Charles and John just celebrated their first Father's Day, and it was truly a blessing.  DeNise took us to breakfast before church service and than we we arrived at church, the entire congregation began to celebrate us.  It's nice when people who love you, and know your struggles, can celebrate with you when GOD answers your prayers. 

As you all will see in the photo, Charles and John dressed alike for the occassion, down to the plaid shoes!  The day ended with a cookout at my sister's house, where her father-in-law, her husband, and I were the guests of honor (this means we ate jumbo shrimp!!!) 

We will be traveling to Phoenix for Charles Stemplar's first fourth of July, where he will be the co-Guest of Honor, along with his cousin Logan, born on February 9 in Denver.  Trust me, Charles and Logan both have plenty of red, white and blue outfits to celebrate their first fourth! We hope you all have a safe holiday weekend with your families.

-John & DeNise

Dear Diane, Libby, Heidi, Dee, & our Lifetime Family,

THANK YOU for the wonderful adventure with our adoption.  When we found you all two years ago, we had no idea our lives would be impacted like this.  Starting off with a closed adoption in mind, your guidance and education on the benefits in even a semi-open adoption proved to be beneficial for us as well as our birth mother. Through this process, our opinion was changed for the better and we have truly expanded our family by two through our adoption.  Though our birth mother also only wanted minimal contact, we have made a relationship that will last a lifetime. 

We could not be happier with the way our family has grown and look forward to adding number three in a couple of years! I spoke with someone my infertility doctor had call me.  They are also a bi-racial couple and I suggested the website to check out.

Thanks for everything.  We have such a great kid and a strong relationship with Charles' birthfamily.

-Harvey, Heather, Charlie and Cooper

Jacob is now eight months old! Can you believe it!? He is smiling a lot and loves it when daddy comes home.

-Terrence & Jennifer

Hi all,

If you can believe it, Cassidy is 10 months old! She is two feet tall and 17 1/2 pounds. She is standing and cruising and is very verbal! This picture was taken just within the last few days.

-Andrea and Kevin

Dear Lifetime,
My how time flies!  Our girl is growing sooooo fast and she is such a joy to have.  Here's one of the latest pics of Sydney.  Our finalization date is this Thursday!  Yay!  Thanks again and again for all you have done for us.  We couldn't have hand-picked a better matched baby for our family!

-Shane & Polly

Hi Veronica,
It is good to hear from you.  My son and I are doing well; he is five years old now; will be 6 in August going to first grade. Jeremy is in soccer and T-Ball and he loves it!

Regards, 
Tina

Our families are so excited
that we are finalized!

-John & DeNise

Hi Veronica!

Joshua's adoption is final! We are so excited and just thankful to God for his hand in this journey.  When I think back about my experience with Lifetime, I am amazed...contracted in April last year, matched one month to the day later in May, baby born three months later in August.  It has been a whildwind experience and a true example of the favor and faithfulness of God.  There's no doubt that Joshua is here just for my family and he is our living testimony.  He is a great baby, turned 9 months old yesterday.  Everyone is amazed with just how happy and personable he is.  Joshua is a total charmer and just has to be the smartest baby ever! 

Joshua has three teeth now! He's keeping busy with baby gym class and making what we call "speeches."  He is quite the talker and can say hi, hey, bye bye, hot and a number of other words.  Brilliant!  Joshua is also quite the traveler, already enjoying trips to 6 different states and also Puerto Rico.  So he stays on the move!  He is cruising around the furniture and growing into such a great little boy right before my eyes.  Where did my baby go?  I am continuing to marvel at his progress and loving it all thoroughly.

Anyhow, we have had the opportunity to be a reference for several families considering Lifetime and we pray that they make the decision to join the Lifetime family soon.  We hope to help many more little ones be joined with their forever families!  We check the site all the time and pray for the families still in waiting and for all the birthmothers out there for their sacrifices.

Thank you just doesn't seem adequate, but we are thankful for helping us become a family. Please pass along our love to Libby, Heidi, Diane and the rest of the Lifetime family who assisted us along the way!

God bless!

Nikki and Joshua

Here is a picture of our precious ones, Trinity and Divinity.  Trinity on the left is the baby we adopted with your help, and we are in constant contact with her birth mother.  Thank you so much for your heart and vision of matchmaking.  I can't thank you enough, words can't describe how grateful I am to you for making yourselves available to be used by God, to manifest His unwavering love for both children and parents.

With Much Love, Encouragement and Prayers,

Alford & Aisha

Dear Lifetime Family,

It has been three years and three weeks since our precious Jamal came into our lives.  And exactly three years to the day that we were able to fly home and introduce him to our family.  I still get overwhelmed with gratitude often as I look at him.  Gratitude to his birthmother for sharing him with us, gratitude to our Lord and Savior for the perfect plan He had/has in place, and gratitude to Lifetime as you helped the plan to come together.  There are no words to express how we feel about our son and his birthfamily and Lifetime for helping bring him into our lives!!!!!   As I look through your "Newly Adopted" page, I get overwhelmed with emotion seeing how many families you have had a hand in creating.  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU and keep doing what you do best; caring for others and making dreams come true!

God Bless,
Brenda, Garrick, Joeelle, Jamal and Isaiah

My little Alexis just took her first steps!
I am so proud!

Love,
Pamela

Hello Diane,

Hello Lifetime Family, 

We are so blessed to have our beautiful baby girl in our family!  This journey has been one that we had almost given up on at times.  Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement along the way. 

Libby, Diane, and Veronica encouraged us and they were right.  When the child that God had for us came along things worked out like they should.  We are also thankful to add our birthmom and her other children to our forever family as well.  She is the sister I wish I had grown up with.   

May God continue to bless you all!

Thanks,

Reg and Karen

Sarah has gotten so fast! By the time the camera has clicked, she is out of the frame. Anyways, I finally captured her in mid-morning romp, proving once again that Cheerios are still living up to their name around here...

-Adam & Heather

Hi Lori, 

We have been very busy, but are enjoying every moment! Here are the stats on Makenzie: 6 pounds, 0 ounces, 18 1/4 inches.

We are so delighted to finally have her!  Makenzie is such a blessing.  God heard our prayers and gave us the desires of our heart.

-Timothy & D'Etta

Hi Lori, 

I wanted to send you warm Spring wishes! As you can tell, I went to see the Easter bunny this year. It was a different experience for me last year-apparently I ran away! This year, I have seen the Easter bunny several times and love giving him high-fives!

I have been very busy learning to ride by tricycle. I can now reach my peddles, I just need to "perfect" the whole peddling motion. Spending time on my scooter or playing at the park is still what I like best.

All my love,

Ty
P.S. Mommy and daddy send their wishes too!

Hello Veronica,

I can't believe that Talan is already six months old!  She is the sweetest thing ever created.  She always has a smile on her face and loves playing with her older brothers.  She is sitting all by herself and even likes to stand by herself if she has something to hang on to.  We still talk to Talan's birthmom and are so lucky to have her in our lives.  Thanks again for helping to make our dreams come true!

Love,
Gomin and Jennifer

Dear Lifetime,

Thank you for all of your assistance in finding a birth mom for me.  Madison's birth mom and I hit it off from the very beginning.  I can't believe how our personalities are so in sync. You made this experience as comfortable as possible.  I have other friends in the same situation as I was and I recommend no other adoption center than Lifetime!   You were also kind enough to connect me with other single moms like myself so not only have I gained a new child and birth family but I also gained a network of friends to reach out to.  Madison and I are so blessed and you were the catalyst to make it happen.  Thank you again and be blessed.

Wendy and Madison Grace

Hello Diane and The Lifetime Family,

It was a true faith walk, but God answered His promise and brought Charles Stemplar into our lives! Please continue to pray for his birth family, and we thank God for the awesome sacrifice that they made, which allowed us to become parents. 

-John & DeNise

Today was a very special day for our family! The paperwork is done, the process is completed, today the State of California has signed the order creating our forever family.

Of course, nothing has really changed, we were just as much a family on Monday, but it feels as if a weight has been lifted from our shoulders. Today we feel free, free to focus on our family, free to focus on Sarah. That is why we believe today should be called Super Tuesday. Life is good!

-Adam & Heather

I wanted to let you know that everything is going well. We are waiting for our court date to finalize the adoption and hopefully by March everything will be final. I am still in contact with both his birthparents.

I love being with him and he is just the love of the college campus. He is trying to pull and walk now, he's holding his bottle and will engage in babble with just about anyone that will listen. The experience of having him has just taught me to slow down and enjoy every moment.

We've caught Sydney's first real smiles on film!

-Shane & Polly