Eloise - Home Six Months!

Eloise has been in our family almost 6 months now and we've seen so much change in her! When we brought her home she was a lethargic 6 month old who we couldn't get to smile or even respond to us. Today she is a happy, healthy, and energetic one year old whose giggle brightens our day! She has attached extremely well and is developmentally on target. She has come so far in just six months and fits into our family perfectly!

The name Eloise has been our name for a girl for a very long time now! As difficult as it was for us to chose a boy's name when we had Isaiah, we were always sure about our girl's name of Eloise! The name Eloise means "warrior" and her middle name, Ann, means "gracious and merciful". Our prayer for our baby girl is that she will grow to be a very strong, gracious, and merciful warrior for Christ! (Ann is also the middle name of my (Amber's) mom and my grandma (my dad's mom) so it is a very special family name to us!).

The life verse we chose for Eloise is:

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

Ecclesiastes 3:11

We chose this verse for Eloise because we believe God is doing something truly beautiful in Eloise's life. Her story starts out with a lot pain and heartache. It is not pretty. Yet God is changing sweet Ellie's story. He is rewriting it, and you know what? It is BEAUTIFUL! Our human minds cannot fathom what God is doing from the beginning of her story to the end, but we know that in HIS time he is writing a wonderful story for her life. God’s works are done well; there is order, harmony, and beauty in them all. We can’t yet understand all that He’s done concerning the past or the future, but at the proper time we’ll see how beautiful it all is!

More to come later, but here are a few picture from Eloise's first 6 months with us. Oh how we love our precious baby girl!!!

The day we first met Eloise- 4 months old.

Daddy's girl from the start.

Visiting Eloise in the orphanage before we could bring her home.

The pretty little girl we couldn't wait to bring home!

Isaiah was smitten with his new sister!

 

First day home. We were all a little sleepy but happy to finally be HOME with our new little girl!

Eloise- 6 months old!

 

Our new family of FOUR!

Sweet Eloise, 7 months old!

8 months old

 

9 months old

 

10 months old

Just like her big brother, Eloise loves anything having to do with water- especially bath time.

Ellie's second trip to the equator in only 10 months of life! Some people never make it there in their entire lifetime!

10.5 months old

Sitting in big brothers car seat while on a safari with Grandpa!

She LOVES her big brother and has to do whatever he does!

Pretty girl in her cute swimsuit!

Eloise LOVES the water!

 

11 months old

Almost one!!



Two cuties in a tub!

We have someone we'd like you to meet!!!!

Introducing...

 

Eloise Ann Hutcheson

 

Born April 14, 2012

Home forever October 16, 2012

Legally ours March 28, 2013

 

We are overjoyed to announce that we have been granted legal guardianship of our sweet sweet daughter!! God is good and so faithful! More pictures to come soon! =)

Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—
this is God, whose dwelling is holy.
God places the lonely in families

Psalm 68:5-6

Court Date!

"Give yourself fully to the adventure of today.  Walk boldly along the path of Life, relying on your ever-present Companion.  You have every reason to be confident, because My Presence accompanies you all the days of your life- and onward into eternity.  Do not give in to fear or worry, those robbers of abundant living.  Trust Me enough to face problems as they come, rather than trying to anticipate them.  Fix your eyes on Me, the Author and Perfecter of your faith, and many difficulties on the road ahead will vanish before you reach them.  Whenever you start to feel afraid, remember that I am holding you by your right hand.  Nothing can separate you from My Presence!"   Hebrews 12:2; Isaiah 41:13 (Jesus Calling)

(If you didn't read this quote at the top, read it. Seriously....you will be glad you did.)

For those of you who haven't heard yet, our court date for our sweet baby girl is TOMORROW, March 21st!!

At this hearing we hope to obtain legal guardianship of our daughter. Upon receiving legal guardianship we will apply for her Ugandan passport and her visa to enter the U.S. These things come with their own uncertainties and difficulties and we'll be asking for prayer for those soon enough but right now we're focusing on one step at a time. We are asking that you join with us in prayer that this Thursday in court would go well and that within a week or two we would hear a FAVORABLE ruling from our judge! We believe we have a solid case and we know we have a great lawyer, so we feel pretty confident about the process but there is still the fear that things may not go smoothly.

We have been assigned a great judge as far as adoptions go. He has granted legal guardianship to hundreds of international families and is very favorable towards adoptions. We were told that he likes to see that families are well versed with Ugandan culture. So, we have done several things to strengthen our case. We bought Ugandan outfits for all of us and took pictures to give to the judge. We visited the Ugandan cultural center and the King's Palace and bought a $25 certificate showing that we went (we were told he LOVES this), we figured out wich "clan" Baby Girl is from (She's an "eel"), and we made a photo album with pictures of Baby Girl and our family at historic places such as the Equator and with traditional Ugandan dancers. Not to mention the fact that I lived in Africa for 12 years and Uganda specifically for 5 years growing up, Drew and I have lived here for a year, and my parents live here (and I have two Ugandan adopted sisters!). We feel our case is strong but with Ugandan adoption you never know when a curve ball will be thrown into the mix.

As well as praying that we would receive a favorable ruling, please pray that the judge would see us in a timely manner and that the kids would be good while we wait. We are supposed to be to our Lawyer's office by noon tomorrow but she said the judge may not see us until between 2-7 pm. Our judge is notorious for making people wait, apparently! That's a long time for an active 2 1/2 year old and 11 month old to wait in a little waiting room while missing naps and having nothing to do!

Thanks for being a part of this journey with us. And thank you for your prayers! We will keep you updated!

For I am the Lord your God  

who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;

I will help you.

Isaiah 41:13

End of 2012 Family Pictures

We had some family pictures taken last month and got the digital copies today. Wish we could post more pictures of our precious Baby Girl. Praying someday soon we will be able to.

What a wonderful end to the year 2012 we had- celebrating with our TWO wonderful children. We are blessed!

 

Adoption Update: Bonding and Attachment

Yesterday we went to visit Baby Girl's orphanage. We hadn't been there in a while and wanted to bring Baby Girl back so everyone could see her as well as bring a cake we had for them. We also have some friends who are adopting from the same orphanage. They live in the States so we went to check up on their little guy and take pictures and video for them. We even Skyped live with them while we were there so they could see their precious guy in real time. It was fun!

One child is different from the rest... =)

When we arrived ALL the children rushed out to great us. One of the bigger kids grabbed Isaiah and another one grabbed Baby Girl. They were all shouting "Zander, Zander!" (A nickname that they have for Baby Girl).

Some of the precious faces who came out to greet us.

For those of you who are close to someone who has adopted, you may remember them asking you to be a little "hands off" with their newly adopted child at first. Of course all adoptive parents want you to love on their child, but many parents choose to "cocoon" the baby at home for a certain period of time, with the parents being the only ones to feed, bathe, hug, kiss, love on, etc their child. This is so that the newly adopted child can begin to form a strong bond with their new adoptive parents. It is a very wise thing to do especially for a child who has had much trauma in their life and/or been moved around from caretaker to caretaker.

The bassinet with the blue blanket on it is where Baby Girl slept.

Since we have had Baby Girl home we have constantly been working on gaining her love and trust.  Because I am a stay at home mom, I am the one who meets all of Baby Girl's needs during the day (with Drew (being the awesome, hands-on dad that he is) helping out on evenings and weekends). Baby Girl has developed a deep bond with both of us and adjusted amazingly well. We could not have asked for things to go any better. But, until we went back to her orphanage, we didn't realize just how attached she had become to us!

Cutting into the cake we brought for them. They were SO excited!

Baby Girl started screaming and crying at the top of her lungs when they grabbed her away from us. Not right away, but as soon as we got out of her line of sight, she lost it! We immediately took her back, comforted her, and she calmed down. The staff at the orphanage just couldn't keep their hands off of her though and grabbed her back soon after. It's understandable because they loved and cared for her for her first 5 months of life and they were so excited to see her.  She did end up letting some people hold her but always kept an eye out for mommy and daddy and wanted to come back to us often.

These kids love this little toe-headed white boy!

Isaiah finds anything that's on wheels, no matter where he goes!

We were THRILLED with her response!! It means that she now knows that we are "hers". She belongs to us and we belong to her. She is OURS! She finds comfort and security in our arms, not in the arms of any old stranger, and not even in the arms of those who cared for her three months ago. She loves us and wants us to be close by. She knows we are her parents! It can bring tears to an adoptive parent's eyes when this shift happens in a child. We are so grateful that God has allowed her tiny little heart to put aside (for now) the hurt and pain she has experienced in her life and learn to love and trust a family who, just months ago, were strangers to her.

Praise the Lord! He does ALL things well!!