Dear Friends and Family,
It was a year ago today I sent out an email to many of you announcing that our many months of adoption paperwork, home study, background checks, etc. were complete and that I had just returned from turning in our adoption profile to New Life Counseling. The quote from the email was, "We consider ourselves officially 'expecting.'" Nine months later to the day.......Gianna Elyse was born.........and as of today, she is three months old. Unbelievable! What an amazing ride.
It's been over six weeks since I've written an update. Our last email touted that we had been to court and were granted official placement. Since then we've had a visit from the Abuelito & Abuelita (Grandpa & Grandma Lewis) two hurricanes, two evacuations, a baptism, a baby shower and a 17 day hospital stay for Grandpa Frank, and a lot of long hours of extra work for Iain at PPG. It's been CRAZY! (I must say, evacuating alone with a 2 month old baby did not make it to my 'Top Ten Fun Things to Do List.' It was easier than having a toddler or more than one child, though.)
Gianna is an absolute delight. She's gained five pounds since birth ---- and unfortunately, we have too! It looks like someone stuffed meatballs in her cheeks. So cute. Obviously, she's a good eater - and as of our return home from the last evacuation mayhem, she's been sleeping all night long - Hallelujah! and knock on wood! (Well, we THINK she's sleeping all night long - if she's waking up - we don't know about it - we've been some tired little puppies.)
Gianna is super-alert, strong, giggly and ranges from content and quiet to loud and squealing with delight - and sometimes with frustration. She babbles all day long (yeah, yeah, go ahead and say it - just like her Mommy.) Life is good in Lewisland....even wearing her spit-up, pee, and poop is good - it's OUR baby's spit-up, pee, and poop. Waiting so long for her has made us truly grateful - for ALL of that parenthood brings. God is good.
Many people ask for updates on Maddie & Collin. We don't know much - but enough to know we need to keep praying for them and those charged with their care. I actually ran into the Grandmother not long ago and she confirmed that they were no longer living with them (grandparents) - but with the birth father and his girlfriend (they got the birth mother out of the picture as soon as court was over.) It's certainly not the most ideal situation. The grandmother said she knows that the dad will never be "father of the year" but he loves his kids. (Insert rolling eyes.) She also said that they couldn't believe how much progress the kids made when they were with us. She said they just always thought the kids would just be slow. I can't even bear to comment on that statement. Please continue to join us in prayer for them.
Another thing people ask, is if we plan on adopting again. We would LOVE to (not right this minute NLC & Sid) adopt and for Gianna to have a brother/sister.....but we have given up trying to figure out what God's plans are for building our family. Today.....we are content and filled with joy. I'm sure whatever plans God has for us tomorrow will be as colorful and blessed as our road has already been.
This will be our last Adoption Update for Gianna. In a year from now, we'll go to court again to finalize the adoption.....we'll let you know when that happens. We will continue to keep current pictures on our website. Here's the link: www.fotki.com/lewisfamily.
Save it on your favorites so you can check it occasionally, if you want to see new pics.
There is a journal portion of the web page (a blog - for those who know what that as) and until now, I've just posted our adoption email updates there. From here on out my goal is to keep an occasional e-journal for those who care. ( I just don't want to fill people's inboxes with stuff they're not interested in.) Here's the link to that page:
http://journals.fotki.com/lewisfamily/
So, from here on out, you'll know if you see "adoption update" in the subject line of our emails - something's brewing! Let's hope we have some time to catch our breath. We look forward to a very vanilla life these next few months. Getting back to normal is the most exciting thing for us right now.
Thanks again for taking this journey with us. We hold you dear to our hearts and you remain in our prayers. We feel blessed that you have been such a part of dreams coming true
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