Happy Birthday Baby Kella!!!

It is hard to believe you are ONE today. We have had you home for 2 1/2 months and had you in our hearts for 11 months now. We are filled with JOY with your precious little life. You are starting to develop a sweet personality and you know we are your family. We are so happy you trust us and feel so safe in our arms. You are so loved by your family and friends. You now are getting your top two teeth in and you are getting up and standing alone. You are so proud of yourself!
You are still such a tiny little thing. We love that we get to have a baby in our home longer. Your smile and gentle spirit are both adorable.

On this day, we think so much of your birthmom and the love she has for you. We know she wanted the BEST for you and wanted to give you a family. We are more than humbled that God chose our family for YOU! We pray she feels God's peace and comfort that you are well-loved and taken care of. She chose life for you and we are forever grateful for this Gift of you. 

A year ago today we knew we were to adopt again but we did not know about you yet. We are thankful we trusted in His mighty plan to bring us your life in His perfect timing. God is so good and BIG! Our prayer for you is that you will grow up to know Jesus as your personal Savior and live your life for His Glory! 

We LOVE you baby Girl!

Guatemalan PRINCESAS

It is so much fun to watch these sisters together. Kenzie, for the most part, does really well with her new sister. I love to see them together first thing in the morning. Kenzie talks so sweet to her lil sis. Chloe continues to be such a big help to me! She really loves to play with her! Kella is crawling and cruising around furniture. She will let go for a few seconds and give you a big toothless grin. She only has 2 bottom teeth. Her little smile is so cute. We feel more and more blessed with this little life the Lord has so graciously entrusted to our care!

Loving our Kella

It has been 5 weeks now that Kella is home with her family. As you can see we are enjoying every day with her. She is doing great! She is a wonderful sleeper and eater and is getting around EVERYWHERE already. She just did not stay in one place very long. She wants to keep up with all the big siblings, so on the move she is. Crawling and pulling herself up to anything and everything. She is so happy and gets so excited, especially for Cody. The girls are great with her and Chloe is turning into such a little mother. What a help they all are to this mama.

We were able to enjoy a few days with Kristin last weekend. It was great to have her with the fam again. She is working HARD and learning lots. A few more months down the road and she would be one to be deployed to the hurricane areas. We are proud of her and miss her!!

It is nice to have some routine back in our house again. We are enjoying these days and all the kids are excited about the big Pumpkin Festival next week.  We continue to try and keep our focus on what is really important. We are constantly reminded of all the kids in this world that need a family. If you want to see an amazing video of a little boy from Ethiopia, go to teamalexander.blogspot.com  Truly, an amazing journey of this family. It got me so excited thinking about the friends that are waiting for their Ethiopian children to join their family!!!

Essie is coming home!!!

My friend Lou Lynn is bringing her sweet Essie home tomorrow. They are thrilled to be at this place after the long road of adoption. We are so happy they will be together forever. Thank you Lord!

missing Kristin.....

Well, it has been over a week now that Kristin has been gone. We all miss her terribly, but are happy to say she is doing great. I knew she would do great with whatever God has for her. She always seems to make the best of anything!
 
I am so thankful for the time God gave us with Kella before she left. It was so special to have those first few weeks with her. Kella loves her big sissy!!!! Kella has continued to do wonderfully. She is a dream baby, and we are forever thankful for this gift He has given us!
 
We love and miss you Kristin!

worth the wait....

The waiting for us is over and for that we are so thankful. The verse we held on to was Psalm 27:14...."Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.

WAIT...We have all had to use this word in some way or another. It is way too common of a word for those in the adoption world. Seldom is it greeted with a warm embrace. This one word holds a tremendous amount of power. When our Heavenly Father speaks it, we know it is what we need to do.

Your Heavenly Father says...

"Wait," I see beyond the stretch of yesterday, the reality of today and the corner of tomorrow.

"Wait," you will find joy and wisdom in this arduous journey.

"Wait," trust in My faithfulness and love, even when things don't make sense.

"Wait," the process is sometimes the only available venue for a miracle.

"Wait," I have a supreme surprise for you and want you to remain for the perfect moment.

"Wait," and know that along each path of life, I will walk with you.

"Wait," I know and hold your child.

"Wait"

(taken from an adoption article)

We know He brought us our Kella Hope in His timing and His way. When I look back on our wait, I know He used it again to grow our faith and dependence on Him. It is easy to want things done in our timing, but as we now have Kella home just a week and a half, we know His timing is perfect. She is pure sugar. We are all crazy in love with this blessing. We are so excited to watch God mold and grow this little life.

To those of you still waiting...hang in there and know He is in control, always. It is so worth the wait!

We followed Jesus to find our Kella. I remember struggling with what agency to use, or whether to do a private adoption attorney and knowing that the time was ticking away before Guatemalan adoptions would stop. He led us every step of the way! God is faithful! Even though there were fears and doubts if this could go through with all the uncertainties, Jesus gave us this incredible gift. Our God is awesome. He loves the orphans of the world. His timing is perfect. His love is everlasting. God created our family, both from here and afar and we are forever thankful!

first few days at home....

Other than me having a bug for a few days since being home, being together as a family has been more than wonderful. Kella is transitioning beautifully, and is a very happy and content little baby. She is being well loved and cared for by both big and little siblings. 

We continue to thank God for the gift He has given us. 

My dear friend, Lynne, took these pictures from the homecoming at the airport. What a treasure they are!

HOME AT LAST.....

We are all overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and support shown by so many of our family and friends. To walk in and see everyone, was such a blessing. We thank you all so much for seeing us through this journey. We have finished this part of the adoption process, and are now so thrilled to begin this part of life with our precious blessing. We could not have made it through without all of the encouragement from so many of you! Kella came to life with her "big" (little) sisters once we came home! It was so amazing to see the way God blended her into our family already. We feel more than blessed, and want God to get all the glory that He deserves. We came home to the most amazing yard decorations, and then into a home filled with savory goodies. Thanks to all for making our homecoming such a memory!

We love you all!!! 

We're coming home to America!!!!!

Tonight outside the Westin where we are staying, there were these little kids that were just standing around with their baskets of goodies to sell. They approached anyone that looked like they were tourists or Westerners. They approached us with those sweet little eyes, asking us to buy their "dulces' (candy). It was heart breaking to see these kids living a life like this. We gave them each a little bit of money to get a picture with them. They were overly joyous! 

We just pray that in all He does, God blesses these sweethearts in some way. 

it's a small world

Today at the Embassy, we met Marianne and Dave Gross from Bloomington and their precious little daughter Sarah. We were able to enjoy a fun dinner tonight with them, and get to celebrate together that we are both bringing our baby girls home. It is just so cool to see how God brings people together through this journey of adoption.

By the way....WE ARE COMING HOME TOMORROW!!!!!!

We did make arrangements to come home tomorrow (wednesday) so for those of you who want to know, we will fly into Bloomington around 9:05 pm. American from Chicago to Bloomington.

We love you all. We can't wait to see you all and introduce you to our newest addition...

     Kella Hope Kindred

Chloe and Kenzie......we love you and can't wait for you to see your new little sister! You are both big sisters now!!! Thanks so much to everyone who has been loving on you! XOXO

closure

After watching our daughter begin the bonding process, we felt it was good for Norma (foster mom) as well as Kella to have a final goodbye. The drop-off night was so hard that I felt there wasn't any closure. Norma and her sister came by for a final goodbye, and it was amazing to watch Kella's little life begin as a part of our family. She smiled and went right to Norma, and then turned around, saw me, and came right back to me. She did that a couple of times, and then was very content just snuggled in my arms. After hugs and tears goodbye, and a prayer by Steve, it was time for Kella to be with her forever mama and family. We feel so blessed that we had this opportunity to see Norma one more time, to let her know how much we appreciate her, and to let Kella say goodbye. We know this was God orchestrated and in His plan for us to leave this way.

Isaiah 43:5-6

Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.

I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth

going to the embassy......

our embassy appointment

We had our embassy appointment at 7:15 this morning. Our appointment today went well. We took a chance (like always), and tried getting our visa today. Steve went back around 3:00 this afternoon, and he got it! We're so excited!!! 

We're checking about coming home tomorrow, a day early. We will keep you updated on our status!!!

Thank you all for traveling through this journey together! We can't wait to see you all!!!

Love,

Lisa (aka kristin)

hello from the entertainment

Us three amigos have had much more fun than we could have ever imagined!!! We are all bonding, and loving it. Cody would have been so bored without us girls!!! We sure do miss you little girls, Chloe & Kenzie...It's just not the same without you! But we know you're having such a blast with the cousins!! 

Anyways, if you are wondering about our pictures....Cody basically ate the ocean last night, octupus included. We had a great night being together. 

We miss you all and thank you for being a part of this with us all. You all have been such strength and encouragement to our parents and to us as well! We praise God for the support we have in our friends and family!!!

Love, KK Kaley & Coco

a wonderful night together...

Our First Day...

Since Kristin has been updating you all as we go through this journey on this trip, I figured that I would give you a some more information from the mama!! (although kristin is still typing this!)

We are so happy to say that the Lord graciously granted us a wonderful first day with Kella. Last night was harder than I really thought it would be. I guess because we have been with her two times already. I didn't think it would be like it was. Who was I kidding? I even am the one who encourages other friends when their babies go through the grieving process.

Our plane arrived late, so when we walked into the Westin, we saw Jorge (our facilitator) and Lou Lynn and her little Essie. She is the friend I met through her blog and she was the one who led us to our attorney. We really have wanted to meet and we thank the Lord that He allowed this. She is a wonderful person with a precious little 14 month old. She gets to bring her home in 2 weeks. Soon after, Kella, her foster mom and two sisters arrived in the lobby. Kella looked at all of us and then the hand off happened. Bless her little heart, she was half asleep and we are all looking at her and trying to comfort her. She cried and cried. I usually have the touch, but there was no consoling. Finally, I gave her a bottle and she fell asleep and slept til 6:30 am. She woke up playing in her bed until her Daddy brought her in bed. She just looked at us, would wimper a little, and then be ok. Cody came in and snuggled and he won her heart. He even got her to smile some. She is SWEET!

The rest of the day she seems much more comfortable. Amy A. encouraged me how important the crying is for the bonding process. It just was hard and broke our hearts.

Daddy is so gentle and quiet around her. She is warming up slowly to a man in her life. Cody had her laughing out loud, by running into walls pretending he was hurt. The big sisters are so sweet with her! 

Tomorrow we have a 7:15 Embassy appointment. We are grateful for the prayers for this part of our journey. We knew we needed to keep our faith and that we would get this appointment. After the first 24 hours with our precious gift, we want to give God all the Glory for this little life He has rescued. We feel so honored He chose us to be her forever family. We can't wait to be together as a family. We miss you Chloe and Kenzie!!!

officially pink!!!

We are officially pink!! Steve and Cody went to the Embassy today and politely asked for an appointment. They were told that they were not supposed to do this, but fortunately there is an appointment tomorrow. They told us that we really weren't even supposed to travel to Guatemala unless we were officially pink...but we took a risk. And all of those prayers paid off. We had been waiting all day for the email that confirms the appointment pink slip and the time. We just found out that we have an appointment tomorrow morning at 7:15 am. 

We got to enjoy a fun afternoon visiting with other adoptive moms. We feel so blessed to get to bring our baby girl home at this age, when we met and know so many families that are still waiting and stuck in the bureaucracy.

It is so weird without the two little ones here. We miss them so much! We constantly find ourselves thinking that we left someone.

We so greatly appreciate everyone's comments and emails. So encouraging!

P.S. More pictures to come tonight!!