Sunday, December 29, 2013

Family

Through this holiday week I have discovered how truly blessed we are to have the families we have. I've always known how amazing our families are, but this new phase in our lives does not just effect us (although it MAINLY does) it also effects our families that will ALSO be loving and accepting our child into the family.

Our little family took 2 nice road trips to see family over Christmas break! We were greeted with the same love and excitement that we usually receive, but this time our families also welcomed the idea of having a new child in their lives. One from Haiti.

"My daughter is adopting from Haiti" My mother tells a store clerk....

"Here's some funds to get things started" my mom-in-law said to us as she passed over part of our Christmas gift! Excited to have her new grandchild as soon as humanly possible!

My brother-in-law giving us funds out of his savings (even as he begins a new journey in his life).

"What's the next step? How does this work..." Excitement and acceptance filled our families dialogue as we talked over Christmas!

It's kind of funny because my husband and I didn't even consider for a moment that our families would be nothing but excited for us on our new adventure. Mainly because we have both been raised with such loving and supportive families.... I never knew what a complete blessing it was until this Christmas arrived. Family giving us prayers, thoughts, questions, excitement, and even some money to get things started. We could not have felt more loved and cared for!

I can't just stop with family.... because our friends have given us so much love and support as well. They continue to send nice notes over email and facebook. Each person willing to hook us up with friends or family member that have gone through the adoption process, give us an encouraging words, or help fund us!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!

As we prepare for this new bundle of amazingness, our families and friends are too! We feel so blessed that you want to be a part of the journey. We feel so blessed that we have people that care for us so much. The thought of this process seems less and less scary with all of you by our sides. Thank you again for your rich blessings that you have given to us whether through kind words, prayers, and even some of you blessing us with some funds for our adoption. We could not feel more loved on this Christmas.

With your help, we are able to start our journey this January! 

We start with the first step: our home study! :)

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Our Commonly Received Questions

Since we've announced our great news.... I'm sure you can only imagine the questions and comments we've been getting... So I thought I would clear some things up for those of you who are wondering:

1. How is the adoption going?
It's a process and starting it all takes time! :) But we are working on it.... Mostly... we're not even sure! :)

2. Why are you doing international adoption when there are so many kids around here?
First of all, there are kids everywhere and we love them all.... and if it was up to me I would adopt a ton of kids... from anywhere.... But it's just not possible, so we went with the best option for our family right now. We are not against domestic adoption, and we would love to adopt someone from around here, but that is not what we are doing this time (maybe we'll get another chance!).

3. Are you going to find out about fertility stuff? 
Well, maybe some day! :) I would love to find out if there is an easy fix, but unfortunately even the easy fixes are costly (or could be).... and we really want to focus our funds on the adoption. So, in due time.

4. Why did you pick Haiti?
It came down to the fact that this was where we felt drawn to after our first informational meeting, and then it ended up being the best fit for our family as well. We spent a long time debating and discussing this, and we are really excited about it!

Comments we've gotten:
- You don't want a kid the other kids will be able to pick on.
 No, we do not.... no one does. We don't want our son to be picked on right now, and will pray for him and our child right now that they will not be picked on. And when they are, we'll be there to help love them and show them God's mercy and teach them an awesome lesson on forgiveness! :)

- You are so much stronger than me!
No, God is.... we're just doing our very best to take this all one step at a time, and trust in God. Please continue to pray those things for us!

- 3 years is a long time!
YES IT IS!!!! Please stick with us for our long journey. We are excited to take it with you, and I know we're going to need all the positive prayers, thoughts, and encouragement we can get! For an impatient person, this is the ultimate test!


If you have any other questions please leave them below and I'll try my best to answer them! :)