More Great Pics!!!

Social worker, Anna, was also visiting Eagle's Nest the week of Thanksgiving so Nathan got lots of loving! She got some good pictures of him and even managed to get a picture where you can see his too teeth!!! He looks so good!!! I can't wait to get that sweet boy home!!!

Thanks again Anna for the wonderful pictures!!!!! They are priceless!

See my TWO teeth!!!

Bring on the food!

So Clean!!

Nathan's Thanksgiving and more...

Mommy, come get me!

Deidre and me!

I already have the girls right where I want them;)

I miss my mommy and daddy!

Well, Nathan had a good Thanksgiving week! He was loved on by my friend, Diedre, while she was visiting her daughter, Kendall, for the first time.

She got these pics of him. I was so excited to see him in up out of his crib playing. He looks so good and happy (but I think he still misses us;)!) Thank you so much Diedre for taking time out of your trip to love on my sweet boy and take priceless pictures of him!


A funny story: I ran across these pics on the EN blog after we got home from our trip to visit Nathan. While we were with Nathan, everytime we tried to get him to eat his cereal by mouth- he refused after about 3 bites. I thought the nannies we telling me a fib when they said he ate by mouth, but we kept trying and he kept refusing. So when we got home and I so these pics on the web I just laughed and knew I obviously was not doing something wright! The chunky little boy does eat by mouth, just not for us! We will have to learn the special trick for when he comes home.

See mommy, this is how you do it

I love to eat! See, no mess!

Case Update: As far as we know we are still in PGN which is four weeks now. Please continue to pray we stay in until we are out for good. Hopefully we will here from the lawyer soon that we are still in.

After visiting our precious son, it makes the wait so much harder. I wish so bad these weeks would just fly by. But know God has a plan for our family and he is going to bring Nathan home in his perfect timing.

I am going to post more pictures of the trip soon!

Stephanie and Casey

Our Baby is 5 Months

Today our baby boy is 5 months old. I can not believe it! I wish he was here so we could kiss all over him!!! I miss him so much it hurts!

We love you so much Nathan and pray that God brings you home to us very soon! Happy 5 Months Baby Boy!

We Miss Our Beautiful Baby Boy!

~My Little Turkey~

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. If you are blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving with your family, ENJOY! Make the most of it!!!
God Bless,
The Allums

Meeting our Son...

Well, here is the first slide show of pictures. This is after a long day of travel. We left our house at 4:00am heading to Guatemala to meet our child. We did not actually have him in our arms until 7:30 that night. It took us a while from the airport to the orphanage. There was confusion with the driver who was taking us. He did not know there was 3 of us, so we had to squeeze into his car with our 6 BIG pieces of luggage, 2 of which were on our laps, for about a 40 minute ride until we could meet his cousin with the van for the rest of the trip.
Once we got back on the road, which is a terrible ride, lots of curves and bumps up a mountain road, we were about 40 minutes from our destination and we were stopped. Apparently in Guatemala when they are doing road construction, instead of direction traffic around the construction, they just stop all traffic and work on the roads. So there we were, sitting in the mountains of Guatemala snacking on what little food we had surrounded by the locals trying to sell us stuff waiting for about 45 minutes until we could continue our journey.
We finally arrived safely to Eagle's Nest and met our son, Nathan for the first time. It was so worth all the stress and pain of traveling for the day. I would do it all over again just to hold him!
Seeing him for the first time is indescribable! He was and is perfect. He was not scared at all. He just looked up at us with those big brown eyes wondering who in the world we were. We were in love the moment we saw him and held him. It was so surreal. I could not believe we had actually traveled this far and were at Eagle's Nest, the place I have only heard of and seen pictures. God is so good!

Well, here is day/night one with our son. More pics and stories to come! Enjoy...

Settling in...

Well, we have been home since late Friday night. Brock was sooooo excited to finally have us home. He was exhausted from his week of playing with Ruth, Ellie and Maggie!

We are totally exhausted from our trip! We have been trying to catch up on some much needed sleep before the week starts. So far neither one of us are feeling sick from the trip, but I have a feeling at least one of us will end up with Nathan's cold.

We miss that little guy so much. Our lives are forever changed. I will never be able to describe to you what a life changing experience it was visiting Guatemala. We are such a spoiled people!

Well, here are a few more pics from the trip! Isn't he just Gorgeous!!! His eyes just amaze me!

Please Lord bring him home fast!

Sweet dreams... Longest eyelashes ever!!!

Mommy and Me

Daddy and Me

Gammie and Me

Our gift of the rainbow...

We Miss Him!!!

Well, we had to leave our beautiful baby boy this afternoon. We handed him back over to his nanny at 1:50pm this afternoon and headed back to Guatemala City. That is the hardest thing we have ever had to do. I did not know if I was going to be able to physically give him back-Only by the Grace of God and knowing that I will be back soon to get him. It was so hard leaving him, especially with him being sick and cutting teeth.

We are so thankful for the time we had with him and would not give anything for it. We probably have at least a couple thousand of pictures to document the week and a couple of hours of video. We are all exhausted physically and emotionally. Thank you for the prayers and support. We have really felt them this week.

This morning as we were preparing to bath Nathan for the last time, we were standing at the sink and out the window was a big, beautiful rainbow. We trust God and his promises and we know His plan is perfect and he will unite us back with Nathan in His perfect timing.

Please continue to pray for Nathan that he will get well and adjust being back in the Children's home. Also, continue to pray for us as we travel tomorrow. Our flight leaves at 1:58pm. And please pray that we can adjust being away from Nathan. It is not going to be easy not sleeping with the precious baby tonight.

We are here!!!!!!

Well, we are here! We made it on Saturday after a long day of travel. It took us longer than expected (story to come later). We finally got to the Children’s home around 6:15. We actually met Nathan for the first time about 7:20- WOW, what an indescribable experience!!! I knew right away it was him! He is perfect!!! He is definitely not starving;) I was afraid the clothes I brought would not fit. I am going to have to start buying bigger clothes. He has a little cold right now and is also cutting his first tooth-Thank you Lord for letting us be here for one of his ‘first’s”!
We are still in shock that we are here. Please continue to pray for us. Also pray that Nathan will get better. There seems to be a lot of babies with colds at the orphanage. As far as us, we are still healthy, just extremely tired, but loving it!!

As far as all my Guatemala Friends, your babies are precious. I took the packages to them yesterday. The "mama's" do such a good job with all the little ones.

Sorry, but no pictures yet. I am having problems posting pics. It takes forever!!! I will try later, but right now I am going to get back to Nathan!!!
We love you all and feel all your prayers!!!!
Us!

Almost ready...

We are almost completely packed. Just getting last minute things done. We just got back from taking Brock to my Dad and Kathy's house. He is staying with them for the weekend then staying with our friends, the Ryle's, until we get back. It was very sad to leave him but I know he will be very well taken care of, especially if they follow the "Brock Manual" ;)

Thank you for the prayers!! Please continue to pray for us as we have a long day of travel tomorrow. We are overflowing with so many different emotions. This has been a wild week and it is only going to get wilder!! We will be meeting our son for the first time probably around 5-6pm tomorrow- That is so hard to wrap my brain around- Lord help me!

Well, gotta get busy and get to bed-2:30am is not far away. Look for a post Sunday or Monday letting you know we made it down there. We are going to try! Love to you all!!!!!!
Stephanie and Casey

Kick Out...

Well, the dreaded kick out came and went. We were kicked out and resubmitted on then 31st of October. We are not exactly sure what the problem was. More than likely it was on the Guate side, probably with the birth mother's documents.

Anyway, this is a HUGE disappointment! We are still trying to take this news in and accept the fact that Nathan will be home later than anticipated. We were so hoping for a Christmas present of being out of PGN! Now I just do not want anymore kick outs!!! If no more kick outs, we will probably not be out of PGN till right after the first of the year, which puts Nathan coming home sometime in February.



Some good news... Guatemala has decide to push the date of closing down the adoption process to become Hague compliant to April 1, 2008 instead of Jan 1, 2008 so this is great considering we will now go into the new year with our case. Thank God for this good news.


You give and take away...
You give and take away...
My heart will choose to say...
Lord blessed be your name

4 weeks

4 WEEKS IN PGN...
We are waiting to here from our social worker on our status. We should here this week sometime. We are praying we are still in PGN and have no "Kick outs". Please continue to pray for our case and that our paper work moves quickly through PGN and without delay so Nathan can soon be home with us FOREVER!!!

I will let you know when we here....

Exhausted from packing...

As you can tell, we are ALL exhausted from the packing for the trip!

Well, we are counting down the days. We are past ready to meet our son for the first time!!! I can not explain the mix of emotions we are feeling. This moment has been coming for such a long time it is so hard to believe it is actually about to happen in just a few days!!

How to pray for us this week and next:

~First of all, pray that we trust God and know that He is in complete control

~Pray that we make it through this week without becoming completely exhausted or sick

~Pray that we get everything pack and we do not forget important items

~Pray for a safe flight (3hr 45min- we will drive to ATL- and direct flight to Guatemala)

~Pray for safety from Guatemala airport to orphanage (Americans can be a target for crime)

~Pray that we will instantly bond with Nathan

~Pray that we will not think about having to leave until the moment comes

~Pray that we all stay healthy while in Guatemala

~Pray for a safe return home

We will have tons of video and photos to share when we get back!!!

Thank you to those of you who have donated items for the orphanage. I know they will be so grateful!!!

Once again, thank you for your love and support during this journey. We could not do it without your prayers.

Love,

Stephanie and Casey