Introducing...Alex!

After almost 10 months of being hidden on social media, I would like to officially introduce you to our Alex.

Given that we've made him turn his head in so many pictures, it only seemed fair that we do the same for one.

For his finalization hearing, we had the same judge who finalized Jacob's adoption.

Praise the Lord, we are done!

Finalization...finally!

We finally got word that Alex's adoption finalization has been scheduled. Praise the Lord! He will officially be a Fischer on June 3rd.

I did have a little bit of a scare today. Our social worker in Arizona let me know that there is one additional form that needs to be signed, but it must be done before we finalize. Are you kidding me? Is it possible that we will have to delay again?

Nope! Thankfully, the document that needs to be signed should arrive at our house on Saturday. We'll sign it and mail it back and it should arrive in plenty of time to be processed before June 3rd. Whew! That was a close call! We do have a few documents that will need to get to AZ by the end of next week, but we should not experience any delays.

It is a little weird to think that we will soon be done with home visits, licensing requirements, and calling in for update hearings. We won't need to get permission to leave the county (yes, county, not country). We don't need to carry a document that allows us to obtain medical services if the need should arrive.

While I am excited to be able to simply live our lives, I'm also a little nervous (and maybe a little sad) to say good-bye to the amazing support system that has been in place for the past 9 months. While we have to deal with a lot of processes and policies, we also have access to a lot of services. We'll still get some of the services, but it won't be the same. It's all on us now!

I look forward to being able to "introduce" you to Alex in two weeks!

Happy Mother's Day

My journey to motherhood was a long one. I do not for one second take for granted the title of "Mom;" a title I would not hold without a loving decision made by Brooke (our boys' birth mom).

Every year, in the midst of the celebrations, I feel a bit of sadness as I consider how today must feel for her. My mind goes back to the moment she handed CJ over to us. The tears in her eyes as she thanked us for loving her little boy. I think about the phone call asking for help with Alex, and the follow up call to let us know that she was pregnant with Jake. I reread the letters she has sent us that describe the pain and loss she feels, while at the same time the peace in knowing they are being loved and cared for.

While she will never read this post, I pray that she feels the love we have for her. The respect we have for her decision to place these boys with us, when she had other options that she could have considered. I hope that no matter what happens in her life, that she will remain in touch with our family because she is forever a part of it.

Could this be it?

This morning, I begrudgingly wrote "compile licensing renewal paperwork" on my to-do list. If I'm being honest, I had been completely ignoring it for the past few weeks. While I didn't want to work on it, I knew that I need to have it started just in case Alex's adoption finalization happens after June 30th.

I got all of the kids down for their naps (yes, that's right, all three down at the same time) and I pulled out the licensing packet to start the process. As I went into my e-mail to gather a few documents, I noticed an e-mail from our case worker.

Our consent form was received by Clark County from Arizona, which was the missing piece when it came to finalization. Finally, a step in the right direction!

Our case worker gave me the green light to contact an attorney and two minutes later I was leaving a voice mail for the attorney's assistant. An hour later, she called back and I gave her the name of our case worker. Thirty minutes later, she called again to let me know that our case worker had already sent her all of the necessary documents and she was ready to prep our paperwork. After giving her a few pieces of information, she promised to have the document ready for us to sign on Friday. Once that is complete, we will wait to be assigned a judge and hearing date. Things are moving!!

Obviously, there can always be delays. I think the process of adopting Alex has proven that delays can be constant. However, I feel confident that we will complete his adoption by the end of June.

I cannot tell you how blessed I feel by the people who God has placed in this process. Our case worker is ah-mazing! Despite a heavy case load, she responds to requests and questions within the same day, whenever possible. She is flexible with visits. She genuinely cares about our case (which makes sense since she's been working on it for almost two years now). We had a great attorney for Jacob's finalization, but decided to work with an attorney who frequently works with county foster care cases. I've only been working with them for a day, but I'm already impressed. The assistant has gotten things to our case worker immediately and has been in contact with me several times today. I can already tell that I will like working with them.

This process has been tough, but the challenges and frustrations are starting to fade as I focus on how great it feels to be at the end.

Seriously, how much longer??

It's been awhile since I've had anything to share. Sadly, I still have nothing to share other than some frustration I'm feeling about this process. It seems like it will never end!

Our foster license needs to be renewed this summer, and we were hoping that Alex's adoption would finalize before we needed to submit everything. I mean, I'm willing to do the work, but if we don't need to then why go through it? It sounded like we would not need to send in the paperwork (I'll share a list later, if you're interested), and so I filed the form away and didn't think about it again (which is why I'll have to share the list later; out of sight, out of mind).

Well, yesterday I received an e-mail that stated that the agency in AZ "hoped to finalize within the next six months." Seriously!? What could possibly be taking so long? Our adoption home study was completed and sent off to Arizona several weeks ago. I know they received it. I realize there are steps in this process, but it seems like we should just be filing paperwork to go to court at this point.

Our worker here in Clark County is wonderful and trying to get information to us as fast as she can get it, but when you are working between states, everything just takes longer.

For now, I'll just sit here and allow myself to feel frustrated for the next three minutes, and then I'll get up and start preparing our license renewal paperwork. One day we'll be done...

Officially a Fischer!

Today, we welcomed a new family holiday...Jake's adoption finalization!

We started the process last April, when we first learned that Brooke was pregnant and asked that we adopt the baby. Now, a year later, that chapter of our life has closed and a new one has begun.

While I am so thankful to be finished, it does feel a bit surreal. I think I've made this comparison before, but it's kind of like getting married. You work for months and months on the planning and paperwork, and then suddenly it's all over. I know it sounds funny, but there is almost a moment of sadness that one "normal" is gone and we have to begin a new one.

I am so thankful for the hard work of Adoption Choices of Nevada, Adoption Choices of Arizona and Webster & Associates (our attorney). They made the process enjoyable and kept my stress levels low (or at least as low as possible).

We now wait for our final adoption finalization. We should be getting scheduled for Alex's hearing pretty soon, and have been told that it will be done by the end of June. I think the reality of it all will hit me at that point. Until then, I'm going to enjoy having one less process to worry about.

Thank you for your prayers as we've gone through this. I would not have made it through otherwise.


He's happy to officially be a Fischer!


A picture with our judge (Alex's face cannot be shown until his adoption is finalized).

Where is the excitement?

We are a few days away from Jake's adoption finalization, which is really hard to believe. We've been working on this process for a year now. I feel like I should be more excited about it. Actually, I feel guilty that I don't feel more excited. When we adopted CJ, we had a countdown once we were given a court date. It was all I could think about in the days leading up to the hearing.

Don't get me wrong, I am so grateful that the process is almost over. I look forward to seeing the last name Fischer on his birth certificate. I just wonder why we aren't making a bigger deal about this.

It could be that since we have been through this before, so we know what to expect. It is possible that it already feels official in my mind. Maybe it's because life is way crazier now, so we just don't have time to think about it. It is probably a combination of all three, especially the crazy life part.

Whatever the reason, I am trying not to let it bother me. I know that I love Jake. I know that I will be excited as we enter the courtroom on Monday. I know that we will celebrate with family and friends when the judge makes official what we knew the minute we picked him up...that he is a member of the Fischer family.