March 14, 2011

We have officially been matched with a birthmohter and her due date is March 14, 2011!!!!! Glen and I are both so excited and can't wait for the arrival of the baby. We were matched with a birthmother from Florida last Sunday, October
17th. We hope to find out the gender of the baby in the next week or two.

We can't explain the emotions that we have gone through in the last week. God is shining down on us and we are so thankful for His love. From the start of this journey, we have followed where He has lead us and we are so grateful to be where we are today.

We ask that our friends & family pray for the birthmother: that she delivers a healthy baby and prayers for her to be at peace with her decision in her adoption plan.

Thank you all for your support and prayers on this journey we have begun!

Positive Adoption Language

As you have probably figured out by now, neither of the 2 BM's that we submitted our profile book to worked out. One of the BM's chose another family within our same referral service but located in South Carolina. The other BM has not made an adoption plan as of now. When we heard the news that we were not chosen it was very upsetting. Glen said it perfect, it felt like seeing a negative on a pregnancy test. Even though there are so many possibilities out there, just sending the book to a BM is emotional. Thinking that this could be the one. I hope to not get tied up and emotional about each situation but in reality, it is difficult not too. So, hopefully this week will bring more BM's and more possibilities for us.

Glen and I attended an educational workshop provided by our agency that performed our homestudy. We learned a lot of information and wanted to share some of it with you. One of the more interesting things we would like to share is the positive adoption language. The following positive adoption language is used instead of the negative language that helps perpetuate the myth that adoption is second best. By using positive adoption language, we educate others about adoption.

Positive Language:
Placed baby for adoption
Made an adoption plan
Chose adoption
Parenting/deciding to parent
Birth parent
Could not conceive

Negative Language:
Gave up a baby
Gave away a baby
Put up for adoption
Keeping the baby
"Real" parent
Couldn't have their "own" child

I know I have used the negative language in the past. Now that I am educating myself on the subject of adoption I cringe thinking about who I may have offended. The BM's love their children enough to give them life. That is the greatest gift of all and I respect the BM's who chose life over the alternative.

Two Years Ago

I can't believe it has been 2 years since we said goodbye to our sweet angel, Annabelle. It seems like it was just yesterday but at the same time, looking back over the two years it seems like it has been an eternity. Today started off with a call from my mom wishing me a good day and prayers to be strong throughout the day. All in all, I actually had a good day. Tiffany and Rylee visited and brought a beautiful flower arrangement for my office. I also received an email from a prospect customer that I have been calling on for more than 6 years that finally told me I got their business! A Step Ahead Adoption Service called to give us a new potential birthmom update too! Then I left work and headed to the cemetery to spend some time in prayer. It felt great to be there and feel the sense of peace that I get when I am there. It is such a beautiful cemetery and in the next month the changing trees will make it even more breath taking. I arrived home to a pink balloon and bow on our tree that I bought Glen for Father's Day last year. Even better, I walked in to two cases of wine that my stepdad had brought back from St.Louis and a dozen pink roses my mom had placed on our kitchen table! I am so grateful for my family and friends that have supported us through this journey we have been on. I can't imagine getting through the bad days without someone there to lean on for support.

Glen and I were talking last night about what we have been through the past two years. We don't go a day without thinking about Annabelle and wishing that she was here with us. We see many two year olds and wonder what Annabelle would be like at two. Along with the loss of our daughter, we have struggled with infertility since then. We never would have imagined we would be where we are right now. God has a funny way of showing you that He is in charge and has other plans for us. We may not know why things happen but I am sure in the future we will look back on this time and see why God has chosen this path for us. We have definitely let go and let God.

Update on the adoption front: we sent our profile book off to two birthmothers this week! One BM is in Kansas and due January 25th with a baby boy, and the other BM is due late October in Oklahoma with a baby boy as well! We welcome all prayers that one of them might choose us.

Glen's mom is coming in town this weekend to visit. We plan to spend time with family, take her to our neighborhood block party and do a lot of good eating!

Adoption Profile

Click here to view this photo book larger

Officially Official

We are officially official as of September 9, 2010! Our homestudy is finalized, our profile book is finished and now we begin the journey. It feels so great to have everything complete. It has been a fun and exciting process but we are glad we are one step closer. From here, we just wait. Our consultant, Shannon, will start sending profiles of birthmothers to us to view. If we are interested in any, we let her know and then send them our profile book. From there, the birthmother views many profiles and decides what family best fits what she is looking for in a family to raise her child. So, as they say, it could be 2 weeks or a year before we bring our baby home.

Mom & I are heading to Babies R Us today to pick out some essentials that we don't already have. The big items we need are a car seat/stroller combo, diapers, a diaper bag and a few more clothes. It is going to be so weird heading back into BRU as the past few times I have had to go in there for friends baby showers have really been tough. I had a breakdown at one visit and had to leave before I could even purchase my items. So, I am really looking forward to being able to shop, not have anxiety about being in there and pick out things for us!!!

On another note, today is a such a tough day for so many Americans throughout our country. Sept. 11 has so many different meanings to everyone. I pray for peace for all those families that lost a loved one 9 years ago. For me, today marks the day that we lost my dad 5 years ago. I can't believe it has been 5 years since he has been gone. I can still hear his voice as if it was just yesterday. I miss him terribly and think about him all of the time. I know he is probably hanging out with Annabelle and having a good time so I do have peace.

Another Step Closer

Glen and I attended the homestudy educational workshop this weekend at Adoption & Beyond. It was the last requirement needed for our homestudy to be complete! It was a great workshop with tons of information. We learned about what it is like being matched with a birthmother, positive adoption language and an overview of the actual match meeting with the birthmother. It was great to meet other couples going through the same stage of life as well. There were 6 couples that attended the workshop. The workshop answered many of the questions we still had about the adoption process. Glen and I have no doubt in our minds that we are where we are suppose to be right now!

Friday was our 5th wedding anniversary as well. With the workshop we had that night we made Saturday night our celebration night. We had dinner at Garrozo's which is one of our favorite places in town for dinner. We had a fantastic anniversary and look forward to a great future ahead of us.

We received our first call from our consultant at A Step Ahead Adoption Services this week! Our consultant, Shannon, lives in Overland Park, so I hope to meet with her sometime this week. She is going to help us get our profile book going. This book is what the birthmothers will look at when they are making their adoption plan. Shannon will also be sending us cases that we will review and decide if they are right for us to proceed with sending our profile to. She said her personal goal with all of her clients is to have a baby with them at home within 6 months. That is a great goal and we are super excited.

With all of this excitement starting, I decided to get our nursery ready again! We had kept all of the furniture in the room but put up most of the toys, blankets, etc. It is exciting getting all the fun stuff that I received from my baby showers back out in the room! I am probably jumping the gun a little soon but who cares! I plan to head to Babies R Us in a few weeks to look at some of the items we are still in need of. Ramsey thought some of the stuffed animals were hers so we will have a little lesson to teach her what is hers and what is not :-)

Glen is traveling to Iowa these days for work. He is working on a parking garage that will be done in a few months. He and a few others left for Iowa today. When I got home after he had left, I found the a/c not working. This is the 2nd time this summer it has gone out. I hope to get it fixed tomorrow. It is currently 82 in the house and Ramsey and I are not having too much fun!

Exciting news from my work is that our owner hired 2 gentlemen to run the company. Our owner is 71 and looking to retire. The 2 new guys will work out of our Minneapolis office. They come from a national recycler so they are bringing our company a lot of experience. They will be in town for the next two days so I look forward to meeting with them. They are changing our sales plan and hope to give us a commission on our sales. I look forward to making more money with the company! It couldn't have come at a better time!

Back to Reality

We are back from our 6 day vacation up North! We had a great time :-) We left last Friday morning and headed to Sioux Falls. We arrived at Shirley's house in the late afternoon and decided to have a BBQ that night for dinner. We had a great time catching up with the family. Glen's grandparents were able to come over for a while and visit too. Saturday Glen, David and I went to the Falls to walk around the park. Most of it was blocked off due to recent flooding in the area. We later headed out to the Sioux Empire Fair to have some good fried foods! We watched a hypnotist while we were there as well. Troy, Julie, John and David all left on Sunday. Glen and I went to dinner with Shirley and then headed over to the B & G Way, a local favorite ice cream shop! Monday morning Glen and I headed up to Minneapolis. Our first stop was to tour St. Paul's Cathedral. I have never seen such a beautiful church. It is close to 100 years old and the paintings and intricate detail on all of the walls was amazing. The next stop was the Mall of America. Boy is that a big mall! We walked around all 3 levels looking thru a lot of the stores. I was hoping they had different stores than we have at home but it seemed to be all the same stuff we already have here. After leaving the mall we went to dinner at a Diner's, Drive-in's and Dive's restaurant. We ordered a pizza and it was great! Tuesday morning we went to yet another DDD recommendation, Al's Breakfast, which was on the campus of University of Minnesota. I had the best waffle of my life! Glen was completely impressed that I actually finished the entire waffle. We then toured the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. That is the place famous for the spoon and cherry sculpture. Then it was time for the Twins v. White Sox game. This was the highlight of our trip for Glen! We toured the new stadium before the game started. Luckily, the Twins winded up winning the game in the 10th inning! Glen was a happy camper. That ended our trip on a good note. We headed back home on Wednesday. We had a great trip and was happy to see family as well.

While we were on vacation we received a phone call from our adoption agency to set up a time for them to do our in-home meeting. So, we actually did that yesterday. I woke up yesterday with a lot of anxiety and anticipation as to what to expect for the meeting. As soon as the social worker arrived and we introduced ourselves, I began to feel completely at ease. She was super nice and knew what we were going through because she is the mother of 2 adopted children! She interviewed Glen and I together and then separate, we took a tour of our home and then it was over. It was so much nicer than I had ever expected. It is great to have that part done. We now have a workshop to attend on Friday night. Glen and I also decided tonight which referral service we are going to work through so we have sent the email off to get started on their paperwork. According to the service, they typically place a child in less than 1 year! We are looking forward to the next step of the adoption process with the hopes that we find our baby soon!