Post Thanksgiving Update

Hello Friends and Family!

We've had a busy week! We took E and A from their foster home for a "local out-of-the-home" visit on Wednesday. We went to a pottery studio and E painted a car! After that, we went to the park and to Chili's for lunch. When we told E we were going to Chili's for lunch he said, "I don't like chili." It was funny... we had to explain to him that they had more than chili there. Haha!

Then, on Thanksgiving day, we picked the kids up from their foster home and took them to our house for the whole day! It was pretty great! Both sets of grandparents were here too so they got to meet the kiddos! It was a fun day... until nap time! :) A did NOT want to nap and seemed to have a hard time with that adding on the fact that it was a new place.

After the nap finally happened, it was back to being great and we had a lot of fun!

We took the kids back to their foster home Thursday night, but we picked them up this morning for our first weekend with them! They'll be here until tomorrow evening so we're really excited!

After that, we will be doing a "respite" week for them so we'll have them for 6-7 days starting the 2nd. Then they'll go back to their foster home for one or two nights... then after that they should be placed here permanently! Yay!

Specific Prayer Requests:

-NAPS!!!! Please pray that both A and E will nap well. So far that has really been the only struggle during the days here.

-Please also pray that while we have them here for the 7 days that we can all really bond and we can all get used to the new people and new ways.

Thank you everyone!

Heidi

Spent some time with our kiddos!

Hello All!

(fyi: in this post, I will refer to the kids as E and A instead of writing out their names. I was uncomfortable with how easily our blog came up when I googled the kids' names.)

We met our kids! We were able to meet them the first time on Thursday and we saw them again yesterday as well! Things went REALLY well! E was really excited to see us Thursday. He saw Josh carrying a big spiderman gift bag and asked right away if it was his! Throughout the meeting, E went back and forth playing with us and his new toy. I also made a book for the kiddos with pictures of us, Piper and Nika, the house, their rooms, etc... and that was a hit! E kept showing the DHS workers there our pictures and he'd say, "That's Josh and that's Heidi!" Then, he'd come up to me and point at my picture and say, "That's you!" It was pretty cool! It seemed like he hadn't seen anything like that before and he was really excited about it.

When we arrived, A was sitting on the floor waiting to see us. She was really receptive to us which was great and a little unexpected! We were told that she has stranger anxiety but we didn't witness any of that while we were there! She crawled around the whole room from person to person and played with her toy that we brought for her. We were only there 5 minutes before she was reaching her hands out to Josh because she wanted him to help her walk from one spot to the other. I got tons of smiles from A while I was playing with her on the floor! It was great!

When it was time for us to leave this first meeting with the kids, E didn't want us to leave, but listened well when we said we had to. I picked A up in the living room and we all started walking to the door at the front of the house. Right away, E asked, "Are you taking A?" It was so sweet! He's very protective of his little sister! We assured him that he would always be with A and he was happy with that. When I got to the door with A, her foster-father asked her to come to him and she turned away.... she didn't want to leave my arms! :) He tried 3 times and finally I just handed her over... and she whined a little. That was nice to see because we were told that she'd have a hard time.

While I was trying to get A to go to her foster-father, Josh was saying goodbye to E. He asked E if he could have a high-five goodbye but E stretched out his arms and gave Josh a huge hug... then he leaned back away from Josh's shoulder and gave him a kiss! It was awesome! Then, E tapped me on the back and I knelt down to give him a high-five and he did the same thing! We were completely thrilled with that!

Then, yesterday was the second visit. E was waiting at the door when we arrived and was really excited for us to come in and play! A's foster-sister handed her to me and she came just fine and was content. We took the kids to the living room to play and stayed there for the next hour and a half! It was so much fun playing with the kids. This time there were no DHS people present so it was nice to cut back on the adults watching us! :) We had another wonderful visit with our kids! We will see them again on Monday when we get to take them out of the house with their caseworker and play. We're really excited about that!

Specific prayer requests:

-Pray that it will go well when we take the kids out of the home.

-Pray for our patience with the timing.

-Pray for everyone to stay healthy so we can continue this transition process without that obstacle.

-Please pray for the foster-father. At yesterday's meeting, it was clear that he is really struggling with this and we felt that he was intentionally trying to make A upset and want him. (it didn't work... she was great!) He kept coming in the room and saying, "Hi A! I'm going out here now... bye bye. You can't come with me." She never got upset, which is great, but it was a little unnerving for us to have deal with him doing that. Please pray that God will calm his heart.

So, we get to take the kids out with their caseworker on Monday, then we will take them out with just us on Wednesday, and then the kids will be spending Thanksgiving with us! We're really excited about that!

We'll keep you updated as the visits go on. Thanks for your prayers and support!

Heidi and Josh

Meeting our Children

Hello!

We got confirmation yesterday that we will be meeting the kids on Thursday, November 19th at 3:00pm! (mountain time) Their caseworker says this meeting will start the transition process and she wants us to see the kids very often the next few weeks after the appointment... and then eventually they'll come to our home to stay.

We'll keep you updated as things progress! Thank you for your prayers! They are much needed and much appreciated!

Heidi and Josh

"Can we just say yes now?" :)

Hello Friends and Family!

WOOOOO HOOOOO!! We had our meeting about E and A today at 1:00 and it went so great! E and A WILL be placed with us! Please forgive me if this post ends up seeming scatter-brained because I'm still in shock!...

The meeting was great! It ended up being the kiddos' 2 caseworkers (one past/one present), their lawyer, their current foster father, our case manager, and us... quite a group! Anyway, we expected the meeting to be them interviewing us most of the time and then telling us that they'd let us know "in the next few weeks." (a phrase we've heard way too many times!) But, your/our prayers were answered and the meeting instead was them telling us as much information about the kids as they could and hadn't already told us... their current foster father was so great! He had so much helpful, personal information on these kids and it was very evident that he loves them dearly and that they have been very well taken care of which was so nice to see. After they told us as much as they could, they asked us if we had questions for them... which we did... and they answered those. Then, they looked at us and basically said that they are really excited about us and they couldn't wait for US to let them know as soon as possible if it's a go! AHHH! This part of the meeting is comical to us now, because we were caught to off guard! We looked back and forth at each other and at our case manager (Heather) trying to figure out if we should jump on the table and shout YES YES YES! or if we were expected to still need more time to decide... Josh jumped in and said, "Okay, we'll let you know asap." Then, we started walking out... and to my relief Josh turned around and said to their caseworker, "Can we just say yes now?" :) She said, "Yay, of course!" Haha!

So, A and E are officially planned to be with us! We are so thrilled! The kiddos' caseworker says she'd like them to be permanently placed with us before Christmas... we're not sure when exactly our first meeting with them will be. Right now, she is contacting the guy who will be our "transition coordinator" and he will be in charge of all those details. We're hoping to hear from her (and him) early next week to discuss "the plan." I'll update the blog again after that time. :)

We also got to see pictures of the little darlings and WOW are they cute!!! We will post their pics after Thanksgiving... sorry! We're so excited for the grandparents (Curt, Laurel, Diane, Dennis) to come to Colorado for Thanksgiving in a few weeks and we're really hoping they'll have a chance to meet our kids! We really want this time to be special and set aside for them alone, so for the rest of you Minnesotans, you'll have to wait to see A and E's faces until after the grandma's and grandpa's see them in person! (Don't worry, after our parents leave here with memory sticks full of pictures, I'm sure the kids will be Minnesotan celebrities in no time... okay maybe just Mora celebrities!)

Thank you so much for all of your prayers! Josh and I DEFINITELY felt them and are so appreciative! God is so amazing... He is so faithful and we are so amazed and honored that he is giving us this opportunity! May HE be glorified.

We love you. :)

Heidi and Josh

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