Happy Birthday Baby Kella!!!

It is hard to believe you are ONE today. We have had you home for 2 1/2 months and had you in our hearts for 11 months now. We are filled with JOY with your precious little life. You are starting to develop a sweet personality and you know we are your family. We are so happy you trust us and feel so safe in our arms. You are so loved by your family and friends. You now are getting your top two teeth in and you are getting up and standing alone. You are so proud of yourself!
You are still such a tiny little thing. We love that we get to have a baby in our home longer. Your smile and gentle spirit are both adorable.

On this day, we think so much of your birthmom and the love she has for you. We know she wanted the BEST for you and wanted to give you a family. We are more than humbled that God chose our family for YOU! We pray she feels God's peace and comfort that you are well-loved and taken care of. She chose life for you and we are forever grateful for this Gift of you. 

A year ago today we knew we were to adopt again but we did not know about you yet. We are thankful we trusted in His mighty plan to bring us your life in His perfect timing. God is so good and BIG! Our prayer for you is that you will grow up to know Jesus as your personal Savior and live your life for His Glory! 

We LOVE you baby Girl!

Guatemalan PRINCESAS

It is so much fun to watch these sisters together. Kenzie, for the most part, does really well with her new sister. I love to see them together first thing in the morning. Kenzie talks so sweet to her lil sis. Chloe continues to be such a big help to me! She really loves to play with her! Kella is crawling and cruising around furniture. She will let go for a few seconds and give you a big toothless grin. She only has 2 bottom teeth. Her little smile is so cute. We feel more and more blessed with this little life the Lord has so graciously entrusted to our care!

Loving our Kella

It has been 5 weeks now that Kella is home with her family. As you can see we are enjoying every day with her. She is doing great! She is a wonderful sleeper and eater and is getting around EVERYWHERE already. She just did not stay in one place very long. She wants to keep up with all the big siblings, so on the move she is. Crawling and pulling herself up to anything and everything. She is so happy and gets so excited, especially for Cody. The girls are great with her and Chloe is turning into such a little mother. What a help they all are to this mama.

We were able to enjoy a few days with Kristin last weekend. It was great to have her with the fam again. She is working HARD and learning lots. A few more months down the road and she would be one to be deployed to the hurricane areas. We are proud of her and miss her!!

It is nice to have some routine back in our house again. We are enjoying these days and all the kids are excited about the big Pumpkin Festival next week.  We continue to try and keep our focus on what is really important. We are constantly reminded of all the kids in this world that need a family. If you want to see an amazing video of a little boy from Ethiopia, go to teamalexander.blogspot.com  Truly, an amazing journey of this family. It got me so excited thinking about the friends that are waiting for their Ethiopian children to join their family!!!

Essie is coming home!!!

My friend Lou Lynn is bringing her sweet Essie home tomorrow. They are thrilled to be at this place after the long road of adoption. We are so happy they will be together forever. Thank you Lord!

missing Kristin.....

Well, it has been over a week now that Kristin has been gone. We all miss her terribly, but are happy to say she is doing great. I knew she would do great with whatever God has for her. She always seems to make the best of anything!
 
I am so thankful for the time God gave us with Kella before she left. It was so special to have those first few weeks with her. Kella loves her big sissy!!!! Kella has continued to do wonderfully. She is a dream baby, and we are forever thankful for this gift He has given us!
 
We love and miss you Kristin!

worth the wait....

The waiting for us is over and for that we are so thankful. The verse we held on to was Psalm 27:14...."Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.

WAIT...We have all had to use this word in some way or another. It is way too common of a word for those in the adoption world. Seldom is it greeted with a warm embrace. This one word holds a tremendous amount of power. When our Heavenly Father speaks it, we know it is what we need to do.

Your Heavenly Father says...

"Wait," I see beyond the stretch of yesterday, the reality of today and the corner of tomorrow.

"Wait," you will find joy and wisdom in this arduous journey.

"Wait," trust in My faithfulness and love, even when things don't make sense.

"Wait," the process is sometimes the only available venue for a miracle.

"Wait," I have a supreme surprise for you and want you to remain for the perfect moment.

"Wait," and know that along each path of life, I will walk with you.

"Wait," I know and hold your child.

"Wait"

(taken from an adoption article)

We know He brought us our Kella Hope in His timing and His way. When I look back on our wait, I know He used it again to grow our faith and dependence on Him. It is easy to want things done in our timing, but as we now have Kella home just a week and a half, we know His timing is perfect. She is pure sugar. We are all crazy in love with this blessing. We are so excited to watch God mold and grow this little life.

To those of you still waiting...hang in there and know He is in control, always. It is so worth the wait!

We followed Jesus to find our Kella. I remember struggling with what agency to use, or whether to do a private adoption attorney and knowing that the time was ticking away before Guatemalan adoptions would stop. He led us every step of the way! God is faithful! Even though there were fears and doubts if this could go through with all the uncertainties, Jesus gave us this incredible gift. Our God is awesome. He loves the orphans of the world. His timing is perfect. His love is everlasting. God created our family, both from here and afar and we are forever thankful!

first few days at home....

Other than me having a bug for a few days since being home, being together as a family has been more than wonderful. Kella is transitioning beautifully, and is a very happy and content little baby. She is being well loved and cared for by both big and little siblings. 

We continue to thank God for the gift He has given us. 

My dear friend, Lynne, took these pictures from the homecoming at the airport. What a treasure they are!

HOME AT LAST.....

We are all overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and support shown by so many of our family and friends. To walk in and see everyone, was such a blessing. We thank you all so much for seeing us through this journey. We have finished this part of the adoption process, and are now so thrilled to begin this part of life with our precious blessing. We could not have made it through without all of the encouragement from so many of you! Kella came to life with her "big" (little) sisters once we came home! It was so amazing to see the way God blended her into our family already. We feel more than blessed, and want God to get all the glory that He deserves. We came home to the most amazing yard decorations, and then into a home filled with savory goodies. Thanks to all for making our homecoming such a memory!

We love you all!!! 

We're coming home to America!!!!!

Tonight outside the Westin where we are staying, there were these little kids that were just standing around with their baskets of goodies to sell. They approached anyone that looked like they were tourists or Westerners. They approached us with those sweet little eyes, asking us to buy their "dulces' (candy). It was heart breaking to see these kids living a life like this. We gave them each a little bit of money to get a picture with them. They were overly joyous! 

We just pray that in all He does, God blesses these sweethearts in some way. 

it's a small world

Today at the Embassy, we met Marianne and Dave Gross from Bloomington and their precious little daughter Sarah. We were able to enjoy a fun dinner tonight with them, and get to celebrate together that we are both bringing our baby girls home. It is just so cool to see how God brings people together through this journey of adoption.

By the way....WE ARE COMING HOME TOMORROW!!!!!!

We did make arrangements to come home tomorrow (wednesday) so for those of you who want to know, we will fly into Bloomington around 9:05 pm. American from Chicago to Bloomington.

We love you all. We can't wait to see you all and introduce you to our newest addition...

     Kella Hope Kindred

Chloe and Kenzie......we love you and can't wait for you to see your new little sister! You are both big sisters now!!! Thanks so much to everyone who has been loving on you! XOXO

closure

After watching our daughter begin the bonding process, we felt it was good for Norma (foster mom) as well as Kella to have a final goodbye. The drop-off night was so hard that I felt there wasn't any closure. Norma and her sister came by for a final goodbye, and it was amazing to watch Kella's little life begin as a part of our family. She smiled and went right to Norma, and then turned around, saw me, and came right back to me. She did that a couple of times, and then was very content just snuggled in my arms. After hugs and tears goodbye, and a prayer by Steve, it was time for Kella to be with her forever mama and family. We feel so blessed that we had this opportunity to see Norma one more time, to let her know how much we appreciate her, and to let Kella say goodbye. We know this was God orchestrated and in His plan for us to leave this way.

Isaiah 43:5-6

Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.

I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth

going to the embassy......

our embassy appointment

We had our embassy appointment at 7:15 this morning. Our appointment today went well. We took a chance (like always), and tried getting our visa today. Steve went back around 3:00 this afternoon, and he got it! We're so excited!!! 

We're checking about coming home tomorrow, a day early. We will keep you updated on our status!!!

Thank you all for traveling through this journey together! We can't wait to see you all!!!

Love,

Lisa (aka kristin)

hello from the entertainment

Us three amigos have had much more fun than we could have ever imagined!!! We are all bonding, and loving it. Cody would have been so bored without us girls!!! We sure do miss you little girls, Chloe & Kenzie...It's just not the same without you! But we know you're having such a blast with the cousins!! 

Anyways, if you are wondering about our pictures....Cody basically ate the ocean last night, octupus included. We had a great night being together. 

We miss you all and thank you for being a part of this with us all. You all have been such strength and encouragement to our parents and to us as well! We praise God for the support we have in our friends and family!!!

Love, KK Kaley & Coco

a wonderful night together...

Our First Day...

Since Kristin has been updating you all as we go through this journey on this trip, I figured that I would give you a some more information from the mama!! (although kristin is still typing this!)

We are so happy to say that the Lord graciously granted us a wonderful first day with Kella. Last night was harder than I really thought it would be. I guess because we have been with her two times already. I didn't think it would be like it was. Who was I kidding? I even am the one who encourages other friends when their babies go through the grieving process.

Our plane arrived late, so when we walked into the Westin, we saw Jorge (our facilitator) and Lou Lynn and her little Essie. She is the friend I met through her blog and she was the one who led us to our attorney. We really have wanted to meet and we thank the Lord that He allowed this. She is a wonderful person with a precious little 14 month old. She gets to bring her home in 2 weeks. Soon after, Kella, her foster mom and two sisters arrived in the lobby. Kella looked at all of us and then the hand off happened. Bless her little heart, she was half asleep and we are all looking at her and trying to comfort her. She cried and cried. I usually have the touch, but there was no consoling. Finally, I gave her a bottle and she fell asleep and slept til 6:30 am. She woke up playing in her bed until her Daddy brought her in bed. She just looked at us, would wimper a little, and then be ok. Cody came in and snuggled and he won her heart. He even got her to smile some. She is SWEET!

The rest of the day she seems much more comfortable. Amy A. encouraged me how important the crying is for the bonding process. It just was hard and broke our hearts.

Daddy is so gentle and quiet around her. She is warming up slowly to a man in her life. Cody had her laughing out loud, by running into walls pretending he was hurt. The big sisters are so sweet with her! 

Tomorrow we have a 7:15 Embassy appointment. We are grateful for the prayers for this part of our journey. We knew we needed to keep our faith and that we would get this appointment. After the first 24 hours with our precious gift, we want to give God all the Glory for this little life He has rescued. We feel so honored He chose us to be her forever family. We can't wait to be together as a family. We miss you Chloe and Kenzie!!!

officially pink!!!

We are officially pink!! Steve and Cody went to the Embassy today and politely asked for an appointment. They were told that they were not supposed to do this, but fortunately there is an appointment tomorrow. They told us that we really weren't even supposed to travel to Guatemala unless we were officially pink...but we took a risk. And all of those prayers paid off. We had been waiting all day for the email that confirms the appointment pink slip and the time. We just found out that we have an appointment tomorrow morning at 7:15 am. 

We got to enjoy a fun afternoon visiting with other adoptive moms. We feel so blessed to get to bring our baby girl home at this age, when we met and know so many families that are still waiting and stuck in the bureaucracy.

It is so weird without the two little ones here. We miss them so much! We constantly find ourselves thinking that we left someone.

We so greatly appreciate everyone's comments and emails. So encouraging!

P.S. More pictures to come tonight!!

buenas dias!!!

Good morning to you all! Thank you for all of your prayers. 

Kella finally settled, and was asleep at 11:00 pm. She slept through the night until 6:30 this morning. 

Cody enjoyed his first smiles with her, since he got none of that last time with Kenzie!!! 

Steve and Cody went to the Embassy this morning, requesting our appointment for tomorrow. We hope!!

We are going over to the Marriott to spend some time with Lou Lynn and Essie before she has to give her back to the foster mom.

Pictures will come today...we promise!

we're here!!!

We arrived here in Guatemala tonight around 8:00 pm. We got into the hotel right before nine, and Jorge and my dear friend Lou Lynn and her precious babe Essie were here to greet us! We had such a great time chatting with them. Then came the foster mom, Norma, and her two sisters with our forever baby, Kella Hope. She was absolutely beautiful, and a little more grown up. It is so surreal that we are finally getting to bring her home after this long process. The handoff was a bit harder on baby Kella than we had predicted. She has a sense for what was going on. She is sound asleep in her bed now. We are all tired, so pictures will come tomorrow!!!

Once again, thank you all for your ongoing prayers, support and love! We will definitely be keeping you updated through our process! 

 

we're off.....to a land down south!!!

We are leaving tomorrow morning for Guatemala to bring our precious babe home. My sweet sweet friend Lou Lynn is down visiting her baby and called me this afternoon telling me to come on down. We would be receiving our pink slip on Monday, so we are going to go to the Embassy and request an appointment for the following day. We have been in contact with our attorney, and he is encouraging us to go ahead with this. We are all busy packing and getting organized and trying to love on our two little ones who are not going with us on this trip. They are so excited to get to spend time with the cousins. 

Please continue to pray for us as we continue on this journey. We feel peace in this decision of going.

We leave Bloomington at 10:15 am and arrive in Guatemala City at 7:00 pm. My heart is heavy for Kella's foster mom, Norma, as she is giving her last foster baby away. Norma has loved this little one from birth on. We are forever grateful to her for the nurturing and love that she has given Kella. We should have her by about 9:00 pm tomorrow night (they are an hour behind us in Guatemala) We're so glad to have our family and friends along for the journey and covering us in prayer. We love you all!!!!

The Krazy Krew

we're still waiting.....

To all of you who are as anxious about this as we are......we still haven't heard anything about getting "pink" status. We're just praying that all will go well in God's timing, whatever that may be! Thank you for all of your continued prayer and support. It means so much to us all!

We HOPE to be "pink" by today. We will keep you all informed!!!

PINK day!!!

We are anxiously waiting to hear that we are PINK! We told the girls that we all need to wear pink today. This was the outfit that our little Kenzie chose. Her very best pink! Chloe chose a cute pink top to wear! The girls have been ready to celebrate, even before we have any news!! 

We'll keep you posted!!!

DNA on its way!!!

Thank you to all of our prayer warriors! We found out today that our DNA results are done, and being sent back to Guatemala. We should be receiving "PINK" by this Thursday. We can't quite make travel plans yet, but we're hoping it will be very soon! We'll keep you posted!

Isaiah 30:15

In returning to Me and resting in Me you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength.

wait patiently...

Kella's DNA was done last Wednesday (7/16). We are still waiting to hear that it is at LabCorp here in the states. It should be here soon! (We hope!) It needs to go through a process at the lab to make sure that she is the same baby that we got on referral. It then is overnighted back to the US Embassy in Guatemala. Within 24 hours, we should have "PINK" status, which means that we have our visa appointment. Through this wait, I need to constantly be reminded to trust in the Lord and wait patiently for Him to act. 

Psalm 37: 3-4

 Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

We appreciate you praying for us through this process as our desire is to have Baby Kella home for a few days before we have to send our Kristin off.

Puppy Love!!!

do not worry...

we ran into another glitch in the system in getting our DNA done. we have an appointment at 10 am tomorrow. i am beginning to feel a time crunch, because of kristin leaving and us wanting her to get to spend some time with kella. although i began to worry, my devotion today from "Jesus Calling" was just what i needed. let me share it with you...

Do not worry about tomorrow!!!

This is not a suggestion, but a command. I divided time into days and nights, so that you would have manageable portions of life to handle. My grace is sufficient for you, but its sufficiency is for only one day at a time. When you worry about the future, you heap day upon day of troubles onto your flimsy frame. You stagger under this heavy load, which I never intended you to carry.

Throw off this oppressive burden with one quick thrust of trust. Anxious thoughts meander about and crisscross in you brain, but trusting Me brings you directly into My Presence. As you thus affirm your faith, shackles of worry fall off instantly. Enjoy My Presence continually by trusting Me at all times.

Matthew 6:34  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

2 Corinthians 12:9  But He said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Hope this encourages you like it did for me! I trust God has every detail of this part of her story covered.

ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE!!!

Today we are orange!

I received a phone call from Jorge, our facilitator, letting us know that we have DNA authorization. We were expecting this early next week, so this was a pleasant surprise. By Tuesday, Kella will have her second DNA, and it will get sent to the lab in the US. We continue to be on our way to bringing our babe home.

hope...

hope. it's one of the greatest gifts we've been given.

it carries no price tag, but its value is priceless.

we cling to it when the future looks uncertain.

we praise it when things turn out better than we could ever imagine.

on this day, give thanks to Jesus for bringing us this far.

we are ready to come get you, Kella Hope.

one more X on the checklist!

July 7, 2008

Today is the day that we found out our birth certificate was approved. We praise our Lord for this. Things are moving now, at a better pace, and we are a little more certain of what will happen next, and the timing that it should happen in. Jorge said we should travel in about 3 weeks. We are one happy and thankful family! 

our hearts' journey continues...

Here we are a week later, still waiting for our birth certificate. We found out we have an extra week of waiting, but continue to know that God knows when she will get to come home. We hope by Monday, July 7th to finally have it. After that, we need to get our second DNA, and get the results back to the US Embassy, where they will issue our visa appointment. We are thinking that within a month we should be traveling to bring our baby home. During our wait, we continue to trust that everything is in God's control. 

Finally out!

June 12, 2008

What a day of rejoicing this was. We are overwhelmed with God's goodness for the great news we just received. We are officially out of the PGN and Kella Hope is our baby. Through this wait, we have grown and have been stretched again and for this we are grateful. My dear friend, Lou Lynn was the deliverer of the great news. She is the one who lead us to our attorney and to her we are forever thankful. That was the best phone call!!

We are thinking our wait will be around 6 weeks minimum. It is finally happening that we get to think of bringing her home.

We feel so blessed by so many of our family and friends that have so fervently prayed for us. We pray a special blessing on all of them.

We went to Steve's favorite Mexican place, Chevy's, to celebrate our great news!

4 Chicas & a bebe

April 3-6 2008

What a wonderful experience we had on our girls trip. This was a repeat of the trip that we took to visit Kenzie, just the oldest girls and I, except this time Vicki Taufer joined us. We took a red-eye from O'hare and were in Guatemala City four hours later. We were united with our precious baby girl a few hours later. We enjoyed the day with her by the pool and later went in for a nap. Our trip was amazing because of all the people that we were able to meet. I love the way God orchestrates gathering His people together. Vicki became friends with so many and was able to photograph many little babies that were in the adoption process. A big highlight was visiting Hannah's Hope, an All God's Children orphanage in Guatemala City. We all were able to love on these babies and children, and share some of Jesus' love with them. This is a truly amazing orphanage and these little ones won our hearts again. The same little girl that wanted to go home with Kaley exactly two years ago was still there. She is finally going home to her forever family. These children were simply precious!

Kella Hope was still so little. She was sick with what I thought was maybe ears and a cough. After a day in Antigua, and her not feeling well, we made a trip to the ER. It was in a private hospital, and I was very impressed with the care that we received, other than the nurses trying to stick her baby arms to take blood. She has such tiny veins, and I finally couldn't handle it anymore, and told them to stop. They said this is the rainy time and babies get sick with allergies and respiratory symptoms. They sent us home with medicine and she had a much better night. Praise Jesus!

I am more than grateful to Steve for allowing us to go and for keeping up the fort at home. He did a great job and it was such a blessing to get to love on our little girl again. Kaley had the hardest time leaving her. We are very blessed with the great care she receives in her foster family. Norma truly loves this little girl.

We are still in family court, which was a disappointment for us. We know God already knows when she is coming home.

We arrived back in Bloomington at 4:00 am, just in time for Vicki to get home and teach her workshop to a bunch of Irish photographers that same morning. What a memory for us. It was so much fun to watch God move in Vicki's life and get her excited for their road of adoption. She came home and they began their process with full speed ahead. We are so excited to see where the Lord leads them in this beautiful journey.

Heart Grown

January 24-28, 2008

Steve, Chloe and I went to visit our precious baby girl. We were so excited to have Chloe with us on this first meeting of our new baby. We had a great flight to Guatemala, and were met by Jorge at the airport. We went directly to the Westin. About an hour later, we ventured down to the lobby to await the arrival of our little girl. She was so precious!!! We went back up to our room and were able to visit with her foster mom, Norma. Jorge was so great and translated everything for us. Kella Hope was so attentive. So tiny. So sweet! Chloe quickly got to hold her baby sister. Kella just stared into Chloe's eyes. It was such a sight! Steve and I were instantly in love with our little gift! Adoption is such a beautiful experience of God's redemptive love for us.

After they left, we were able to just sit with her, ooh and ahh over her, kiss her and admire her beauty. Oh so sweet! We got her out of the little blue jean overalls that they had her in, and of course put her into a soft, pink little outfit. We enjoyed walking around the premises, meeting other adoptive parents, and most importantly, getting to know our new daughter.

The most precious sight was watching Chloe love on her new baby sister. She couldn't get enough of her, and quickly became another little mommy.

It rained more and was cooler than our other visits. Chloe still enjoyed swimming with Jorge's two little girls at the pool. I loved watching 2 spanish speaking girls and Chloe, who only speaks English (except for her few phrases she has learned with the big sisters around the house). They communicated in a way that was just incredible! They enjoyed a great afternoon together, although they had their own language.

We were so blessed by this first meeting with our little gift from God. She is so loved and taken care of, that I was able to leave with such peace. Yes, it was very hard to give her back, but the hardest was for poor little Chloe, who just sobbed when we had to let her go. I was not expecting to have her struggle with leaving Kella like she did. She was still crying on the plane ride home.

We are all so thankful for the gift of holding and loving on our little 4 1/2 month old babe. Kella Hope has grown in our hearts forever.

Just beginning... (Sept '07-Dec'07)

After much encouragement from all of my friends, I am ready to begin the blogging adventure. All of you know my computer skills, so please hang in there with me, and I'll give it my best. As you all know, the Lord has put the desire in our hearts to adopt again. With all the changes going on in Guatemala right now, we knew that the possibility for adoptions to be closing was very near. In July of '07, we were fingerprinted, and then in September, I began the mad paperwork frenzy. Through a blogging friend, we were led to use a private attorney. We truly believe that this was all part of His imminent plan. Due to not using an agency, the dossier was compiled by me, myself and I. Actually, I had a lot of contact with our facilitator (daily) which was of great help. In the beginning of November, we received our referral of our precious baby girl. The Lord clearly made it known that this was to be our little girl. We had friends that were picking up their little girl in November, when Kella was one month old. They were able to visit with, take pictures and videos of, and love on our baby Kella. That was such a tremendous gift to have. Through all of this, we knew that we had to have our power of attorney signed, and registered by December 31st. It was down to the last few days, but all was well. It was completed in His perfect timing. With all of this said and done, I was so relieved to let go of this stressful part of the adoption process. Now it was time to let go, and let God.