Adopting again!

Dear Family and Friends,

In 2007 we brought home our daughter, Anara, from Kyrgyzstan.  We wrote a letter asking for prayer and financial support in order to complete her adoption.  Anara just turned 7 on May 1^st.  She is doing wonderfully and currently only has annual follow-up visits at the children’s hospital.  She has been a blessing to our family and we are thankful for her life.  We are grateful for the loving support of our friends and family and the many strangers who made her adoption, her transition, and her medical corrections possible. 

We are writing to humbly ask again for your prayers and financial support to contribute to our next adoption process.  Our desire is to provide a loving home to a baby in need.  We already have a sweet little 8 month-old boy “on hold” for us and we are in the process of completing the seemingly endless amount of paperwork.

In order to protect his identity, we are not permitted to use his name or even show a picture of his face.  We tell our friends his name is Z.  Z is currently waiting with a foster family.  He is described as a happy and smiley baby.  He rolls over unassisted, holds his head up and grasps toys. 

Z has Down syndrome and a heart defect (ASD) that we don’t have much information on at this time. We are not sure of the extent of his need for potential surgery.  In many instances, Z would have been discarded or marginalized.

We look forward to traveling to Z's birth country sometime in the next 12-18 months to pick up our son.  Of course we would appreciate prayers that it would be much sooner than this.

We expect this adoption to cost $20,000 - $25,000.  We hope to obtain funding through a combination of personal savings, grants, and most importantly from loving and supportive contributions from our family and friends. We will be using our family blog for updates and fundraising.  Our blog has not been used in a long time but still contains details of Anara’s adoption story, her medical journey, and general family happenings (before Amanda quit recording things).

If you would like to support us financially, you can do this using the PayPal button on our blog.  Your entire contribution will go toward our adoption process and Z’s care.  Please consider helping us provide a loving home for Z.  We consider you partners already and hope that you will continue. 

We are blessed to know you and to count you as supporters in our efforts.  We ask you to prayerfully consider partnering with us to provide Z a loving and supportive home.

Love,

Nathan and Amanda

Rolly Rolly

Eloise has been rolling tummy to back for a while now. She was more like Edison and started doing it pretty early on. Now I can't get her to have tummy time because she just flips herself over. I was trying to get this on video this morning after she rolled 4 or 5 times and of course she didn't do it for the camera. However, she did smile and that's cute enough for a video.

Eddie and Ellie

At first he wasn't quite sure what he thought about her. He pretty much refused to look at her or me at the hospital but it didn't take long once we were home for him to become quite enamored. He loves to kiss her, rub her head, sit by her and hold her.

He pulled his horse up to the swing just to "watch".

I came back and found a bridge sitting on her. I explained that the bridge was too heavy so he remedied the situation by putting a piece of track on her tray.

He is trying to teach her about the sea creatures on the bouncy.

Eloise Mae

Eloise Mae was born today, March 15th, at 4:09 p.m. She was 7 lbs. 15 oz. and 20 inches long. Her delivery was more of a challenge than expected, but Amanda and baby Ellie Mae are doing fine. She has thin brown hair, dark blue eyes (for now), and rosy pink skin. We can't tell who she looks like yet, but she's a beautiful baby anyway. Here are some pictures from today.

Lots of snow!