It finally happened!!!!!

July was a tough month for us. It was officially 4 years since we started trying to have a baby. July ^, 2015 was my due date from the baby that we lost. Our baby would have been 1 years old this past July. I began to get discouraged about God’s plan and timing. There were definitely some ugly cry moments. Daniel tried to make me feel better and continued to remind me that it could happen at any time.

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Since our home study was approved, our agency had shown our profile book to several birthmoms. Each time we were told that they were considering us, we prayed fervently to be chosen. That this would be the baby that the Lord had planned for us. It was heart-wrenching every time we got the e-mail that they had chosen another family. I couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t like us?

Our adoption agency uses a wonderful attorney who also works with birthmothers. We gave her permission to share our profile book as well. It couldn’t hurt, right?! Towards the end of July, she contacted us about sharing our profile with three birthmoms that she was currently working with. Our adoption agency was also in the process of sharing our profile with a birthmom due in October as well. We thought it couldn’t hurt showing our profile book to 4 birthmoms. The odds had to be good!

On July 15, it was a normal summer day. Daniel was at work and I was home on summer break working on projects around the house. I heard my phone chime saying that I had gotten an e-mail. I didn’t think much of it when I glanced at my phone. It was an e-mail from our attorney. My initial thought was that we weren’t picked again but went I read the message I think my heart literally stopped! “The birthmother has chosen you and Daniel to be her adoptive parents- looks like a family of twins!”

Instantly I started crying so hard and couldn't stop. No more sad tears but ones of pure joy! As I wept, I could only that the Lord for what He had planned. Twins!!!!

Home Study Approved!!!

Our home study was officially approved about a month ago! We were so excited when we got the e-mail saying everything was done! It has been unofficially approved for a little while now though. This thankfully gives us the green light to start applying for grants. We are praying that we will be awarded a couple grants in order to help us with the cost of the adoption. Applying for a grant reminds me of applying for scholarships for college. I'm a little nervous about it since I know there are so many families who are applying as well. I am just hoping that we will stand out a bit more.

Since being home study approved, our adoption profile is now active with our agency. This means that when they have a birth mom that is ready to get matched with a family, the agency will give the mom about 3 profile books to look at. A profile book is similar to a scrapbook that gives a glimpse into our life. We put ours together on Mixbook.com and it turned out great! After a few weeks of looking over the books, the mom will select a family she is interested in creating an adoption plan with. Once selected, the family and birth mom meet and decide from there if they want to go ahead and be matched for the adoption. There is a lot of nervous waiting and praying on our end!

Daniel and I have had our profile viewed a couple times now but have not been matched yet. The first time we weren’t selected hurt a bit. I don't handle rejection the best, but then again who does?! However we know that God has a specific baby for us to be part of our family. We trust in His timing and plan for us. It is also an exciting time for the other families, who have been waiting like us, to be matched for their baby.

Now that we are in the waiting stage of the adoption process, we have been finding things to do in order to keep busy. We have been working on our parent training required by the agency. The are having us read the book, The Connect Child, and completing a workbook about it. It is a great book and we have been learning so much about parenting an adopted child. Daniel and I have been having some really good conversations and it has been great for us to read through this together.

We have had another project that we have been having a lot of fun with!!!! Recently, we went into nesting mode! 

We had a blast painting and decorating the nursery! We chose Lion King since we love Disney and we wanted a gender neutral theme. I really love the yellow color we painted the walls. It is very warm and welcoming. Perfect for a baby! Daniel and I are planning to add more once we are matched and know if we will be adopting a boy or girl. We will most likely add some light pink accents for a girl and some green accents if it's a boy.

Now that it is summer, I plan on keeping busy working on projects around the house. I'll also be working extra hard on my Scentsy business since all my income for that is being saved to use for when we adopt and I take FMLA leave from work. Daniel is also working on reopening our Etsy business as well!!! I can't wait for him to share some new designs soon!

Fundraising Blessings!

Since starting the adoption process about 6 months ago, we have done four fundraisers to help raise funds for the adoption. They have all been a huge blessing to us and some are still on-going!

About 3 months ago we gave away baby bottles for friends and family to fill with spare change. We have been getting the bottles returned to us and have cashed in $100 so far! There is more change to cash in still. We are estimating about an addition $100-150! There are still some bottles floating around out there too! If you still have one, please make sure to return it soon!

In January, we did a fundraiser event with a company called Wildtree. By doing a home food tasting, the consultant gave us 25% of the amount sold, instead of earning the hostess rewards. It was so much fun having a bunch of people over to the house! The food was wonderful and I hope everyone is enjoying their Wildtree products! We earned $400 from doing the home tasting party!!!!

Our latest fundraiser has been doing a huge yard sale! So many of you cleaned out your closets for us
and really helped make this a success! Our first weekend trying in March ended up being rained out. We tried again just the other week and had so many people coming by the house all weekend! We sold a lot of items and made $900!

We still have our GoFundMe campaign ongoing, starting to work on applying for grants, and looking for more fundraising opportunities! Daniel and I are so blessed to have all of your love and support with our adoption!

1 John 4:19-20 "We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother."

Adoption Update

Image from adoption.com

You are approved! Those are the best words we have heard in awhile!!

A few weeks ago Daniel and I had our initial adoption paperwork approved. After that we quickly started the home study process. The agency supplied us with another large amount of paperwork. In addition to basic forms, we have had to do several background checks and fingerprinting. Daniel and I have been trying to push through the paperwork as quickly as possible.

February 1st was our first visit with our social worker. She did a walk through of the house. Daniel and I did some child proofing ahead of time so thankfully there isn't much we have to fix before the next visit. Most of the visit was spent doing paperwork. She interviewed both of us about our childhood, relationship with different members of our family, etc.

February 19th will be our final home visit. Other than checking the house one more time, she will be spending time interviewing us separately and together. This time will be more focused on our marriage as well as developing a parenting plan for when we adopt. After the home study is completed, we will be placed on a waiting list to be matched with a birth mother. This has the possibility of happening quickly or we can be waiting for a little while. It just depends on if we match what the expecting mother is looking for for her child.

We will continue to update as we continue in the progress. Thank you for all your prayers and support!

Baby Bottle Fundraiser

At the end of November we started our first fundraiser for the adoption! Not counting our Go Fund Me page, of course. I have spent a bit of time reading up on different fundraising ideas to help with the cost. There were suggestion from pancake breakfasts to a 5k race or a big yard sale. It's pretty overwhelming to try to figure out which ideas will work the best for us.

 

Daniel and I decided on doing a baby bottle fundraiser. We bought inexpensive baby bottles from the dollar store and decorated them with ribbon and a label telling about our adoption. Family and friends have taken these empty baby bottles to fill with their spare change. People have taken them home to use as well as to their workplace. All the pennies, nickels, dimes, etc will definitely add up and help us financially.

So far we have handed out about 20 baby bottles to be filled. We are hoping to have them all returned to us by the beginning of February. If you would like a bottle, please comment here or message me and I will get you one as soon as possible!

As for an update on our process: we are still completing paperwork and getting background checks done. Once all of this is approved, we will begin our home study.  Please continue to pray for us on this journey!

The Beginning...

Welcome!!

Daniel and I have been talking about starting a blog to keep our friends and family updated on our adoption process. I figured that this could be a way to share what we are going through and learning about adoption. It will also give me something to look back on as a reminder of what we are doing and what we have already accomplished.

Daniel and I met in the Fall of 2009 and we were married on April 23, 2011. We spent the first year of our marriage focusing on our new life together as husband and wife. After a year, we decided to start trying to have a baby. We were both so excited at the idea of becoming parents! One year of trying went by and we still weren’t pregnant. After visiting the doctor and doing some tests, I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). For over two years we worked with a fertility specialist undergoing various treatments which never resulted in a pregnancy. Our doctor was unable to determine why the treatments never worked even though I had responded great to the medications. He said the two choices left for us was doing IVF, with a low probable success rate, or we could pursue adoption.

Daniel and I weren’t sure what to do. We had used up all of our savings on two years of fertility treatments already and we weren’t sure what the Lord’s plan was for us. All we knew was that we wanted to be parents with all our hearts. A few months later, we experienced a miracle! I was pregnant! Unfortunately our joy was quickly replaced with sorrow when I miscarried at 5 weeks. It broke our hearts. Hoping that we would become pregnant again, we kept trying. My PCOS symptoms seemed to get worse after the miscarriage and I started to lose hope.

During this time, Daniel started to pray about adoption. He had started to read about adoption in the news and online articles. It started to weigh on his heart that we could possibly become parents this way. Daniel brought up the idea of adoption to me but I wasn’t willing to consider it at first. At that time, I felt that if I could not give birth to a child, that I had failed as a woman, wife, and mother. Daniel continued to pray for direction for us and the desire to adopt kept growing in his heart.

One evening, we watched a movie called October Baby. By the end of the movie I found myself sobbing. Could I love a child that I did not give birth to? I started praying fervently and also found myself reading blogs and books about adoption. I found my heart changing and realized that giving birth doesn’t make me a mother. Through adoption, we could truly become the parents that we have longed to be for so long. Loving and caring for a precious child is what will make us a family.

Daniel and I started researching the adoption process together. We learned that it was going to be a long and expensive journey. Daniel felt strongly for adopting a newborn in the United States and I agreed. We chose domestic infant adoption and spent a lot of time interviewing different agencies. We wanted to make the best choice possible and that required taking a lot of time to weigh out all the options. We chose to go with a Christian non-profit agency, Embraced by Grace.

We met with our amazing caseworker from the agency and she went through the process with us. We have started with the beginning, which is paperwork....paperwork...and more paperwork! This will be a long road but it will be so worth it in the end!

Please pray for us as we continue down this path. Pray for us to have wisdome, strength, and discernment in the weeks and months ahead.