Growing Wests: Happy Birthday to Evan!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Happy Birthday to Evan!

(Please ignore the fact that Brynn is wearing a randon Titans shirt and no pants. They also made "slime" during the party, which attached itself to a good portion of B's dress and it had to be washed, ha.)
I can't believe this little boy is FIVE!

(I really can't believe that means it's only weeks until Brynn and Cale are five... eek.)
Evan had a great party- complete with magician!

My kids LOVED it.
Layla and Cale both giggled so much trying to assist the magician with a trick. Too cute :)

What party is complete with out sugar?! LOTS and LOTS of sugar.

This was party #1 out of three for us that day and we started off with a bang for sure :)

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Our journey to Brynn & Cale:

May 2006- A friend forwards me an email from Bethany Christian Services that says they have several African-American babies due to be born and no families to show the birthparents. I email Tammy at Bethany and request information. Brynn & Cale are conceived this month.

June 2006- Our preliminary application for BCS is accepted and we are scheduled for orientation.

August 7/8, 2006- We attend BCS orientation and receive our homestudy packet and formal application.

August 22, 2006- We begin the homestudy paperwork and schedule our physicals, fingerprinting, psych exams, & drug tests.

November 2006- all of our paperwork is complete, we only lack our homevisit and interviews. We decided to wait on scheduling those until we buy a house and move, putting our adoption process on hold.

January 18, 2007- the twins are born in Memphis.

January 20, 2007- the babies are placed for adoption with a family in Memphis.

January 23, 2007- the family "returns" baby boy and keeps baby girl. He is placed with a Memphis foster mom- Mama Fran.

January 26, 2007- the family "returns" baby girl. She also goes to stay with Mama Fran.

February 12, 2007- (my birthday), the twins are moved to a foster parent in Nashville- Mama Jen- in hopes of being adopted in the Nashville area near two of their biological siblings.

March 15, 2007

Thursday- I receive an email from BCS about "Daniel" and "Grace" who need a forever family.

March 16, 2007

Friday- I email Tammy and ask for more information about the babies and their medical history. I get completely overwhelmed and try not to think about it anymore.

March 17, 2007

Saturday- I spend the evening in prayer asking God to settle my heart.

March 18, 2007

Sunday- Our preacher decides to change his sermon and speak to "the one whom God is trying to reach". He tells us/ME that I need to recognize God's voice, even if it is taking me in a scary direction. That night, I tell Nathan we need to talk about the twins and he immediately says, "Those are our babies".

March 19, 2007

Monday morning- I email Tammy to let her know we are open to God's plan, whatever it may be, but to let us know if we cannot be considered since our homestudy had not been completed. I don't hear back.

Monday evening- we have a domestic adoption support group meeting. Our adoption worker, Amanda, comes in and announces that the meeting's topic has been changed to transracial adoption and several families come in to share their experience. She then leans over and asks us to stay after the meeting.

After the meeting, the entire Bethany staff comes over to us and starts crying. I hear someone say, "This is the best part of our job!". They then tell us that they believe God has chosen us as the twins' parents and we will be bringing them home within a month.

March 21, 2007

Wednesday- Amanda calls and says the foster parents are going out of town and they would like the babies to be home with us in just over a week. I leave work that day and never go back.

March 23, 2007

Friday- we have our couples' interview at BCS.

March 27, 2007

Tuesday- I have my individual interview at BCS.

March 28, 2007

Wednesday- Nathan has his individual interview at BCS.

March 30, 2007

Friday- we have our last interview and homevisit. Our homestudy is submitted for approval.

April 2, 2007

Monday- I meet the babies for the first time at Vanderbilt that morning. Nathan meets us at BCS after lunch and we bring them HOME that afternoon!!

December 17, 2007-

After five "homes" and four sets of names, the twins offically become Wests and are stuck with us FOREVER!!