Merry Christmas Dear Friends and Family,
We hope this letter finds you all well. We have been blessed with another great year full of lessons, blessings, growth spurts and love. What more could we ask for?
Early this year we began to feel a stirring to grow our family. We knew from the first week of Tucker’s life we wanted to adopt again and since we haven’t gotten pregnant between then and now we decided to pursue another adoption. We began our paperwork and the update process in the spring. We wanted to have everything done before the busyness of a youth minister’s summer began but we knew we didn’t want to be actively looked at by birth parents until after a mission trip to Africa that was planned over a year ago in late July.
Summer arrived and was in full swing before we knew it and our trip got closer and closer. As we approached July I began to get antsy for the adoption process to really start again. It was on my heart a lot and I spent lots of time praying for THE baby God had for us. We gathered our team and headed to the airport on July 27th and before we even made it to our gate things began falling apart. The short version of the story is someone booked eight flights for our eleven person team. Three people couldn’t get on the plane. So we opted to adopt The Three Musketeers motto and we all stayed, hoping that our travel agent could get things straightened out the next day. She worked and worked and called around 2 pm and said we were going only to realize she made the same mistake twice. There was no way she could get all eleven of us to Zambia together. We took these circumstances as God closing the door and after we chased down some luggage that headed off for our trip by itself we went home. No Zambia.
While we were disappointed the trip didn’t happen we were also excited because that meant we could officially be considered by birth parents for adopting. I called our agency in Oklahoma City on our way home from the airport to tell them to start showing our book. That was on a Thursday. On Friday our now open schedules allowed us some free time so we headed to the lake with McKenzie’s family. Late that afternoon we got a call from our Pastor’s daughter telling us of an agency in Texas that was just starting domestic adoptions and had a birth mom wanting to look through some books. They knew we had our stuff ready so they thought of us and we contacted the agency. Ultimately we decided to throw our hat in the ring because there was no risk or financial investment involved unless we were chosen.
On August 10th - the we were scheduled to arrive home from Zambia - we received a call from the Texas agency that we would be the parents of a new baby boy in October. He was due October 21st and everything looked great! We decided to name him Bennett Harris after McKenzie’s Nana Lue Harris-Bacon and we got busy preparing and fundraising for our newest Gordon.
On September 10th McKenzie got a call from Tucker’s birth mom, who we knew was pregnant again and due on February 6th, 2013. We had talked with her about our adoption plans before we had gone active and at that point she was planning to parent. But on that Monday she asked us if we would consider parenting her baby -- Tucker’s half sibling. She knew we already had planned to adopt in October, but really couldn’t parent herself. She wanted to place with us again over anyone else, if possible. We immediately said yes! It wasn’t even a choice.
Then things started getting crazy! We went into prep mode for not one, but two babies!
Bennett decided to make his big appearance on Saturday of our Disciple Now Weekend, October 13th. We got the call Saturday about 10:30 that we should head that way and we pulled into Odessa, Texas about 15 minutes before 7:50 pm when we welcomed Bennett Harris Gordon to the world. He weighed 6 pounds and 12 ounces and was 20 inches long. He had long fingers and toes and lots of straight black hair.
While we were in Odessa we found out that our February Baby was another boy! Our Three Sons!!! We have chosen the name Casen and his Birth Mom chose Cole as his middle name because her middle name is Nicole. We are so excited to add a third fella to our tribe around February 6th. Everything looks great for Casen and our Birth Mom. Please pray for both of their health, for extra grace and comfort for all of us as we walk the path ahead and for the finances to be provided for us to fund two adoptions in less than six months.
Chris began his fifth year as the Youth Minister at First Baptist Church of Sayre in October. The kids who are seniors this year were in the eighth grade when we moved here. It’s been so fun to watch them grow up! Our Pastor resigned in December to move to the foreign mission field so Chris has picked up some extra duties. Because of the increase on his “real” job time and the fact that we will have three babies under three this spring he decided it would be best to resign as the golf coach at SHS. We will all be glad to have him around more this spring!
McKenzie’s hands are full with two boys and preparations for the third! She has been busy planning fundraisers, chasing Tucker and rocking Bennett. It’s so nice to have a baby around again and it constantly reminds her how big our oldest is. Motherhood is the biggest blessing of her life. She is beyond thankful that she gets to stay home to love her boys as they grow.
Tucker is two years and eight months old. He is a busy guy who loves people, cars, trains, planes and rocket ships. He talks up a storm to anyone who will listen and even to some who don’t. His imagination is out of control as is his eye for finding airplanes and his favorite models of cars on the road. He is mostly potty trained. Tuck knows lots of songs and sings as much as he talks. He recognizes all of his letters and knows most of their sounds. He is three foot tall and weighs 38 pounds. Our big boy is such a great big brother and has transitioned to not being the only so much better then we expected! We are so blessed by this blessing of a boy!!!
Bennett is very tricky for two months old! Ha! He weighs 12 lbs and 9 oz and is 23 inches long. He is holding his head up really well and has strong little legs that he loves to push up on. He recognizes Daddy, Momma and his big brother who he loves watching. He is sleeping well and is the sweetest baby. We’re thankful for his laid back attitude and sweet toothless smile! We can’t wait to watch his little personality develop and learn who he will become.
We are overwhelmingly blessed to be surrounded and enveloped by so much love! We are beyond thankful for our wonderful friends and family who have been so supportive as our family has grown. We look forward to all 2013 has in store, but mostly we are anxious to meet our Mr. Casen and add him to our crazy bunch.
We wish you a very Merry Christmas and blessed New Year!
To keep up with what’s going on in our world more regularly you can follow McKenzie’s blog at www.nothingfancy0902.blogspot.com
Love --
Chris, McKenzie, Tucker, Bennett and soon-to-be Casen Gordon
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