Adoption Quilt

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Sometime in January we decided that we really wanted to create something special for our child that captivated their journey to our family - from our perspective.  Something meaningful and unique.  We decided on creating an adoption quilt!  Each quilt square represents one month of waiting and there are 4 squares for each month.  My broken finger stalled progress for a bit but we are back at it and can't wait to get caught up!  Our May fabrics will be either PINK or BLUE and we are SO excited!  Our adoption process will have taken 15 months from decision to adopt to bringing home baby!  So unbelievable!  We plan to embroider into the border the specific dates and events of the process (mostly dates from Our Paper Pregnancy.) 

Our Adoption Profile Book

Curious what an adoption profile book looks like?  Just plain curious about our adoption profile book?  Well, here it is!  We have spent hours putting this together and due to our surprise blessing of finding a birthmom through a friend this book won't even be shown!  We are printing a copy to give to our birth mom and to keep for ourselves and our child.  While putting this together we seached for and looked through many many other couples' books and found it supremely helpful!  The agency actually gave us VERY little guidance on this.   So we are doing our part and sharing our book with the world.  Enjoy! :)

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly allows you to customize your photo book just the way you want.

The BIG Day (Part Two)

After our counseling appointment David and I jumped in the car and headed up to Denver for our lunch date with Jemi!  Between Jemi running late and David and I accidentally going to the wrong restaurant our 1:00 meeting actually started at 2:00!  We finally got to the same place and sat down.  Jemi was very chatty and open which really helped keep the conversation going and comfortable.  She shared very openly about a whole host of details.  We talked about our ideas and expectations during pregnancy, at the birth and afterward.  She shared some of her hopes and dreams of the future as did we.  She invited us to the ultrasound May 1 to find out the sex of the baby!  She showed us ultrasound pictures from previous appointments and let us take pictures of them on our phones. :)  Jemi said that she's ready to move forward with us if we are!  UN.BE.LIEVABLE!  We felt really great about meeting with her and as we left were overwhelmed with a whole host of expected and unexpected emotions.

So, if everything goes as planned right now, our baby will be born by c-section September 15!!!  We will be there and bring the baby home from the hospital.  We are actually going to be parents in 5 months!  We can hardly believe it!!!

What are the next steps?  We really don't exactly know!  We wrote an email to our social worker Julie on Thursday night with a list of questions and have not heard back.  The next thing we have to achieve is home study approval which should just be a letter and a quick home inspection away.  This should be no problem to have done by September and we are going to pray things go smoothly.  We should be able to proceed with this process through Hopes Promise.  Since we have essentially found our own birth mother the agency adoption fees are cut nearly in half!  Our puzzle fundraiser nearly covers our entire cost of adoption!  Wow!  We cannot say thank you enough to everyone who has supported us, sponsored pieces, prayed for us and cheered us on!

Here is what we know about our baby-

He/She is Caucasian/Filipino/Black -- beautiful!
All tests so far have come back healthy.
Heart beat is strong and fast.
He/She is almost 18 weeks gestation and very active.

We are overwhelmed to say the least!  What an amazing gift and blessing to be matched before even being in the waiting pool.  Praise the Lord with us as we anticipate this indescribable blessing!

The BIG Day (Part One)

At the end of March I received a  message on facebook from an acquaintance at church.  She is friends with a lady whose son is friends with a girl who was looking to make an adoption plan for her baby.  We expressed interest & a couple of days later had the cell phone number of this girl!  After much prayer, speaking with our adoption agency & with a stomach full of butterflies I made the call.  At this point we didnt even know the girl's name!  I left a message & she called me back an hour later.

She gave us a whole bunch of information about herself, the bio dad, her situation, this pregnancy & her desires in an adoptive family.  We fit all of her criteria & she expressed a desire to meet!  We spoke a couple more times on the phone & planned to meet for lunch at Red Robin in Denver where she lives. 

That meeting was yesterday.

As you might remember we are right at the finish line of our home study.  We were asked to met with a counselor & complete a psychological profile test to make sure that we (especially me) are ready & equipped to be parents.  We took the 180 true/false question test a couple of weeks ago.  The time line & results of our home study hang on this test & what our counselor writes in her report to Hope's Promise.  We finally got the results. 

That appointment was yesterday.

BIG DAY!

10am was our appointment time.  We showed up a couple minutes early.  David being the kind, loving & amazing man that he is tried to distract me by talking about some things going on at his work.  Unfortunately, my nerves were getting the better of me & I'm not sure if I could tell you anything he was talking about.  Not being able to give David a child biologically is painful to say the least.  Not being able to give David a child through adoption because of my emotional scars from childhood...I'm not sure I could bear it.  We were called in & jumped right in to my report.  I felt really overwhelmed hearing these paragraphs of potentially harmful tenancies.  Amazingly, most everything sounded exactly like me...if you were to look at all of my weaknesses at once on a bad day.  Not what I would call fun or encouraging.  But I guess every forest contains some pretty ugly trees, yes?  As is typically the case in these situations we didn't finish up with my profile or get to touch David's.  We meet again in 2 weeks.  We were wrapping up & I couldn't take it anymore...

"So, big picture, what are your thoughts at this point in terms of our adoption process & moving forward in our home study?"  I asked.

"Oh, I believe you both will be excellent parents. I really do.  I don't see any reason not to continue.  I plan to write a letter sharing the report findings & a couple of areas I believe would be helpful for you to work through but also that you will be great parents."

HUGH sigh of relief...tears in my eyes...praises rising to the Lord who has done so much healing work in my life!  I will always wrestle with certain patterns that I learned very young in order to cope but what a huge blessing to hear such affirmation after all of the work I've done & especially God has done in my life!  This is definitely a moment to pause & boast in the incredible healing power of Jesus Christ!  2 years ago I am confident this would have been an entirely different experience!  God is good.

More to come soon!  I am writing this on my phone & can't swype anymore right now!  :)