IT'S OFFICIAL!

Happy Gotcha Day E and A Robertson: July 26th, 2010!

It's official, the kiddos are Robertsons! Thanks so much for your prayers and support! We're so excited!

Special thanks to our families, who have been so supportive... even from such a distance. Thanks to the Rockwell's and Howell's for supporting us by babysitting regularly and being our substitute family out here. Thanks to K Peterson for always being willing to help out and support when we need it most.

Thanks to ARBC for ALL your UNBELIEVABLE support! This church has been such a blessing for us, especially being so far from home. You all accepted E and A with open arms and have made them feel so very welcome and loved. We feel very supported and loved here and we thank you so much for that.

Thanks to everyone else for your support as well. We love you all.

Josh, Heidi, E, & A ROBERTSON!

Gotcha Day Party!

Everyone is welcome to join us for a celebration of E & A's adoption! Monday, July 26th from 5p-7p at our home. Just a casual party... grilling hot dogs and brats to celebrate the end of a long process and the beginning of a new "official" family!

Please do not bring gifts! Let your presence be your presents!

If you DO plan to attend, please RSVP to this post by commenting:

-click comments underneath this post

-then click anonymous

-type your comment along with your name!

-click "publish your comment"

Thanks everyone! Don't worry about rsvp-ing no's... God Bless and we hope to see you there!

Josh, Heidi, E & A

ADOPTION DATE SET!!!!

HEY! We have a date set!!!! The adoption will be on July 26th! Yay! We're so excited to finally have a date set!

I will put another update on here to let you know when the big celebration PARTY will be!!! Thanks for your prayers and support!!!

Josh, Heidi, E, A!

REALLY?!?!

Just wanted to let you all know (because we mostly expected to have the date set by now) that we DO NOT have a date set yet! Ahhh!

We had our usual visit from the kiddos' caseworker last week and she informed us that our background checks sat on someone's desk at social services for THREE WEEKS before they sent them in. Which means, we're officially three weeks further behind than we thought... which means it could be that long before we even have a date set.

We're completely frustrated but not surprised. This is so typical of the system. We will keep you all updated.

Josh, Heidi, E, A

Adoption date nearing!!!!

Hello All!

Just wanted to update you about where we are with getting a date set for adoption... As of yesterday, Josh and I have officially done ALL we can to finalize all the pre-adoption paperwork! Now, we just have to WAIT (love it) for everyone else we've been working with to do their jobs as quickly as possible! We're really hoping for late June or early July to work out for the adoption!

I also wanted to let everyone know that as soon as the date is set, we will be planning a HUGE party for anyone and everyone who wants to come and help us celebrate! This is a huge deal to us and to the kids. Hey MN people... that means you too! We'll have family in town so our house is full... but I'm not even kidding when I say that we can EASILY turn our huge backyard into a pretty awesome campground for anyone else who wants to come and help us celebrate! We even have a fire pit and a pool! :) I'm serious! Keep it in the back of your minds!

Hope all is well with you and... trust me... I will let everyone know ASAP when the date is set!

Heidi, Josh, E, A

Light at the end of the tunnel!

Hello Friends and Family!

I hope you're all doing well! Life for us has been crazy busy! I'm so incredibly thankful that I'm feeling so good now that I'm in the second half of my second trimester because otherwise I don't know how I'd survive the "organized chaos" of our lives! Even being as organized as I am, the amount of paperwork and appointments that have been required of me in the recent months can get really overwhelming. If E gets a small scratch from climbing a tree in the backyard, that requires two phone calls and 3 pages of forms to fill out! So those "little" things plus caseworker visits, court phone calls, A's hearing tests, A's eye appointments, A's therapy, E's preschool screening, E's ortho follow up appointments from his leg, and much more.... it's a lot to deal with! Please pray for my own diligence as this week has been a lot of appointments and next week will be worse. Thankfully, I've hired a lovely girl from our youth group to come over for an hour or so next week to give me a chance to make phone calls during the day and fill out some paperwork without being interrupted.

We feel so blessed to have these kiddos and are really excited to be nearing the end of our 6 month waiting period... it's over on June 9th! I had a court phone call with the judge, the kiddos' lawyer, and their caseworker today and they said they're really hoping to finalize in late June! Woo hoo! Now that we're nearing this much-anticipated day... more and more paperwork is filing in for us! Haha... it never ends! It's all worth it though and we can't wait to make these kiddos official Robertsons! :)

We also had a friend take some family pictures for us, which I have posted along with this note. I hope you enjoy! Oh, and little baby girl Robertson is in her 26th week now! She is moving and kicking and punching like crazy and I'm loving getting to feel it. Josh and I love to WATCH her moving around in there... She's certainly active!

Thanks for you prayers and support... we love you and miss you Minnesotans!

Heidi, Josh, E, A, and baby girl

Baby News!!!

California!

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to share some pics from our trip to CA... we visited my grandparents for a few hours so the kids could meet them for the first time. I don't have those pics yet. We went to Disneyland, SeaWorld, the beach, and the San Diego Zoo! It was a blast! The kids did so great!

Enjoy the pics... you can click on each one to enlarge if you'd like. Oh, and we're 19 weeks along now. The baby is about 8.5 oz and approx. 6 inches long (this is an average estimation), and mom's belly is becoming more and more noticeable as the weeks pass!

We love you and miss you...

Heidi, Josh, E, A, and Baby

Last E Update

E has pretty much fully recovered from his broken leg! We got rid of his walker last week because he was being too wild with it! He's walking and functioning completely without it now. Thank you for the prayers and support during that time!

E is also LOVING preschool! He started last week and was SO excited!

A is doing really well in her therapies and her therapists are all commenting on how they cannot believe how fast she learns things and how much she progresses each and every week! Yay A!

Hope you're all well... Talk to you soon!

Heidi, Josh, E & A

Also, the baby is the size of a turnip now... and mom is getting a little round bump! Pics below...

-E on his first day of school!

-A being the princess that she is!

-Mom's baby bump!

E update 4

Hello All!

Just wanted to let you all know the latest on E... We had his follow-up appointment yesterday and they said the bone is healing very nicely and he's free to start walking on his leg whenever he feels ready! His leg muscles are really out of practice still so we're moving slow in trying to use his leg. He's really excited to be able to get in the bathtub again since the doctor said his incision is looking great also! Yay!

Also starting next week, E will finally be able to go to preschool! Even though he probably won't be walking without his waker by then, he's doing SO well being really independent with the walker so we think he's ready! He's really excited!

Thanks to all the people who helped us out this week... Kellie, Kathy, Connie, Kelly, and Danny. I don't know what we'd do without the support!

E update 3 / A's glasses!

Hello Friends and Family!

We have good news to report for both kiddos...

E is doing SO great in his recovery! Today, I suggested that he see if he can scoot himself across the living room floor to be able to start playing with some of his normal toys again and he's actually really quick! It's amazing how well they adapt! He hasn't been on pain meds since early Tuesday morning, hasn't been on Tylenol since Thursday, and hasn't needed any anti-swelling meds since yesterday! I honestly think that if we gave him permission, he'd start walking. However, the doctor said no weight on that leg for 3 weeks. :( He's in good spirits today... and seems more like our normal E. Eating well again, and BM's are finally getting regular again.

Holly and Emmalee left today to go back to MN... We were so grateful for their presence here! Emma was so helpful pulling E around in his wagon outside and playing endless games of Candyland. :) Auntie Holly helped keep E sane as well as the rest of us! Cleaning, organizing, playing, pampering... it was all included in Holly's service to us. We love you and can't even begin to express our gratitude.

As for our other little stinker... A got glasses! She is doing SO well leaving them on. The first day was rough, but now she leaves them on and she definitely knows how cute she is! When I put them on, I say, "Oh, A! You're so beautiful!" and she crinkles her nose and gives a huge smile! We're proud of her and are so excited to start seeing her flourish in her development now that she can see!

We are also so blessed to have such great support during this hectic time from our church... There's a whole list of ladies coming to help me for a little bit each morning for the next two weeks with bathing E, lifting E, helping me keep an eye on A while I'm occupied with E's special needs. I really can't let either of them out of my sight since she is little and he is getting a little too confident for our comfort! We are so grateful for these ladies and also the ones who will be contributing meals. I'm hoping to feel better eventually in this second trimester, but so far I'm still very tired and nauseous. Their help is priceless in this time when we're all trying to adjust and function and I'm trying to keep the baby healthy by relaxing a little.

Thanks for your prayers. Enjoy the pics.

Heidi, Josh, E, A, Baby

E update 2

E is doing very well. He slept solid from 8:30p to about 7:15a without asking for meds or to use the bathroom. So, Mom and Dad got a decent night of sleep! Today, he is still in good spirits and isn't complaining about too much pain. We're happy the meds seem to be working well and today we'll be only giving them to him when he requests to see if we can start weening them down to just tylenol/ibuprofen. We'd love for him to have some BM... they say pain meds can often constipate so we're pumping him full of fiber-rich foods and hopefully as the meds get further and further apart he'll start having his regular BM. His leg has quite a bit of swelling so we're icing and trying to keep his leg as elevated as possible when he isn't walking.

He's excited about his bday presents that he received and they're helping to keep him occupied without being able to move. We're pretty set in that area for a while thanks to his bday!

We're trying to get set into a routine as far as using the bathroom, washing up, trying to think of creative ways to allow him to do some of his favorite activities without using his legs, etc. I'll be happy when it all seems natural, but for now, it's a lot of hard work and patience on everyone's part.

In the mean time, the coming of my second trimester unfortunately did not bring along wonderful feelings of comfort, but continued nausea and exhaustion. I do my best to try and keep spirits up and not get really stressed out since it's bad for the baby. Josh is a wonderful father and husband and is doing a great job of carrying the family right now as far as emotions are concerned. His patience with all of our "neediness" is remarkable!

My mom and sister are so helpful and we're so grateful that Josh was able to go back to work since they're here to help me with this most stressful transition week. Mom is leaving today, and Holly leaves Sunday. After that, hopefully routines will be set and things will be easier at home. We're hoping to take some people up on their offers to help in the next few weeks with some outings with the kids I'll need help with and breaks for me.

Thanks for the prayers! I'll keep the blog updated at least every few days for the next week.

Heidi, Josh, E, A

E update

Monday Morning 2-1-06: E broke his femur right above his knee on Saturday night. They took him to the hospital close to our house and then transferred him to Children's Hospital for surgery. He's been here ever since. We're hoping he'll be able to come home tonight, but he isn't doing well this morning (pain, and developing a fever). Right now we're waiting to see the physical therapist who has to "clear" him to leave based on what he can tolerate with movement. We're not anticipating that to go well so we'll see what happens. We have our computer today so that we can be keeping people updated. In the mean time, we are so grateful to have my mom and sister here to help out with A and with pretty much everything else we need right now. What a blessing! Also, it's E's bday today... :( Poor guy.

Monday evening 2-1-06: E is home from the hospital. We got home tonight at about 6:15p. Just in time for his birthday dinner and cake. He was in really good spirits and even asked to get down from the couch and use his walker. (something he screamed about in the hospital). He cannot walk on his own (even with his walker and won't be able to for at least 3 weeks. Being pregnant, I cannot lift him so I am grateful for my mom and sister being here for a few days to help as Josh gets back to work.
We'll have a day of firsts today... figuring out how to bathe, how to entertain an active boy who can't move, best ways to get in and outside the car, etc.
We appreciate your prayers and offers for help. We'll let you know if we need anything.

Tuesday morning 2-2-06: E had a really good night! He had pain meds around 8pm and didn't wake up at all last night until 6:45 this morning saying he needed to go to the bathroom and that his leg hurt. We didn't expect that, so we're happy. Today will be an interesting day of figuring out how the next few weeks may look. We appreciate your prayers.

Happy 2010!

Hello All!

It was so great to see many of you on our trip back to MN for Christmas! It was a great time, but we're happy to be back into our normal routine. We were so blessed by many of you. Thanks, Nana and Bumpa and Grandma and Grandpa for the hospitality, thanks Uncle Jim for the horse rides, thanks Holly and Charlie for breakfast our first morning, and thanks Josh for cutting Josh's hair (and E's)! Oh, and thanks Dad for teaching E the phrase "Right on the keester!" He says it ALL the time. :) Thanks to everyone for all the support we felt bringing the kids home!

I just wanted to let you know that our trip went well and we're happy we were able to see so many loved ones!

I also attached a picture of each of our kiddos... All 3! Haha... the new little baby is about the size of a kumquat this week so I attached that picture cause I think it's funny! :)

We love you all and can't wait to see you again soon.

Heidi

So far so good!

Hello All!

We just wanted to write you a quick update... things are super busy around here! E and A are adjusting VERY well! Both are taking great naps too! Yay! Thank you for your prayers!

Both kids are very comfortable in their new home... E loves to talk about staying here forever (he holds out his arms to the point where they're almost touching behind him and says, "I'm staying here forever... like ttthhhiiiiiiisss long!") It's so cute! He also has been doing pretty well meeting all the new people (mainly from church) that have been so excited to see them! He does get overwhelmed in big crowds, but he just hangs on to one of our legs and does just fine! He loves going to church though!

A has been working on her walking... we still haven't conquered more than 10 steps, but she's trying and we see her being a little more independent on her legs each day! She wasn't napping at all at the beginning but eventually we figured out a routine that got her to settle down long enough to fall asleep in her crib so we could leave her in her room for a nap. Yesterday (and today--- hope I didn't just jinx it) she went down with no routine and slept fine for her nap! Nights are still great too! A has also been fighting off a cold since last week... we're really hoping she'll shape that up soon!

Since things are going so well, we've decided that we will be coming home to MN for Christmas! We're really excited, but a little nervous, for this adventure! It's a 16 hour drive and we've only had them here and no where else so we'll see how it goes! We think that being with our families is really important and we could use that extra boost we always feel when we get to spend time with them!

To help ourselves out, Josh and I decided to sell our small SUV (Santa Fe) and buy a mini-van. Yes, I said it, a MINI-VAN! I have officially joined the "mommy club!" I'm proud too, so don't mess with me. :) Anyway, we'll have our mini-van before our journey home so that will make it so much easier with two adults, two kids, AND two dogs! (yes, we're crazy... but excited!).

Thanks so much for your prayers! Also, I wanted to let you all know that I am not sending out a Christmas letter this year, but will be sending out an "announcement" of sorts for the kids sometime after Christmas. Hope you all have a fantastic Christmas! I'll update more soon after!

Heidi (and Josh, E, and A!)

Pics Pics Pics

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

(ps... to leave a comment, just click on the comments link below and write an "anonymous" comment but PLEASE sign your name in the message!)