2006 Our son Ty is now 3 years old. The pictures on our website say it all. He has brought us so much joy. He is a gift from God and we are so blessed to be his parents. He is smart, healthy, loving, affectionate, curious, and loves to play any kind of ball he can get his hands on. He has brought joy into the lives of everyone he meets. We have also been blessed to have direct contact with his birth family. We stay in touch by email and have really been able to keep up with each other through the website and frequent emails. God is so good. He has great plans for our son, Ty. His birth mom made a beautiful plaque for him that hangs in his room. It has an incredible sunset and on the back she wrote to him that he is “Special” and “Set Apart”. We could not say it better. Keep checking the website for pictures… They really do say it all.

December 31, 2002-January 1, 2003 We spent such precious time with both Ty and his birth mom in the hospital over the next few days. We celebrated our “bring home” day of little Ty on January 1, 2003 with a placement ceremony. Our pastor Brian and his wife Missey traveled all the way from Orlando to share in this special day. Brian said a blessing over little Ty, his birth mom, birth grandma, and our family. Words cannot adequately explain this day. It is truly the most incredible and emotional day I have ever experienced. I was not prepared for the emotions and feelings I would have when I said goodbye to Ty’s birth mom and her mom. We told each other and we knew then that this would not be a forever-good bye. We are not sure when our paths will come together in person but we do know, beyond any question that we will be together again. We share so much in the gift of our son Ty.

December 30, 2002 I received a call at work on my cell phone around noon on December 30, 2002, from Ty’s birth mom. In the most calm voice she tells me, “Ali, you and Dean need to come… I am in labor”. This was more that 2 weeks early so I was not really sure I heard her correctly. She asked me “Ali, are you okay?”. I responded “Yes, I am are you?”. Here she is making sure I am okay and she is in labor. Just like her always thinking of others. I called Dean and said “honey, we are going to South Florida today”. He questioned me and didn’t quite understand that I was telling him that we were going right now… today… in the next hour… we need to go!! We made many calls from our cell phones and moved quicker than we have every moved. We had angels carrying us for the 3 hour trip and made it in record time. I drove so you know I didn’t break the speed limit. Anyone who has ever rode with me can attest to that. We made it to the hospital and spent wonderful, time with her. She just amazed us with her calm spirit and sweet smile. We were a bundle of nerves and she was the one keeping us calm. They told us to go eat, check into the hotel, and take our time getting back. During dinner, our cell phone rang and they told us to hurry back… she is at 9 centimeters. We did hurry back and were there to hold our son within minutes of being born at 7:32 p.m. on December 30, 2002.

October 23, 2002 We traveled to South Florida this weekend and were able to spend some time with our birthmother.  She continues to amaze us with her very giving heart.  Words cannot express how much we admire her.   We were able to go to dinner and breakfast with her and spent a lot of time just talking and developing a bond which we all feel is very important for this child.  She also brought us sonogram pictures and it is a boy!  Please continue to keep us in your prayers and please include the birthmother and the birthfather.  God has blessed us beyond measure and we give him all the glory and thanks for this experience.  We believe this is God's child and pray daily for strength and guidance as we prepare our hearts and our home for this new arrival!

October 10, 2002 We continue to give thanks for this most wonderful time in our lives.  We have both been so blessed and humbled by this experience.  The Lord is really opening our hearts and drawing us close to Him as we are trusting Him more than ever in our life!  Our birthmother has such a beautiful insight into God's perfect plan and we continue to be in amazement of her!  We are busy getting the nursery ready which is very exciting!  As much as we "garage sale"  we have put together a beautiful classic pooh nursery on a shoestring budget!  It has been so much fun.  Continue to pray for us and many thanks to all our family and friends for your support.  We love you.

September 19, 2002 Our meeting with the prospective birth mother went very well.  We spent about 4 hours with her.  She is truly an amazing person.  So wise and mature beyond her young years.  She truly has the most amazing heart and spirit.  At the end of the meeting, she told the director she did not want to see any additional families and she selected us as adoptive parents for her child.  We were brought to tears at this meeting.  I am sure there will be many more of those!

September 4, 2002 Our profile has been provided to a prospective birth mother.  She would like to meet with us sometime in the next couple weeks.  We are very excited but also very cautious.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers during this very special time.

September 2, 2002 Our profile is complete and ready to be shown to prospective birth parents.  We are trusting Gods direction.

August 30, 2002 We spoke to our case worker who told us about some options we have for a domestic adoption.  We are moving fast this weekend putting together a profile so that it can be presented to prospective birthparents.  There will be much more to tell in the upcoming weeks.  While the news about Guatemala was originally heartbreaking for us, we feel God is working through all of this to guide and direct us as we seek his perfect plan in our lives.

August 28, 2002 Today we got a call from our case worker and she told us there is a development in Guatemala.  They are ratifying the Hague Convention which will change how adoptions are handled.  The basic change is that now all adoptions will have to go through an orphanage.  The three things she told us that will affect us are (1) more time, (2) more money and (3) more risk.  She told us to think and pray about this.  We are in a unique position because we have not yet paid any fees to Guatemala and everything we have done to this point, including our approved home study, could be used for a different type of adoption whether from another country or domestic.  We have big decisions to make.

August 27, 2002 Pretty exciting day today.  We got a large brown envelope from the INS.  We opened it up and it has all the forms we have to fill out to get through this INS process.  We are trying hard to keep the ball in the other court.

August 13, 2002 We got the official word from our social worker (Heather Forbes) that our home study has been approved.  Now we are waiting on the INS to get us finger printed and approved.  Once the INS is finished, we send all our paper work to Guatemala and wait for a referral picture.  This could be as quick as a week or so because Ali and I said that we would take either a boy or a girl.  Once we get the picture, we will scan it and put it on the website.  After we get the picture, it should be between 4-6 months to complete the paper work in Guatemala.  We are so excited.