October 27, 2013 - Fall Festival at Calvary Chapel in Melbourne

We decided with all the hectic things in our lives still to just enjoy the fall festival at church this year.  Next year we hope to do a trunk like we used to.  The kids had a lot of fun, especially at the bounce houses.  Jesse's sister came with her boyfriend and daughter, so we hung out with them the whole time.  Jesse's sister's dad and step mom with their kids came too and we saw them for a short period.  It was nice to see them all!

October 25, 2013 - Pumpkin Patch Mini Shoot

We had a mini photo shoot at the pumpkin patch today.  Most of the pictures turned out great, except Jesse needs to get a good smile down.  Some of his fake smiles make him look like he's in pain.  We're going to work on this!  The last one has him smiling perfectly and if we can only get him to smile like this all the time, we'll be getting the most beautiful family pictures ever.

October 12, 2013 - Swim Practice and Championship Volleyball Game

This morning the kids had swim practice.  Kaylyn is still fighting learning the correct way of swimming, but when she listens, she improves and she improved on her breast stroke today.  After swim practice, we went home, showered, and ate lunch.  Then we headed back out to Kaylyn's second volleyball playoff game.  They beat IHM and then played Holy Trinity B where they lost in the championship game.  CCS still got a runner up trophy because they were 2nd in the league which was awesome!

October 11, 2013 - The Big Adoption Day

So, the real reason for my hiatus.  If you haven't figured it out by now, the reason I was away for awhile on the blog and the reason for my sudden burst in all the back fill of posts is that we were in the middle of adoption.  I couldn't post pictures online.  But, now that it is final as of today, and I can back fill my blog posts and tell everyone about the good news.  His name is Jesse and he is 7 years old.  He is located in the same area we live, so the transition has been pretty smooth.  He has been with a very loving, stable foster family for the last year. God decided that it was time to fulfill my prayer and Jason finally became open to adoption again before he had gone in for his surgery.  We found out about Jesse in March 2013 and we started spending a lot of time with Jesse.  Eventually we were fingerprinted to take him on outings and then a mini homestudy for sleepovers.  Then he was asked if he wanted to come live with us and for Jason and I to become his parents and he was excited.  He was placed with us more than 3 months ago (basically right when we got home from Jason's surgery).  We took the 10 week PRIDE class and started a full homestudy, which was completed on the 90 day mark of placement.  He is a loving child that we have grown to love very quickly!  Everything lined up so perfectly, so it was obvious who had a hand in it all.

We picked them all up from school before lunch today and took them to Pizza Gallery in Viera.  Then we headed to the courthouse where Judge Mahl signed the paperwork.  Jesse got to go up and become a temporary judge, and then Judge Mahl took him to the back to get toys for him and his new sisters.  They were all very nice and it was such a happy day for all!  Even the judge that started awhile ago with Jesse's case came to witness the adoption as well as his case worker and guardian ad litem.

They became deputies

Carolyn was his case worker and Jacque was his Guardian Ad Litem

October 5, 2013 - 2nd Swim Meet

We had our second swim meet today in Cocoa.  It was super hot and super long.  It started with us picking Kaylyn up from her lock-in at the school at 7:00 am.  Apparently they did not get to bed until 4:00 am and she hadn't had her medicine yet.  I gave her medicine to her and packed up all her stuff and we headed off to the meet.  We had to be there at 7:45 to setup the tent for the kids.  We let Kaylyn eat before the meet even though it hadn't been quite an hour since she had taken her medicine.  Given that she only had three hours of sleep, she did pretty well at the meet.  Ashlyn did awesome except with her back stroke.  Her goggles started leaking and she kept trying to fix them as she was swimming. Her breaststroke however was awesome!  She kept up with most of the kids and almost tied with three other kids at the end.  She beat her last time by more than 25 seconds!  Jesse did good at this meet also.  He got a few second places again!  After the meet with went to lunch at Coconuts on the Beach with Annie and Allison and their parents. 

A rainbow to start our morning