Happy 2nd Birthday Isaac

Isaac had an awesome birthday party at Money Business. Everyone, both young and old, had a great time!!
Caroline and JakeWAY TO GO MATT!!
Jamie...not so good!

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D-O-N-E

Today I mailed off the last piece of paperwork for adoption!!! Each step comes with paperwork and we've reached that final step. We are so excited to begin the next step...the home study. Hopefully that will be scheduled soon and we will get the phone call letting us know that we an approved family for adoption.
There are still several more steps to take but at least we can now say that we are on to the next step!!

Thanks for all of the prayers and support from everybody!!!
We love you all!!!

Update on Adoption

We are on the final part of the adoption process. Our next step is the homestudy and then we are free to be cleared for adoption.

Will you please pray for...
-our hearts as well as the heart of our new child for this upcoming change. This will be another move/life that our child will have to go through. It is not easy for a small child to have to continue to move to different places, to loose all friends and family that they have grown to know.
-our extended family and all who will be changed by this. We pray that their hearts open to our son that will be entering their lives as well.
-Jake!! This will be such a big change for a 4 year old and the last thing we want to do is cause him any pain or difficulty with any of this. Each night Jake prays for his new brother and for him to be the best big brother ever. We are taking steps in preparing Jake but we really want to do whatever possible for this to be a positive change in his life.
-finances. Jamie is currently in school and will enter nursing school in the fall. We are looking towards having only 1 income while adding a new member to our family. We started the process of adoption prior to Jamie returning to school. We know our son is out there and couldn't imagine meeting him and not having a way to provide for him. We pray that doors will open for ways to provide as we go through this chapter of our lives.
-Jamie in school. Jamie will continue to be in school for a while. He is currently working towards his BSN and then will continue with school until he becomes a Nurse Practitioner. He has to study a lot while struggling to find ways to still provide for his family financially and with his time. Right now he is working part-time and going to school full time but is currently looking for something that will allow him to work when he begins nursing school (basically offering weekend hours). We've been looking but so far haven't found anything.

We are starting the process of changing Jake's room...which seems like so much to do. We are looking for twin beds for the boys so they will be able to stay together (if that's what they want. Jake is definitely on board for that.). Please let me know if anyone might know of twin anything...headboards, mattresses, frame. I will have a futon/bunkbed that I will be able to trade.

Thanks so much for your prayers!! We are really excited and can't wait to find our son that is out there waiting for us to bring him home.

A Day in Charlotte

There was no daycare in Charlotte today so Suzanne and I volunteered to keep all of the 'charlotte kids'. We love each one and had such a fun day.

My favorite part was getting to look in the back of the car and seeing this image. SO PRECIOUS!!

Brecken, Jake, Emily, Will and Jack

Our favorite kids CD is the CD we got from Vacation Bible School. Here is a preview to the song Y-E-S

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We took the kids to Chick-fil-a for lunch and to play on the playground...oh yeah, and some ice cream!The kids had such a great time getting to play together.
The view from above...We were happy to get to hang out with Aspen.
Jake was so tired by the time we got home and Kipper was SO excited to finally have him home.

Eliza Kate Rikard

IT'S A GIRL!!!
Eliza Kate is here!!! We are so excited to get to know the newest member of the Rikard family. Eliza was named after her grandmama ELIZAbeth KAThEryn.

Congratulations Matt, Michelle, and Isaac

Jake's thoughts about being a Big Brother...

As many of you know, Jamie, Jake, and I are going to add to our family through adoption, hopefully a boy Jake's age. It's something that Jamie and I talked about even before getting married. We're about half way through the process and so excited for what's to come. We talk to Jake about it often and he knows that he will be the brother. Yesterday our next door neighbor delivered a beautiful baby girl. That means Jake's best friend Isaac is a Big Brother. All Jake has been talking about since we told him Isaac's sister was born was what a great Big Brother he is going to be. Here is a conversation between Jake and his older friend Carson.

Jake: "I'm gonna get a baby brother"
Carson: "Really? When?"
Jake: "When we find one."


...PRICELESS...