Attention

Ayden has something he'd like to say:

That's right!! We will be adopting our sweet little "Belle"! She has a been such a blessing to us and we can't wait for her to join our forever family. We, however, would ask that you as celebrate with us... remember her bio. family as well. They have made such a selfless choice in making this possible. Please pray for their peace and comfort at this time. Yes, we will be having a open adoption with them. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE open adoption. No, we don't have a finalization date yet. Also, as it was with Ayden, so it is with this little angel... we cannot post pictures until after we finalize.

Have a great day! Love to all!!!

Our big day

It's official!!! "Thor" can officially be know to the public!! His real name is now...

Ayden John Payne

We had an amazing day yesterday. I won't lie, a huge weight was lifted off our shoulders. Here are a couple of pictures from after the hearing

Ayden making his adoption official

Ayden with his amazing judge, Judge Bazzelle

Judge Bazzelle presenting Ayden with a cute stuffed animal

First pic. as a legal family!!!

We celebrated that evening with LOTS of friends coming over for snowcones. It was a long day, but couldn't be more perfect. If you want to see more pics, and an awesome video... be sure we're facebook friends :o) We will be taking Ayden to the temple in about 4 1/2 weeks. Until then, we're just going to relax and enjoy our time together. Huge thank you to all those who came to celebrate with us (at the court house and for snowcones). Also... yes, going to get sappy here. Words can't express how grateful for all the prayers in our behalf since starting out on our adoption journey. They have definitely been felt! We are just so blessed to have so many family and friends who love us and have helped both physically, emotionally, and spiritually through all this. Love you all!!!

Adoptive Couple Retreat

What's new?

As promised I'm updating by the end of the week :o) That's because we have exciting news!

"Thor"'s bio. parents relinquished their rights to him today! Meaning, unless something unforeseen happens, we will be adopting him in April-ish! We actually found out the night of Jan. 31st that they were planning to relinquish. We did not tell anyone (but family) until today, when they actually relinquished.

We are torn in that we are so excited to be having our family grow. Our hearts just break for his bio. parents though. We plan on having an open adoption with them, and that has been comforting, to me at least.

We just have felt the love and support of all of you, family and friends, through our journey with "Thor", our entire foster care journey, and our entire adoption journey. We are so appreciative and blessed! Sincerely, thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts. We love you all!!

Guest blogger

I had the privilage and honor of guest blogging for my good friend Sharon. Hope you guys all enjoy!! Click here to read it.

God's mysterious ways

I know, I should been taking on the blogging everyday challenge to help raise awareness to adoption and help get rid of all the myths out there. I'll be honest though, I'm too busy to worry about blogging every day! I'm momma to a 6 week old right now, I'm a wife, a friend, and this last week I've had family in town. So I will try to focus my postings on adoption, but who knows when they'll come.

There is something that I want to talk about right now though, adoption related. I'm not going to go into detail for the privacy of the people involved, but a couple of adoption related events have happened in the last 24 hours (not involving me, but involving people real close to me) that really got me thinking. God does really know each one of us and our situations! He has His timing too. This is true no matter what the situation. Like I said, the events that have happened are adoption related so it was reaffirmed to me when it comes to adoption! The tender mercies He has towards the adoptee, the adoptive family, and more especially toward the birth family are just incredible! We just need to put our trust in Him (which includes His timing) and things will work out so much more ... wonderful, for the lack of a better word, then we could even imagine! It won't always be the way we pictured either, which kind of makes it fun sometimes. :o) I know this is all easier said then done... trust me, I KNOW! But it's possible!

I hope this makes sense. I hope I was able to convey what I am feeling too. Anyway~ have a happy Sunday!! Love to all!

Back? So Soon?

YAY! Aren't you proud that it hasn't been that long since my last post and I'm already posting again?? I know it may not seem like a big deal to most of you, but I am a big blogger, usually. Hope to get into it more regularly again.

Nothing really new is going on. "Thor" is adjusting to the new dose now, just in time for me to take it down again today. We'll see how it goes. Prayers please! Oh!! We did have the families of "Thor"'s siblings over. Sounds funny huh? "Thor" has 2 1/2 sisters that were adopted by one family. He has a full blooded brother that was adopted by a second family. We hope to be able to let the 4 kiddos grow up knowing each other, and having at least somewhat of a bond.

So~ Nov. is national adoption month!! WAHOO! Yay adoption! So I just wanted to quickly put it out there that anyone who wants to do a guest post about adoption, I would absolutely LOVE it!! No pressure, but if you'd like I'd be more than happy to post it. This is assuming you write nice things about adoption. I know adoption isn't always looked at as a positive thing, people don't have a great expirence with it for one reason or another. But here.... we're total adoption advocates, so as Thumper's father said, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all".

Love to all!!