It was much like a blind date. . .

This morning, we met with Jodi, the birthmother to our son. As you can imagine, we had quite a few butterflies on the ride over to Christian Family Services (CFS).

Once we arrived, they brought Jodi in and we got to ask all sorts of questions. She asked a lot about us too. It was really nice to find out about her, how the pregnancy is going and what her expectations are of us. It sounds like we're all on the same page after a conversation filled with some laughter and tears. At the end of the meeting Jodi allowed Kim to feel her belly in hopes the little guy would be active. He wasn't, but she reports it feels like popcorn and he's very active on a regular basis.

We're going to meet with her and the baby's birthfather next week over dinner. We're looking forward to meeting him and answering any questions he has about us. Jodi also mentioned she would like to share sonogram photos with us and we're hoping to have them for you on our next transmission.

Tomorrow, Kim will be heading up to Iowa for what will most likely be her last trip to see her parents before becoming a mom.

In addition, we found out from our friends Steve and Julie that God has blessed them with an unexpected appointment with the Mayo clinic this Thursday. We hope they finally get some answers for Justine's condition and a positive future prognosis.

So, things continue to be exciting.

More soon.

FINALLY!!!!

Thursday, July 26, at 2:15 p.m., we found out our son (Jakob Marcus) will be born on or around September 25. This week we will head to Christian Family Services (CFS) to meet the birth mother and talk about her situation and ours. As you can imagine we're excited and hopeful for that day and the days ahead.

One area of concern is the judge for our case. This particular judge is one who makes sure every "t" to be crossed and every "i" to be dotted to the nth degree. Granted, we like that; however, he has brought Kim's diabetes into question and has requested Kim's diabetic doctor come to the court proceedings to testify as to Kim's medical condition now and in the future.

We're trying not to worry about this as we know Jesus has it all under control (so we don't have to), but it's still hard not to think about yet another stumbling block as we've come so far.

We could definitely use any extra prayer you have for the following:

1. The birth mother, Jodi, who we will meet Tuesday; we're sure she's most likely as nervous as we are
2. The judge in our case that he would see fit to grant us this child
3. Our lawyer who will be helping us through the process
4. Kim's diabetic doctor, Dr. Orr, who we will need to testify to verify Kim is in great health
5. Peace for us as we wait
6. The financials to come into perspective

Friday, we went to our church with friends Paul and Ann to catch the Jeremy Riddle concert (www.jeremyriddle.net). It was a powerful evening and just what we needed after the great news received Thursday.

Saturday, we executed Marc's mother's surprise 60th birthday party that Marc and Nic have been planning for a few months now. Finally, we can talk about it on our blog!!! It went very well from start to finish. Granted, the plan kept changing on us throughout the day, but when we brought Delene to the party location everything worked out fine. We invited friends and family from her school years all the way up to present day. At the end everyone received the opportunity to share funny and silly stories from experiences had with her over the years. Marc and Nic want to especially thank friend Tracy and their Uncle Willey and Aunt Sandy for their help through this. Thank you!

Today, we also arranged to have a family photo taken of all the family in town for the party. It was great to have everyone together for this as our cousin Tony will soon be heading to Middle Tennessee for his junior year of college.

Tonight, we ended our weekend the way it began, worshiping with our Vineyard family at the 6 p.m. service.

We know the weeks ahead are going to go quickly, but we also know we have a pretty amazing set of family and friends, not to mention a powerful God behind us as we take the final steps of pre-parenthood.

We hope to have an update for you all Tuesday after our time with Jodi and the CFS team.

Thanks again for being faithful to our blog, your prayer and continued support. We're almost there!

More soon.

And then there were three. . .

Sorry its been so long since our last talk. No, we're not avoiding you. You're just being paranoid. Really, it's not you, it's us.

We've got a lot to update you on so here we go. Big news on the adoption front. As many of you know we are in the process of having our information presented to two families, one with a boy who was born in April and another mother to be who gives birth this month. Last weekend we found out another birthmother has come to the table who would like to offer up her child. This woman is due to give birth in September and we have agreed to have our information shared with her in hopes she (or one of the other families) likes what they see in us. Needless to say we watch our home email and voicemail very closely wondering when we'll hear some news.

Last weekend Kim's mother, niece and nephew came into town to spend some time enjoying our city and our pool. Together they visited Kim's school and got a tour of her classroom then went to Zona Rosa to the Build-A-Bear store followed by dinner at Pizza Shoppe and an evening swim. Saturday consisted of garage saling, Sonic and a trip to Legends at the Kansas Speedway to check out the T-Rex Build-A-Dino restaurant and store. (Lots of "Build-A" in this weekend.) Saturday night they played an intense game of Uno Attack using a battery-less machine. The highlight was poor Becca who entertained the rest of the players by systematically drawing a 5 and 1 card from the deck. It appears those are now her lucky numbers.

While all of this was going on, Marc was away in Washington DC at the 144th annual AVMA Convention. Last year, the Convention was held in sunny Honolulu, Hawaii, and moves each year to a new city. Everything went well and the city is great except it was hot, hot, hot! Each day in the 90's and humid! On Monday, Marc was able to take a few great pictures. Here are some of the better ones:

Washington Monument, as seen from the steps
of the Lincoln Memorial

Walking past the many names carved
on the Vietnam Memorial

Inside the Lincoln Memorial

In addition, Marc recently received information that he won a Hermes Creative Award for public relations efforts he worked on in January/February this year. The trophy arrived to him Thursday afternoon and came with its own carrying case:

We would ask for your continued prayers for a couple of things:

Our friends Steve and Julie are still trying to get an answer as to why their daughter Justine is still having seizures almost weekly. This week specialists made a few breakthroughs but they are still trying to make a definitive 100 percent conclusion.

We're still hoping to be granted one of the children our information has been presented to. It's hard waiting, but we know the child God has picked out for us is going to be amazing whether it is one of these children or another down the road.

Finally, Marc is experiencing some more than ordinary job stress and is seeking God's will for that situation too. We really appreciate your continued prayer and support.

Today is pretty special. We celebrated 9 years of marriage together. Marc took the day off (after all, it is kind of a holiday, right?). We went to see the Disney/Pixar movie Ratatouille then had a couples massage and finally dinner on the Plaza at Figlio's.

More soon.

Okay, take us to DEFCON 3, this is not a drill!

Things have become increasingly more exciting in the past week. We found out from our case worker that the family trying to adopt the two month old boy in Kansas City was again denied. The judge requested more information about other resources (adoption agencies, DFS, etc) and said he only wanted to see our homestudy and information.

What was once thought of as a longshot is now a distinct possibility. We are not sure when we will find out, but knowing our luck, it will be while Marc is in Washington DC next weekend. :)

Kim completed her summer school session on June 29, and we had a great time on July 3 with some friends shooting fireworks, swimming, eating some great food and watching a movie on the large screen Joel and Cerise Edwards put up on their house. The I-70 Twin Drive in doesn't have anything on this achievement. The movie was followed of course by a rousing time of playing Halo 2.

On July 4, we saw the best movie of last year and this year (so far), Transformers. If for some reason you've been living under a rock, check out www.transformersmovie.com for more information. In addition, there is a great teaser trailer for a movie not yet titled going by the name "Cloverfield/1-18-08." It looks to be a great giant monster movie shot in the same way The Blair Witch Project was filmed. After the movie we headed out to Marc's parents' neighbors' house to have some fun. In spite of the rain we all enjoyed fun, food and fireworks together celebrating our nation's birthday and the freedom the men and women in our armed forces have fought to provide for us.

Next weekend Marc will head to Washington DC for a client conference and Kim will be showing off our great city to her mother, niece and nephew. The following week we will celebrate our nine year wedding anniversary (already celebrating 10 years together). Kim says she has something great planned. . . We're hoping next year we will get to spend some time in New Orleans when the annual conference Marc attends in July happens to be held there.

Later this month we will celebrate Marc's brother's and mother's birthday. One will be 28 and the other will be 60. We'll let you be the judge of who's who. :)

Needless to say we're walking a tightwire of being excited and nervous and we could use your prayers. We continue to pray that if God believes we're the best option for either this boy who has been born or the other opportunity with the woman set to give birth this month, we would gladly like him to bless us with it.

May God bless you as the summer continues to kick in full swing.