Still MARCH 2009

Amy (a natural) and sleepy Ezra!

As you can see, Amy really hit it off with my kids! :)

THE BOYS!

This is my last post tonight (I know, I know, I've only done one other) but I'm tired and still sick and weak from the stomach flu that hit yesterday, so I'll post this and at least I'm caught up with MARCH! :) I'll try and post soon with Aprils' happenings! THERE ARE TONS! So watch out! :)

So, some very special friends called us up while staying in the Phoenix area to have dinner! This is becoming an annual thing and it's been GREAT! Looking forward already to NEXT YEAR!!! :) We all met at the Baltzly's favorite pizza joint in Phoenix, Grimaldi's Pizzeria, and visited the night away! WOW! Those few hours FLEW by! So great to see you, Hambly's! Terra, if you read my blog, YOU NEED TO BE THE NEXT TO COME OUT WITH THEM!!!!

WOW, am I behind!

Hit off from the START!!! No time wasted! Ezra LOVED Uncle Brian.

Uncle Brian & Laine having a "chat."

As always, Chavalah had herself wrapped right around Uncle Brians' finger!

He read LOTS of books! (Can you tell he's an AWESOME grandpa and daddy?)

Uncle Brian and Laine were buddies. He played and played with Laine!

We put him straight to work (actually, HE begged to help).

The guys making the sunscreens to fit our windows!

They were an AWESOME team!

Discussing the "hanging" process.

Benjamin on his way UP.

Look what daddy found at the top of the ladder!?
Chavalah's crib is too close to the window now as you can see! :)

SUCCESS!

Mowing the lawn the next day.

Trimming the edge with his new "manly" trimmer.
Uncle Brian wouldn't have the Fiskar hand trimmers! :)

Uncle Brian, if you're reading this, this was one the best weeks in a LONG TIME!!!!! We are SO GLAD that you called and "gave us a try." What an absolute PRIVILEGE to have you in our home. We hope you call us again when you're headed this way even if just for dinner out!

Both Benjamin and I couldn't even BEGIN to tell you what an absolute JOY it was for us to host Uncle Brian! WOW! What a treat! More blessing than we could possibly imagine. From the second we met up in the truck parking lot, to the minute we SADLY dropped him off back at the truck repair shop, we were in HEAVEN! He was such a delight. He helped with SO MANY much needed projects and we are so grateful for his help. Sunscreens got done (already seeing the price difference in our electricity bill), garage insulation got done, TONS of play time with the kids got done, WOW! Unbelievable blessing! And SO UNEXPECTED!

TERMINATION FINALIZED!!!!!!!!!!

(Huge exhaling breath......)

IT'S OVER! The termination hearing is over!!!! At exactly 10:30 AM (Arizona time), the judge ordered complete termination from named biological mother and named biological father AND John Doe as a result of no response on, before or during the publication!!!!! YIPPEEEEE! The affidavit was in the judges' hands in court so that allowed us to complete it today!!!!!!!!

TRULY, there are no words to express the joy we (Benjamin & I) felt this morning hearing the judge order this this morning! Benjamin even thought possibly more relieving than the actual adoption hearing! And I think I might agree. We've never gotten to take part in a termination hearing of any of our dear children, we've only heard days later from other sources they've been terminated! We were literally SCREAMING praises to the Lord as we drove out of that courthouse parking lot!!!!!

It too was interesting that the judge actually ordered that Chavalah (Mariela) stay placed for adoption in the "foster placement" home, which was something we'd never heard. Usually every case is just "severance and adoption" status, but it doesn't guarantee YOU are the ones to keep the child, even though you've had them from day one of placement! That was something a little extra special and music to our ears as we heard him basically order that she not be removed and placed in a different adoptive home. That was a scare we had to go through with Ezra's termination. We were guaranteed to get her.

So, where do we go from here!?

We will be contacted, very shortly, by an adoption worker (same one we had for Ezra), to start the paperwork process for Chavalah. We won't have near as many "detours" to take this time around, there still may be one, nothing is guaranteed, but with Ezra, everything took longer as we didn't have our adoption license (we do now effective still for another year), we also didn't have a copy of Ezra's birth certificate, and social worker has a copy of Chavalah's already, so several more things are in place already that weren't for Ezra's adoption process!

Please be praying for a smooth adoption process!! There is lots to be done from now until our adoption hearing! We will keep you posted as much as we can with how things are doing!

AGAIN! Thank you for all your love and prayers held up for our family! I'm overwhelmed by all your love!

Catch up!

Shew, feeling so overwhelmed right now! :( Giving myself TONS of grace with this whole hand healing SLOWNESS.

A few updates. I have so much catching up to do, but so much to do and so little strength or time to do it all in. Deep breath............................:) Okay! :)

So, latest on my hand. I went for my first therapy appointment this morning! And BOY was it enlightening! Very interesting stuff! Just a few things (there's just too much to really tell all), my left hand strength is at 60, my right (the one I just had surgery on) is at 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT VERY GOOD! No wonder I've broken nearly half of my dishes! :) My dear husband still thinks I just want a new set of dishes! :) So, that will be one big thing, but even bigger yet was my amount of scar tissue. WELCOME TO MY GENETIC WORLD!!!!!!!! He said my scar tissue was excessive and that he was quite positive that is why the numbness hasn't let up. As that scar tissue is so thick (more than usual) that it is what is still pressing down on that nerve causing the still numbness and still tingling! WOW! Good news is that through time, we are hoping to break some of that tissue down with therapy, stretching, exercise, heat/cold packs, etc. Too, I will have to EVENTUALLY massage the actual incision to try and release and break down some of that as well. Right now it is so painful to touch, so that will be a slow go. In short, there is a lot of work set out for me and still quite a bit of time to heal, but I'm OPTIMISTIC about it all! Please keep praying that this plan of action will work!

Although I have still posting to do clear back from when our Uncle Brian was here, to birthdays, to Easter, etc, a big piece of news here at the Baltzly house is that the Tooth Fairy came to visit us last night!!!!!!!! First time she's visited our home! WOW! So cool! Our boy, is just growing up WAY TOO FAST!!!!!!!!!!!! Laine lost his first tooth from the bottom center! I know, first of many! How exciting! The dear boy was so excited about "meeting" the tooth fairy (even though we told him the fairy wouldn't come until he was asleep) he still managed to stay "conscious" until nearly midnight!!!! Shew! Late night for mommy & daddy! :) I told Benjamin the last few times, "we should just set our alarm for about 3AM and get up and do it quick." We were too afraid of hearing it go off, but not having enough energy to get back up to go fulfill our job as fairy! :)

I'll be posting in the near future some back posts. Until then, here is the latest! :)

COURT UPDATE!

So sorry, I know many are anticipating this post. I'm WIPED!

Hearing went as planned. State tried serving the biological mother papers about her April 22 TERMINATION hearing to the only address they had on her (her own parents' residence), and the biological moms' attorney again objected that as he didn't think it was fair since we all know she's not living there that that was "enough" effort in letting her know. CPS DID follow through with the publication as requested, that started March 6, and will end shortly.

As long as biological mother or father don't respond to the ad in the newspaper by showing up in court on April 22, WE WILL BE TERMINATING ON THAT DAY!!!!!!!!!! Only other thing that could stop that from happening is if the judge doesn't/hasn't received the Publication Affidavit by the hearing on the 22nd, and he'd just suspend until he receives that affidavit, then close the case. STILL BE PRAYING for the details to continue smoothly like they are as I speak. Again, I remind you, that things don't always go as expected, but WE ARE BELIEVING that April 22 at 9:30, the termination WILL BE COMPLETE!!!!!!!!!!! LORD WILLING!

I wanted to say here too, THANK YOU SO MUCH, for all the birthday wishes!!! I'm definitely not UNLOVED! WOW! I am so blessed!

Good night!

Back to court........................AGAIN!!!!

I'm writing this early, in hopes you'll join us by praying for this coming Wednesday's permanency hearing. Scheduled for April 8, 2009, at 9:30AM. Ben & I will be heading to Florence (about an hour away) to appear at our next hearing, and hopefully the final before TERMINATION on April 22!!!!!!!! Lord willing, the biological mother won't show up at the hearing! I will report back after the hearing on this to let you know if there's anything new or how it turned out.

"God Bless You"

Wow, we're just EXPLODING with words. Today I was sitting on the couch and sneezed. OUT OF THE CLEAR BLUE SKY, Ezra says, "God Bless you mommy, God Bless You!!!" WOW! Was I stunned. I pretended to sneeze again to try and capture it on video.