Three sets of twins

Bet you didn't know I had six children, huh?

Just kidding. We were having some mirror fun today.

Not much has been happening at our house lately that has seemed "post-worthy". That's why things have been a bit stagnant. Lots has been happening for us personally and financially, but it's not stuff one usually shares with the world. We've been struggling (still) with our children attaching to us as their parents, but we've been doing some research and are finding that most adopted children-even those adopted as newborns have a hard time fully accepting their adoptive parents because they are trying to grieve over the loss of a mother. Anyway, Timothy and I are taking a 10 week class on attachment and are hoping to learn ways to strengthen our relationships with each of our children.

Together forever

On Saturday, April 10th three beautiful children dressed all in white were brought into a beautiful room in the Portland Temple where their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends were waiting to witness the miraculous power of God bind these children to their loving adoptive parents for time and all eternity.

In the temple we caught a glimpse of eternity.

It was truly a beautiful experience.

Hyrum's adoption

Well, Hyrum's adoption is finalized. Yesterday, February 17th was the 1 year anniversary for him moving in with us and that is the day we found out it was final! It was actually finalized on Feb. 11th, but since we didn't want to go through the hassle of finalizing in court we didn't find out which day the judge signed the document until later. We are very excited about this! We got his name legally changed as well! Now we're looking forward to getting him blessed and then getting all three sealed to us. If you're interested in being invited to the sealing please let me know, and I'll give you the date, time, and temple location. We haven't scheduled it yet, but we're planning the second week of April so as to accommodate family who need to travel.


For the children's sake, I'm sure glad these three got to stay together. They are so very attached to each other. It's so fun to watch them try to help each other.

Contact with birth family

Thanks for all the suggestions we received. We decided to make a new blog for the birth family and transfer the posts a pictures over there so that there aren't any links and they won't be able to see your comments.

Sharing with birth family

So, normally when a couple adopts a child there is a mediation agreement. Meaning some sort of contact or no-contact expected between the birth parents and the adoptive parents. Well, our case was sent to a mediation company and the mediation worker drafted a mediation agreement that we were comfortable with. That agreement was then presented to the children's birth parents. The birth parents didn't agree with it because they wanted visits with the children after the adoption was final. And visits for other extended family members as well. So, the worker told them she'd talk with us about it and get back to them. So, she did of course and recommended we didn't agree to visits (which we weren't considering anyway.) After that she tried to get a hold of them and get them to sign the agreement (with no visits), but they never responded during the time frame they were given. So, in short we don't have any obligation to them to write letters or send pictures. We really couldn't anyway because we don't have an address for them. We were supposed to get a contact address when we signed the agreement.

Anyway, the children's birth mother's mother (children's birth grandma) contacted Hyrum's case worker to send gifts to the children and birthday cards. So, I sent an anonymous letter back thanking her for those things and sent a few pictures of the children in some outfits she sent. Well, she was so grateful for these that she called the case worker again and was wanting contact with us so that she could continue to be in touch with the children. Obviously, we are under no obligation to do anything for her, but my heart goes out to this woman who has lost three of her grandchildren. So, we've been thinking and talking about different ways we could keep her updated without having to go through a lot of work. And we're thinking that giving her this blog address might be a good way for her to see how the children are doing without me having to write letters and send pictures.

We're wondering if any of you are willing to look through this site and see if you can find any identifying information on it. We don't want to give out our last name or where we live or any way of physically contacting us. I'm going to delete this post before I give her the blog address. And if you have links to our page from yours please make sure it's labeled only with first names. Thanks everyone.

It's final

Yesterday we received a pile of papers in the mail from out attorney basically stating that Brigham and Rebekah are now ours for good. The adoptions were finalized and their names legally changed. We are so excited! To celebrate, we went out to dinner as a family. It feels so good to have two out of the three be ours for real. We're still waiting on the amended birth certificates, but those will be along shortly. Now I have to go to the doctor office, pharmacy, and everywhere else that has records of them and get their names changed. It will be so nice to call the doctor and actually make an appointment for Rebekah F____ instead of Angelina G______ . And to go to the pharmacy asking for a prescription for Brigham F______ instead of William R____. I'm so glad they're ours!!! We're also looking forward to getting them sealed to us, but we're going to wait until Hyrum's adoption is final as well and seal all three of them at once.

For those of you who haven't heard yet, Hyrum is now legally free!! We're just waiting on paperwork to be sent to us so that we can contact the attorney to get things rolling for him. He'll probably be ours for good in about 4-5 months.

Good News!

Yesterday the trial for the termination of the parental rights for Brigham and Rebekah started. It was scheduled to last throughout the end of the week. But, today we got a phone call from their caseworker- she said that the parents decided to sign voluntary relinquishment of their parental rights.
That means Rebekah and Brigham are legally free for adoption now!!! We are so excited! I wasn't really worried about it, but I do feel like a burden has been lifted! Now we just have to get Hyrum legally free as well.


Our little baseball player.

That's the biggest good news, but the other good news is that all three children have slept through the night twice in the past three days! It's nice to be getting my sleep.

Hyrum's Adoption Committee

Today was Hyrum's adoption committee. That's when a committee gets together and decides which of the selected families would be the best for him. Luckily because we already have his siblings, we were the only family represented at committee, but the committee still could have decided we weren't the best family for him. It turned out like we expected though. We were selected as the adoptive family for him. Yeah!! Now, we're just waiting to hear back from central office if we can move him before the seven day waiting period. So, he'll be moving in as soon as we hear back from them, or at the lasted on Tuesday the 17th. We are excited!

Children in the home

William and Lina came over today and spent 3 1/2 hours here. Their foster mom stayed for about 2 hours then left for an hour and came back. The children didn't seem to mind her leaving them here. When she got back they weren't terribly excited, and they didn't want to leave. She kept asking William, "Should we go now?" Every time he would shake his head and keep playing.

Here's Lina inside the pop-up truck, she loved it, although you wouldn't be able to tell by her face in the picture.
Here's William in the hall
Here's Daddy and William - William wanted Daddy to help him get high enough to turn on and off the light.
Here's Mommy and Lina

Angelina and William eating a snack

William, Jessica, Timothy, and Angelina
I have to say, what a beautiful family! We are so blessed to be able to adopt these adorable children who are so young, have had a stable beginning, and haven't been exposed to substances. We are looking forward to having them in our home permanently to experience the joys and hardships of parenting toddlers.

Meeting William and Angelina

Today Timothy and I got to meet William and Angelina. It was a good experience. It went better than I thought it would. They were both shy at first, but after a while they warmed up to us. William went and sat on Timothy's lap for almost an hour while they looked at books and played a little. Angelina sat on my lap off and on and also sat on Timothy's lap for a minute or two. William is really starting to talk and we can understand most of what he says. Lina (Angelina's nick-name) says only 3-4 words, but is good at making her desires known. We mostly just played with them at their foster home, and talked with their foster parents. As we left they watched us out the window, they didn't cry, but they looked sad that we were leaving. It was probably rare for them to get 2+ hours with one-on-one attention from adults. We love them a little already, and I'm sure that love will continue to grow as we spend more time and get to know them better. Oh, I just feel so happy! We'll post pictures of us with them in few days.

Baby Shower!

Three of my good friends threw an adoption/baby shower for me yesterday. (For William and Angelina only, they say they'll do another for Hyrum when we get him.) I must say I was very spoiled! We got almost everything we needed to keep these children clothed and diapered for a while. Thanks to all who came and supported us! And especially thank you to those of you who put it together! It was great!
I was so nervous before the shower thinking about opening gifts in front of everyone, but it really wasn't too bad. Everyone there was just so happy for us to be expanding our family and everyone oohed and aahed over each gift.

William's Quilt

These quilts were made by the Relief Society President in our ward. She makes a quilt for each baby that comes into our ward. She has been busy because we've had 15 babies in the past year, not counting mine.

Angelina's Quilt

As you can see I was spoiled. I could barely get everything in our minivan. What a great gift from all our friends in this area.

Hyrum Christopher

Meet Hyrum Christopher:

We first got to meet him at church last Sunday, the 11th. What a sweet experience to hold my own baby in my arms for the first time. I love him already. We remembered to take our camera to church today, and got a few pictures of our beautiful baby.

It turns out his foster parents are in our ward, so we've been able to see him the past two Sundays and hold him during sacrament meeting. He is a good baby, he looks just like his brother, William, did when we was a baby. We aren't able to take him home yet, because we're waiting on some legal stuff. (We're still not sure how this whole legal business works. Luckily we have caseworkers and attorneys that take care of it for us, and we just get to do the best part!)
We'll probably get to bring him home in the next month or two. He is three months old today. And he is sure loved by his new mommy and daddy!

Adoption News!

Timothy and I are excited to announce that we are adopting William and Angelina, And later their baby brother whose name we won't say because we're going to change it.

William Paul is 2 years old. His birthday is September 12. He is happy and healthy! He likes to get into things around the house. He's just starting to put words together.

Angelina Marie is 16 months old. Her birthday is August 26. (They're only 11 months apart!) She loves to be held and loves to follow her brother around the house, helping him get into everything. Angelina is healthy too. Her talking is still just babbles.

The baby boy is 11 weeks old. His birthday is October 18th. He has dark hair and is healthy. He's a good baby.

We'll start transitioning William and Angelina into our home on Jan 20th. The baby has to wait for a trial to place him our home. So, we won't have him for about another month or so.

We are so excited! Here's a picture of William and Angelina! We don't have one of the baby yet.

Interesting note: William's middle name is Paul, just like Timothy's and Angelina's middle name is Marie, just like Jessica's!!!!! We're sure it's not a coincidence, but that the Lord planned it that way so we don't even have to change their middle names!!!

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers in our behalf. We know that they helped!

Love,
Jessica and Timothy