GOTCHA DAY IS FINALLY HERE!

We just received the news from our attorney that Reid's finalization date has been set for OCTOBER 5TH, 2009!  HALLELUJAH!!!  

He will forever and always be ours...a part of us...the missing piece in our family is finally complete.  I can't even begin to describe the emotions that fill me right now...  When we started our adoption journey, everything was so overwhelming, the paperwork trail seemed endless, and quite honestly I didn't feel like we would ever get to this point.  But all words have left me now...how did I ever doubt?  That has been our lesson over this past year, for sure.  The only thing that keeps ringing through my head right now is a song we sing at Keystone...

Nothing is impossible for God,

No, nothing is impossible for Him,

You hold our world in Your hands;

So let Your name be lifted higher,

be lifted higher, be lifted higher...

God is so good, so faithful, and so perfectly wove our family together through the miracle of adoption -  let His name be lifted higher!  Our ultimate healer, maker, caretaker, provider... 

All afternoon I've been reminiscing about our adoption journey and all of the miracles and provision we experienced along the way.  For those that joined our journey late, here is a brief synopsis:

It hasn't even been a full year since we publicly announced our plans to adopt... 

We were officially "waiting on Baby P"  on November 18th, 2008...  

Only (a very short) 8 weeks later we were chosen by Michael Reid's amazing birthmother...

Only 3 weeks after that, Michael Reid was born in Austin, TX  on February 3, 2009...

On February 5, 2009, we got to hold our miracle for the very first time as he was forever placed in our arms...

How has he gone from this...

...to this in just six short months???

Oh, how we love this little man!  Every day we thank the Lord for this amazing blessing that was brought into our lives just a few short months ago.

As I said earlier, our finalization hearing will be Monday morning, October 5th, at 8:00am.  The hearing will be in San Antonio at the Bexar County Courthouse in downtown, and our immediate families will hopefully be joining us.  We can hardly wait!!!

Before I conclude this post, we do want to take a moment to thank all of you.  Without your prayers, love, support, and encouragement we would not be where we are today.  We love you, cherish your friendship, and are so thankful for your faithful prayers.  From the bottom of our hearts...THANK YOU!

"For this child we have prayed, and the Lord has granted us what we asked of Him..."

Reid's 6-Month Pictures

On Friday evening, my sister took some impromptu 6-month pictures of Reid...  Thank you so much, Neely - we love them!  The pictures came out WONDERFULLY and truly captured our little man's personality.  Here's a preview...

Reid's new trick...

Yep...Ben's lowering his mattress as I type this. =)  What a big guy!!!

And a few pics from bath time this week...

My sister, Neely, took Reid's 6-month pictures for us last night and I think she got some really cute ones...can't wait to post them!

It's all in the family...

My sweet husband found this old picture of me over the weekend while I was away with my Mom, sis, and Aunt (Ben and Reider had their first weekend "alone"...props to the best husband in the world!)...  He was so excited to show me when I got home this evening - it, AGAIN, confirmed how perfectly God knits together families in all different ways.  

A little background first...  when Ben and I were called to adopt, we found out that there were many different paths we could take...even as specific as what skin color, hair color, gender, etc you desired your child to be.  After some prayer, we felt that we didn't need to be too specific in what "we" wanted because we knew the Lord would bring us together with THE baby that He had created specifically for our family.  

Well, when we were matched only 7 short weeks later - we were thrilled to find out that we were having a baby boy who was half Hispanic!  In our heads, that meant that Reid would most likely look a little bit different from us, so we began buying up and reading every book we could find (in the short 9 days that we had before his due date) on transracial adoption... how you explain a skin color difference to your children... learning how to Biblically field those inevitable questions that they (or others) might have... etc.  We could have cared less about what this precious baby looked like, but wanted to feel as prepared as possible to raise our child with the healthiest view of adoption as possible.

Here is what we weren't prepared for which COMPLETELY blows my mind... My mom and dad have commented many, many times about how much Reid looks like me when I was younger - same eyes, nose, smile, etc... but I don't think I truly believed it until tonight.

Holly @ 6 months old

Reid @ 6 months old

WOW!  I keep going back to compare all of my pictures, and it truly is incredible to me!  Not that all of our research on transracial adoption was in vein - only the Lord knows what He has in store for us in regards to future children - but this just showed me how trivial the things are that we think we need to worry about and "prepare" for.  Every last detail truly is in our Maker's hands.  We can't imagine our lives without Michael Reid - we love you so much, little man!

"For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139: 12-14

Reid's 6-Month Stats

We just got home from Reid's 6 month well-check... he did great (despite the FOUR shots), tore up every piece of paper he could get his hands on, and flirted constantly with all of the nurses. =) Here are his stats:

Weight = 19 lbs (75%)

Height = 27 inches (75%)

Head Cir = 45 inches (75%)

A friend of mine is taking his 6-month pictures next week, so I'm really excited to post those!

Michael Reid is 6 months old!!!

We can hardly believe that our baby boy is 6 months old... Oh, how the time has flown!  Reid is such a happy, vibrant, ACTIVE little guy - he truly completes our family and brings more joy than we could have ever imagined.  We go for Reid's 6 month well-check this Friday, so I will post all of his stats at the end of the week.  He is growing so fast that I can hardly wait to see how much he weighs!  

His recent milestones have included:

sitting up

talking in his own little language a TON

belly laughing frequently

all-out wrestling with Dad (this is his favorite activity, by far!  He can hardly contain himself when Ben gets home in the evenings)

eating REAL food - he's such a GREAT eater!  The only thing he hasn't liked is peas... can you blame him???

And... he's becoming very MOBILE!  - Reid will army crawl/or worm his way to coffee cups, cell phones, remote controls, and laptops.  Not his toys, mind you... he knows we'll bring those to him, I suppose =)

The six month mark is also a HUGE milestone in adoption for the state of Texas... at 6 months, we are officially eligible for Reid's finalization.  I can't even tell you how happy this makes my heart!  We have started the process of paperwork to get our court date assigned in San Antonio, but most likely we won't get to go down there until September.  We can hardly wait for GOTCHA DAY!!!  We'll be sure to keep everyone posted on those details...

And, finally... here are some pics of our big 6-month old enjoying his new playroom/family room.  We got rid of the pool table and got a new couch/rug to make more room for the kids to play... he seems to love it!

Happy Half-Birthday, Reider!  We love you!!!