Today is your day.

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

Actually, a week ago today was her day - Halle's day, that is. Last Saturday, my mom, Tekia, and I (the boys were at an Arkansas game) went downtown with Niva Grace (aka Halle), her family, and friends for her big day - adoption day! It was, in fact, National Adoption Day, a Saturday on which courtrooms all across the country were open to finalize the adoptions of 4500 foster children! Good day.

Here are Niva Grace and her mom, sister, and grandparents with the judge who finalized her adoption (and who also finalized Tekia's adoption almost six years ago).

My mom and I had never been to court on National Adoption Day before, and we very much enjoyed getting to witness it all. Adoptions are rather anticlimactic - at least the court room part of them is - but seeing so many at once was exciting. I believe they were doing about thirty adoptions in Memphis, and we saw the first six or so, starting with Niva Grace's. We just sat and watched as family after family was declared forever, and it was awesome.

The picture below is of people who are total strangers to me. I took it because I like them - or at least I think I do. The father of this family is on the stand, telling the attorney and judge that he promises to be a real dad to the son he is adopting. His newly adopted son is sitting in the front row of seats. I'm not sure which one he is, though, because they are all his sons. The man on the stand is the single adoptive father to those six adolescent boys sitting there. Wow.


Anyway, back to the star of the day. She really was the star. If you get the Sunday paper here, this week you might've noticed a stunningly beautiful little cover girl on the front page of the Local News section. That would be Niva Grace. If you don't get the paper, you can see the photo of N.G. and her new mom here. I'll see if I can get you an autographed copy when the star learns how to write.

Side note: Don't get confused and look for this picture on the very front page of the paper - that space was reserved for an article about animals being rescued. The article (which was actually not an article at all - just a caption under the photo) about children being rescued was a few sections back. Really. Now y'all know I'm all for animals being rescued. You're talking to the girl who recently syringe-fed puppy formula laced with crushed-up Tums to a calcium-depleted baby squirrel. And the girl who once brought home a wild, orphaned baby bunny and was once known to cook green peas for her spoiled betta fish. But I'm still a little partial to human children, particularly those who need rescuing, and I wish The Commercial Appeal and other media outlets shared my sentiments. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

After court, we went to Niva Grace's Adoption Day party, where we ate, talked, and watched N.G. open and play with her presents. Below is Niva Grace opening presents with her sister Cierra and mom Cande.

I have to admit that Mom's gift was her favorite. She dragged that phone around the rest of the morning! You may recognize her dress. It was her Easter dress that my mom made for her.

Love this girl. :-)

Kia made sure to get in some holding time with both baby girls.
This was Jordan's first big outing and she spent pretty much all of it sleeping. Dreaming of her big day, perhaps? And, yes, she is flipping off the camera in this picture. On second thought, maybe that's not what she's dreaming about . . .
All that baby-holding wore this girl out!

We are so blessed to still be able to be a part of Niva Grace's life and were so happy to be there with her and her family on her special day. I know many of you have prayed for this sweet girl right along with us, and for that I thank you. Please don't feel you have to stop now. :-)

So . . .
be your name Buxbaum Halle or Bixby Niva, or Bray Grace
or Mordecai Ali van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to great places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So . . . get on your way!

We love you, sweet girl!

P.S. For those of you who aren't Dr. Seuss fans like me, the italicized quotes at the beginning and end of this post are from Oh, the Places You'll Go!, a book I read to Niva Grace almost daily during her seven months with us.

the boogie-woogie piano teacher

If you want to see something awesome, you should probably click here. There you will find my sister-in-law's blog, which is where you will find a video of my nephew Hunter starring as the "boogie-woogie piano teacher" in his school program. And that is awesome - not just in an oh-she-just-thinks-it's-cute-cause-she's-his-aunt kind of a way, but in a wow-that-kid's-really-cool-and-I-wish-he-were-my-nephew kind of way. Trust me.

So, about this baby . . .

Sorry I've been a slacker. Now that we've had this baby for well over a week, perhaps I should tell a little bit more about her.

Two weeks ago today, sweet baby Jordan was born. She weighed 5 pounds, 14 ounces, and was 19.5 inches long.


Shortly after Jordan's birth, her mother expressed a desire to place her baby for adoption through Agape. Thus, the hospital social worker contacted Claire, an Agape case worker whom you've probably read about here before, Claire contacted us (and by "us", I mean, my mom and me. Dad and kids were informed later - surprise, Dad!), and we said yes and began pulling out all our pink. :-)

Some other things happened that I'm not going to blog about right now (maybe I'll tell you when you're older . . . ), and a few days later my mom and Claire came to the hospital to pick up Miss Jordan. I was already at the hospital - getting paid, which was a nice perk. Did I mention that Jordan was born at my hospital? Well, she was. That part was fun for me. My co-workers were kind enough to "baby-sit" my kiddos for me while I went to the well baby nursery to meet Jordan and take all the necessary "going home" photos, such as the ones that follow.

If she has enough notice, my mom tries to make something special for each of our babies to wear home from the hospital. We didn't have enough notice with Jordan. But, ironically, we had several weeks' notice about a different baby girl who was supposed to come home a couple of days before Jordan (obviously things changed with that case). So Jordan had a special dress and bracelet after all. Here she is all ready to come home!

Claire and Jordan

Jordan and me (Mom's a party pooper and didn't want her picture taken)

So now we're home with a Jordan. And, yes, if anyone's keeping count, this does happen to be our second Jordan. Jordan #1 can be seen here.

And maybe we've had a photo shoot. Or two.


Please keep Jordan, her mother, and all involved in her case in your prayers. I'm not sure exactly what led Jordan's mom to consider adoption for her baby, but I feel certain that she loves Jordan and wants to do what's best for her. I know this is a decision that she isn't making lightly. Please pray God will give her guidance, wisdom, and peace, and that He will place Jordan exactly where He wants her, whether that place is with her birth mother or with an adoptive family.

a post-HeartLight post (with a surprise ending)

So, basically, HeartLight was awesome. If you were there, you already know that. If you weren't, I'm sorry you missed out on a pretty much amazing evening. I took some pictures for you, though. I know you want to see.

How great does the dining room look? I don't know if you can see the Powerlines overhead, but they're there and they're great.

This year's HeartLight included a "tour of Memphis", which allowed us to hear real stories of real people living in poverty in our city. The sets were built and decorated by various churches, and actors from Hattiloo Theatre volunteered their time and talents to help tell our stories. The set below was my mom's - aka the "grandmother's house."
And this was our grandmother, who was wonderful. All of the actors were wonderful!
A scene from a public health clinic . . .
. . . another from a jail . . .

. . . and another from a bus stop.
In the center of all these scenes was Babyland.



Mayor Wharton, his wife Ruby, and their personal tour guide and new friend, Tamara, leaving the bus stop scene

After the tour, guests entered the reflection hall, which was lined with scriptures, photos of children served by Agape, and prayer requests from people all over Memphis.

Next was a program in the amphitheater, where we heard great music from my friends Jeremy and Sarah and watched my friend Tim paint (with a little help from some Agape kids).

And then my preacher and friend Josh delivered a message which reminded us that every life in Memphis is precious and worth redeeming.

Then we watched a few videos (awesome videos, by the way!) and heard from Marka, David, and a little boy named Thomas.

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of the response hall, which was filled with booths and representatives from Agape and other agencies in Memphis who are working hard to restore hope to the hopeless in our community.

All in all, it really was an amazing evening at the Agricenter, and I believe that God used it to help all of us who attended see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and there is hope for Memphis.

And, little did we know, that not too far from there was a young woman who was in desperate need of the hope that Agape has to offer. While we were eating and visiting and learning how to bring light to the darkness in our city, she was giving birth to a baby girl that she did not feel prepared to parent.


Do I really need to tell you what happened next? Yes, this baby lives at our house now, at least for few days, anyway. This is Jordan. I'll post more about her later, but, for now, I just want to ask you to join me in praying for this sweet girl and for her mother, as she tries to make the right decisions regarding Jordan's future.

"Teacher, the squirrel ate my homework."

Only in this family could a statement like that actually ring true.