Rule 57 Hearing Update

Well, it took me a day to report how the hearing went. In short, the Rule 57 was GRANTED in our favor, however, it didn't speed the termination up. :( I think there was some misconception and misunderstanding about what the Rule 57 actually did, however, it DID change the case plan from "reunification (with biological mom)" to "adoption." So, a mission was accomplished to some degree. The next hearing we have will be April 8 at 9:30 and I will update more later on that when it comes time. Basically, we've been told by Chavalah's attorney that at that hearing the judge will THEN schedule the Termination Hearing which has to be scheduled within 15-30 days of April 8, and THAT WILL OFFICIALLY TERMINATE any parental rights. Once that termination hearing takes place end of April, or early May, we will then be able to file our petition to adopt with our attorney and all the nice paperwork that goes along with that! It was disappointing, but at the same time Ben and I have learned over and over (unfortunately the hard way) to NEVER QUESTION GOD'S SPECIFIC TIME LINE for our lives. He's all knowing, and is taking care of us EVERY STEP OF THE WAY as he has from Teya all the way through Chavalah now! Thanks for your continued prayers.

My little "Partridge" in a Pear Picnic!!

Alright, so it's not even December yet, but I had to share a cute moment with my little Ezra! He's such a character! Tonight he was ALL ABOUT the camera! Weird, but I took advantage and took a few cute ones of him tonight. He LOVES fruit! Any and all kinds of fruits, tonight I offered pears. While they started out on the table in the dining room, he decided to create his very own picnic out in our living room on a tote mommy was going through today in the big "winter/summer' clothes switch out! Yes, it FINALLY has gotten into the 70's here in Phoenix, and that's "winter enough" to bring out the long sleeved clothes and pants and put the shorts and tanks away! Ezra LOVES being where anyone is, so he brought his pears out to the living room! Don't these pictures make you just want to squeeze him!? :)

Sick Babies!!! :(

Well, our week started off a bit interesting. The day of Ezra's adoption party, he was sneezing, stuffed up, not feeling 100%, but nonetheless he "kept going." :) What a trooper. By Monday, he was more miserable and yanking at his ear, mainly the right one. By Tuesday and yesterday he had drainage coming out of his right ear (as I had predicted), and it was no less today!

Rewind again.....Tuesday, Chavalah woke up with the greenest grousest looking snot dried on the outside of her nose and she too was sneezing all day Tuesday and Wednesday. Last night, when I went to lay her down for the night, she fussed some (SO UNLIKE CHAVALAH AT ALL, she hardly ever makes a peep other than when she's hungry and that's SUPER hungry) and off and on througout the following hour she would break out in this horrible SCREAM as though somebody was torturing her. So, I would go RUNNING up the step and she would be pretty much asleep, but crying in discomfort. Couldn't do ANYTHING to comfort her.

So, I quickly got on the phone this morning with our pediatrician's office in Gilbert and scheduled both babies for appts. Got in late this morning and to my complete surprise, they both had ear infections (actually that wasn't the surprise) but they both had DOUBLE ear infections! WOW! That's a lot of ears! So, we're all chilling out tomorrow at home! :)

Hoping for a relaxing, not too much happening, weekend!

TaTa for now! I'll be back!

Family Pictures

We had family pictures after Ezra's adoption last Saturday! We had SO MUCH FUN, but Ezra is an absolute STINKER when it comes to pictures. He'll intentionally turn his head when the camera comes in front! So bad! But we had some cute turn outs. She has a blog that she'll post a few of her favorite of each of her photo shoots. Here is her blog! Go check it out!

http://paulastillerphotography.blogspot.com/

Chavalah Is Laughing!!!

Chavalah ADORES her brothers!!! In this particular video, it is Ezra!

Fall Fun!

Our little man ate almost an ENTIRE Honey Crisp apple on his own! He was in heaven! He litereally ate it almost to the core.

Mom & Laine melting the caramel down!!! Mmmm, yummy!

Mmmm, nothing like Honey Crisp Apples! LOVE FALL! We have a unique "coop" here in Arizona that you can order fresh produce baskets bi-weekly for $15 (a tone of produce), and sometimes they offer fruits or vegetables by the case at great price! These apples were....................drum roll.............................get this, $.64/lb!!!!!!! UNREAL! I was so excited! I bought two cases and made and froze homemade applesauce, and my dear mother took the remainder of the other apple box home for me and peeled, cored and sliced and made ready for apple pies. Mmmmmm!

We all dipped our own apple!

Isn't Aubrey ADORABLE! She's so cute pregnant! Can't wait to meet my new nephew! I know she can't wait either! :)

Our new baby boy! Apple half gone!

Our non-stop growing big boy! Laine just keeps growing!

Mama eating her carameled apple and having fresh apple cider.

Here in Arizona, we "create" fall by doing the fall things! We did no less by getting together with family, eating soup and dipping caramel apples! YUMMY! The pictures will tell you the story!

Adoption Party was a HIT!!!!

L to R: Holly (Bouck) McRae, Me, Cheri (Baker) Dubes & Amy (Bohlen) Price

Laine in his ELEMENT! (Amy's husband is a Phoenix Fire Firefighter)

All the kids left at the end of the party!

No pictures to show for it though! Would you believe it completely slipped my mind! And all of our minds! Seriously can't believe it, I was beside myself when I realized not one picture had been taken! Oh well! That happens!

Had a great weekend. BUSY! Saturday morning our family had family pictures done for Ezra's Adoption! The little stinker intentionally turns his face away from the camera! You seriously have to hide it from him before he'll look at you and smile! And he's one of the happiest and smiliest babies I know! Anyway, I'm sure we'll have a few we LOVE. Can't wait to see how they turned out! Then Saturday afternoon around 4 we took off to go to a get together with some friends I went to school with back in Waterloo, IA! There are a few of us that live in Phoenix area and we all attempted a get together at Amy's house! THANK YOU AMY for coordinating and making dinner for us all! We had a BLAST!