IT'S ABSOLUTELY OFFICIAL!!!

For those of you who are not aware we have been working towards becoming certified foster parents in order to foster (and eventually adopt) a boy from my work, named Tyler. He is 8 years old and he is amazing! He asks me every night to pray with him and read the Bible with him. He has asked me to lead him in a prayer to give his life to Jesus! Praise GOD!! He absolutely has a compassionate heart!

So, today we met with Tyler's social worker and it was an absolutely wonderful encounter! His social worker was 100% supportive of this whole process. So, at the end of our meeting we set a date for Tyler to move in with us and it is on August 9th!! Less than two weeks away!! We are so amazingly excited! God has really opened every door for us during this process. Thank you to all of you that have been praying for us during this process and thank you to those of you who were able to write us references. We so truly appreciate every bit of support that we have received thus far. But we will still need plenty of support and plenty of prayer as Tyler joins our family. So, please don't forget to keep us in your prayers!

Below are some pictures of Tyler. Enjoy!! :




Stay tuned for some pics of our first day together!!

Here are some more pics from Texas!

This is Daniel and I in the back seat as Taylor is learning how to drive a stick shift. As you can see, we feel COMPLETELY secure back here. :-)

This is us with our new little nephew. His name is Niko. He was almost two months exactly when this picture was taken.


This picture was taken in the caverns. Rhiannon loved it because the tour guide called this part "Short man's Revenge" because for a section of the tour, the walk space was less than 5ft tall. For the majority of that section she could stand up straight!


From this angle, this building is supposed to look like an owl, which it kinda does. They told me that the building was built by the Masons.


Taylor loves this pic of him and Brandon conversating while in the middle of their game of pool.



We stayed up all night talking because it was Rhiannon's last day with us and as a result Brandon and Taylor can't make it through the rest of the day. :-) Actually instead of going to bed when Rhiannon got tired, they chose to continue to stay up and go fishing. So, when they got back this is what they did.

More Pics from Texas!!

Here are some more pics from Texas. I still have plenty more and so does Taylor's sis, Rhiannon. I can't wait to see hers, too. Well, here are more:

Brandon, Taylor, & Daniel with the Colorado River in the background.

Brandon and Taylor coming in from fishing at Inks Lake.

The sun setting on Inks Lake.

At the shooting range.

Walking on water at this creek that they call "The Slab".

Taylor and Rhiannon in the caverns.

All of us at this restaurant, called Oasis. It has 5 stories!! It was right on the shore of a lake. Absolutely beautiful!

Well, now I'm pretty tired. So, I will have to start adding some more pictures on another day. Or perhaps I will add a little filmstrip of all the pics. Until then, God Bless!!

Back from Texas!

So, Taylor and I returned from Texas on Tuesday afternoon. We were completely exhausted (and we still kind of are.) But all in all we would definitely say that the trip was well worth it. For those of you that don't know why we went out there, we went there to meet Taylor's birth mother (yes, he is adopted!!) and some blood brothers... and a sister... and a nephew and niece...and a cousin!! :-) Going in to this it could seem rather overwhelming. While Taylor was very gung-ho about this, I was very much more reserved about the whole trip. But it turned out to be a wonderful experience. There was so much to do and I'm sure we got only a taste of what Texas and this extension of family has to offer!! They kept us pretty busy. We went fishing, bowling, fishing, played pool, more fishing, went to the shooting range, more fishing, toured through some caverns, more fishing, went canoeing, and MORE fishing....Clearly they (Mostly Brandon) like fishing just as much as Taylor!! It was great! Below is some of the pictures of Taylor with his new extension of family:

This is Taylor with Brandon. Brandon is 25. Him and Taylor are full blood brothers. They have a lot of similar characteristics, both physical traits and personality traits. Everyone (including myself) has enjoyed watching them two together. Brandon let us stay at his place for most of the time in Texas (while we were in Kingsland). He was a great host! Him and Taylor instantly bonded.

This is one of Taylor and Daniel. Daniel is 22 and him and Taylor are half brothers. All the siblings have the same mom but different dads.

This is a picture of Taylor with Michael. Michael is 23. Him and Daniel have the same dad but they look nothing alike.

This is a picture of Taylor and Rhiannon. Rhiannon is 31. She is talking about coming out to California towards the end of August. That will be cool.

This is a picture of Taylor and his birth mother. Her name is Cheri.

This picture has all the siblings and their cousin, Jesse. Unfortunately, I don't think that I was able to get a picture of just Jesse and Taylor like I did everyone else. He let us stay at his place for the later part of the week while we were in Austin. He was really a great host. In this picture:
Back Row (L-R): Jesse, Brandon
Front Row (L-R): Daniel, Michael, Rhiannon, Taylor (Duh!!)

Well, for now that will be all the pictures that I will post. I will definitely be putting some more pics up later. There are SO many pics that it would be ridiculous to post them all on this page but in the couple of days we will be working towards getting some more good ones up on the page so you can see some of the things that we got to do in Texas. For now, I just wanted to introduce you to this extension of the family.