First Thanksgiving

Levi had fun visiting the DeVol family for his first Thanksgiving. We went to Uncle Greg's and visited with lots of extended family there. Then we went to Uncle Troy and Aunt Stacy's for round two.
It is a bittersweet holiday, as one year ago today we lost a very good man. My cousin Quentin lost his battle to cancer on Thanksgiving Day last year. He played a big role in putting Levi in our lives prior to leaving this world. No one knew this until much much later. It is not a coincidence that Levi's middle name is Quentin.
As many of us do, Levi enjoyed his thanksgiving meal then promptly fell asleep.
I hope you all had a great holiday and made time to count your blessings.

Swinging

Levi went swinging today for the first time!
He also had his first "tunnel" experience this weekend. He has his trusty pal Gerome with him in the tunnel. (Gerome was actually "bait" to convince him to go! Haha!)

Riverboat cruise

After a very roundabout way of going, we are finally in our temporary home away from home in Marietta, Ohio.
Today we took a little cruise down the river on Mimi's pontoon with Cousin Tyler and Mimi D.
Levi enjoyed it....until he fell asleep.

Largest church is USA

A few weeks ago, we went to see Joel Osteen speak at his church - Lakewood Church. It is the largest church in the US. Weekly attendance is about 45,000 people. (It is busy-but very organized)
Today we went to see Max Lucado speak. Both men were fantastic speakers and gave amazing lessons of God's grace.
Levi was astounded at the size (as were we!). He enjoyed the music-which was like being at a huge concert. And was pretty well behaved through the sermon-with the help of a few puffs. (Sorry to the ushers for the puffs that he tossed)

Here are some pics from both visits.

....and baby makes 3

After all the excitement and roller coaster rides of the past few months, we stood in front of the judge for about 5 minutes and just like that, it was done!

But, I 'm getting ahead of myself.  First, we woke up a 4am, thanks to an upper tooth.  And, as usual, I wake up and cannot get back to sleep - and this time - neither could Levi.  So, we had a little bit of quality time in the silence of the morning.  Just me, Levi, and God. 

Then, the alarm clock went off.  Time to get moving.




Ready to put on the rest of the suit!

Ben and Allison going through Security

Finding our names on the docket list

 

 

We were up and about and ready to go in time (about 6:45am) - believe it or not - we were actually on track this morning!  Miss Lynn came over from across the street, we all piled in the car and then we were on our way.  We made it to the courthouse at about 8am.  (We were instructed to arrive by 8:15, no later).  Ben and Allison met us in the security checkpoint. 


We met our lawyer outside the courtroom.
(He is holding a bag of stuffed animals)

 

Waiting for the judge - Levi entertained us quite a bit while we waited.

 

 

When the judge is ready, we are called to the bench first!

We are standing there with our lawyer, the Guardian ad litem (Levi's Lawyer) and the lawyer for the unknown birthfather.

 

They each asked us a series of questions - all of them pretty much the same thing. They asked if we have lived in Texas for at least 6 months, if we knew the birth father, if we wanted to adopt Levi. 

First, there was an order of business of terminating the parental rights of the birthparents.  (Hence the lawyer for the birth father.)  Once this was done, then we could proceed with the adoption finalization.  It's just the way Texas does it.  Kentucky has a different process, so we had to go this route with terminating in Texas. 

 

The judge was thrilled to do adoptions today.  He typically hears criminal cases, but another judge was out of the office, so he got the honor of hearing the adoption cases today. There were about 5-6 adoption cases on the docket this morning.  Also, the bag of stuffed animals - the one our lawyer has in that picture above - well, that is by request of the judge.  He was happy to offer up the toys for the little ones to make a choice after the adoption was finalized.  Levi looked at his three options and chuckled when I showed him the little puppy.  So, that is his new precious toy to commemorate the special day.  This day that will forever be known as Levi's "gotcha" day.

 

The DeVol Family

(including the puppy from the judge)

 

The lawyers that made it happen

 

 

 

In front of the Justice Center

Ft Bend County, Richmond, TX

 

 

 

Some random photos of the day.

 

 

Later in the day, while we were just lounging around and soaking it in (no, it still hasn't set in), we received a surprise delivery of balloons from the Music family.  Levi had never seen balloons before, so I just HAD to share this pic of the look on his face.  He was amazed and bewildered.

 

Waiting

We are waiting in the hall for our turn! Our lawyer has briefed us and now we just wait. Levi is enjoying his wait while playing with Ben.

No anxiety here

Someone in the car has no anxiety about this day. Can you guess who it is?

Court

After a 4am wake up call thanks to teething or otherwise restless baby, we are on our way to court. Our lovely neighbor Lynn (aka Miss Lynn) is with us. Joining us there will be there ever-supportive Miss Allison and Mr Ben!
Praying for a good day and a positive experience.

Court tomorrow

We have a court appearance scheduled tomorrow at 8:30 central time!

na na na na na na na na BATMAN!

Someone has officially outgrown size 9 months! Twelve Months sized PJs have lots of cartoon characters - and my personal favorite - super heros! 

I have always loved the super hero gang - ever since Burger King had them featured on the glass collection back in the seventies.  I know - what a dork.  :)  At least I embrace it.

They also have superman and batman PJs with a cape - I just don't think he is ready for the cape, yet.

I can't wait to hang out and watch these shows with Levi.  I hope he is at least half the fan I am.

Adoption Status Update

The last time I updated an adoption progress status was August, I think.  It was such a let down that I had to wait a little time to recover to post about it again. Sorry to have left you in the dark. 

Here is the update:
We went to court on August 17.  The Kentucky Judge had not yet executed the TPR (Termination of Parental Rights) for the birthmother. Without that, the Texas Judge would not finalize the adoption.  Kentucky Judge won't execute until the adoption is final.  I think we already talked about this - the chicken and the egg scenario. The reason is simply that the two states have vastly different views on it from a legal perspective.
So, we have spent the last several weeks calling everyone we can think of to try to get some movement on the situation.  Getting the Kentucky Judge to execute the TPR was the least complicated way to go.  So, we started with calling her.  We left a voice mail every day and even wrote to her.  After about a week of this, we received a call from someone in the court system to see how she could help.  I told her the story - and asked how we can get a message to the judge regarding the scenario.  She said she'd check into it and call me back.  Oh, and by the way, the judge's law clerk 'has left the office,' so that would explain a LOT!   I wondered why no one was getting back to me, and why we have been having so much trouble communicating to the judge.  Without a law clerk, there is no one to pass the information on to the judge!  Egad.  If it isn't one thing, it's another....
By the way, that very nice lady from the courts has never called me back.  I've left several messages for her in the past couple of weeks. 

With that, we are going to try to execute parental rights through Texas. This requires SEVERAL steps and seems to be very complicated. 

The first thing we had to do was get even more paperwork signed by the birth mother.  I can't imagine what she is going through - and we keep putting paper in front of her to remind her of this situation.  I hope this is the last of us pestering her for her signature.  She willingly signed it, of course.

Next, we have to launch an official search for the birth father.  This is a Texas requirement.  We have to have the courts run an ad in the newspaper for 21 days.  That is where we stand right now.  Just waiting out the days for the ad to run in the Texas newspaper.

I know these paragraphs seem short in description of what is going on - but believe me when I tell you that for every word written here, there were a zillion phone calls, emails, pieces of paper signed, hours of conversation to discuss options, and countless hours of lost sleep. 

When the ad is done, we hope to go to court in October.   More to follow!! 

Monkeying around

Chilling and relaxin

Here is a cute pic of Levi hanging out with his buddy Joey. Just had to share!

Obligatory blackmail bathtub photos

Levi LOVES bath time!
Tonight we took the opportunity to get some photos durng bath time.  So, we share with you the obligatory bathtub photos that will be used a couple of decades from now - in order to embarrass him when we meet his girlfriends.  Or, to just blackmail him into mowing the lawn. 

Turtles and Octopus and Sharks, OH MY!

Today we went to Moody Gardens to visit Miss Allison.

Thank you Allison Towner for taking time from your busy day to show us around "backstage."  We had a fantastic time!

The Catwalk over the Shark Tank!

Winston the Octopus

Levi actually got to touch Winston - he was SLIMY!

The turtle was very curious about Levi.

The 'blur' that Levi is squealing at is actually a Seal.  Levi LOVED the seals!

Hanging out 'behind the scenes' in the Seahorse Hatchery

We watched them feed the brine shrimp to the Seahorses

Levi says, "I'm in the shark cage - ready to face the sharks!"

"These sharks are almost as cute as I am!"

Court date today!

Well....We got up early and headed to the courthouse. An hour and a half drive later, we were there. Ugh.
We knew things were not looking good for finalization today, as we are still waiting for some paperwork from Kentucky. But, we went anyway in faith knowing that God is in control.
Our good friend Allison showed up at court for moral support and to snap any Kodak moments if they come up.
Although nothing happened, Levi was ready for the day in all his cuteness.

Out of office

Today we heard that the State of Kentucky government offices are CLOSED this week. 

Hopefully, when everyone returns next week - they will be very willing to move our case to the top of the stack and sign the required paperwork. 

Rob, in his ever-lasting postive outlook said, "Well, it certainly keeps the story interesting!"

So - we wait on the edge of our seats, as I'm sure you have been doing, to see what happens next week. 

I'm sure it will be a lot of things.....but it won't be boring!

Random Cuteness

Enjoy some random cuteness today.