Baby Grace

Hi Friends-

Many of you have been praying for my friends Ginger and Adam Hayes ever since I posted the blog about their pregnancy. I wanted to give you an update today.

Ginger went in for a planned c-section this morning at 10am. She delivered Grace without any problems for her. Grace lived for about an hour in both of her parents' arms.

I spoke with Ginger last night and she said that she and her family had spent most of the night in prayer with friends and their pastor. She said they were at peace going into today's delivery. Gin wanted a longer time with her today, but I know she is very grateful for the time she was able to hold her precious gift.

The family has planned for the funeral to be either Saturday or Monday depending on when Ginger is released from the hospital.

Please keep this family in your prayers as they celebrate the life as well as grieve the loss of their daughter.

Trying to Crawl

Karis is having a really great time moving across the floor. I can't believe she is getting so big. We don't know what we are going to do when she actually starts crawling. She is already getting into things she is not supposed to, like my computer cord. She likes crawling towards me and her Daddy and all things shiny. Christmas should be a lot of fun!!

Gotcha Day

Karis's Gotcha Day went really well. We began the day by having a good breakfast of formula and cereal and then we went to visit some friends at North Greenville University. We went back to our friends home and Karis took a nap while Mom and Dad ate lunch. We then got into the car and went to the court house at 2pm and waited until 3pm for the judge to hear our case. While waiting, we talked with the Guardian et litem and he played with Karis. He commented many times that she seemed to be a very happy baby. Mom and Dad signed a load of paper work and then we walked into the court room. The judge heard both mine and Page's answers to our lawyer's questions and was about to award us custody when he remembered that he had forgotten to allow the Guardian et litem to "earn his money". The guardian was a rather funny man and said that "who was he to tell a Marriage and Family Therapist whether she was doing a good job or not." The judge then declared that Page and I were the legal guardians and that the adoption was granted.

Both Page and I were a little choked up at that weight of the decision that was just granted to us. Most parents do not have parenthood granted to them because once a person becomes pregnant, that person is then a parent. With us it was a little different. We were chosen for this child by God and we were given the opportunity to be obedient to God by choosing Karis before she was even born. However, that obedience did not make us her parents immediately. We were very aware of the fact that our adoption was not final until the judge gave us those rights and priveledges. We were very aware that something could go wrong and she would no longer be in our home. God taught me a lesson through this process. Our children are not ours but Gods. He allows us the awesome opportunity to raise them and love them, but we are never promised tomorrow with them. We are to raise them each day as though it were the last. We may only have the few months prior to delivery, a few months after, years, or even a life time. Only God knows.

I encourage each of you parents to fight the good fight when it comes to being parents. Page and I may be new at this, but we are very aware of the fight that Satan puts up for our children. We must be willing to take the time and energy it takes to graciously raise our children for however long God allows them to remain in our home.

Soon to come.... "Gotcha Day!"

Karis' adoption will be final on Monday around 2:30pm. We will take pictures and let you all know about this wonderful new adventure we will take at the court house on Monday.

We are so excited about Karis' "Gotcha Day!"

We promise to post pics soon after the hearing.

Karis's Enjoying Her Cereal

I have tried cereal several times before today, but it never tasted this good!

This was supposed to be the last picture of me all cleaned up, but Mom is still trying to figure out how to work this thing called a blog.

I know that the cereal is supposed to go in my mouth, but is was so much more fun to smear it on my face and.....

my toes added so much flavor to the cereal, I couldn't stop myself from sucking on them.
We had a great cereal day today. Looking forward to many more days of cereal to come.

Karis Talking

I taped this a few days ago. Karis has a tendency to get loud right before she gets fussy and ready for bed. This morning was no exception. I thought I would get her on tape and let everyone hear her. Hope you enjoy.


She has started doing some new things. As you saw in the video she enjoys spitting and screaming. She also enjoys playing with toys while laying on her stomach. She is rolling over from her back to stomach and stomach to back. When she wakes up in the mornings (if she has had enough sleep) she will lay in her bed and talk to her hands. I walked in one morning and she was laying with her head in the corner, on hand was hanging out the front of the crib and the other was hanging out of the side of the crib. She was facing the hand at the front of the crib and she was waving to her self and studying her hands.

She went this week to the doctor for her 4 month check-up (even though today she is five months old). She weighs a hefty 16 lbs and is only 25 inches long. The doctor said it was nothing to worry about, but that she was in the 90th percentile range for her weight. We are so proud!!! We are saying that she needs to grow into all those rolls. She is a very healthy baby.

She is also extremely happy. During her awake times she laughs and plays, talks and sings. She likes to read with me while we read her books. She will make what I call the "uhhhhh" noise in different pitches while we read. She sometimes does this while we are singing too and it is absolutely precious. The first time she did it I cried because I realized, in her own little way, she was singing with me. I kind of wonder if that is how God feels (in a small way) when we sing to Him. He must have this amazing voice which makes our voices seem like "uhhhh" noises to Him. It's just a thought. All I do know is that it touched my heart in a way that nothing else has.

Okay, this posting has gone on long enough. Hope you enjoy the update on our munchkin.

NEW PICS

I help Dad with his dissertation. He sure can use it!!
I get a little bored though! :-)

I am a very strong girl. I am scooting all over the place.

These cousins love each other very much! They are also big Georgia fans!!
GO DAWGS!!!

Karis slept at the beach. She had a good time though.

I am such a big girl sitting in my bumbo seat!

Karis and Mom getting ready for bed!! We enjoy cuddling!

I am finished writing!!

I am writing to let everyone know that I have finished writing my dissertation. I have a few revisions I need to make, but for the most part I am done. I cannot tell you how good it feels to not have that thing hanging over my head. I will turn it in on October 1st and hopefully defend sometime in the later part of October.

Page will not be graduating this December so I will actually get to be a Doctor before he is. I will be enjoying the title of Dr. and Mr. Brooks!! I think it will be the only time I will be first in the title.

We are getting adjusted to living back in New Orleans. I am sitting here watching the Saints play. I enjoyed watching the Dogs beat Alabama on Saturday better. I have really enjoyed being able to watch a little football rather than being so busy writing.

Karis is doing really well. She is getting so big. She will be 5 months old on the 28th. Her mother can't believe she is so big. We will be going back to SC for the final adoption hearing on the 29th of October. Please keep all of that in your prayers. We are expecting everything to go well, but Satan likes to play with things that look easy sometimes.

I am adding some new pics of Karis. I hope you all enjoy them.

Pictures of Karis

I have had many of you wonderful friends, who shall remain nameless, yelling at me because I have not posted any more pictures of our precious little girl. In my defense, I have been a litte busy trying to unpack, work on my dissertation, entertain family and friends who have come for a visit, and be a mom. I realize that there is no excuse, because she is so cute. Everyone should be able to see pictures any time they want to. I do apologize. :-)









We are doing well. We are all adjusting to this incredibly hot weather. If I was in the mountains I would be much cooler at this moment. However, I am not. I am in what feels like 110 degrees of moist air. Don't all of you who used to live here want to move back and join me in this sauna?






God has been very good to us. We have seen Him answer many prayers. Page and I are finally adjusting to our new roles and Karis is making my job as a Mom easy. She sleeps through the night. She is so happy when she is awake. She talks all the time and is content to play by herself when Mom needs to fold clothes or work on something. If I knew that I could get a bunch of babies like her, I would have a house full of them. She is wonderful.

Thank you all for praying for us.

I do have a prayer request, not for me, but for one of my dear friends. My college roommate (Ginger) and her husband (Adam) are 5 months into their first pregnancy. She found out a little over a week ago that the baby (Grace Elizabeth) is not developing correctly and will not survive for very long once she is born. I know that many of you are prayer warriors and so I am asking that you lift up this precious family to the Lord. Ginger told me as soon as she found out she was pregnant that she gave the baby back to the Lord and prayed that her baby's life would be used to honor and glorify Him. She is continuing to pray that same prayer and is adding that Grace will not suffer. They have hope that God can heal Grace because He is the Great Physician. They know, however, that God's will is perfect and that He will allow whatever brings Him the most glory. God told us to ask for anything in His name. I am asking all of you to pray that God would heal baby Grace. Thanks for the prayers I know that all of you will lift up.

Has It Been A Month?

Wow! I cannot believe it has been a month since my last post. We have been so busy that I feel as though I have been trying to keep my head above water.

Karis and I moved to New Orleans 4 weeks ago. My father and I painted the top three rooms in our new home during the first week that we were here. My mother had the wonderful experience of taking care of her new granddaughter for the week. I think she thoroughly enjoyed it.

The second week our furniture came and we begin the incredible task of unpacking all the boxes. We have decided that having someone else pack our stuff is great in ways and really frustrating in others. We don't know what is in each box and sometimes the labels are a little missleading.

The third week Page, Karis, and I went to Ridgecrest so that Page could teach a class on Islam. We went to get a lot of work done on our dissertations, however, God had other plans. We did get work done, but God gave us some really great opportunities to share about Karis' adoption. We had many conversations with parents who were wanting to adopt and wanted to ask us questions about the process for us. We were so greatful for the opportunities God allowed us to have during this week.

We finally got back home during this last week. We have continued to unpack, hang blinds, move furniture around (because you know us girls, we have to see it in order to decide whether we like it :-)), and just get settled. We are very glad to be back in New Orleans. We feel, in a way, that we are back home. The only large adjustment that we have had is our home roles. Page and I are getting use to me being the stay at home wife and mom and Page working only 30 to 40 hours a week. Please pray that we see these new transitions as ways that molding us into His image. It is very easy for us to take out our frustrations on each other rather than working together to move through the change.

Hopefully, I will have new pics for you soon. My camera battery went dead and I have not had a chance to hunt down a new one. (special kind..of course) Karis is now sitting up pretty well in her bumbo seat. She is smiling all the time for people that she recognizes. She will smile a little for people she does not know. She is sleeping through the night and being a complete blessing to her mom and dad. We are having so much fun! I promise to upload pics soon.

Life in Limbo

Have any of you ever felt like you were living in between two or more places? Have you ever felt like you have finished your life in one place and you want to begin you life in another, yet you are still stuck in the first place? I am in this position at this moment. Page and I call it limbo, living in two different places. Your body is in one place, but your mind is in another place.

For those of you who do not know, Page, Karis and I are moving back to New Orleans this coming week. Page is taking a position at New Orleans Seminary as a Professor of Theology and Islamic Studies. I am taking a position as Mommy. We will both finish our PhD's in October and graduate in December.

I do not have to pack up anything in my house because the wonderful moving company is doing that for me. I look around this living room and thank God that I do not have to pack any of it. I do, however, get the blessing of traveling with my 2 month old down to New Orleans. I am very fortunate to have my mother traveling with me for at least half of the trip. My car will be packed to the gills with baby stuff. How do they acquire so much stuff? It is amazing to me that they need all this stuff, but all the "experts" tell you they do, so here we are.

So, I leave Sunday to travel to AL and then on to NOLA on Monday. I feel as though I have been living in NOLA for the past few weeks. My mind has been traveling down there quite often. I wonder how my life will be different from the last time we lived there. I also want my life, in a way, to have some of the same aspects of life that I remember so fondly from before. I wonder if the whole situation will be similar to seeing friends that I have not seen in a while. I get a little nervous everytime I spend time with a friend I have not seen in a while. Will she be the same as I remember her? Will we get along as well as we did before? Have we both changed so much that we do not have anything in common? I go through this litany of questions over and over in my mind making the slight nervousness I had before turn into full blown worry. Then I meet her at the airport and we begin a conversation that lasts the entire time she is here. There is no awkwardness nor is there any pretension. Our friendship is the same, but we are in a different time and a different place. I have a feeling that my relationship with NOLA will be the same. We are old friends. We may have some bumps in the road, but with the Lord's help we will get through whatever hurdles (or potholes) are before us.

New Orleans, Here we come!

Family Reunion

Page and I have had the pleasure of learning a lot about babies over the past few weeks. Karis is teaching us so much. I am going to have many new things to share in my Human Growth & Development class, if I ever get the chance to teach it again.

One of the things that I have learned is that babies fix their eyes on a person in order to get to know him or her. Page has been gone for the past two weeks to Annual Training for the National Guard. He came back on Friday, and Karis has had eyes only for her Daddy. She has been watching him and listening to him as he feeds her and plays with her.

Again, God has reminded me that we should do the same thing to Him that Karis is doing to Page. Karis learns more about her Daddy by watching him and listening to him. She is learning about his personality as well as his character as she spends time with him. The same is true in our relationships with God. Many times we miss our time with him or we neglect our time with Him. By spending time with Him and fixing our eyes on Him we are able to rekindle that relationship and get to know God even more. We are able to get to know His character and His faithfulness. The more we stare the more we know. I guess this situation is the only one in which staring would not be impolite.

Dedication

We had the wonderful pleasure of dedicating Karis back to the Lord yesterday. Page was able to come home from drill for a day so he came back Saturday night and was able to go to church with us on Sunday. We went back to First Baptist Spartanburg for our last service with this precious congregation that welcomed us and has loved on us for the past 2 years. Karis slept through the service and was very good. She worshipped God while dreaming. ( She likes to raise her hands while she sleeps).

At the end of the service Dr. Wilton called us up on stage. He prayed for both Page and I as parents that God would lead us and give us wisdom. He then took Karis and prayed blessings over her as she grew. He prayed that she would come to a saving knowledge of God at an early age and that she would have a heart that seeks after Him.

For you women out there, Karis wore a very pretty white dress with while booties and a white hair bow. I can actually clip it in her hair. No toothpaste needed for this girl. She was so cute.

Page and I realized back at the beginning of this journey that Karis, or any child that God blesses us with, belong to God. We have been give children to disciple and raise for the Lord. They are not and never will be ours. We have them on loan for the time that God sees fit to loan them to us. He has created them for a purpose and has given us the opportunity to teach them the things He has taught us. We are very excited to see the plans that God has for Karis. He has many plans to prosper and give her hope and a future. Aren't we the blessed ones to be apart of it all.

Going Home

Karis and I have spent the last week in Tifton, GA. For those of you who do not know where it is, think way down south. A place where the temperature stays around 100 and the gnats are plentiful. A place that is completely flat and the landscape is rows and rows of cotton, tobacco, and peaches (and maybe a few peanuts here and there). A place that hales sweet tea as its drink of choice and bar-b-que as a staple.

My parents have called Tifton home for well over 10 years. It is the place I grew up and graduated from high school. Karis has spent the last week getting to know her family a little better. She spent a great deal of time with her 2 year old cousin Anyston who thinks that Karis is her baby. She wanted to "hold the baby" most of the time and loved kissing Cousin Karis. We also spent time with her Great Grandma and BigPa and Mema as well as her 3 week old baby cousin Jason and his family. We had a wonderful time.

We head back tomorrow on the 6 hour trip that will probably take 8 or more. It is amazing how much more time it takes when you are traveling with an infant. If you think about it, please keep us in your prayers.

Daddy (Page) has been at annual training for the past week, but is on leave for Saturday and Sunday. We are very excited about seeing him. He will go back on Sunday afternoon for his second week.

God is so good about slowing me down. Karis has brought many joys and lessons into my life. One of the lessons she is teaching me is that I need to slow down and enjoy the ride. If I try to hurry I will miss her smile or coo or cute facial expression. I have found that my relationship with God is like that many times. He is not so much interested in me getting to the destination as He is me slowing down and learning what He is teaching me on the way. This week I have spent much time with people I have not had a chance to ever sit down and talk with for an extended length of time. If Karis had not been taking a nap or needed feeding, I probably would not have taken the time to sit and talk with these individuals in the way I needed too. Isn't it just like God to use a baby to teach me a lesson. I have a feeling I am in for many more of those lessons through this child. Oh may my prayer always be as Samuel's was, "Speak Lord, Your servant is listening." I hope your's is the same.

The Great Adventure

I have come to the conclusion that our lives are one BIG ADVENTURE made up of smaller ones. I would say that when Page and I married we had no idea the adventures God would allow us to take. We have married, almost completed PhDs, moved almost 2 times, joined the National Guard (when he joined, we joined :-)), tried to adopt two children and successfully adopted one, worked what seems a million jobs, and are finally moving back to where the adventure first started for us, New Orleans.

These adventures have not been easy for us. We have been through our share of heart ache, but we would not have had it any other way. Through the experiences God has grown us in our faith and commitment to Him as well as to each other.

Our most recent adventure has been the adoption of our daughter, Karis Esperanza Brooks. We had the blessing of picking her up from the hospital two days after her birthday (April 28) and we have watched her grow like a weed ever since. She has already taught us more about love and sacrifice than we could ever have imagined. Page and I could not love her any more if we had birthed her ourselves. I will have to blog about her adoption some other time, but to give you the very short version, we could not have asked for a more perfect adoption story. God's timing is perfect and He placed her in our lives for her to bless us and for us to love and bless her.

I hope you enjoy reading these crazy adventures of the Brooks' family. Let us hear from you.