The Boys are Free for Adoption!!

WELL....

I am sorry that I haven't blogged for everyone in 7 months.  But, since then, we have just  been WAITING!!  Waiting for the news we got today!!  The boys are now free for adoption.

It doesn't mean that they will be adopted tomorrow but we are now finally moving toward that end!  We will wait for the official word from the Court that says they are free for adoption--this takes 30 days.  Then, we will file for adoption--this takes 60-90 days.  Then we will wait for our Adoption Court Date--this takes 45 days.  Whew!

 All this takes a lot of time, so our desire for this year is that the boys will be officially ours by this December!!!!!  Thanks for all your prayers and please continue to pray for their future and for these next court proceedings to go smoothly.  Can't say enough about how excited we are!

With love and gratefulness to our Lord!

Shiloh, Jennifer, Ellie Jo, Caroline, Georgia Kate, Aubrey, Jackson, Sadie and Everett Fischer  :)

Mom's Appeal

Well, I am not very good as I warned at blogging.....Mom appealed on the very last day possible.  :( The boys attorney is asking for an expedited appeal.  This simply is asking to hurry up the process to decide if her appeal will be heard.  Please keep praying that we will take care of them the best we know how while we wait to find out if we get them forever!  We love them with all our hearts and they have added so much joy to our home.  We will cherish each moment.  Remember to do this with your loved ones, too; we could be gone at any moment.  

In this sense, I have decided to look at the boys as "ours" just as I look at "our" biological children as "ours".  I call them "ours" but God is simply giving them to us on loan.   I have this quote that I carry around in my wallet.... "We all know that Death is coming but few of us live as if Death is beckoning." Live as if Death is at your door and you will live a fuller life for sure!  Now, if only I can follow my own advice.......


Things are crazy busy as ever in our home.  I am watching 11 kids today.  My sister and I do this for this each other on a regular basis.  Who else would do this without a license, eh?  Is it even allowed??---- to watch 11 kids in your home in New Hampshire?????  


love all you special people...
jenny for the Fischers of Amherst, as Dad Fischer called us.  We sound so noble!  We will try to live up to our name through Him who is able to help us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

July 22nd

We have not heard anything about an appeal just yet.  Today was supposed to be the last day that birth mom could file.  Please keep the boys still in your prayers as we wait to hear if anything was filed.  Thanks again for caring and remembering to uplift them in prayer.  We are truly enjoying blending them into our family!  With love, The Fischers

New News-Finally!

Well, a lot has happened since I last blogged......we moved first off!  Here is our new address:  6 Upper Flanders Road, Amherst NH 03031.  I feel like I left one world for another.  The first 6 months were spent trying to understand what just happened to us.  Meaning.....where did we come to? Shiloh and I are definitely more the city-type folks with a slight country accent--but that's it--no real country in us!  We have adjusted pretty well now-it's what most people do in the military, just adjust.  Some places are harder than others, but here has not been too bad.  The great thing is that we are near one of my sisters and her family.  The cousins are best friends now!  


So, for the new, news....I am writing to ask for your prayers once more.  We are finally in the middle of our 30 day waiting period to find out if birth mom will appeal.  She has until July 22nd to file this appeal.  We have been told she is going to but there is no word yet that it has been done.  Please ask God to stop this appeal.  Of course, we are to pray in the Lord's will and that does not change.  But, for now, we see that this is the best course for these precious little guys!  A good friend recently reminded me of Joseph's lot in life and all the difficulties he was put through.  She also reminded me of where Joseph ended up at the end of his life!  What an amazing story.  The main prayer is that Jackson and Everett will find the same peace and joy and an eternal life with the Lord....if in this whole thing Shiloh and I get to help raise them, than even more of a blessing.  But, giving them over to Him is not that hard to do when I remember who He is and how powerful and loving He is.  Job 38 and following!  So, the Lord's will be done.  


I will try to write again when I hear if the appeal goes through or if there is no appeal--July 22nd.  


Please come see us out here in the boondocks!  We have lots of room and lots of beds!  


In Christ alone,
Jenny for the Fischers

I Met Birth Mom...

Many of you are asking about a blog....sorry it's been so long.  It is sometimes very draining. I thought it would be easy to blog but the blog has only brought out more questions....which is theraputic to talk through all of them and yet very draining on the emotions.....

I met birth mom at the courthouse this week.  It was a funny day!  Shiloh was out of town--again.  :(  And, it was 9.30--still not showered.  Got a call that someone wanted to see the house.  So, my babysitter (an angel on the side) came in and helped pick up all the stuff that just gets put out in the morning between the hours of 7 and 9, nevermind, the dishes I didn't do since I already do 3 loads a day.  :)  On top of that, we were out of milk and I had no idea how long I'd be gone.  So, that was the morning.  But, I was able to shower, dry my hair, get to the store for milk, Rose picked up the house and I made it on time to meet birth mom.  I also met our Lawyer Ella Joan.  She is great! CYFD (the state) will pay for a lawyer for us up to a certain amount and certain lawyers agree to their fees.  She's already done so much for us!  I also go to meet and speak with birth mom's lawyer (who is openly frustrated with her client and is ready to be done with the whole case!)

The meeting I had with birth mom was a little odd because the boys are not adopted yet.  However, they go ahead and discuss the plan for after adoption (in case that is where it ends up.)  Mom and Dad's rights were terminated a few weeks ago.  However, I left off explaining that mom still has the right to an Appeal.  WELL, the bad news is that the Facts and Findings have not been filed, which has to be approved before we can file the Termination---a bunch of paperwork and protocol.  It would be nice if everyone wanted to see this go as fast as we do, but I know that if we are to adopt them, if we are to have them in our home, God will adopt them!  Shiloh and I might have to wait a while longer, but it doesn't change how we will treat them while they are in our home.  So, I am wandering around with my thoughts....

I was a little nervous, I must say.  I was hoping for Shiloh's trip to get cancelled with all the snow in DC and in Chicago (which was his connecting flight) but on the other hand...I didn't want him to miss the biggest work day of his life!  He got to brief (talk about) a flight from "his" airplane, the Airborne Laser to top officials at the Pentagon.  This was a good thing because now he tells me he can retire.....now, how do we pay the bills??  Oh well, I'll keep going....

I was a little surprised at first to see her in handcuffs and then more surprised to see that they were hot pink?  Who knew?  She was in orange which I thought was only for the very worst criminals....tells you how many of those murder/mystery shows I watch.  And, she was chained at her feet!  All this to have a conversation with me.  So...I was trying to be calm, trying not to talk (which I love to do), but when I get nervous it's easy for me to stop!  :)  So, I decided to eat a cookie on the table and then I decided crying would work well, too.  But, this was because they left me alone for a moment with my thoughts!  Don't do that!!!  I was really thankful for my Blackberry because my very good, close friend here in ABQ, Katie,  texted me and gave me a quote and a verse and some encouraging words and I was able to read them and calm down and wipe the tears quickly away!

SO, it's a long story, you meet first with everyone--lawyers, mom, me, mediator, deputy (who is guarding mom)...We didn't really say much except that we want the boys needs to come first....then, they have to leave and it's me, mom, the mediator, oh and the mediator in training and then the deputy who owns the hot pink handcuffs.

The mediator gets us started and asked mom if she had anything she wanted to start with---she was already crying and upset from the moment she walked in.  My heart was completely filled with compassion for her the whole time.  I could not imagine being in her place, it really was simply unfathomable.  So, it was very easy to feel her very real pain.  I was still very aware though that through the events of the past 2 years, she still does not deserve to get them back.  She loves them without a doubt but does not know how to follow through with the actions on that love.  It will be easy to tell this to the boys but I am not sure how easy it will be for them to understand and accept.

She wanted to know how the boys were and what they liked and what they did for fun.  She asked very good questions. She's had time to think about this obviously.  She asked a few strange questions, too, and I answered those as straight-faced as I could.  I kept thinking of the verse: Romans 12.16 "Do not be proud,  but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited."  And, Philippians 2.3, "But with humility of mind, let each of you regard one another as more important than himself."  I looked at her and realized in the face of my sin this is where I stand, apart from Christ.  And, yet, can be free of our "chains" if we choose to follow Him.

All in all it was a very good Open Adoption Mediation (official term).  This was a very easy choice to make---to attend this, to meet birth mom and make a plan for the future with birth mom.  I mean, I was still a little nervous.  I have been wanting to adopt since I was 12, so I have been researching this for years and the majority of the research says it is better for the children to have that access to meet their birth parents and siblings (if at all possible).  I do want the very best for these boys and so I want to be able to keep up contact with her for as long as she will continue to do so.  We even discussed possible visits in the future if it was deemed in the best interest of the boys.

She left me a very good and honest letter for them. I have a huge file for them already with medical records, letters, books, a journal I'm keeping, and on and on.  I will save her letter for them so they can always go back to it.   She told me there at the table that she has not decided if she is going to appeal or not.  Please continue to pray for this.  She was surprised to hear that I had a picture of her other son and I offered to send her a copy.  I am writing her a letter and sending the picture as I promised.  I did cry a bit here and there as we were talking back and forth.  I think she could see my love for them through that, I hope.   I am not allowed to persuade her in anyway, but I did promise her that I do love them, right now!-- just like my own and I will not treat them any differently.  She cried a lot, too, and the very last thing she said, through tears, was thank you for loving them like they are your own.

I guess as I was sitting there, I could not imagine being a mother who would not appeal.  I have a little different look at that now actually seeing her sitting there crying for them.  My prayer for y'all reading this, if you have a moment is this:  Please Lord, help this birth mother to come to terms with her loss of her rights for her boys.  Please calm her heart and give her the peace to accept the consequences for what she has done or has not done for the boys.  Please help her to realize that it would be in their best interest to release them to us for their care and their growth.  Please give her a special comfort that having met me, she can be sure they are already deeply loved.  I know You chose your people Lord, but I cannot help but pray-- please draw her to Yourself and bring someone to share the gospel with her and save her.

Thank you for reading my very long blog and going along this very special trek with us in adoption.  One of the very best things I've ever done in my life!

with tears, Jenny for all

The Next Step.....

What's so funny about this whole process is that we never really know what the next step is! We have about 10 different social workers that we can contact or ask questions to--but the one thing lacking is a consistent person who explains each step of this process to you. We gather what we can and try to understand it.

So, as far as we know the appeal is the next step. We heard that it takes about 3 weeks to file a Termination of Rights. After it is filed, the birth parents have 30 days to state an appeal through their attorneys. If the parents appeal, the adoption will take 1-2 years if it takes place at all. If the parents do not appeal, the adoption could take 1-2 MONTHS!

Again, those of you that will, please, when you think of us, ask God to allow this to be a faster adoption OR rather THE fastest state adoption ever! I believe He can do this. He has done so much already that was unheard of in state adoptions. I know He can continue to take care of these HUGE things. It would be a miracle that all this would be final before we move to MASS this Spring (also an unknown) but I believe it would just show His power and His love even more. May it be a testimony to how much God really does love us! However, we will take care of these precious boys as long as He will allow.

This verse below was another one for today and it is such an amazing parallel with how we are going out and fighting and choosing to save these boys! ---Exactly what God does for us!!

"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you." John 15.16

TRIAL part II

The birth parents had their completed trial today. We just heard about 2 hours ago or so that both of the boys' parents' rights were terminated. That was very heavy to hear. Even though it was the news we wanted to hear, it did not get past us easily. This was a mother who really did want her children and loved them but there was not the evidence to support the actions to show that love. We will be keeping her in prayer for always, knowing that God can rescue anyone from any place.

I will try to post more on this later. Just wanted to make sure for those of you praying, thank you! Without telling all of the details, this is a miracle of God! Each step of the way has been a series of little miracles! It's been amazing to look back (which I did today). I just couldn't pray anymore after most of the afternoon had gone by, so I decided to write down all the things that were not supposed to happen...starting with our home study only taking 2 1/2 months! Well, each step that I wrote down has gone against all the "norms" for this kind of adoption. So, today is just another step, another miracle!

I don't really have any spare moments in the day anymore, so this is short and I have to get back to the helping Shiloh getting the boys in bed. :)

Today the verse that was sitting on the counter for me to read was:

John 16.23 "Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you."