laine, my handsome little man!

Brothers! Is there anything more precious!?

Ezra, digging in the mud!

Man, do we PARTY when we have rain out here in Arizona! One big thing we actually miss about the midwest. Yes, I know, the flooding is extreme that I don't miss, but definitely the storms, "cozy rainy days" inside, etc.

Here are a few pictures and a few "footages" of our rainy afternoon!

Chavalah Update

Chavalah turned 6 weeks just yesterday! Incredible! She is absolutely precious! We are SO THANKFUL for her presence in our lives!

Chavalah went to the doctor one week ago and weight 7 lbs 12 ounces! We were SHOCKED! YAY! Praise the Lord! We need to see this growth! Thank goodness for Benjamin's work that makes an incredible product specifically designed for preemies! :) NEOSURE! The stuff works!

Unfortunately I don't have any updated pictures as Ben had the camera all last week! She still sleeps A LOT, however, when she is awake, she is absolutely, positively SMILING at us!!!! It is the coolest thing! We have gotten several smiles from her in the last few days.

Laine's Birthday!!

Our "princess" (aka Dalaynie) and "comedian." (Laine) A great match! :)

Shi Sha & Chavalah

Even Ezra got into playing the games! :)

Johnna & Dominick

Time to talk about Laine's big 5th birthday! I can't believe my baby is FIVE! WOW! These last few years have FLOWN!

We celebrated Wednesday night at my mom and dad's with pizza, cake and ice cream! Yummy! Then we celebrated Friday after school with our special friends, Johnna, Dalaynie, Dominick and Oma and Aunt ShiSha at McDonalds playland! FYI, our little town of Maricopa, AZ, actually has a McDonalds now! :)

Another update!

(Sorry no pictures!)

Just wanted to update the blog again! Things are continuing to tick for us. Friday they e-mailed and confirmed an appointment to sign close documents for Monday at noon! YAY! Finally some "officialization." Is that even a word!? :) Anyway, THEN it takes another 2-4 days to actually get the keys for the house, so we STILL wait! It's truly unreal. You know, everyone talks about how the world is becoming more efficient with all these "technological inventions" and paperless this and paperless that, but I've never seen a more complicated and opposite of "efficient" process to buying a house! My eyes have truly been opened! Anyway, so it looks as though next weekend we'll be cleaning the place up for actual box and furniture move in beginning part of next week!

Benjamin travels home tomorrow morning and gets in around noon! Will be SO WONDERFUL to have him back! The kids miss him, I miss him, we ALL miss him!

Will post more as I can.

Few Posts

Hello! You haven't lost me forever yet! Just going to few and vague for a bit. Just for a quick update.

We are STILL waiting to hear on a close date. Because this is our first home, we are very confused as to the process, but our realtor seems to think end of next week for a close time vicinity, so, we hurry up and wait still! In the meantime, we sit at home at night and listen to someone pounding on our door for 10 minutes, then leaving a pretty little document hung with scotch tape to our door! This is quite nerve racking to say the least. Please continue to pray for our safety as a family!

Ben just flew out to Illinois this morning for our best man's wedding. Scott Cowser is getting married this weekend and Ben was asked to stand in the wedding! I miss my sweetie all ready! He did call to say he arrived with no delays or glitches. Thankful to know he's there safe and sound.

Today was another big day for us with another court hearing, etc. Today was set to establish the dependency of Chavalah with the state and the dependant relationship with the mother. Things are fast tracking right now as the mother still has yet to show up for a hearing or visit. October 8, they will be having a publication hearing, and we are praying that AT THAT HEARING, a termination hearing is SCHEDULED! They are running the publication right now for the "father" and if it runs for the three weeks and no responses, then we're free and clear to terminate BOTH parental rights in the termination hearing. Please be praying that the judge sees favor in terminating and setting permanacy as adoption at that hearing. SPECIFICALLY. This doesn't happen very often with a baby this young, but because of everything else in the cases' past, it's easier for a judge to decide that quicker. Chavalah's hair test came back positive, and sadly, on the higher end of amount. This is what's difficult about foster care! This news BROKE MY HEART! Please continue to pray for her health and continued growth and development.

Ezra's adoption is still waiting on a copy of the birth certificate, and one other approval that has to be made. I feel like I'm a broken record, but being totally truthful, I'm just as confused as anyone with this process. One minute I think I understand because I've asked tons of questions and feel like I know what they are saying, then the next minute, we're delayed again and I don't understand what's causing the slow up! So, as always, I'll continue to keep you posted as I know more!

Signing off for now! It's late and Chavalah is waking up for her next feeding.