Wow.

Wow!

WOW!

Gil and I are going to be parents! We ARE expectant parents! We will get to meet our children in 10 days! And we'll probably bring them home in about 2-1/2 weeks! Three of them! Ages 2, 3 and 4! Two boys and a girl!

We got the call yesterday afternoon that we were chosen by our state's DCFS and the tribe where these children are enrolled. Most importantly, we were chosen by God and we are honored to be called to the duty and blessing of being parents to these 3 beautiful children. OUR children!

Our social worker called us about 3 weeks ago asking if we'd consider submitting our study on this sibling group and we excitedly said yes. We went to her office and read over the few pages of records she happened to have on these kiddos so we could know a little bit about what they've gone through up to this point. Everything sounds really promising.

We have a meeting on Friday with the kids' social worker, the current foster mom, and possibly the placement specialist (I'm unsure if that's the right term or not) to discuss and plan the transition of visits and bringing them home. It sounds like it's going to happen very quickly.

The order was granted to terminate parental rights of the birth parents earlier this week so we're now in the 60-day period of where the birth-parents have the "opportunity" to file an appeal but I seriously doubt it's going to happen and they don't have a leg to stand on if they do. All that would happen is we'd be tied up waiting on court dates and it just postpones the inevitable... which is legalizing our adoption! They would still live with us throughout that whole time. If we make it through this period without an appeal, we still have a 6 month period to get through before we can legally adopt our children. We're so hoping and praying we'll be able to give them our last name by Christmas.

We've had to decide to give up trying to get pregnant through assisted technologies for at least a year while we acclimate to the children and they to us, but we still haven't given up hope of a biological child. We may now have children but we're still infertile. And we still ache from that. The path of infertility is so vastly different from the path of adoption and that pain has nothing to do with the joy and excitement we're now feeling.

I know I haven't posted anything in the past two weeks but in addition to the stress and nerves the possibility of this situation has brought on, we've also been dealing with Gil's uncle and the effects he's having from the cancer. He had a second hospital admission this past weekend, about a month after his last one. He gets too sick to even proceed with chemo so he hasn't had a treatment in a month now.

We also came to the very sad conclusion that we have to sell our bikes, the Har.leys. This horrible economy is not very conducive to selling anything so we're hoping and praying we can get rid of them. We've had them listed for two weeks already and not even a nibble.

But WE'RE PARENTS! We are over-the-moon ecstatic right now and are eagerly awaiting our meeting on Friday so we can figure out just how much we'll have to do to prepare to bring our children home. We'll only have this weekend. I have one bedroom painted but I have to figure out where I'm going to store everything I've had in there! So I really only have one bedroom to paint, as we're going to put the boys together until they're a bit older and then they can have their own rooms. I'll be posting pictures... probably so much so that you'll all be sick of it!

I guess the tone of my blog is going to change a little bit. It'll now contain much more about our children. I may have to make it private. I may stop blogging. I don't know. I'll keep you informed of that decision, too.

But for now... WOOHOO! We're parents!!