Thankful

This week has been wonderfully exhausting! We are so thankful to have so many of you along our journey and praying for us daily. Prayer is something we need during this long and emotional journey! 

Thank you so much for reading our blog and for being a part of our adoption story. I am so happy that this child will have you as an aunt, uncle, grandparent, cousin or friend. We are all so blessed by your prayers and encouraging words.

The fundraising this week has blown our minds. Our hearts are overjoyed with the amount of

financial help we have received through all of you. As you can see from our fundraising meter, we have officially hit the 64% mark. Can you believe that we are only $9,000 dollars away from our goal? It is a true blessing and we are so thankful!!

We are working on a t-shirt fundraiser.Hopefully it will be ready by next Friday!

Our last home-study is already marked on our calendars for the second week of May. Thank you for helping us be able to go through this process so quickly. We realize that without your help we would not be at this point! Many of you have asked what else we need to do in order to be on the waiting list. We have our last home-study, a baby-basics class and a doctor appointment! After our last home-study it will typically take about 6 weeks to be approved to go on the waiting list…so we are looking at the end of June! Our goal date was June 30^th and it looks like with your help and God’s provision we will be able to make our goal! Praise the Lord! We cannot WAIT to WAIT for our baby. 

Fundraising Friday Update!

This blog post is long overdue! I am sorry about the long delay in posting, but here it goes.

We had another amazing, successful fundraiser! My sweet Aunt April hosted a benefit garage sale for our adoption. We are so thankful for the love that she, Gretchen and Jenny put into this event. They were able to receive donations from so many people and as you can see from the pictures below, there was a great selection! We are so grateful for the hours of work they put into this.

The amount of hard work and time that goes into these events show how loving of a family this baby is going to be place into. We are so excited about the blessings God has given us through our family and friends. God showed us how he can provide again at the end of the day when we heard the amount that the garage sale added to our adoption fund….it is another unbelievable day in this journey. Drum-roll……..The grand total raised is $1,125!!! 

Isn't that amazing? We are so overwhelmed with the fundraising for our adoption. It has been a true miracle to see the amount that has been raised to help bring home Baby Page. 

Thank you so much for you hard work Aunt April, Gretchen and Jenny!
We love you and appreciate everything you did for us.

Next on the the list to update you on…our Home study!

Last Monday, Dakota and I had our first home study with our case worker, Kari. We had a great time meeting with her and quickly felt like we were making a new friend. We talked about our families, things that we enjoy doing together, our lifestyle and what our expectations are in regards to semi-open adoption. It was relaxed and way easier than we imagined! We also had our home inspected. Before our home study we were given a list of things that would need to be completed before the inspection. After making sure everything was done, I was still nervous! I cleaned out closets, drawers and made sure everything was in exactly the “right” place. Of course, non of that mattered! J They didn't go around with a white glove inspected our home, but they did check for necessities like a fire extinguisher and smoke detectors…just the normal things to keep children safe! Overall, we loved having Kari in our home and we are looking forward to our next home study on the 29^th of April!

We have officially hit the 53% mark! Praise the Lord!! It is so encouraging to be at the half way point. J

Training/Exciting News

Adoption training was a wonderful way to cram as much information as possible into your head in two days! It was intense, emotional and completely overwhelming in the best way possible. I have a strong desire to pass on information we learned in our classes, but I don’t want to overwhelm you! I will write periodically about different subjects and prayerfully we can all learn together about how wonderful it is to adopt.

Here we are about to leave for training!

Just to give an idea of what we learned last weekend here is a brief description of our experience.

Dakota and I were so nervous pulling into the parking lot of our training! Meeting new people and knowing how important the information is, was a lot of pressure. Once we were in the classroom we realized again how perfect this adoption agency is for us. These people are so lovable!. We truly enjoyed listening to them talk and talk and talk and talk about adoption! J They had so many fantastic things to say. One of the first things Dakota did was eat…he was nervous. Eating made him calm, therefore, that boy ate for two days! Donuts, chips, cookies, barbecue, even peppermints went straight to his plate. He couldn't stop! It was completely adorable in a strange way. I just love how his heart is all in! We received a HUGE notebook filled with information and places to take notes.  My coping mechanism was taking notes. I have no idea what most of my notes say, but it kept me calm and focused. J

Have you ever wondered about the history of adoption? How about what it feels like to be a birth parent? Did you know there are right and wrong terms in regards to adoption? These are just a few examples of things we reviewed. We also went over subjects like grief/loss, the legal process, trans-racial adoption and what it will be like once our child is home. I am so excited to dive further into these subjects at a later time and just share our hearts with you. The very best part of this weekend was listening to the panels of people who have gone before us. On Saturday we had a couple share there story (which was so similar to Dakota and my story that we were both in tears).  It was so touching to see a couple that is now a family of four. Another best part of the weekend was meeting birth-mothers. We met four amazing birth moms who shared with us the struggles they went through and how adoption influenced their lives forever. Meeting them and learning there story has completely changed me. These woman are courageous and make the hardest decision of their lives out of selflessness and courage. We also had a panel of adoptive parents. They gave words of wisdom and challenged us to keep moving forward. Adoption is a roller coaster filled with twists and turns that we don’t share with everybody. It can be hard, but the reward at the end is priceless. We are so looking forward to the day God fulfills our hope for children. 

Here is some BIG NEWS-

On April 1, our adoption case worker contacted us and scheduled our first home study! Whoa. This just go so real! We are over the moon ready, excited and nervous to begin that process. When we thought about our home study process back in January, we NEVER imagined on April 13, 2015 we would be meeting for our first home study visit. We prayed to get everything complete by June 30, but the Lord is moving things in His perfect time. We are so grateful. We laugh because after the home study begins the dreaded wait period will be here….so we are really just racing to begin waiting. J

Fundraising update- We are now at the 46% mark on the fundraising meter! Yay! It is so encouraging to watch it grow and know that God is working miracles!