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!

Still waiting....

There is not much new to report from the adoption end. We are still waiting and are next on the list for 2 kids. There is no hint as to a time frame. We can say that adoption is a very good lesson in patience. There is not question that we would love to have the kiddos, but are really trying to believe that there is a plan and a reason. It was tough this past September when we hit the 2 year mark of being on the list for the adoption. So much for the original 7-9 months at the most 12 month time frame!!

On happier notes, Rich and I are doing really well. Rich's business has taken off and he is busy as all get out. Who knew a year ago when we made this move it would be the best thing we could have done. Work on my end is good as well. I am teaching 7th grade for the first time and really enjoying it. I am glad I made the move and having a lot of fun!!

We hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to a holiday season that will be upon us VERY soon.

Adoption Update

Just a quick update about the adoption. We found out that we are now at the top of the list for our agency. We do not know where that puts us according to the country list, but the next placement our agency gets will be ours. So that is good news. The adoptions are still open between the US and Russia, just moving VERY slowly. So who knows what the time frame is going to be.

The way life goes

The past few months have been filled with many ups and downs. We found out at the end of February that the new region in Russia, Omsk, but a hold on all international adoptions. Then in April was the incident that made national news about the mom in Tennessee. Adoption is a situation that is almost impossible to understand unless you go through it. We do not even have any idea what we are in for until we actually adopt. I make no judgments on that mother's choice. Selfishly, I worried about how it would change or derail the process for us. So onto the news that we have.

As for of right now, adoptions are still moving between Russia and the US. Our agency actually had a couple over there right as it all happened. Their adoption went through with no major issues. They have another couple ready to go at the end of the month. We are keeping fingers crossed and hoping everything continues as they have been.

Rich and I over all are doing okay. There are lots of ups and downs in this entire process. We are doing okay, just ready for more ups than downs. We had a rough weekend with it being Harry's birthday. They say the firsts are always the hardest and there is one more that is done. We are looking forward to a summer of travel with family. We are heading to see Rich's parents and my entire family is coming to us at some point over the summer. We keep our eyes on the good things and keep going and surviving the tough things.

Bad news for this month

We had a meeting with our adoption agency this morning about the new region called Omsk. Apparently there has been a change in powers over there and the new assistant of education in charge of adoptions does not like international placements. That means instead of 3-4 months like was originally thought, it will probably be 2-3 years. So we are back to the waiting game. We are still on the list in the other region as well. Who knows what this means and where we are going from here, but are trying to take each day one at a time. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that we will know what we are supposed to be doing and what path to chose.