Any parent knows, parenting is no walk in the park. There's a saying that I love and often remind myself of: "the days are long but the years are short." Man, I love these kids. I'm honored that God chose me to be their mama! Sometimes (usually when we've had more than a few trying or difficult moments in our day), I go into their rooms at night, after they're asleep and curl up next to them, kiss them, smell them, just stare at them. I know I won't always have this privilege. It's too precious for words...

surprise package

Today, G got a package in the mail from Auntie A. A while back she was in Nairobi and picked up this little African baby doll for her. G was so excited and can't wiat to take her to school for show-and-tell on Friday. Thanks so much A! We can't wait to see you in a few months!

Adoption Made Hard

Are you interested in adoption? Do you want to know how to make it quick, easy, & painless? Then you have come to the WRONG place!

We knew that we have moved a lot but it wasn’t until we started the paperwork for the adoption that we realized just how many times we have moved. Let’s start with me (Kirk). I left the home I grew up in back in 1997. Since that time I have moved exactly once a year, which equates to 13 TIMES! Try explaining that to the case worker that came to do our home study. Next, let’s examine the whereabouts of my sweet wife over the past decade. Becca left the friendly confines of her parent’s house in 1999. She isn’t near as well travelled as me. She has only moved 11 times.

Not only have we each moved a plethora of times, but our family has lived in 4 different states in 8 years. Consequently, we need 4 different states to do background checks and child abuse checks. Fun stuff! Just filling out the address portion of the various applications takes an entire night for us to do.

Did I mention that our bank doesn’t have a branch within a 200 mile radius of us? You would have thought that with us moving so many times that we would have finally “cut the cord” with Wells Fargo, but that isn’t the case. One of the only things that haven’t changed in the last decade is our BANK, and you need certain managers to sign and verify certain documents. On a positive note, I do have a notary in my office that we have at our disposal which is REALLY helpful.

Also, if you are interested in adopting and you have multiple children it may be wise to wait until they are all sleeping through the night, weaned and potty trained.

In regards to any sort of update, we had our home study last week. The home study included a young lady asking us 6 hours worth of in-depth family and marriage questions. Oh, that brings me to my next piece of advice, if you have a choice when doing your home study; try to have it done in ONE day. Ours was split into two (not by our choice) and so she saw our kids in the evening, which anyone with young kids knows that evenings are when we are NOT at our best as a family! Regardless, we made it through and are now just waiting on my passport (I am only well-traveled within the US) so we can wrap up our dossier.

Needless to say, here's two reason's why it's all worth it. The reminders came at a perfect time. Amos is home! Also, we had the awesome privilege of welcoming home this beautiful baby girl below. Some friends of ours brought her home from Ethiopia this past weekend. She had quite the community gathering and paparazzi waiting for her at the airport. I think we were all crying tears of joy. Welcome home sweet Sosi!

Amos Story

This is an amazing story from an amazing man! The song is called Amos Story. The musician (Aaron Ivey), adopted 2 children from Haiti. Their names happen to be Amos & Story. He and his wife currently have Story, but some political red tape has kept Amos in Haiti. Amos survived the recent earthquake unharmed, and we are praying he will be home soon. I hope you all enjoy this as much as we do. If you like it, he has a new CD out that is also pretty awesome! Both Amos & Story are in the video. Have a blessed week! - The Robbins Nest

baby mamas!

this is too cute..,

help Haiti

Want to help and not sure how? Click here. As I sit here glued to CNN, my stomach is in knots. It's hard to go on with all of the mundane, daily tasks when the damage and devastation is so great in little Haiti and realistically, there's not a lot I can do but pray. They are so poor, seem so helpless and their resources, well, they just don't have much. It's heart-wrenching. And the children, oh, those precious children. Praying they will be comforted and protected. I'm really at a loss for words.

Our little guy is already 6 months! And let me tell you...loving, kissing and squeezing on these sweet cheeks every day, well, it just doesn't get much better than this!!

moving right along...

the past few weeks we have been up to our necks with adoption paperwork, seriously, we have never gone through a more thorough process than this! Sign here, notarize there, copy this, scan that...I'm actually quite surprised we haven't had to give a urine sample yet! ha. Anyway, yesterday K and I were at our Dr.'s office getting our physicals, tomorrow the kids are getting theirs, next week we get fingerprinted for FBI clearance...blah, blah, blah. It's been a little (okay, VERY) overwhelming! Well, when I left the Dr. yesterday I checked my voice mail and it was a lady from OKC calling to ask if she could squeeze us in for our home study next week! I about wet my pants. It's starting to seem so real. I have to admit I did have a little panic attack last night that it was moving all too fast, until I talked to a friend who has adopted twice. She reminded me to look at the big picture. It sometimes takes months for them to complete a home study, and then we will be put on the waiting list which will then take another 8 months, roughly, to even receive a referral. So, I just have to keep that in mind, while it seems to be moving right along now, I KNOW we will have some very lengthy waiting times ahead.

So if you think of us next week (Tuesday and Wednesday) say a little prayer for our home study process, we are a little nervous (as well as giddy with excitement), don't know quite what to expect!

what keeps me up at night

I might have just found my new guilty pleasure for after the kids are in bed! After all, I could use just one more thing to distract me from laundry, paperwork, dishes and bills. I'm headed to the store first thing tomorrow to buy more of the "for 6+" kid's puzzles...

In an effort to keep everyone updated, we submitted our “Group 1” paper work today. Next, we will be submitting our I-600A form (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition).

This first step is more or less an in depth background check. Once we get officially approved by our agency and CIS (Citizenship & Immigration Services), we’ll get our home study scheduled. During the home study someone is going to come interview us to make sure we aren’t nuts.

After we get through this initial step, it should take 3-5 months for all of this to be approved. Upon approval we will then get on the official wait list. At that point it will take 7-8 months for us to get a child referred to us, then another couple of months for our court date and travel date!

Thank you all for your continued prayers!

The Robbins Nest