Pictures of Maya and Koby

Ride bus - me too, me too!!

This is what Maya says every time we see a bus drive by: "Ride bus, me too, me too!" I always tell her that when she is 5 she will ride a bus to school. That holds her over for now. This weekend my Aunt Vanesia and Cousin Koby were in town. We took them up to Scottsdale last night and saw that there is a Scottsdale Trolley up there you can ride around downtown Scottsdale. We decided to let Maya ride it. She was yelling, "Ride bus, me too, me too! Yippee! I excited!" over and over as we waited for it to pick us up.

We had so much fun with them in town. Maya LOVES Koby! He was such a good sport to play with her whenever she said, "Come on." He swam with her, played at the splash park with her and would hit on Grandpa's putting green with her. Vanesia loves babies so she held Kenyon while Jer and I took naps or just hung out. It was so nice to have them around!

I also posted some other cute pics of our beautiful kids for you to enjoy! Kenyon is staying awake more and more of the day, but still not sleeping longer at night yet. We are anxiously awaiting a stretch longer than 3 hours! It is a good thing he is so cute that we don't mind those sleepless nights!

So much love!

We feel so loved! The last 2 days have been REALLY emotional and hard for me. After our friends left, the reality of everything set in. That combined with sleep deprivation has left me a wreck. Yet we have so many family and friends that love and care for us and are constantly asking what they can do. Just tonight there was a knock on the door and it was the Bishop from our church to check on us. I broke down in tears when I answered it and he asked how we were doing. He stayed for a while and made us feel so much better. Everyone is asking what they can do, there is not much other than keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks again for all of the love! There will come a day when we can look back on this and see all that we have learned through this experience.

We love friends!

Our good friends Adam and Katie and their 2 kids, Ellee and Isaac, came to visit us this weekend from Utah. They couldn't have timed it better. We were desperate for a good distraction and they provided it. We just played and had so much fun while they were here. Here are some pictures highlighting the weekend:

Ellee and Maya swimming

Kenyon's 1st Train Ride - CRYING! (He hates his car seat so he also cries in the car)
Ellee and Maya's 1st Ferris Wheel Ride

Just like dad, she loves the water sports already!At the zoo - Kenyon loves this sling (he thinks he is back in the womb) - Oh and yes I cut my hair off

Unexpected Twist

Today didn't go as expected in the Florida courthouse. The TPR (termination of parental rights) was granted, but shortly after, the birthfather's attorney showed up to file a notice of appearance. What does this mean? There will now be another hearing to determine if the birthfather has a case to go to trial. Basically, it means that now there will most likely be a trial that we have to attend in Florida in several months. Financially, this is horrible for us, but we continue to have faith and feel that we need to go forward for Kenyon's sake. I will keep you posted.

Prayers Please!!

We have great news! They have scheduled a court hearing on Thursday morning in Florida to terminate birthparent rights. Yeah! Now we just need prayers so that all goes well. It ended up that his name was on the birth certificate, but they have 4 other documents stating she is single so it doesn't carry much wait. Nothing is a for sure though and we don't fully understand this legal field, so prayers will really help. Thanks! :)

New Pictures

Fun with Nana

Cuddle time with Dad and Mom after his bath

A close up of Kenyon

Update (including legal)

We found out today that the birthfather did not file anything in court stating he is Kenyon's father. This is good news for us. The other issue right now is that Rebecca put the birthfather on the birth certificate so now we are waiting to see what that will do. Oh the waiting game! We just know that there is a reason Kenyon is with us and are so happy to have him as part of our family. Someday it will all be sorted out!

The other day Kenyon was crying as I changed his diaper. Maya touched his head and said, "Its okay, I hold your head." She is so gentle and soft with him!

Jeremy's mom is coming into town this weekend and staying until Thursday. We can hardly wait! It will be so nice to have her here. In the meantime, I feel so blessed to have my mom coming by almost daily to help out with the kids or bring dinner. We also have friends that are bringing meals and helping keep Maya entertained. Thank you!

The children are nestled all snug in their beds...

I survived my first day alone as mother of 2. Well, my mom was around in the morning and Jer comes home at 3:00, but for those couple hours, it was great! :) Tonight we bathed our kiddos and put them both to bed at 8:00 = freedom! Aren't they cute in their PJs?

No updates on the legal situation. We should know more in the weeks to come. As I have said before, no news is good news.

Happy Easter

Our first outing today with all 4 of us was to the mall (of course), to see the Easter Bunny. Here is the pic of our beautiful children!

Happy Easter tomorrow!

We're home!

We are finally home! We are so excited to be home and start our life as a family of 4. Can you believe it??!! Maya was SO happy to see us and is loving her new baby brother. She has to know where he is at all times. She is also keeping pretty close tabs on us to make sure we are not leaving her again. We are so thankful to my parents for taking such good care of her while we were gone. She was so happy to be with them!

Update on birthparents: as we sat with our attorney yesterday for 3 hours we learned a lot of stuff about Florida law and how it is truly in our favor. We are ready to fight for Kenyon! How could we not - he is our son! Nothing will be solved anytime soon so in the meantime, we are just going to enjoy each day, one moment at a time.

Thanks again to everyone for their thoughts, prayers, emails, and phone calls. We are overwhelmed by the love and support from family and friends. Just typing it, I start crying again. You are all the best!

Feeling at Peace

Thank you for all of the emails and calls with love and support. You are truly keeping us going. Tonight we feel so at peace with everything. We are ready to do whatever it takes to keep little Kenyon in our family. We are still hoping interstate compact goes through tomorrow and we can go home!

Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers!

Prayer Request

We need some prayers. Kenyon's birthfather who had previously agreed to sign consents is now putting up a fight. His parents have pressured him to stop this adoption. We are heart-broken at the thought of losing Kenyon from our family. Please pray for peace and comfort to all involved. We really need his birthfather to have a change of heart.

Thank you!

Life is tough!

Doesn't this picture look like he is saying, "What has happened to me?" I love it!

We had another great day here in Florida. We slept soooooo good last night and so did little Kenyon. He would wake up every couple hours to eat and then go back to sleep. What a good boy! We sure hope this lasts.

We didn't get up until about 11:30 today. We got ready and met Rebecca and her daughter Athena for lunch. After lunch, we went to the store to buy some supplies and then just came back to hang out at our hotel. It was really great to spend more time with Rebecca and Athena. Athena is such a fun 2 year old full of energy. Rebecca had moments where she was sad and got teary-eyed, but we are amazed at her strength. Also, physically the girl looks fabulous! She was in her jeans and high heels :).

Tonight we just gave Kenyon his first sponge bath and he didn't think it was that great. He got cold and then peed all over the place. I guess he is just preparing me for the rest of his life of cleaning up pee off the bathroom floor! :) Now we are all ready to go to bed. Tomorrow we are meeting up with Rebecca again to take Kenyon to the doctor for a follow-up exam. We are hoping to be able to go home to Arizona Saturday so please pray that interstate compact happens fast - we want to be home for Easter Sunday!

Some funny and not so funny moments:

1. At the hospital, we saw a cockroach run across the room. The hospital was a dive so this just reassured us that it was!
2. This morning we couldn't find our hotel key, Jer opened the door and we had left it in the door all night long. Do you think we were tired? :)
3. A very sad thing is that Maya will NOT talk to me on the phone. She has talked to Jer, but wants nothing to do with me. I think she is mad that I left her. Thankfully she is having a blast with Mama and Papa. Last night her and Papa took pillows and blankets out on the back patio and watched a movie.

Kenyon Allen is ours!!

...and he is beautiful! We are completely in love. Rebecca was supposed to sign consents at noon and finally signed around 7:30 tonight. We just made it to the hotel at 9:30 pm. We are exhausted since we haven't slept since Sunday night, but we are on adrenaline. Rebecca is so sweet and we love her so much. It was great to spend the day getting to know her. She had a tough time right before signing, but stuck with her decision. We found out she had decided not to place as of Sunday, but changed her mind Monday night and then they called us. What a miracle! She just kept saying how happy and safe he is going to be in our family. I know we are going to have a great relationship with Rebecca.

It is time to go feed Kenyon and get him ready for bed so I will try to write more later when my mind is clear :).

We are headed to Florida!

Hooray! He was finally born, an April Fools Baby! "He" (we don't have a name yet) was born at 6:30 last night. He weighed in at 7 lbs 9 oz and 20 inches long. We didn't find out until this afternoon because there were some hospital complications with the birthfather's mother pressuring Rebecca to parent the baby and the hospital accusing her of using drugs since she did not have prenatal. care She, of course, agreed to have drug tests done and proved them wrong. Then she called the agency and told them to get us there!

We will arrive in Orlando at 6:00 in the morning. We hope to grab some food and head to the hospital. Then she is scheduled to sign papers around noon. Rebecca wants to spend some time with us after they are released from the hospital so we are anxious and excited to get to know her better.

That is all for now! I hope to get some pictures posted as soon as we see him. Please keep Rebecca in your prayers as we are sure she will face some rough times ahead.

Signing off from a 3 hour layover in the Las Vegas airport :)