A couple weeks ago, I mentioned in a post that we had two potential leads. However, one of them ended up being information about international adoption and we aren't quite ready to step into that realm yet. The other was a girl my Mom knows. All the information is really vague and we aren't even sure if she wants to place the baby for an adoption. However, the girl's visiting teachers (friends) are working on proposing the option of adoption to her and recommending us as the adoptive couple.
We really don't know very much information about her. We don't know how far along she is in the pregnancy. We don't know even what her name is. Nevertheless, we'll continue to hope:) I think I'm becoming pretty good at hoping because most of the time, that is all I really have control over-especially in the crazy roller coaster of adoption.
Thank you so much to those of you who continue to show amazing support, love, and happiness towards us and our decision to pursue adoption. We are constantly amazed at the interest and questions people continue to show and ask. Thank you!
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Timing
We had just finished a 6 month treatment cycle for infertility and still had not become pregnant. The doctor said that my body needed to rest for the next 6 months. Thus, Matt and I started to wonder what the next step in our infertility journey would be. Rather than wait around for six months we wanted to be actively working towards something.
Adoption had ALWAYS been something we wanted to do as a couple. Even before we were married, we had both had separate experiences that confirmed to us that adoption would be part of our lives. So when we got married, we wondered what the "timing" would be. We had visited the option of adoption in May of 2012 and started with LDS adoption services. We did the orientation and the 10 hours of training and worked on getting the infertility report filled out by our doctor. We even talked with my uncle who is an adoption attorney to see how the process would play out. However, nothing really felt right for us to move forward...until now.
It was the first week in January (2013) when we started exploring adoption once more. We started talking about what our options would be. Matt had just graduated from Brigham Young University. We both would be working full-time. We would be able to save more money for an adoption than we could have previous to this time. We have constantly been prayerful about children and ways to get them to this earth. Adoption once again was at the forefront of our minds.
January 6th was Fast-Sunday. This is an opportunity within our faith/religion to go without food for 2 meals and therefore allow our soul or spirit to become more in-tune with God. We wanted to be sure that adoption was what God was directing us to do. It was a really spiritual sabbath and as I sat in the last meeting of my church worship, I turned around and saw a beautiful woman-blonde hair, about my age and she was holding a beautiful black baby boy. Immediately I felt peace, excitement, joy, happiness, and overwhelmed with love. I knew that I needed to talk with that woman. After the meeting I went to her and ask if by chance she had adopted that precious baby. She replied in the affirmative. I told her that my husband and I had been fasting (going without food) because we wanted to know whether we should move in the direction of adoption.
She then proceeded to tell me her adoption story and encouraged me to do everything I could to be part of adoption because it is such a blessing on so many levels. As Matt and I left the church that day, I sat in the passenger seat of the car and Matt turned to me and said, "You are SO calm! I can't believe it!" I told him I knew for certain that we it was TIME to adopt. After that we felt so excited. We decided to call our families that same evening and tell them of our plans.
The reaction was SO positive. I felt so much support from our family. Previously, Matt and I had been more quiet and reserved about our infertility journey and I had always felt anxiety about telling our family about our sacred experiences. However, now feeling good about telling others, I felt the support from them and I no longer felt alone in my infertility. Adoption is wonderful! It's already blessing our lives:)
Adoption had ALWAYS been something we wanted to do as a couple. Even before we were married, we had both had separate experiences that confirmed to us that adoption would be part of our lives. So when we got married, we wondered what the "timing" would be. We had visited the option of adoption in May of 2012 and started with LDS adoption services. We did the orientation and the 10 hours of training and worked on getting the infertility report filled out by our doctor. We even talked with my uncle who is an adoption attorney to see how the process would play out. However, nothing really felt right for us to move forward...until now.
It was the first week in January (2013) when we started exploring adoption once more. We started talking about what our options would be. Matt had just graduated from Brigham Young University. We both would be working full-time. We would be able to save more money for an adoption than we could have previous to this time. We have constantly been prayerful about children and ways to get them to this earth. Adoption once again was at the forefront of our minds.
January 6th was Fast-Sunday. This is an opportunity within our faith/religion to go without food for 2 meals and therefore allow our soul or spirit to become more in-tune with God. We wanted to be sure that adoption was what God was directing us to do. It was a really spiritual sabbath and as I sat in the last meeting of my church worship, I turned around and saw a beautiful woman-blonde hair, about my age and she was holding a beautiful black baby boy. Immediately I felt peace, excitement, joy, happiness, and overwhelmed with love. I knew that I needed to talk with that woman. After the meeting I went to her and ask if by chance she had adopted that precious baby. She replied in the affirmative. I told her that my husband and I had been fasting (going without food) because we wanted to know whether we should move in the direction of adoption.
She then proceeded to tell me her adoption story and encouraged me to do everything I could to be part of adoption because it is such a blessing on so many levels. As Matt and I left the church that day, I sat in the passenger seat of the car and Matt turned to me and said, "You are SO calm! I can't believe it!" I told him I knew for certain that we it was TIME to adopt. After that we felt so excited. We decided to call our families that same evening and tell them of our plans.
The reaction was SO positive. I felt so much support from our family. Previously, Matt and I had been more quiet and reserved about our infertility journey and I had always felt anxiety about telling our family about our sacred experiences. However, now feeling good about telling others, I felt the support from them and I no longer felt alone in my infertility. Adoption is wonderful! It's already blessing our lives:)
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Independent vs agency adoption
We are currently looking to do an independent adoption. We have an uncle who is an adoption attorney and if we can find a baby then we can legalize everything with my uncle's office. It looks like international adoption is not an option for us right now. Each country has their individual laws regarding the requirements for families to come adopt children from their country. Often, the children are 9 months or older because countries are trying to get away from instances of human trafficking. We might look into helping at an orphanage later in our lives, perhaps on a mission or something. However, for now, we'll continue to look for a birth mom in the United States that wants a better life for her baby.
Adoption with an agency is a little more expensive and requires more paperwork to complete a portfolio. Also, the wait time sometimes is longer depending on the agency because like LDS Family Services for example, they don't actively look for children. The birth moms come to them. This in turn equals longer waiting times for adoptive parents. We might look into working with an agency when we move but until then, we'll be focusing on independent adoption.
Adoption with an agency is a little more expensive and requires more paperwork to complete a portfolio. Also, the wait time sometimes is longer depending on the agency because like LDS Family Services for example, they don't actively look for children. The birth moms come to them. This in turn equals longer waiting times for adoptive parents. We might look into working with an agency when we move but until then, we'll be focusing on independent adoption.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Social Media
So we launched our blog on Saturday, January 26th at about 2pm. By launching, I mean we announced on facebook of our exciting plans to adopt and then attached the link to our blog. We also emailed all our family with a link to the blog as well. It was really exhilarating to watch how quickly news spread: how many likes we received on our facebook post, how many people shared our link with their friends, and how many hits the blog received.
For the next couple days, we checked almost hourly:) We're a little obsessed but it has been super fun to share the exciting news of our adventure.
Today, January 29, 2012 I had a couple people contact me about potential leads of children to adopt. There is a friend of a friend that adopted a child from Uganda and is giving me the information as we speak and my mom called too with some information about someone she might know that is pregnant.
Having already been through a semi-adoption submittal process, I am trying to keep from getting my hopes up in any one direction. A couple months ago, we were contacted about a mother who lived in North Carolina and was giving birth to a child and wanted a family for her baby. We were asked if we would submit a portfolio to her, for her to pick from. Apparently, there were only 4 families being considered. Needless to say, we weren't chosen, however, it was a really great experience. We were able to do more research on how long it takes to complete a home study and background checks etc. Through the whole experience, I felt a lot of anxiety. This was partly because it was our first time doing this sort of thing, but secondly, I just didn't feel like it was the right timing.
However, the timing is right now. I feel nothing but peace moving forward in this direction. God has been very clear that it is finally the right timing. We couldn't be more excited!
For the next couple days, we checked almost hourly:) We're a little obsessed but it has been super fun to share the exciting news of our adventure.
Today, January 29, 2012 I had a couple people contact me about potential leads of children to adopt. There is a friend of a friend that adopted a child from Uganda and is giving me the information as we speak and my mom called too with some information about someone she might know that is pregnant.
Having already been through a semi-adoption submittal process, I am trying to keep from getting my hopes up in any one direction. A couple months ago, we were contacted about a mother who lived in North Carolina and was giving birth to a child and wanted a family for her baby. We were asked if we would submit a portfolio to her, for her to pick from. Apparently, there were only 4 families being considered. Needless to say, we weren't chosen, however, it was a really great experience. We were able to do more research on how long it takes to complete a home study and background checks etc. Through the whole experience, I felt a lot of anxiety. This was partly because it was our first time doing this sort of thing, but secondly, I just didn't feel like it was the right timing.
However, the timing is right now. I feel nothing but peace moving forward in this direction. God has been very clear that it is finally the right timing. We couldn't be more excited!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)