Trying to move on...

We can't help but feel saddened and overwhelmed at the prospect of starting this process over again.  It is hard to accept and to move on but that is what we are going to do.  Our dream has been to adopt a sibling group and we still have that dream.  We have a feeling it will take us quite some time because we do not live in the United States currently.  We have also learned a lot about the way the adoption process works through all of this. 

There are recruiters that look for possible adoptive families who are the ones that actually get to know the potential adoptive families.  Recently almost every state has developed these "permanancy boards".  These boards are made up of the people who actually get the final say in who adopts children.  The kicker is that the people on the permanency committee have NEVER spoken with the families in question.  So it is all about looking good on paper.  I am sure there must have been a good reason to start these boards but I just don't see the point at the moment.  If it were my children I would want the people who chose their new family to have at the very least SPOKEN to the potentials. 

We are not holding our breath for a match any time soon, but we are moving onward.  As always we know that God has a plan for us and we are just waiting to see what it is.  Prayers are always appreciated.  Thank you.

Really Hard Day!

I am having such a hard day today.  Neither of us slept much last night as this is a lot of disappointment.  We want these kids, but what is more is that we are worried about them.  There is not a lot about the situation that I can publically share, but we are concerned for the children's future.  We want them to know unconditional and unfailing love.  We want them to have someone there for them for the rest of their lives.  We want them to have a faith in God. 
We know that God is with us and with the children.  He is the only one that will not leave.  I know that I can't see His plan for us right now and that someday I will see what this was supposed to teach us.  At this point I am just trying to take it one day at a time and get through the day.
Not sure when you will hear from us again.  It took us a little over a year to get matched the first time and it will probably take that long again.  We will try to keep others updated as we get to matching again, but I make no promises.  Thank you all for the outpouring of love and support through this difficult time. 
~Missy

We believe God has a plan

We were notified today that the foster mother has changed her mind and has decided to adopt these children.  We are all very upset and frustrated.  We were told she had worked through this and decided not to adopt the children.  It is more than a little upsetting to think you are past something and then it ends up coming back to completely stop the entire process.

The one and only thing we can say right now is that we believe that God has a plan for us and the right children are out there waiting for us.  It is hard not to get frustrated and upset, but we just keep reminding ourselves that He has a plan for us.  Please continue to pray for us as we work through our feelings of disappointment and wait for another match with the children who were meant to be our family.  Thank you.  ~Missy

Frustration on the Home Front

Well- we trust that God will keep us on his plan.  We feel he had led us this far and we trust that he will keep leading us.

  So progress has slowed considerably because of the children's foster mother.  She is upset and we understand why.  She loves these children and wants what is best for them, but she also wants them to stay with her.  We don't know what is going to happen at this point.  We pray that she will help the children transition to our home, but we don't know anything.  The agency workers are trying to help her work through her feelings, but we just don't know what will happen. 

As you can imagine we are confused and upset by this news.  The foster mother was given the opportunity to adopt these children several times and she decided not to so we thought she would be happy that the children had found a permanent home all together.  We want this adoption to happen and we want to support her as well.  But, we don't want to go through all of this for months and months only to end up having the whole thing stopped. 

Again- we trust God to have brought us this far and we trust that he will see us through all of this.  We would appreciate your continued prayers for our family as we wait to hear what will happen. 

Not much news yet

So middle of last month was the birthday of one of our new daughters, the end of this month is the birthday of one of our new sons and the beginning of next month is the birthday of our other new daughter so we went down and got them all birthday presents and I got it sent out in the mail today so that they now they are a part of our family. We are so excited to get to know these kids and provide them their forever home. I know everyone wants to know when they will come to live with us. I would too. Unfortunately we do not have any kind of idea on a time frame yet. We will keep everyone posted as we get to know them and learn more of a time line.

Thank you to everyone that is following us on this great adventure. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions and we will do our best to answer them.

The St. Kitts Segotas

NEW PICTURES

Wow! We got new pictures of our children!  They are amazing.  I can't wait to meet them in person.  We are so lucky!!!!!! 
On the great side, they weathered Superstorm Sandy in fine style and everyone is doing well.  Thanks for all the prayers. 
I promise that when we move further along in this process we will share some of the photos but right now we want to keep them all to ourselves.  Sorry.  In penance, I will share a photo of the St. Kitts portion of our family doing the Platapus face! HA

The 7 Pieces of My Heart

So my heart now is split into 7 pieces.  Three of them live here in St. Kitts with me and the other four pieces live in Delaware; where a hurricane just ravaged their home.  Yes, everyone is fine but it was a horrible feeling not knowing how they were and not being able to comfort them through the storm.  I had no idea how quickly we would become attached to these children, but I now know that it did not take long.  I want to be there for them as I am for my birth children.  Even more so at times to try and make up for not being able to care for them for the first portion of their lives.  We are working closely with their social workers and getting everything ready.  No idea how long it will be as everything was shut down for the duration of the storm and they have to get caught up now.  Thanks for your prayers everyone and please keep them coming.  ~Missy

A Muddy Timeframe

We talked with our agency on Friday and they said that this portion of the process often takes between 1 and 3 months (until the children come to live with us).  It could take longer for us since 2 of the children are older so it will take some time to transition.  Who knows but that prospect is much less time than I had originally anticipated.  I thought it would take a minimum of 6 months so we shall see what happens.  No definate answers. 

On a more serious note, the east cost is getting hit by Hurricane Sandy.  My children are there!  Please pray for everyone on the east coast, but especially our 4 children who I want safe more than anything.  Thank you all for your continued prayers and support through this process. 

~Missy

Anxiously Awaiting

We are in a holding pattern and anxiously awaiting being able to move forward. We want the timing to be right and we want to make sure everyone has time to adjust, but we are ready to get going!  If we could James and I would hop on a plane tomorrow to go get them.  We realize that is not possible, but we are so excited.  So as of now there is not great news to share with you.  We will update as soon as we hear anything.  Thanks for following us along this journey.  ~Missy

Minor details! Oops

Sorry we forgot to tell you some of the details.  These children are from Delaware where they currently reside in foster care.  We do not konw when we will have them with us.  The process takes some time as we get to know each other and make everyone comfortable.  (As you can imagine it would be hard for all involved if we showed up at their door and said you must come with us now, we are your new parents.)  So we don't know if/when they will be here.  We are working to try and get them to St. Kitts because, frankly, who wouldn't want to be here at least for a little while?  WE will keep you posted as we learn more about the time frame we are looking at.  Thank you all for your interest and your prayers!  ~Missy

Can't Wait

SO yes we found out today what group we are going to be adding to our family. If you notice in the first post it said 12, 7, 3, 1 and the second post said 12, 7, 4, 1, while one of the little girls just had a birthday on the 16th and is now 4. We are exicted to add them to the family but also very nervous. We will soon have a teenager because the 12 year old turns 13 in February. Not sure what it will be like but we will take it one day at a time. Soon we will have our girls, so excited. Please Pray. God will be our guide through it all and will help with all that arises. Thank you all.
-James

We know!

We finally know.  We were not selected for the group of children we were waiting to hear back from, so we are ready and excited to move forward with the 12, 7, 4, and 1 year olds.  We hope to get to meet/ talk to them very soon and we will keep you all updated as to how it goes.  We are excited and relieved that we are not up in the air anymore.  I am nervous about adding four children to our house at once, but very excited.  Never been a mother to girls before so I am also nervous about how to do it.  I hope it comes naturally since I guess that I have been a girl my whole life.  Who knows!  We would love to have your prayers as we move forward and we know that God is guiding us.  Have a great day. ~Missy

Welcome- a little about us

I have been asked to create a blog for our family mostly because people think we are crazy.  Let me sum up.  James and I have been married for 10 years, we have 7 and 3 year old sons.  We live on a tiny island in the Caribbean named St. Kitts while my husband goes to vet school, and I am doing my online masters degree.  I also work full time.  Now on to why we are truly certifiable...

It has always been a dream to adopt a sibling group someday.  After discussing it for years James and I have decided that there will never be a "perfect" time in our lives so we are going for it.  So 12 months ago we embarked on the craziest adventure of our lives and began the adoption process.  We have put our names in for many children.  In August we learned that we were in the top few families for 2 sibling groups.  Each group has 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls each.  We have been matched with one group and are waiting to hear back from the other group.  Yes you heard right, we will triple the number of children we have overnight. 

Now, let me be clear.  We may not end up with either of these 2 groups of children, be we are hopeful that we will.  The first group of children are 12, 7, 3, and 1 years old.  The other group of children are 8,6,4, and 2 years old.  Add those to our 7 and 3 year olds and we can definitely be considered certifiably insane.  Also deliriously happy.  We have always wanted a ton of kids and we are on our way to making our dreams come true. 

Moral of the story- please pray for us as we move further along in this process.  Know that we are excited beyond belief and we will try to keep you as updated as we can while we work through this adoptive process. 

~Missy