December 14th!!!

After 21 months of living and loving life with Sissy and Bubby, termination was granted in April 2011.  We were on cloud nine, on the path to adoption, and in a little disbelief that this was real life.  Just 2 years earlier, our hearts were broken when our first adoption fell through, 2 1/2 years before that, our hearts were broken when we lost our pregnancy...and now we were on our way to becoming the forever mom and dad of three beautiful babies...THREE!  God is so, so good.  We had an amazing spring and summer and life felt close to perfect.  There was lots of paperwork...court, DCS, attorney stuff, and lots of waiting.  We were filled with hope and peace while we waited so we were in a good place.  By July, it had been two full years since the bigs walked into our lives, a crazy two years, two years of crazy growth.  There was a baby dedication Sunday at our church that summer.  I was a little sad we weren't up there, but I was sure we'd be up there by the next one coming up in the fall.  We had another in September and again we sat and watched, this time I was alot sad.  I still had hope and peace and I knew they were already ours, but I was growing frustrated, starting to feel like we were sitting in a pile of paperwork on a desk somewhere.  We realize that things can move slowly when dealing with DCS, but it had been 5 months since termination.  So we waited.  We had new family pictures taken...and we waited.  I took a sick little Bubby to the Dr, where I spelled his biological last name wrong...and we waited.  Before you judge me, know that we'd been calling them by their adopted names since April AND his bio last name is spelled weird:)  Ugh...that was so embarrassing.  I began homeschooling the first of many consecutive years of preschool...and we waited.  I communicated more than regularly with our family case manager and adoption attorney...and we waited.  And then it happened...I got a phonecall from our attorney just last week.  She asked me if I had plans on December 14th and I said "I'll be doing whatever you have planned for me".  And there you have it!  We have a date, a court date to finalize our adoptions!  There is a catch... DCS still doesn't have all of their paperwork figured out, but our attorney seems to think that if we have a court date, that will give them a deadline, and someone somewhere will be motivated to do their job (my words, not hers:).  So we're very excited, but we also know there's a chance it could get pushed back.  We're praying hard that December 14, 2011 is the date God has given us.  How wonderful to get two little Crooks for Christmas!  They've been ours for quite a while, but having 3 children with the same last name is a gift we will treasure for sure:) 

Thanks for taking this journey through our history book!  We're all caught up but I'm sure there's much more to come:)  I'll continue to blog although I'm not sure I'll be posting every Monday.  I'll do my best;)  We're constantly learning, growing, facing new challenges, and laughing until we cry.  Raising children is a huge challenge in itself, raising adopted children, with diverse stories, backgrounds, and skin color has been and will continue to be a challenge full of fears, tears, and triumphs.  It's still hard to believe God would trust us this much...but He does, and He's designed and defined our family in His perfect way.  I'm sure I'll continue to have plenty to write about...there isn't a dull moment around here  December 14, December 14, December 14.....
Love,
Crazy Mama Crook