Harbor Life Ministries

Chelsy and her new daughter Adelynne Joelle are both doing well after the baby’s arrival at 3:15 pm this afternoon, Friday, February 5.

Adelynne weighed a healthy 6 lb. 14 ounces.

Chelsy checked in at the hospital last evening. The induction meds were administered this morning and 2 pm, Chelsy was fully dilated and ready to push.

Chelsy’s most recent estimated due date was February 2. Possibly little Adelynne wanted to leave the job of predicting winter’s length to Buckeye Chuck and his associates. Whatever the reason, Chelsy didn’t miss her due date by much but she was definitely ready to get past pregnancy and on with parenting.

Chelsy’s mother (and Adelynne’s proud grandmother) Lena said she would get photos ASAP. Even so, it doesn’t require anything but a little imagination to see the smile on both Chelsy and Lena’s faces.

Please keep little Adelynne and Chelsy along with her family in your prayers.

Induction is scheduled at 9pm tonight, Feb. 4, for Chelsy, whose due date was two days ago.

The sex of the baby is undetermined, so even though an induction takes some of the surprise out of the birth, the baby’s name could be Carson Zavier or Adelynn Joelle.

Chelsy will be parenting her child, boy or girl. Her mother Lena will assist her.

Please pray for Chelsy to have a healthy baby, and remember to check back tomorrow. Subscribing to our feed is a good way to keep on top of news from HLM.

Well, it’s been almost 8 weeks since Sara gave birth to Bryce, and most of the time since there’s been a concerted but futile (so far) effort to get her into the Jobs Corps program.

She was (again) supposed to leave today, but we didn’t have her bus ticket which Jobs Corp was supposed to send via email. Finally, at the end of the work day they called to say that they still were waiting on one of her medical forms to be approved. Since Job Corps only does intakes on Tuesday, it would have to be postponed for another week (Tuesday, Oct. 14).

Don’t misunderstand, we love having Sara with us, and I think she’s grown to like being here too, but these several times now when she has planned to move on to the next chapter, said her “good byes” and then had the process halted… it’s hard to be ready to go but then not go.

Charlotte had her regular doctor’s visit Thursday. Although her due date isn’t until October 3rd, her doctor had reasons to get her admitted to the hospital and possibly start inducing labor.

Charlotte has been in good spirits throughout the past few weeks, even though her feet have been swelling, causing discomfort when she walks or stands.

Charlotte’s mother Rebekka, after getting the news via phone call, arrived yesterday on a flight from California. She is staying at the hospital with Charlotte, allowing me to come home, get some sleep, and see everyone here.

I am now heading back to the hospital. Please pray. The word is Charlotte is now 3 cm dilated, they have broken her water, and hope is that things are on their way now… We have called the adoptive parents…

It was a long week following the birth of Sofia on Sunday, although she and birthmother Hanna did well with the delivery and post partum.

Hanna left the hospital Monday afternoon. Baby Sofia had to stay in the hospital until the adoption, which was planned to take place on Friday.

Hanna met Monday evening with licensed social worker Peggy Dodds to do assessment paperwork for the adoption, a process required in Ohio to ensure that the birthmother is aware of all the laws concerning adoption and is making the adoption choice of her own free will.

Hanna spent much of the week packing her school books and all her belongings that she had collected while being in Ohio. It was hard to believe she had collected so much in such a short time. Hanna and her mother Sara spent Tuesday and Wednesday packing and taking things to the post office to ship home to Arizona.

Hanna also was able to visit Sofia daily while Sofia was in the hospital. Thursday Hanna and her mother decided to cook dinner for the family, since Hanna was already on the schedule to cook her chicken enchiladas. We had a great family dinner night, with the girls, Kirsten, Hanna and KC?s rendition of ?Wait for You?. [Note: see earlier blog post re: Hanna's last supper].

Late in the evening Thursday a call came from the attorney regarding a small glitch that had developed with the adoption. The problem stemmed from the fact that Hanna was from Arizona, the adoptive parents were from Indiana and the baby was born in Ohio. Somehow no one had noticed this fact until 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, or least no one had seen that it presented any kind of a problem until then.

Let me point out something here. The counseling that Hanna had for three months leading up this point in time was extensive and complete. She knew by this point what she wanted to do, that it was the right thing for her, for Sofia and for the adoptive family, and she was quite ready to do it and move on past this part of her life. She and her mom Sara were supposed to be on a plane out of Cleveland on Friday evening. Now the legal situation was threatening to postpone everything further. We looked at many options, including?

• Give custody of Sofia to an adoption agency and the agency would try and place her in a few months. That option would require Sofia going into foster care at the adoptive parents’ expense. There was no guarantee that the adoptive parents would get to spend time with Sofia, as that would be up to the foster family. The cost to the adoptive family would be $50 a day for the care of the baby as well as about $900 in agency expenses. This also would not guarantee the baby to go with the family that Hanna had selected, spent time with, gotten to know and desired to raise her baby. Hanna would also have to stay in Ohio until at least Wednesday with this plan.
• Hanna just keeps the baby, put her in a babysitting arrangement until the adoption could go through. This would be with one of the relief staff of Harbor House and at no cost to the family and the family would stay with and care for Sofia.

Neither of these options, the best at the time, did not guarantee that Ohio and Indiana were ever going to approve the adoption. After praying about options and seeking the Lord’s guidance on the best outcome for both Hanna and Sofia, the attorney and Karla spoke Friday morning. There was a new option.

• Option 3: Contact an AZ attorney and do an AZ to IN adoption. We were just unsure how that would work, being that we always use an Ohio attorney. However John Huffman was able to get in touch with an attorney in Arizona that gave great direction and guidance. The end plan accomplished everyone?s goals and in a shorter amount of time, and was the most straight-forward legally.

We met with Hanna, her mother and the adoptive parents and explained what had happened, all the twists and turns that had taken place overnight, and what all the options looked like. There were a lot of questions and after about an hour of discussion, everyone agreed that the third option was the best. Even so, when Sara called her husband to explain it, he was immediately skeptical. You have to know Paul, though; he is a Type A individual, he was in Arizona, his family was in Ohio, and now suddenly the whole plan had changed.

Karla spoke at length with Paul and he finally agreed on the new plan, so the attorneys drew up the paperwork to allow the adoptive parents to temporarily care for the baby. Everyone then headed to the hospital where Sofia was released to Hanna, who put the baby in the car seat in the adoptive parents car, and then Hanna got into her car with her mother and headed for the airport. They were able to catch their flight to AZ at 8:15 as scheduled, arriving home after midnight. Sofia and the adoptive parents headed to Indiana to spend the weekend.

Hanna spent Saturday with her father and her friends, explaining to them these past few months and sharing what had gone on in her life.

There was still one very important piece to the adoption that needed to be put in place in Arizona: the birthfather’s signature/approval was still needed. The AZ attorney was scheduled to meet with Hanna and the birthfather to get both their signatures on the paperwork.

Hanna was a bit reluctant to sign her papers first before the birthfather because of the thought that she might sever her rights, only to have him unexpectedly not sign the paperwork and possibly get custody (although paternity had not been established through DNA testing, making it unlikely that scenario could have played out).

Even with Hanna’s concerns, the birthfather showed up and, after an hour-and-a-half of talking and counseling, he signed the papers.

The adoptive mom Julie along with Julie’s mother and Sofia all arrived in Arizona on Monday night where they would meet with the attorney, meet the birthfather, and spend some time with Hanna before returning to Indiana.

On Thursday, Sofia met her birthfather. It was a great meeting. The birthfather (as well as everyone else who sees her) believes Sofia to be the most beautiful baby in the world.

As of today, Hanna and the birthfather, having signed, are done with their part of the adoption. The adoptive mom Julie awaits notice from Indiana that she can return home, and Sofia is well on her way to having a great life, with such a large extended family.

Hanna is from Arizona. She was 14 when she came to stay at Harbor House but is now 15. Her baby is due to arrive at the end of February 2008. Hanna will be having a baby girl and is making an adoption plan for her. She has selected a family and will get to meet them very soon. They are a very nice couple who adopted their son from a resident of HH in 2002, so Hanna’s baby girl will have an older brother.