What A Difference A Year Makes....

As I reflect on this time last year....December 22, 2009 (my brother's birthday), we were in VA visitng with my family for Christmas. We arrived December 19th or 20th and VA received record snow fall - 36 inches!! It was absolutely CrAzY! I was in a panic because the plan was to meet for lunch with Grace's birthmother for her to interview us December 22nd. How are we going to make it with that amount of snow?

Fortunately, VA DOT got their job done and we made it to Lynchburg for the interview; however, along the way I kid you not we saw 57 cars in the ditch. We made it to the Mexican restaurant where I was as nervous as I could be. This was the most important interview of our life! Eric and I were overwhelmed with a sense of peace and did not even review how we would answer questions. We knew God was in control and brought us to this point. We really did not know what to expect since this was the first interview we ever had with a birthmother. At that point we had our album in with our adoption agency about 15 months.

I wish I could recall every question asked or each detail about that 3 hour lunch. All I can say is that it was a divine appointment and it was evident God drew our hearts together during that time. Grace's birthmother directed alot of her questions towards Eric and it was clear she wanted a godly, involved, loving father to her baby. As I have mentioned in an earlier post, one of the only questions she asked me was what girls names did we like. I told her I did not know why but in the past month the name Grace kept popping up and it was not a name we had planned on. I was sure God had this name reoccuring for a reason and we both like it. Grace's birthmother began crying and said when she found out she was having a girl she named her - Hannah Grace and asked if we would be willing to name her that. We of course agreed and left the meeting with feelings of peace, anxiousness and excitement.

We received a phone call from our adoption caseworker - December 24th that Grace's birthmother told her caseworker as soon as she left lunch she told her that we were to be Grace's parents and she was sure of it. They asked her to think and pray about it a couple of days. Grace's birthmother insisted that Eric and I know she chose us before Christmas. We received the most incredible news and best gift ever that we were going to be parents! Grace is nothing short of a miracle....she has brought us so much joy and love! Grace is more than we could have ever dreamed of....and we are blessed to call her ours. We are eternally thankful to God's provision and Grace's birthmother decision. We will be especially fervent in praying for Grace's birthmother this week. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort." 2 Corinthians 1:3

We praise the Lord for hearing our cries and answering our prayers. "I will turn their mourning into gladness;

I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow." Jeremiah 31:13

As I reflect on the gift of my child - Hannah Grace, I am once again reminded of the ULTIMATE gift....God's Son - Jesus Christ who was born to a virgin, lived a sinless, perfect life and died by way of death on the cross to save my life and those who repent and accept Him as Savior and Lord of their life. As Grace has changed our lives, Jesus Christ has forever changed my life forever. I am so thankful he loves me and accepts me for who He created me to be and challenges me in my daily life to more like Him. A baby really does change everything! Merry Christmas!

Sneak Peek of our Christmas Pictures

Isn't She Lovely?



Cheese!



Spending time with Mom Mom & Pop

Silly girl face

Grace waving to say "hi"

With Love & Appreciation for Mommy Cheryl and Daddy Gary

As many of you know Grace was in foster care for the first four months of her life. I know many people think of the "foster care" term in a negative light, however, Grace had the most incredible foster parents we lovingly call Mommy Cheryl and Daddy Gary.

First let me give you a little background on Mommy Cheryl and Daddy Gary. They are a wonderful Christian couple who love the Lord and it is very evident. Gary and Cheryl have three adopted children themselves Becca, Jason and Debbie. Becca and Jason are in college and Debbie is a high school senior. Gary and Cheryl have been fostering, I believe for 8 - 10 years. They only foster babies from the adoption agency (Family Life Services) we received Grace from. Needless to say they have LOTS of experience and it shows!

Everyone knows how much of a gift Grace is to Eric and I, but she started out as unexpected gift to the Sumner family. In December Gary lost his job where he had been employed for many years. The Sumner kiddos were home for Christmas break and after Christmas they got a call that they would be fostering a baby girl until her forever family could get her. Grace entered the world....December 28 and from what the Sumners have explained to us she was an angel from the beginning. A couple of weeks later, Becca and Jason headed back to college and Grace had the privilege of getting undivided attention from Daddy Gary and Mommy Cheryl. They took her everywhere church (never missed a Sunday, even her first week of life), out to eat, errands, and high school events. Debbie was able to spend alot of time with her and it was evident even at four months they had a special bond. Grace adored Daddy Gary and would always give him big smiles. In just the little time we spent with Gary and Cheryl after our placement ceremony (a day and a night) Mommy Cheryl had the touch to calm Grace and soothe her.

I had many people tell me once we got her home, we received an angel baby. Eric and I never had to endure sleepless nights and we pretty much have a happy camper all the time! I attribute alot of Grace's transition and easy goingness to Mommy Cheryl and Daddy Gary. They will not take credit for it. They say Grace was blessed with a wonderful temperment. It is clear to me they played a big part in it all!

A couple of weeks ago we went home (my folks home) and had the privilege of spending some time with Daddy Gary and Mommy Cheryl. We had dinner at our favorite place, Cracker Barrel. Apparently Grace had been there quite a few times in the first four months of her life. As we were drving to VA I realized we had had Grace for four months the same amount of time the Sumners had Grace. I realized how much love Eric and I have for the precious little one God entrusted to us. It made me realize once again how difficult it must have been for them to put her in our car (April 24) that last time and watch us drive off.

I remember speaking to Cheryl the day she was handing Grace over to us. Cheryl said, "we love and get attached to our babies if we didn't we wouldn't be doing our job." Gary and Cheryl, thank you for being obedient in your call to be foster parents and loving our Hannah Grace as she was one of your own. We will never forget and will continue to visit this incredible family who loved and guarded our little girl until it was God's timing for us to come and make her our own.

We love you!

Eric, Heidi and Grace

P.S. - God provided Daddy Gary a new job soon after Grace came to live us.

Friday Family Date Night, a new tradition!

Fun with Pooh!

Look whose brushing her teeth!

Love that face! She is pulling up on us, couch, & ottoman!

Summer Time Fun

Blue eyed beauty!

First time eating cereal

Swimming with the Barnard girls

Posing in the church nursery

Stuffed animal fun!

Date night with daddy

Pictures

Long Overdue Update

I found out recently more people follow our blog than just family and close friends. It is neat to hear about others who are following our blog as a source of encouragement as they endure their own adoption journies. For those of you who do not know we finally made it home after having to wait 3 weeks after our placement day/Gotcha Day - April 23rd. What a glorious day! It will be forever ingrained in our hearts and minds!

Thankfully duing our three week wait we were fortunate to stay with my parents and spend time with my family in VA. Everyone enjoyed their "Grace Time." Grace had a "graceful," incredible adjustment to us. We were so blessed to have a wonderful foster family that showered much love and care on Grace. It was evident that they love Grace like their own children. The foster parents shared that Grace was one of the best foster babies they have had in 10 years! :)

We were able to get our first family photo shoot in Lynchburg by a local photgrapher who did an incredible job! Grace sailed smoothly through an hour of picture taking and was entranced by the cars and trucks driving by.

We have been home almost three weeks. Grace has been an absolute angel. She wakes up happy and carries that beautiful smile all day long! I have absolutely enjoyed every moment that I have had with her during my leave from work.

New adventures - Grace loves her new jogging stroller cruising through the park with mom. Grace loves her new Exersaucer dad put together over the weekend. Yesterday, Grace had her first visit to the pool and she LOVED it and could not get enough. Looks like we have a water baby on our hands.  :) Grace started rolling over on her 5 month birthday (5/28). Grace loves watching fish. Looks like we will be taking a trip to the aquarium this summer.

Enjoy the pictures.....we are blessed beyond words by Hannah Grace! We thank the Lord daily for hearing our cry and answering our prayer!

She is OURS!

This past Friday, April 16th was a very exciting day for us. Below I have copy/pasted the notes I was putting on Facebook to keep our family and friends updated on the events of the day. We have had a wonderful weekend celebrating answered to prayers - Grace will be apart of our family soon!

Hannah Grace Adoption Update #1

For all Hannah Grace prayer warriors and supports, as many of you know we are waiting for my fingerprint results to come in from the FBI, it is the last piece of the puzzle for our homestudy to adopt Grace. Tomorrow is the BIG court day! I was told by my caseworker they have no reason to believe that tomorrow will not go smooth and Grace can officially become an Evje! :) Please remember Grace's birthmother in your prayers. She will be in court tomorrow and I can not imagine how difficult tomorrow will be for her.

Today I got the phone number to FBI and called. I got to the correct dept and explained our situation that the only thing that really keeping us from our daughter is my fingerprint results. The nice lady on the line starts to give me the run around. I break down and tears and she asks me all the details of the envelope I sent, the tracking #, what day it arrived, my contact info, etc...She said she would do her best. Then 15 minutes later I received another call from that dept from a very sweet lady that said she could not imagine what we are going through right now and that she will go looking for our envelope to expedite these fingerprint results. She gave me her direct line and asked me to call her Monday to get the status and see if she was able to locate and process! Amen! I felt like all those prayers for these fingerprints....God is working....and hopefully this will be complete next week!
Please join us in continuing to pray for our sweet homecoming with Grace. I hope to share great news with everyone tomorrow evening once court is done. Thank you for your kind words, encouragement and prayers.

Hannah Grace Adoption Update #2

My adoption caseworker told me that they have a late afternoon case. She said do not be surprised if I do not hear from her until after 4:30pm. She promised to call as soon as court is over.

GREAT NEWS!! I called FBI again this afternoon and got my friend "Julie." Julie told me they found my envelope and the fingerprints. They have put the fingerprints through to process and she asked me to call back Monday morning for status. Julie said she would overnight the results to the agency once they receive them. Thank you Lord for compassionate FBI employees!
As long as court goes fine today....which I will post again once I hear.....we should get Grace Tuesday or Wednesday. Praise God! Hallelujah!
I have been singing and dancing around the house and I know my dog thinks I am crazy. We are crazy for this little girl that has stolen our hearts and we have not even met her! :)

Hannah Grace Adoption Update #3

Court went as expected. All birthparental rights were terminated. Hannah Grace is our sweet girl the Lord has entrusted to us. As you might imagine I am overwhelmed with emotions right now. I am typing through tears of joy! God is so good! It looks like our placement will be next week based on getting the fingerprint results. We will know better on Monday what day next week will be our placement day!

"For this child I prayed and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him." - I Samuel 1:27

Prayers for Fingerprint Results

Friends and family please join us in praying this week that my fingerprints will get processed at FBI. I had to go our local jail get fingerprints done and then had to send to WV for them to processed. Eric and I did it back in January. Eric's results came back fine. I guess I had a poor fingerprint quality so they made me re-do my fingerprints. I resubmitted my fingerprints to FBI about 2 weeks ago. Our homestudy caseworker has not received the results. She calls FBI fingerprint dept every couple of days and today she got someone on the phone and they have not passed security yet. As you may imagine Eric and I are anxious about these fingerprints getting completed since the court date is this Friday! We appreciate the prayers and remind ourselves that nothing is impossible with God!

All Things Bright And Beautiful

Grace is 3 months old yesterday. The countdown to April 16th is 17 days.....we are so excited to be getting closer to getting you baby girl! Our agency gave us permission to get a recordable storybook. The reason we decided to this is that we wanted Grace to get used to hearing our voice. Our caseworker told us the foster family agreed to play it a couple times a day for Grace to get used to our voices. We chose the book - "All Things Bright and Beautiful" for Grace. This story, based on the hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful," lets you tell a child how unique and special she is."

Fun Facts about the Hallmark Recordable Books:

Recordable Storybooks from Hallmark feature exclusive voice-capture technology that enables a person to record each page of a book and have it played back over and over as the recipient turns the pages.


The recording will not be lost, even when the batteries need to be replaced.

Hallmark introduced Recordable Storybooks in September 2009.

Consumers have found many creative ways to use Recordable Storybooks, including:


Parents stationed overseas in the military have recorded books for their children waiting for them at home.

Grandparents and other family members who live far away have recorded the books for the children they love as a way to be with them even when they can’t be physically present.

Family members took turns recording each page of a book for a loved one in a nursing home.

Adoptive parents have recorded a storybook for the child they were waiting to adopt in another country so the child would recognize their voices.

An entire family recorded a storybook for an adult child who lived overseas and couldn’t be with them for the holidays.

New Pictures

Last week we received new pictures of our sweet baby. Hannah Grace at 8 weeks is 11lbs and 6 oz, she has gained 5 lbs since birth. We were told she is a happy baby with a sweet temperment. Eric said that the bottom picture, she is winking at him. Hannah Grace already has her daddy wrapped around her finger.

The court date is still April 16th. As long as everything goes as anticipated in court, our adoption agency will have our placement ceremony April 19th. As of today, we are 40 days from our answer to prayer. Thank you Lord for this sweet child you have entrusted to us. We get more and more excited with every passing day!

Baby Shower Loot & Update

Our church family threw us a baby shower this past Sunday. As you can see, I will be busy this weekend cleaning up and organizing the nursery. Our friends and family have showered gifts of love for Hannah Grace! You just wait little girl! I hate to admit it, you are a little spoiled already! Your mom and dad can not wait until your home so we can spoil you ourselves.
Pastor Bobby said from the pulpit this past Sunday that Hannah Grace is the church's baby! There are so many people that can not wait to meet you.....who have been praying for you for a long time.
I was able to speak to our adoption caseworker today and she said she saw you this past Sunday with your foster parents. They brought you to church! It thrilled my heart to know they had brought you to church. She said you are looking good....still look similiar to your newborn pictures just filling out a bit more, blue eyes, dark hair with a bit of a wave and sweet temperment. I keep running these descriptions through my mind and imagining you! On Monday you will be 9 weeks old. Your daddy and I talk about you often and reminded each other tonight we have 49 days until the court date - April 16th. We pray and think of you often! We love you sweet baby girl!

Hannah Grace's Nursery Pictures

Eric and I poured hours into preparing Hannah Grace's nursery. It has been nice to have a project as we endure "the wait."
We really have enjoyed that time together and have prayed for Grace, birthmother, foster parents, caseworkers, lawyers, and the process. God's timing is perfect even if we do not understand it.

Our friend painted the mural, the colors on the mural are similiar colors in the bedding. Lisa did an excellent job! I showed her a picture of what I wanted, she added some creativity and ta da! My favorite part, verse on the border reads, "For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me what I have asked of Him." I Samuel 1:27

Hannah Grace, we are ready for you to come home! We love you!

We Have Pictures!

It is with great excitement and joy we present Hannah Grace to you. We received pictures of her yesterday and being a little bias we think she is beautiful! Can't wait to get a cute bow in her hair. :)

We also found out that the current court date planned is April 16 which is the same day we will be able to get her. There is always a possibility it could change and we are praying it is sooner than later. As painful as the wait is, our adoption agency's goal is to protect us (adoptive parent) so once Grace is placed in our arms, she is ALL ours!
Thank you for your continued prayers. We have been blessed by the outpouring of love from all our family and friends! We praise the Lord for this beautiful gift to us!