It's a Boy!

Well, he's here! Stephanie and I are excited to let you all know that we have received and accepted a referral! I’ll just go ahead and give you what you want, his stats.

Birthdate: March 24, 2007

Weight at birth: 7lb 8oz

Given Name: Mauro Jose Lopez Martinez

Name: Joseph Cooper Allums


Here is how it happened. We received the call on Thursday, June 7th and all of his information that evening. After talking and praying, we began telling our family over the weekend. I apologize that we were not able to tell you sooner, but we thought it might be a good idea to tell our parents and family prior to making the announcement. We officially accepted the referral on following Monday.

Now let me attempt to answer some of your likely questions.

From this point, it will likely be between 6 to 8 months before we can bring him home. We will receive monthly updates which include weight and length measurements along with new pictures. Speaking of pictures, you are probably wandering why we haven't posted any. Well, let me try to explain. Until we received his pictures with his referral, we assumed we would be posting pictures as soon as we received them. After we accepted the referral, however, we both began to feel differently. I know this is probably irrational and difficult to understand, but since he's not here with us, the closest thing we can do is show our pictures of him to people in person. This seems to be rather therapeutic, because we get very excited when we can show off his pictures to people. And we will need all of the thearpy we can get to make it through the next 6 - 8 months. As the process continues, we may change our mind, but for now I hope that you all understand or at least respect our decision to not post his picture. Now, when you see us in person, you will be forced to look at every one of his pictures!

Many of you are probably wandering about his name. Stephanie and I have always liked the name Cooper, so we decided to incorporate part of his given name, Jose, which is Spanish for Joseph.

Activity in the process seems to move in waves and this was a big one. Now we will move back into a period of waiting for the process to move forward in Guatemala.

God has been so good to us, so please join us in thanking and praising Him for his blessings and faithfulness. Also, please continue to pray for our son and that the process will move swiftly and without delay. Everyday the process is delayed is another day we will not be able to spend with him and watch him grow up.

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, and support you have provided throughout this process. You do not know how much that has encouraged and lifted our spirits.


Casey and Stephanie