25 Weeks and Counting

As of last Friday we are 25 weeks! Crazy to think that we will start third trimester right after Christmas. Our OB is still happy and Grover is growing well and getting stronger, at least according to his/her kicking and hitting! This Christmas is crazy for us for the normal reasons but also because it keeps hitting us that next Christmas there will be a 9 month old in our house. We have started the process of getting the house ready. The baby furniture has been ordered and the only things in the nursery are baby related. Of course there is still a lot of organizing to go, but it will happen.

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. Please continue the prayers for this amazing pregnancy and I promise to update again soon.

21 Weeks and Counting

As of Friday, we are 21 weeks. We had our big ultrasound and check up on Tuesday and everything looks great. Grover is growing well and getting very big. It is crazy to us that we are already half way. Keep the prayers coming that the rest of the way goes as well as the first half has gone.

Halloween 2011

We had a great Halloween again this year. It was much quieter than it is normally, but still had about 100 trick-or-treaters. Looking forward to next year when we will have an addition to the family! =) Wanted to share our pumpkin carvings, I found the Grover pattern and had to do it! Enjoy and Happy Halloween.

5 Years Ago Today

Five years ago today, I married my best friend. It is amazing to me that it has been 5 years. We have been through so much in someways and so little in others. I would not change anything in the first 5 years and cannot wait to see what future is to bring. By the time we hit 6 we will have expanded our family and started a new chapter in our lives.

A New Addition

We are excited to announce we are expecting our first child. The baby, known as Grover while incubating, is due March 23rd. Please continue your prayers and thoughts during this amazing time.

A Quiet House

Last Thursday (7/7) our three foster boys were moved from our house to a new placement. We are happy they are able to move to this next step but it is still quite weird at the house. On Thursday night we were sitting on the couch and I realized nobody was going to be running up the stairs or in from outside to ask a question or grab something. I had forgotten what it was like to be in the house without the 3 boys. It was an amazing experience to have the boys and we learned a lot about them and us. I say prayers for them that only good will be in the future.

As for Rich and me, we are transitioning back to an adult only house and back into our normal summer groove. Rich started working again and I have been getting projects done that I have not been able to get done before this. I am hoping this week to start attacking stuff for the fall and the 2 week summer school program I am teaching at the end of the month. Before we know it, school will be back in session.

Thanks for all the support from our family and friends throughout this 6 week journey. It made a huge difference and the experience even better.

The Next Chapter

We had our 30 day court appointment today. Rich took the two older boys and 4 hours later there has been some resolution. It was determined that the boys will stay in care, but will move most likely the beginning of next week to a stable family relative. It is a cousin of the mom's and it will be a good place for them. Rich got to meet the cousin and his wife today at court. The boys are looking forward to being back with family. Additionally, visitation will be much lower key with Mom since they will be with a family member.

The past month has been an experience that I would not change for an instant. The boys have taught us so much and have been a joy. I am excited that they are going to be able to be with family and it will be a really good place for them. Foster care was never on our radar, but we are glad we did it. Talk about jumping in full force to parenthood. =)

On the other side of things, we are still waiting on the adoption side. Say some prayers that God's plan will be shown to us soon. Happy early Fourth of July to all of you!

A Crazy Amazing Few Days

Last Friday (5/27) was the last day of school and I woke up excited to have school be done and looking forward to a relaxing weekend with my parents in town for Memorial Day. Little did I know how 12 hours was going to turn our lives upside down. Friday, I went with my team of teachers and our 7th graders to go bowling for a last day celebration. While we were there it was brought to my attention that 2 of our North students, not mine currently, and their little brother were picked up Thursday night by DFS and put into emergency care. Our school social worker was looking for options of places for them to stay if something did not come through in their family. Well, I volunteered our family as a back up plan. We are licensed foster and adoptive parents with the state of Missouri. We had no intention of ever fostering but had to do that training before we could do our adoption training. At 1:00 that afternoon the school social worker came to find me and told me they were unable to find any family who could take the boys and if we were in fact willing, DFS would gladly place them with us. I had been able to talk to Rich earlier in the day and he was okay with it so I said yes. In the next 3 hours some amazing things came together and I came home from work Friday with 3 boys ages 14, 12 and 5. We have lots of friends and family who have stepped up to help us out. Everything from clothes, books, shoes, a mattress, and a booster seat. There is no way we could have pulled this off without everyones help. As of right now we know we will have them at least through the month of June and to be determined for how long from there.

The boys are doing amazingly well. They are so polite and well behaved. They are getting more comfortable everyday and enjoying being with us. We have been blessed by them in our lives and will continue to keep them until they are able to go home. Please keep them in your prayers as we continue down this unexpected road.

Interesting few weeks

So life in the Baumann household has been interesting over the past few weeks. In January, we started working with the City of St. Louis DFS agency to get adoption certified. We did 9 weeks of foster care classes and then two 6 hour training classes for adoption. We finished those up right before Easter and this coming week we will sign off on our home study. This means that we will be ready to go and will be able to look at profiles for the local agency. We are excited about this and the possibilities it can open.

As for things on the international side, things are getting better. We actually got a referral about 2 weeks ago, but the children were older and had some severe medical issues that were not going to be easily treatable. So we decided to decline the referral which was hard, but it was the right decision.

We are hopeful that one of these two paths are going to result in something good soon. We are saying prayers that we will have the knowledge and information we need to make any more tough decisions that are necessary.

Time continues on

I have not posted in awhile because there is really no new news. We have had a good winter and start to the spring. We have been looking at other options and hopefully one of those will come through as well. Just keep saying prayers and hopefully they will be answered soon. We are ready!