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Seems like just a few days ago we took Selah to get her two month shots. Strangely, it seemed much less a to do the second time around. Micah is doing well, he is up to 11 lb 3 oz, and he took his shots with just a few screams before they were smothered by the pacifier.

Micah has met most of the Sybenga extended family (sorry Dad and Justin) over the last few days. It's been great and family are loving meeting this snuggly bundle.

YouTube Video of Tongue Peek-a-boo with Oma

Most recent pics at Flickr

Enjoyed a great dinner with our neighbors the other night and just had to pass on the recipe we made as an appetizer. Got some great cheese from our local "Cheese Lady" and made roast pumpkin "fondue". The roasted pumpkins looked great right out of the oven and the ingredients in the cavitity of the pumpkin just went together mavelously.

Roast Pumpkin w/ Cheese "Fondue"

We'll post more pics of Micah soon. He is doing great!

Micah has been home for almost three full days now and we are all getting adjusted. He is a melty baby, loving to have his head rubbed and not content to fall asleep unless he is in your arms. Maybe that was why the bath wasn't so popular. Oh, and yes, changing boys is definitely more of a gamble than changing girls!

Today we travelled down to Portage and picked up Micah from his fantastic foster care mom. We so appreciate the job she did with Micah while she had him for 6 weeks. He had changed a lot from when we had seen him just over a week ago. He's a strong little guy moving his head around and sticking his tongue in and out. We love him!

Flickr Pics

YouTube Video of feeding

We have been thinking about this a lot (obviously, see below post). We're sure we are going to learn a lot about the social construct of race through this process. We're a little nervous because it's obviously a big responsibility to make sure that Micah grows up with healthy identity. To that end here are some resources we came across that we thought were worth sharing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/us/17adopt.html

http://www.nabsw.org/mserver/PreservingFamilies.aspx

http://rinsema-sybenga.com/pdfs/culturalcompetencetransracialadoption.pdf

http://www.nysccc.org/T-Rarts/TRBillofRights.htm

http://www.nysccc.org/T-Rarts/Articles/whiteswhoadopt.htm

http://adoption.about.com/od/africanamericanhaircare/ss/blackhaircare.htm

http://racerelations.about.com/od/parentingrace/i/transracialadop.htm

http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/cultural/adoption/trans_related.cfm

http://www.pactadopt.org/press/articles/transracial.html

http://www.pactadopt.org/press/articles/Pre-adopt%20TRadoption.pdf

http://www.pactadopt.org/press/articles/savior.html

Last Friday we got a call from Catholic Charities who said they had child that they thought would be right for us to adopt. On Sunday we travelled to Portage to meet him. On Monday we told the agency we were ready to go forward and today they confirmed that we can pick him up on Monday, October 27. Micah was born on September 14, about five weeks early, and last week his mother went to court to release her, and the unknown father's, rights. Initially we will take him home as a foster care child but adoption papers will be filed within days of him being with us and once signed by the judge here in Muskegon (likely before Nov 1), it will become an adoptive placement, which will need to be finalized.

The last month has been a very difficult one for us and even this moment is still very bittersweet. One child doesn't replace another and we still are grieving Selah. But, we are also extremely grateful for this opportunity as we were very worried the situation would drag on and we were not looking forward to a holiday season with an empty home. We can definitely see God's hand through this process, most noticabley that on September 17 our case worker in Kalamazoo was with us when we gave Selah back to her mother, and an hour after being with us, brought Micah home from the hospital, maybe even having us in mind at that time. So we praise God for his goodness, and also ask him for strength as we begin this new and exciting journey with Micah.

A few pics from our visit with Micah from Sunday are posted at the below link.

Flickr pics

Thanks to all of you for your support over the summer, into the fall, and now into this new chapter. We truly have felt the blessing of community.

Sincerely,

Dan and Sarah