Almost didn't happen

OUR FIRST OFFICIAL FAMILY PHOTO!!!

As most of you already know - the end result today is that Kenna is OURS!!! It is finished, done, signed, sealed and delivered she's ours!!!

But today did not go on without its concerns! So let me tell you what I can remember, it's been an emotional day!

We arrive in Globe, Arizona to meet with our attorney. She tells us a little bit of info, but not much - so we felt it was not a necessary meeting, but oh well. We did find out that going through the Apache Court means that this will be an open adoption. News to us, but we can make it work. Basically if the birth mom or grandparents want to see or receive letters/pictures we need to make it happen on our terms. So they would have to come to GA!! More than likely this will never happen, but we needed to be aware of it.

So Court is at 2:30pm - we arrive at 2pm and find out that the Judge is not in, so another Judge is taking our case. We find out it is Judge Dawson and are excited because he is the judge we wanted to begin with. He arrives at 3pm - now Kenna has not napped all day, but has been a happy little lady until we go into the court room. She melts down....GREAT right!! Oh well the life of a toddler! Court lasts for 40 minutes and she cries off and on the entire time!

So this is what the Judge starts with - "I don't think I can hear this case" (my thoughts.... what???are you kidding me????no way.....here we go again....)"there are questions that Judge Griffin wanted that are not here" Our attorney thankfully jumps in and gives him the information that would hopefully be sufficient. He says it's not what he would prefer, but go ahead with the hearing - Phew we dodged that bullet.

So next we are asked basic questions like how long have you been married - to which Sean responds 13 years, I had to speak up - 14 years honey!!! so we breezed through the rest with no problems!!!

Then the Judge begins talking about our worst fear - the Northern Cheyenne. He goes into long details about why we are at the Apache court and not the Cheyenne. Again the oh no thoughts begin...He then moves on to should this case be heard in State Court....So we start feeling this is NOT happening today. All this took around 30 minutes - a VERY LONG TIME!!!! Then out of the blue he starts saying it would be in the best interest of the child, baby girl bear, to be with the petitioners. It will be as if they gave birth to her and she will have all rights as a natural birthed child by petitioners. This child has bonded with the family... I grant the petition for adoption. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Tears are flowing, but we are just sitting there somewhat dumbfounded...it took a minute for it to sink in! I then held my baby girl and even though she has always been mine, she was legally mine and it felt awesome!!!!

Kayla didn't quite understand what was going on, so Nana told her did you hear what the Judge said, she said not, so Nana said, Kenna is your sister- she was speechless!!! So priceless to see her little mouth drop!!!

HAPPY GOTCHA DAY KENNA!

Less than 24 hours

Wow - in less than 24 hours Kenna will prayerfully be ours forever!!!

We had an uneventful trip out here - Sean was very nervous, because Kenna does not travel well. She had some fussy times, but overall did great! Our plane left on time and actually arrived 10 minutes early! WooHoo!!

So we arrived at the hotel with a call from the attorney's office. When I contacted them yesterday they still had not received the letter the judge wanted from the Tribe's social services. This letter was to state that they were clearing Kenna to be adopted. Since October 23rd, we have been attempting to get this letter. They kept telling our attorney that they have nothing to do with this case and she kept telling them, then just please put that in writing. FINALLY - with just one day to spare - WE GOT THE CLEARANCE LETTER!!! Our attorney told us we could breathe a little easier! Of course it is still not final, but things look really good!

Thanks again for your prayers, we could not be getting through this without you all!!

With much love~

Countdown begins....10....

In just 10 days we will know if Kenna will be forever ours! I am excited, scared, nervous, thankful, happy, sad...about all emotions you can have run through me- But what covers me is peace - even through the sadness and nervousness...

We know that God is in complete control of Kenna's life. He placed her in our lives for a purpose and we pray that she will continue to be ours. Each day is a gift from God and we have cherished these 21 months with Kenna. We understand that these days may be all God had planned us to have with her - of course we are keeping faith and hope that this will not be so and she will forever more be Kenna Grace Kelley!!!

Please continue to pray for our attorney Diana Montgomery, for safe travels and for the Judge - may he truly put Kenna first!

Our flight leaves on Dec. 8th - Court will be on Dec. 9th at around 4pm est time - please check back here for updates - we will not be posting on facebook until we arrive home!

Thanks for all your prayers, love and support!

Court Date Set!!!

Kenna playing peek-a-boo with momma!

At Stone Mountain's Native American Pow-Wow! This woman had so much knowledge, we are exited to have the opportunity to teach Kenna about her culture!!

WE are excited to announce that we have a Court Date!! As long as our attorney is able to get the letter from the Tribe's Social Sevices - we will be finalizing Kenna's adoption on Dec.9th at 2:30pm (4pm est).

We are at the final step - so hard to believe!

FRUSTRATED can not even begin to describe it

Here is the newest information:

Our attorney arrives to court for our 2pm (5pm est) hearing and finds out that they subpoenaed another lawer that is not in the process anymore so he filed a continuation and once our lawyer explained their error they would not reverse the continuation.

So we are delayed at least 2 more weeks before the review hearing can take place. We don't have a date, but the judge only does these hearings on Wednesdays and he is out next week. So the earliest it could be is the 21st.

We did find out that, although it is incredibly unlikely, the judge could grant our petition for adoption at the review hearing.

Please pray for Judge Griffin and that he will grant the adoption at the review hearing. This process has gone on long enough. Kenna is 19 months old and will be 20 months at the next available hearing.

18 Months

Kenna weighs in at just 19.4 pounds! Still our little peanut! The doctor said she is perfect and growing great on her growth chart!! She's only in the 1st percentile for weight, but since she has always been little, they look at her overall growth and she is just going to be little!!

We finished our home study on September 10th and it arrived in Arizona on September 11th! We assume that the attorney will mail it to the Tribe this week and then we wait to hear back from them with our court date! If all goes well we should be heading to Arizona sometime in October.

Of course we know that Kenna's adoption has not gone smoothly....so we will not be surprised if we don't have a court date next month! We know that God is in total control and that is where we leave it! We have a peace and always have - regardless of the outcome!

Thanks for your continued prayers! We hope to have more information soon!

Love you all!

Getting Closer

We have finally heard from the Tribe and it is official - they need a complete home study!

We are so thankful that our consultant agency is completing our study at a reduce cost and also expediting it! So at least on our side we are rushing things along! Not too much rush, we are making certain that every t is crossed and i dotted!!!

Here are some specific prayer requests:

• Judge Dawson will reside over our case AND GRANT THE ADOPTION!
• The home study will be completed by the end of next week
• We finalize our adoption before Dec. 31st
• Our decision to bring Kayla with us or not - she will be 8 in Dec. and it would be a great learning experience for her to see a real Reservation; however, if the Tribe takes Kenna from us, we don't know how that will affect her.

We so appreciate your prayers!

First Hair Cut

Here is her before shot!!!

Getting ready for the cut

And the beautiful results!!!

Kenna turned 17 months old on the 22nd and on the 25th she got her very first professional hair cut. (mommy cut her hair a few months ago to help even out the ends in the back)

We are still waiting to hear from the Tribe - we have given up on anyone telling us a time frame, because it has NEVER been within their time limit....so we wait and wait and wait.....

Newest Information

It is so hard to believe that Kenna is almost 17 months old!! (I think I say that each month) anyways...

We called the attorney on Monday and they said that our petition was mailed to the Tribe last week. She believes that this process will be longer than 90 days that we were hoping for and that the Tribe WILL want another home study done.

We hope to have more information directly from the Tribe soon...

Still Nothing

Some super cute pictures!

Waiting on the Tribe

We have ALL of our information in to the attorney as of Friday! Delivery confirmation is a wonderful thing!!! So now we wait...our attorney SHOULD have all of our paperwork to the Tribe next week.

Here are some specific prayer requests:
1. For Judge Dawson to reside over this case
2.That the Judge does not need any further information from us that will be an additional cost *like another homestudy
3. Garage sale - Rain date - to do well
4. The Judge will expedite our case and not wait for 90 days.

Thanks for keeping up with our progress! We are praying to be complete soon!

15 Months Old and Kayla's Gotcha Day

Kenna continues to be our little "peanut"! She has weighed in at just 18.7lbs! She is developmentally right on target, she's just petite! She continues to be a joy and makes everyone smile that sees her. She loves to play with her big sister and so far big sister still loves playing with her! She does like more breaks.....

We should have our petition to the Tribe next week! After that the Tribe will have 90 days to schedule our Court Date - so this should all be final no later than September 12th?!? PRAYERFULLY;)

Kayla's GOTCHA DAY was May 31st! We celebrate the day she legally became Kayla Elizabeth Kelley! Her adoption was finalized just 5 months after her birth! This year she received a White Water Season Pass! As you can see from the pictures she was VERY surprised!! What a blessing she continues to be in our lives! She has the sweetest, most giving heart of any little girl I have met! I am so blessed that God choose us to be her parents! WOW! He is SO GOOD!!!

Some news, and Cute Pictures:)

So FINALLY we received word from our attorneys office. But NOT what we wanted to hear! They are hoping to have the petition completed and sent to the Tribe within the next 2 weeks! I'm irritated and wonder what have they been doing since March....but we trust that this is just what has to be done.

Once the Tribe receives the petition, they have 90 days to set our Court date. Our attorney is looking into if they can expedite our case, if this can be done there is a possibility that our hearing could be within one week of them receiving the petition! But either way, we should have our answer no later than the end of August.

We have to bring Kenna with us and typing those words brings tears to my eyes. Please continue to pray for us...there is a REAL possibility that we will come home without our precious daughter (she will ALWAYS be my girl!!) So I can't stay on this anymore...so here are some super cute pictures of my girls!

Love you all and thanks for your many prayers!

BTW - our garage sale is THIS Friday and Saturday! Again we are amazed and awed by all that you have contributed, we will post pictures later:)

More Progress

We received a call today that the birth father's rights are terminated! Although it is tough to think that this man has no clue he even has a daughter,we couldn't be happier that we are one step closer to Kenna being forever our little peanut!!

Here is the little bit of information we have as to the next steps -

Our attorney is getting in touch with the Tribes Social Services. This will help her to understand more of what is needed from us in order to file for finalization of Kenna's adoption.

According to Tribal Laws, once the petition is filed, the adoption should be final within 90 days.

Please be in prayer for these specific requests:
1. Finances - we need for the tribe to accept our homestudy and not require us to have another one done - this is about $1500.
2. We need to raise an additional $2500 for travel expenses - and thankfully we only have to go to Phoenix one time!!
3. For the judge to grant the adoption and all to run VERY smoothly!

Progress

We received notification that on Feb. 27th the petition was filed to terminate the birth father's rights. Great news for us! We will have possibly 2 more weeks before a judge will sign the petition. Everything has been done, so we see no reason for this not to be signed.

After the petition is signed, our attorney will file a motion in Tribal Court for the finalization of Kenna's adoption - our LAST step! (however there may be multiple parts to this last step - we will be treading into unknown territory with the Tribe)

As always thanks so very much for your prayers! They are what keep us going:)

The BIRTHDAY Girl

Kenna is one! So hard to believe - she had much fun at her birthday party and she was Dedicated at Church on her Birthday!

She weights 16lbs 15oz and is 28 1/2 inches long! Still our little peanut:)

Enjoy some fun pictures of our Precious Little Peanut:)

Attorney Hired!!

After 4 months of trying to get things worked out...our 5th and final attorney has FINALLY been paid! She has begun working on our case! We will keep you updated. Our desire to have her finalized before her first birthday won't happen, but that won't keep us from celebrating this weekend her FIRST BIRTHDAY:)

Check back for some cute birthday pictures!

11 months old

It's hard to believe that Kenna is 11 months old now! We are in the beginning stages of planning a first birthday party! She is such a joy! She is trying to stand on her own, she talks up a storm and is just a calm, happy little girl.

Kayla is 7 now and loving her role as big sister still! Once Kenna starts walking, this may change! She's doing well in school, but prefers to be home with mommy! I love that she is my girl still!

Clarity

So today we had a conference call with Jay and Dorothy. Here is where things stand -

1. Diana Montgomery will now be handling the remainder of our adoption.
2. She will file with Gila County the petition to terminate the birthfather's rights.
3. Once the paperwork is submitted it will take at least 20 days possibly(probably) longer for it to be signed and official.
4. When the rights are terminated, Diana will file for our adoption to be finalized. This is an unknown area - we don't know what the judge will want from us. We were told that he would probably want an updated homestudy (more money for us to spend) and possibly more. It is all unknown, so we will just play it by hear and pray that it isn't costly for us to finalize.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. Diana Montgomery's wisdom as she prepares paperwork and works with the State Court and Tribal Court.
2. For her to be able to process our petition's quickly
3. The judge would not want to notify the Northern Cheyenne Tribe
   
4. We will only need to travel to Phoenix on one occassion
5. For our finances.

We are so thankful for all of your prayers! We are getting closer!

Frustration

Yesterday we had a conference call with our prayerfully final attorney, Diana Montgomery. She has all the paperwork ready to have the birth father's rights terminated, yet the agency has not sent her the retainer fee. This was supposed to have been done almost 3 months ago! The agency has not returned any of my phone calls, so we continue to sit and wait.