Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Things to Pray About

Today I found out who our new caseworker is: her name is Maggie. She will be taking Kari's place until Kari returns from maternity leave. Kari is due to give birth on Friday, keep her and her new baby in your prayers. Also pray that Maggie meshes well with us and that we are able to work well together.

Also, we have several friends, employers and loved ones filling out references for us right now - hopefully you are all trying to make us look good! Pray that God uses our references to match us perfectly with baby Gurt.

We are getting ready to hand in more paperwork, we are missing Ryland's social security card, please pray that the process for getting a new one goes swiftly.

As always, keep Gurt in your prayers. I am so in love with this child and every new day brings us closer to holding the child that was created for us.

Love and Hugs!
Ryland and Mindy

Sunday, April 27, 2008

The Homestudy

Thank you so much for all of your prayers. As usual, God is faithful and delivered the perfect person to lovingly guide us through this phase of our adoption.

Codi Canning showed up at 5:00 for what was supposed to be a 1-2 hour visit. Immediately she out us at ease. She smiled and laughed with us and was very encouraging even when we had to share uncomfortable information with her. She had a packet of 45 pages of questions. She told us that in the course of our visits we would cover every question in the packet. She asked us questions about everything; our families, our hometowns, how we view discipline, our medical history, how we deal with stress, the losses we have expereinced, our motivation for adopting, shoe size, weight, favorite kind of underwear. (Maybe I am exaggerating a little. :) ) Codi lives in Guthrie and was kind enough to give us her personal cell phone number for questions. She even gave us great information about our town, daycare centers here, etc.

3 hours later, at 8:00 we said goodnight to Codi and she left.

We had been warned that there were some contract workers who were jaded. We were told that some would come in rush, rush, rush, do a shoddy job on your file and then leave. We had an extremely positive experience with Codi. She was thorough, she listened, she cared. God gave her a special gift to be able to help people feel comfortable and work through the good, the bad and the ugly questions.

Codi will be coming back on May 6th to finish our homestudy and then she will make one more visit so that we can review our file and be finished! We finish our parenting classes on May 20. It is very possible that we will be waiting on our little Gurt by June or July!

Also this week I found out that I do get maternity leave from work when Gurt comes home and my good friend Chalea is going to babysit while we are at work. Gurt will get plenty of "mommy" time and will have a wonderful person to take care of him while we are away. Having these two things taken care of are a great comfort to me.

Prayer Focus:
1) Praise be to our God for putting everything perfectly in order.
2) Pray for Kari, our caseworker. She is due to have a baby very soon and we have no idea who our case will be handed to. Pray that God will put us with someone who will lovingly care for our case. Also pray for her health and her new baby. Ask God to give her an easy delivery and some much needed rest during her time off.
3) Pray for Codi as she prepares our file and continues our homestudy. Ask God to help her make us sound really good! :) Pray that God continues to guide us through this process.
4) Keep our sweet little Gurt in your prayers. Pray for his health and safety, that he is being loved and has enough to eat. Pray that someone is caring for him and making him feel loved. Pray that God is preparing him for us even as we are being prepared for him.

God is good, and things just keep getting better. We love you all!

Mindy and Ryland

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

HOMESTUDY PART1

Guess What?

First - I need to preface this by saying that our God listens to us even when we are whiny and frustrated and answers our prayers. Sometimes He makes us wait because that is what is best for us. Sometimes he answers fast - just because He is a bit of a show-off.

We started praying on Sunday that God would let our homestudy contractor call us this week. Not only did our contractor call us, but we are starting our homestudy on FRIDAY!!!!!!

Our contractor, Codi, called us tonight and scheduled us for 5:00 Friday evening. She will be interviewing us about our families- so Mom, Dad, Fred, Cyndi - be prepared. We will be airing all your dirty laundry and telling her all the ways you messed us up as children. For example- I asked for a puppy one Christmas - a real puppy- and I got a STUFFED puppy. That is the reason I have three dogs now, because I was scarred for life by the stuffed puppy. Fred and Cyndi- you are "rumored" to have spanked Ryland for playing in shaving cream when Jilian was the culprit, then you LAUGHED when the truth came out. Ryland still cries about that sometimes. That is also why he never shaves and is always scruffy- shaving cream makes him sad.

Jilian, Lane, Hayden and Hilary - we will be telling stories about you too. We will be telling stories about false college class cancellations, matresses in the road, lipstick markings in the buff, and little boys in their under wear selling OU bobbleheads to their neighbors, eh Chuck Nuck? Your secrets are not safe with us!

Actually, she just said we would spend 1-2 hours talking about our families. I have no idea what she will ask, but since we came from the best families in the whole world, I am sure that by the end of the evening she will love you all without ever having met you. We love you all more than we could ever put into words and we are so excited about what God is doing in the life of our family. We just hope that we can be parents who are soft-hearted like Fred, generous like Cyndi, fun like Jeana, and good advice givers like Mike. We are so lucky to have been yours. Lord willing Gurt will share those same sentiments someday. We can only pray.

Prayer Focus:
1)Pray that Codi will be able to see straight into our hearts and by the end of our first meeting that she will know and be full aware that we want a "Gurt" in our life to love. Pray that God will keep our nerves calm and that we will be able to say all that we want to say. Please try to remember us specifically on Friday at 5:00 if you remember. We will update soon after and tell you all about it.
2) Pray for Gurt. Pray that his care-givers are meeting all of his needs. Pray that he feels loved and safe, pray that he has a full belly and is healthy. Pray that even though we have no idea who he is ,that even know God is preparing him for us.
3) Pray for Jil and Jon's little bean that we love already.

Have a great week- we love you all like crazy!

Ryland and Mindy

PS- If anyone you know wants to foster a cavalier, my organization really needs people who have a fence to foster these sweet dogs. If you know anyone who is interested please let me know.

Monday, April 21, 2008

A Gift for Gurt

Gurt is so lucky to have his sweet cousin, Jaisa, to welcome him into the family. She will be so good at teaching him the ropes and helping him adjust to how things work. I am so glad she will be there for him.

Gurt's aunt Jilian is so generous that she is even having another baby just so Gurt won't be lonely. That's right! Jilian and Jonathan are having another baby. YAY!!!!!!!!! Gurt will have another cousin and Jaisa will be the cutest big sister ever.

I love the thought that Jilian and I could be getting our babies around the same time. It would be amazing for God to bless us both that way. I have always wanted to share the pregnancy experience with someone close to me. I guess we are sharing a mutual "expectancy". (But I get to skip the weight gain and morning sickness, sorry Jil.)

Jon, Jil and Jaisa- congratulations. We love you so much and are thrilled with the thought of "Jaisa- the sequel". Being her aunt and uncle is a bigger blessing than we could ever put into words.

Prayer Focus:
1. Pray for our sweet baby. That God will keep him healthy, safe and loved. Protect him and put someone in his path that will show him love today.
2. Pray for Jon and Jil's little bean. That the Lord will keep this sweet baby safely tucked in her womb until the day that we meet. Pray for comfort and peace for Jilian, that God would provide her with every good thing she needs as He creates this child in her womb.

We love you all. Congratulations again guys!

Mindy and Ryland

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Bad Medicine - A Night With Jil and Jon



Okay, so the blog title is a BIG lie.


Last night we went with Jilian and Jonathan (Ryland's sis and bro-in-law) and fulfilled a life long dream of Ryland's. We went and saw BON JOVI in concert. It was AMAZING! It was so much fun and was a night I will remember forever.


Jil got Ryland concert tickets for his birthday in February. She got us cheap seats, behind the stage, which we were totally pumped about considering that we would have gotten no seats if it weren't for her. We were behind the stage but we were probably 20 yards away from Richie Sambora and Jon Bon Jovi performed to us all night, I have never seen a performer turn to face the people behind him so much! Our seats were better than the seats out front and to the sides that were three times as expensive. I told Jilian that they were the best cheap seats I have ever had.


I have always like Bon Jovi. But Ryland and Jilian LOVE Bon Jovi. They could sing Bon Jovi songs before they knew their ABC's. I got to sit between them and see a great show and enjoy watching two people that I dearly love see a performer they have loved all their life. I just wish my father in law could have been there. Fred, we missed you!


Anyways- I thought about our little Gurt and how much fun it will be to see Ryland pass along his love of Bon Jovi to a new generation. I hope that someday Gurt will listen to Bon Jovi and think of his father- just like Ryland does. I am so excited to bring Gurt into our family traditions and show him how much fun we are.


We started our classes last weekend. They were ........ummm...........interesting? Our class facilitators let us know that they would be reporting to our case worker about our attitude, participation, etc. I wanted to make a great impression. I was on my best behavior.


We were asked to view a film about a fictional foster family and the struggles that they deal with. The actors were bad to the point it was funny. It was like listening to a first grader read. So I found that humorous. They warned us about some offensive language, so I was prepared. No big deal. The sweet foster Mom comes up to the six year old and says, "honey, its time to eat dinner." And the darling child replies, " I ain't hungry, b*#ch!" I have no idea what happened next because suddenly I was in sixth grade again and I almost laughed out loud. I bit my lip so hard I thought it would bleed and I looked at the floor. I though that if I laughed they would tell our caseworker how immature we were. So I controlled myself but it was so funny!


So this week pray that I will be a mature adult and that I will not be tempted to laugh by bad acting and potty mouthed kids! Also pray for patience for me. I am so ready for our homestudy. I thought we would have started weeks ago, but here we are.....waiting. Pray for Kari, that God brings our name to her mind and that she keeps things moving for us. Keep praying for Gurt. Pray that our sweet baby is safe, healthy and being taken care of. We are so anxious to see Gurt's face.


I posted some pics from the concert and added some new music to our player - just skip through Steven and you'll find two fun new songs.


Love you all,

Mindy

P.S. - Jil, thank you again for an amazing night. Gurt will be so lucky to have such a wonderful aunt. I hope we share many, many more. I love you.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

What's In A Name?????

With each passing day I find that there are more things that I wonder about. Today I was thinking about our kiddo's name. Specifically, I was curious about changing our kid's name.

I am pretty torn about how I feel. I have strong arguements (in my own twisted mind) both to change and to keep.

TO CHANGE: In the spirit of a new life and a new family, I think it would be appropriate to give our child a new name. Regardless of old names our baby will be a "Russell". It will take our last name. If we get an infant, most likely we will give it a name.

TO KEEP: Out of respect for our child's birth parents who gave it life, it may be good to keep the child's name and just add Russell to the end of it. I am going to research but I wonder if it would have any long-lasting negative effects if we change the name of a toddler? I also wonder how the child would feel later in life if we gave a new name.

I was talking to my brother about this. He took it very seriously, and lovingly told me that boy or girl, we should name our child Gurt. So from this post on, we will be referring to our child as Gurt. Because no matter what name we get whether it be Mulva, Eustace, Vergil, or Geraldine- nothing will compare to Gurt and it will remind me to be thankful and to be more concerned with love than with names.

Prayer Focus: Please continue to pray for Gurt and that our contractor will call soon. Also keep our parenting classes in mind, pray that we learn things that will benefit us and help us to be the best we can be.

We love you all - thanks again for your inspiration Lane.

Mindy

PS- I love tax refunds- thank you Jesus for an unexpected blessing.

Just for fun- from an on-line dictionary:

(gûrt)
n.1.(Mining) A gutter or channel for water, hewn out of the bottom of a working drift.

Gert
The name Gert is a baby girl name. The name Gert comes from the German origin. In German The meaning of the name Gert is: Diminutive of Gertrude: From the Old German name, meaning strong spear.

So basically, the name means a German girl who uses her spear to dig a channel out of a drift.

PERFECT!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Worryings

Those who know me well know that I tend to worry a lot. It's kind of one of my hobbies; worrying things to death.

This weekend I have a lovely shopping trip with my Mom and Aubrey and I decided to look for cribs. I want to buy a crib that converts into the toddler bed, then to a day bed, and then to a full bed. I figure if we invest in that then we are covered whether we get a three month old or a three year old. I think it is a good plan.

But then I started thinking about all the other things a child needs that vary depending on age. A carseat, stroller, highchair, diapers, clothing, toys..... all things that I will have no idea what size or kind to get until we are at the thresh hold of bringing the child home.

Then there is the question of decor. Since we won't know the sex until last minute, I can't buy bedding and other related items until the last minute. I know that if we get a little boy, his room will be done in puppies and the colors will be red, black, sky blue and navy. If we get a little girl, her room is going to be poodles and paris. She will have a hot pink, baby pink, white and black room. ( I am going to post pictures of the bedding someday when Ryland teaches me how.)

From what I heard from another DHS family, we will have a very short time to prepare our house and the baby room. This lady told me they found out early in the week and had her son by Friday. Which doesn't leave a lot of time, but on the flip-side if I knew who our child was and that we were for sure bringing him/her home, I would want to bring it home RIGHT THEN.

This is all very anxiety inducing for a planner like me. I plan my life months and months and months in advance. Again, I think God is laughing. He is stretching me way out of my comfortable place and teaching me about the labor of love that is adoption. I just want our sweet baby to come home to a room and things that are his/hers. I want to provide the best that I can and I know that God will help us in that. And I also am thinking even as I type that it is not me that is the provider...... that is, has been, and always will be God's job. It is against everything in me to trust in that and let go.

For now I am going to keep dreaming of poodles and puppy dog bedrooms and find our little one a crib and a dresser. Buying it will make me feel so much better. I know our baby will grow in someone else's womb but every single day it grows inside my heart and sometimes I feel like I will just burst from the anticipation. I am already so in love with that little nameless, faceless person. And I can't wait for the day to bring it home, to whatever room (or lack of one) that we have.

Prayer Focus:
1) Keep praying for our sweet baby. Prayer for protection, comfort, plenty of food, a rich environment, and that God will be real in our child's life even now. Also pray for the child's birth parents and foster parents that they will meet all the needs of our baby and care for it lovingly.
2) Keep praying for Kari, we are hoping to hear from our contractor this week, ask God to bless Kari and to help her carry the weight of her case load and be productive.
3) We start our parenting classes next Saturday. Pray that we keep an open mind and good attitudes. Pray that God provides networking opportunities so that we can meet some of the case workers and maybe some other adoptive parents that can help guide us through the next few months.

We love you all, have a great week!

Mindy

Thursday, April 3, 2008

When My Husband is Un-Supervised

Let it be known that my name is Mindy Russell: and I did not approve the previous post. :)

Just Kidding!

I definitely didn't see any "Harmon" in that alien baby though...

Lots O Meetings

Hello there everybody,


This is Ryland, which you will have no doubt of due to my drastically different (should i say, elementary) style of writing compared to my lovely wife. Thanks for tuning in to our blog world and being interested in what God is doing in our lives.


Here's what going on with the adoption stuff: Our case worker is having a meeting with the contractors to talk about how our home study will be conducted. Please pray for this meeting that it will go smoothly and that things will happen quickly. They have received our fingerprints for processing so that is good.


Being fingerprinted was an interesting process, i don't think i have ever let another male hold my hand for that long, j/k but it was kinda intimidating...... being in the police station, having to sit in jail cells wear those orange jump suits and all. Not the most comfortable piece of clothing i've ever worn. The sacrifices we make for our kids (or in our case future kids)


Speaking of future kids, here is another confirmation from God that we are supposed to be adopting. I did one of those things where you can see what your kid is gonna look like and lets just say it's not pretty.....
Seriously though, we totally appreciate you guys prayers and thoughts. It is great to hear your encouragement through your comments and emails.
God is Good,
Ryland