Later on at the lake....

After PaPa's party, we went to my cousin Amber's inlaw's house on the lake and let the kids swim. They had a great time and when the water got too cold, they jumped in the hot tub. Laney, Raylen and Jordan

Jordan, Raylen and Jamie

Happy Birthday PaPa!

Friday was my PaPa's 79th birthday. He hasn't been feeling so well and has recently found out he has cancer. We are not sure what the prognosis is at this point, but we all decided it would be fun to suprise him with a cookout and birthday party at his house on Saturday.
We went easy on him and replaced 79 candles with a question mark.

Granny playing horshoes

Uncle Joey and Raylen

The Bikini Cousins

Jamie, Raylen and Laney

Fun in Abilene

Last weekend, we were able to go to Abilene to visit Jason's family. Raylen had a great time playing with her cousins.

Uncle Jason, Madisyn, Dylan and Raylen

At the mall playground

A wagon just his size!

Playing Dress Up

Ella and Raylen

Beautiful Princesses
And Baby Jesse looks on....

A quick update

Just a quick update on the situation with baby Amanda. We have not heard anything in almost a week, but since my last post, I did talk to the case worker again to see if she had talked to the birth mother yet. She had not and was in the process of transferring all of the case information over to a new case worker. I was frustrated at the thought of a new case worker coming into the situation and my frustration was compounded when the current worker wouldn't give me the name and/or phone number for the new worker. I asked some "hypothetical" questions concerning the case and she wouldn't tell me much about that either. I was so frustrated with the situation and told myself to again "let it go". Jason and I talked a lot about it this weekend and just like our time before Raylen, he is not of the nature (as I am) to rehash things over and over and analyze them. He said that if it happens it happens. He is right, I know. My hopes are not up, but my heart is heavy and can't shake the incomplete feeling. Incomplete in the fact that nothing is settled and we are still up in the air. So many of you have left comments or emailed encouragement and heavy hearts for the situation and each time it remotivates me to pray. Thank you.

Whatever happens, we are praying protection, blessings and a firm future in Christ for Amanda. I hope that you will continue to pray with us.....

An Update

In an earlier post, I wrote about Raylen's biological half sister that is in CPS custody. We have not had any contact with anyone concerning the case up till now. We have continued to keep her on our hearts, but have refrained from telling Raylen about the situation. A week or so ago, we had even decided to just "let it go" in our hearts and that day, Raylen came to me out of the blue and begged me to come help her sister who was crying. I had no idea what she was talking about because she doesn't know anything about the situation or know about the word sister in reference to herself at all. She was in panic, and I thinking that she was talking about her baby doll or something, asked her to show me where her sister was. She couldn't tell me and said she didn't know, but that she could hear her crying and that I needed to help her. I was floored. I assured her that I would help her and she calmed down immediately, said okay and went off to play. That was enough motivation for me to keep praying.

Last night, I had a missed call while I was in church from a number I didn't know. This morning, I felt led to call the CPS case worker for an update and when I went to dial the number I realized it matched the one I missed from the night before. In talking with the worker, I found that she is still pushing for the birth mother to place the baby with us. She feels it is the right thing to do to keep the girls together. She said it was no guarrantee, but if the parental rights were terminated, she wanted the girls to be together. She told us some of the stories that the birth mother has been saying about us that aren't true-I'm sure an effort to hold on to her parental rights.

At this moment, the worker is trying to contact the mother again to talk her into letting us keep the baby. Please pray concerning this. We are open and our home is open, but we want the best for Raylen and the baby and God's will in this situation. I will keep you posted.

Emma Turns Four!

On Saturday, we spent the evening with our friends and their little girl Emma who celebrated the big 4! She loves all things cowboy so she had a western themed party this year. Emma and Raylen have adoption in common, among other things and we are looking forward to the girls being friends for life. Here are some good memories from the day.