IT'S A BOY!!!!!

Yes we finally have the news we were waiting on.....a sweet baby boy was placed with us and that is all that I am allowed to post online at this point due to legal risks etc until finalization! We are beyond excited and feel incredibly blessed. More details to come but it probably won't be for a while. A huge thank you to all of our family and friends who journeyed along with us on this!!!! It all worked out in Gods timing and in His way.

Beach Trip

   Maylena and I just returned from a trip to the Outer Banks beach to see my Grandad. We were able to go from Wednesday through Sunday with my parents(Billy couldn't come due to his college classes). If you watched the weather at all you know we were there during the hurricane weather!! Thankfully it didn't come all the way up to our coast but I feel terrible for the people in the Bahamas where it stayed for days. We had bad enough weather up here. It was rainy and big gusts of wind all the days we were there except one. However, Maylena didn't complain at all and was a trooper. She LOVED being out on the beach in the rain with soaking wet clothes on and just played as though nothing was happening out of the ordinary. I was so proud of her! My dad acted as though nothing out of the ordinary was going on as well when he took brief ocean swims despite the ridiculous waves and undertow and the No Swimming flags flying up and down the beach. We took a daily trip to a very nice pier called Jeanette's Pier, Maylena is sitting on a turtle that is located on the pier in the photo above. We saw a huge red drum caught and it was around 35lbs probably and about Maylena's height in it's length. It was definitely the largest fish I had ever seen brought up on a pier. The next day a guy was fighting something for about 45 minutes with his pole and when it breached the surface of the water it snapped the line but my mom saw that it was about a 10' shark (we have no way to verify the length...just have to take her word for it!) but after hearing that Maylena put two and two together that sharks live in the ocean and she acted deathly afraid that one would get her if she put her feet in the 1" water that comes up as the waves goes back. Its ok because it wasn't good swimming water anyway this trip!
   We still have no current updates on the adoption or a lead time on our wait so I am trying to be true to my word and just give tid bits about our family in the meantime. We will be attending the fall workshop through our agency for the adoptive families. It is required for you to attend at least 1 spring and 1 fall course while awaiting placement and we have already done that. But since we are still waiting placement and we learn so much at these meetings we wanted to go again anyway. It will be an all day Saturday class coming up in early November.
   I had to make a decision recently to give my notice at my nanny job so I could have more time with my family. It seems my hours continued to grow and I was getting home later and working all full days which was very different from when I first started. I will be continuing my work at the animal hospital since I never gave that up in the last year and a half I just worked there when I could and on the weekends. I will be able to have much more flexibility with my schedule and have more evenings home with my family so I know I made the right choice although it was a tough one.
   That's probably all the updates I have for now....until next time....we still wait!!!

Let the Good Times Roll

Here we are in September and I really don't have any adoption updates much so I guess I can just update you on our family : )! The only thing to mention about our adoption is that we have been trying since April to compile some video clips of us doing stiff as a family and get photos of us together to make a short slide show film for our agency website. That way the birth mom can see us a little more in detail than just our shutterfly album. She can see how we interact and what things we like to do. I really wanted to make one right away but it took time and then we just let it go by the way side a bit. The week before last I mentioned to Billy and my mom that I noticed about 3 other couples went in and added videos to their pages so we needed to buckle down and get it done. The next day a lady from the adoption agency emailed me saying it was time to take our website to the next level and update it with a video. I laughed as I emailed her back saying I had literally just said that the day before. I told her we would get it over within the week and I handed the project fully over to Billy because I have no idea how to begin something that requires technology to put it together...haha. Billy stayed up many late nights and made an awesome video of our family. I would love for you to check it out at christianadopt.org, click on waiting families and then scroll down to our photo and click on us. It loads at the top of our page. Yay! I really hopes this helps us reach out to just the right birth mom and give her a glimpse into our lives
  Again in the meantime we are waiting and trying to stay busy as a family heading here and there having fun all the while! The photo above was from a local petting zoo out in Monroe we spent a few hours there last Sunday. And the weekend before that we headed up to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham for a daytrip. I had won some tickets back in the spring at Maylena's preschool silent auction. However when it came time to go even though I knew exactly where I had put the tickets, they were not to be found. After searching over an hour myself and having Billy check behind me we had to let it go, they weren't going to turn up. Frustrating to say the least, but since we had already talked it up to Maylena that we were going the next morning, lost tickets were not holding us back. Once we got there it was hour of fun and learning. They had everything from a dinosaur trail with a fossil dig site (yes we got to bring home 3 sharks teeth Billy found), a train ride on real tracks, butterfly atrium to walk through, a petting zoo and wildlife area and so much more! It was too cool. If it were closer by we would have bought a membership right then. I know we will go back one day though.
  Maylena started preschool early September and really likes her teacher again this year. There were no tears at drop off the first day and when it was time for pick up she didn't want to go home because she wasn't ready to leave, that's always a good sign! We are excited about what is in store for the rest of this year and hope that a baby brother is right around the corner.

God's Goodness

   Hope everyone has had a great summer! It has completely flown by for us and I can not believe it's time for school and holidays are right around the corner. Maylena will be starting back school soon and Billy started some college courses as well this fall to work towards a degree. Our family will for sure be busy and there will be many things to coordinate with work and school schedules but it is exciting at the same time.
  The week before last was an encouraging week as we still continue this period of waiting. On Saturday I opened the mail to find a letter from the second grant agency we applied for and Families Outreach had awarded us a very generous grant as well. Even though we had not heard anything from them since applying back in May and figured we probably wouldn't be receiving one from their organization we were taken by suprise to get that awesome letter in the mail. They appologized for the delaying in replying to us and said they have had an overwhelming amount of applications come through and it took time to figure out which ones they could award. That just made me feel even more tremendously blessed that we were selected from an organization in Arkansas that people from all over the US had applied for and they chose us!! God has had his hand in this all. That same week I received a handwritten note in the mail from our adoption agency letting us know they are still thinking about us and they know that the waiting is hard and they shared a verse in Psalms with us that spoke about how the Lord will Preserve us in the wait. I was so appreciative to be on the receiving end of those words of encouragment. Very needed. That same night was the monthly meeting for the adoption support group I attend in waxhaw and I learned so much and also got to listen to others stories of adoption and share about where we are at. Billy came with me and it was our second outing just as a couple in 1 week which was refreshing as well. It's nice to be able to discuss adoption along the way and be around others who have already completed their adoptions, some recently and others have adopted children who are graduating high school. It's a diverse group with a lot of good insight and advice if needed.
   My sisters wedding was wonderful and each thing we celebrate at the moment helps to pass time until our family is selected by a birth mom. I served in the nursery at church on Sunday and that was so much fun revisiting the baby stage of life. I enjoyed all the smiles and cuddles and I can't wait to share that with a little one in our family again!

Puzzle Completion....

    For those of you who have been following our blog since starting it last year, you probably remember the beginning of our puzzle fundraiser that we started in September 2014. We have completely finished it with the help of so many friends and family. We sold all 1,000 pieces and it looks so cool! Since starting it in September this puzzle has been out on my dining room table for 10 months and I will be very glad to glue it and frame it on the wall of the nursery to have a dining room table again. There were some very fun times and frustrating as well getting the puzzle from start to finish, but what a great keepsake that was made. Thank you so much to each and every person who participated in our puzzle fundraiser!!
   There haven't been any additional updates about the adoption for us. We are just waiting. I have been looking at the agency website of the "waiting families" who are available right now and have not been matched with a birth mom yet. When I counted last night there are only 11 families available through our agency right now that the birth moms pick from. So I keep telling myself maybe it will be soon. However, there is nothing I can do to speed it up, its all in God's timing. In the meantime I was able to attend a second meeting at the Adoption Journey Support group who meets in Waxhaw monthly. It is always such a blessing to go to this meeting and hear everyone share about their life experiences with an adopted child. I know this support group will provide so much needed advice and suggestions in the years to come after our adoption has been finalized. I have been learning already and its nice to be in an environment where adoption is being discussed because it makes the waiting process a little bit easier.
   Also I was so fortunate to hear about a book a friend of a friend wrote called "Groanings" by Cindy Ketron. Her son was diagnosed with brain cancer at age 19 and they spent a year at St. Jude's hospital for his treatments. This book is compiled from her daily blog she kept about their time at St. Jude hospital. The way Cindy writes she brings each day back to God and how he was able to help direct her paths and get her through each day. I have had many days where I have felt alone and had heavy burdens throughout this adoption process and just life itself but every day I read her book God has used it to uplift me and it seems like exactly what I read is what I needed to hear that particular day. It is such a powerful book and gives really great insight to the very cool set up of St. Jude hospital and how amazing their ministry is there. If you like to read at all this would be a wonderful book to add to your library and share with others!!
   That's all the information I have to share right now. We are on a 2 week count down to my sister getting married...can't wait!!! We are all in the wedding and Maylena is looking forward to being a flower girl and dressing fancy with rings, a necklace and having a pretty dress on. She is starting to get more and more girly with wanting to dress up and play with jewelry on.

Wonderful News

 

As you read the title of my post you may have thought "Oh my goodness, is there news on a baby?"...I will start off by saying we are still waiting. A little over a month ago I worked very hard on applying to 3 different grant agencies to see if we could get approved for an adoption grant of ANY amount. The awesome thing about grants is its money you could be awarded that isn't a loan or due back in any way. I knew before I started that it was going to be very involved and lots of application paperwork, very detailed budgeting information, essays to be written similiar to ones we wrote for the adoption agency, etc. I had also heard from the adoption agency and other adoptive couples and the grant websites that very few grants are award but LOTS of people apply therefore it is no garauntee that if you work very hard on the paperwork portion you will for sure get a grant. It was toss up to me for a long time as to whether I had the time to allocate for getting the grants applied for. Though I knew if we were awarded one the work that it took would pay off as "free money" so that's not easy to pass up and seemed a little irresponsible not to at least try for it. They also required our references to write another letter of recommendation on our behalf for each grant had specific questions for their purposes to be answered so it wouldn't be a generalized letter. The pastor, and 2 very good friends pulled through the application process with me and helped meet the deadlines for each grant. It wasn't easy and I fully appreciate the time they spent as well helping make it possible, that part was completely out of my hands. The information was emailed direct to my references and they had to send it directly back to the grant agencies....I had no idea what questions were even being asked about us. I heard from 2 of the couples that the questions were very in depth. After all needed documents were gathered and completed we began another waiting process, this time to hear about the grant results. Boy I have never had so much patience testing in my life as these waiting periods we have been going through and to say the least it really never leaves your mind...you wouldn't forget for 1 day that you are in the adoption process and could get a call any day about being matched with a birth mom and now in the grant process waiting to get notified as to whether you were approved or not. However the 3 agencies I applied for I heard about from 2 different families that had already gone through the adoption process and they were awarded grants from them so I felt like instead of trying to apply to 10 or so initially I would apply to these 3, Families Outreach, Gift of Adoption, and JSC Foundation.
    We submitted our applications a little over a month ago and I knew some were a 30-45 day review period, some say you will only hear a response if you were awarded a grant because so many apply at one time, etc. A week or so after we submitted the one to JSC Foundation I got an email asking for additional information to be provided and I answered their questions that night by email. This additional information request got me excited because I told Billy if they had looked at the initial information we sent along with all the other applicants for that grant period and ours didn't seem like as big a need as another applicant they probably would have already said no and wouldn't need anymore information. They thanked me for the update and said our application was ready to go in for review. I tried not to get my hopes up too high but I still did. Last week was the 1 month mark and I knew it to the date on my calendar and I had been anticipating an email of any sort to give us the news, but none came. I had to tell myself that we had up to 45 days though. Then yesterday I was at work when an email popped up on my phone, I had been busy all day but somehow it caught my attention right then and I immediately saw it was from JSC Foundation, I couldn't open it fast enough and my eyes were reading it so fast and I got to the part that said we had been awarded a VERY generous grant!!! I was so excited, I felt like jumping up and down and crying tears of joy all at the same time. Obviously I didn't because I was working and my office has a wall of windows. But I had goosebumps stand up on my arms that wouldn't go down for like half an hour because I felt so overwhelmed by the perfect provision of God, it was once again a huge affirmation that we are not alone in this process and He has the whole thing figured out especially the finances of it. I am fortunate to work with my sister and she was there on shift so I ran to find her and the words came spilling out. I told other co-workers and called my husband at work and we were all celebrating the blessing of it! This organization is actually in Colorado so that's the other amazing part, we weren't just in a pool of people from NC that applied, it was people all over the nation probably and who knows out of how many applications ours was chosen. So many people do a lot of work applying for these grants and don't hear anything back and are never awarded anything but only by the grace of God we applied for 3 and with the tremendous blessing on the first grant we were awarded I feel blessed beyond words. The JSC Foundation specifically asked for us to not disclose the amount of the grant we were awarded on social media sites, blogs, etc because they are a private organization and I will respect their wishes for that. But I did still want to share with you that we were indeed awarded 1 of the 3 grants and we still have yet to hear from the other 2 which could mean there is more blessing to come. :)
    The last thing that Billy and I want to complete for CAS but have had trouble finding the time to get it together is a 2 minute video of our family so that the birth mom can have a better idea of what we are like in personalities than just the words on our website page and the photos. I think it is an excellent idea and I have been wanting to get this completed for over a month now. We have been working on clips of video here and there of us doing things with Maylena and now we just need some of us around the house all together. That's been the hardest part. If we can successfully complete it I will let you know to check us out on their website again so you can see what we put together. I still try my best not to check the "waiting families" daily on the website to see who has been put On Hold or who has received placement and whether they had a Boy or Girl. Its really hard not to keep looking at it. There for a month or so it could be like 2 families every week to week and a half put on On Hold. Then there weren't any updates and now last week another family was put On Hold and each time I see it was a family that had put a video on the website I feel like we really need to get ours done. I know that there is a certain baby out there for us and nothing can really speed that process up but I know too that the video could help the right birth mom connect with us. So pray we have time to finish that portion up.
    We are still staying incredibly busy through work and fun summer activities to go and do. Also my sister is engaged and getting married August 2nd, only 6 weeks away. There is a lot of activity and things to plan and get done for the wedding (we are all 3 in it and Maylena can't wait to be a flower girl) but I know without a doubt if a baby came right now I would be thrilled!!! Thank you for all your continued support and encouragement to our family. We appreciate our awesome friends and family.

Incredible Night

 

As many of you know we had a Spagetti Benefit dinner at Silent Auction yesterday at the Wesley Chapel fire dept. We had no idea exactly how many to expect we just knew it could be somewhere around 200 people and so that is what we planned for. The night was a huge success.....between 5-7pm we raised over $2,500 and there is more to come to be added to that figure because several people who couldn't make it are mailing a check straight to the agency on our behalf!! How amazing! I had hoped we would raise around $1,000 that night but turns out it was more than doubled. God is good and we felt so humbled by everyone pouring out their love on us and our family. We had the help of so many wonderful friends and family that volunteered and it took each person giving of their time and energy to make it possible. There were about 150 people that came through and almost all of the silent auction items we had donated by local businesses were bid on. There were lots of kids there including Maylena who ran around and played on and inside of the fire trucks that the fire dept so generously allowed them to do and didn't mind at all. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the event and neither did any of the other volunteers there because we were busy from the time we got there to set up at 2pm until about 9pm that night it just never stopped. If anyone took some photos that came to the event I would LOVE to have them emailed to Brittany_695@hotmail.com. The only photo we have is this one Billy took while playing with the kids around the fire trucks. Its Maylena on the left and Teagan and Aidan the kids I nanny for.
   We are so thankful to everyone who came and gave so generously to make this possible. You went above and beyond and blessed our socks off!! We even had people there we didn't know who came to play a part in our adoption journey...how cool is that?? It just goes to show when everyone comes and gives a little it can add up to A LOT. We made a finger print tree that Billy penciled on a paper and each person that attended put their fingerprint and first names to have a very cool keepsake from that night.  I will post a picture of it next time I do blog update. For now we are still in the waiting but God has been right here with us.

Puzzle Fundraiser Update...

    Here is a photo update of our Puzzle Fundraiser! How cool that we only have 74 pieces left to go on a 1,000 piece puzzle. Thanks to everyone we know and even some people we don't even know that donated to help us out with this. I will be a little glad to have it completed and my dining room table back in working order and able to have people over for dinner again :) Plus it will be a great addition to the nursery wall to have it framed and hung in there.
    Maylena and I took a last minute opportunity to go to Charleston for the night on Friday to celebrate my birthday and mother's day and just have a great girls weekend before baby brother is part of the family. We have never had a trip just the two of us and I know for sure I will treasure the memories we made for a lifetime. We are trying to take each day and live in the moment because we are not guaranteed our next breath or moment in time. We can get so caught up in the busyness of life that we forget what in life is worth living for....God and our families. That is what matters.
    With the spaghetti benefit dinner quickly approaching I am very excited and can't wait to see how God blesses our family that day through the help of others. We have worked hard to put together a great set of silent auction items that were donated by local vendors and it will take place this Sunday night May 17th from 5 to 7 pm as a drop in event that is family friendly. You can read my last blog post to get all the details. We have silent auction items from: Massage Envy, Shakeology, Moe's, Sweet Frog, Stone Theaters, Riverbanks Zoo, Lazy 5 ranch, Outback, Lowes, Starbucks and more. It will be a very fun night and a great time of fellowship. Hope to see you there and invite anyone you want!!
    I am trying very hard to be patient during this process of waiting but it is very addictive to pull up the Christian Adoption Services website of waiting families and monitor the status of everyone on there. I look at it almost every day and it is always exciting to see updates. In the last several weeks, like less than 2 months there have been 4 or 5 families put On Hold which means they are matched with a birth mother and waiting for the baby to be born and receive placement and then one couple it just automatically said Its a Girl, that means they didn't have much waiting to do that more than likely a baby was born and then the decision was made to place the baby for adoption and it was pretty immediate. Its like each week about 2 families go on hold it seems. And that is so exciting! It really gives you the feeling that this adoption thing works and one day it will be us that says On Hold and then It's a Boy!! So cool.

Spagetti Benefit Dinner!

    A date has been set and we are ready to go on this spagetti dinner! It will be held Sunday May 17th from 5 - 7pm at the fire dept located off Newtown Rd...right next to Walden Pond neighborhood. The address is 8821 New Town Rd, Waxhaw, NC 28173. This will be an event to help raise additional funds for our adoption!!! We are working on collecting donations from local businesses to have a silent auction/raffle that night as well. This is a kid friendly event so bring the whole family out! Each meal will include a drink, spagetti, bread, salad, and dessert. Suggested donation is $8 a plate for adults, $5 a plate for kids 4 to 12yr, and 3 and under eat free. However we will accept and appreciate any donation. We are going to need to try and keep track of how many we have coming so please post a comment on my blog or Billys Facebook letting us know you plan on coming, or text/call 704-607-5062 and leave a message if you don't get me. You can come and stay the whole time or drop in at any time. Please help us SPREAD the word for this event so we have a BIG turnout. : )
   Any questions let me know....,and we hope to see you there!

Spring Workshop/Addition to the Website

   Billy and I met with Doris for our follow up meeting we needed to have in order to move forward to the next step. She had told us back in February she would like to see us work some on spending more time together as just a couple and also going out to do fun things more often as a family. We listened and appreciated what she had to say in February and we began going to the park for the afternoon/taking a picnic, Billy and me had a couple of date nights and went to a marriage seminar, we went to grandfather mountain spontaneously the other weekend for an awesome day trip/picnic and found a park in downtown blowing rock where we spent the remainder of the day. There has been a lot of fun things going on and wonderful memories being made! I am so glad when someone like Doris takes the time to give you helpful insight about your family. When we went to meet with her the second time of course I was nervous...she is nice as can be but everything is so on the spot and you never know what questions or anything you will be hit with. And of course you want to do good so that you can continue on the adoption process. So she came in and we had small talk about this and that the first half hour it seemed, and then we shared a little about life and she was very happy with the progress we made. We were done in less than an hour and Doris had Debbie come down from her office to tell us about how to get on the website. I was overjoyed just to hear the words WEBSITE. That is literally the absolute final piece and sometimes you are found on the website before the birth mom ever even sees the family profile album you put together. Debbie told us we needed to submit roughly 20 pictures to her through an email and that was it, she uses the info that has already been prepared through your homestudy to write about you on the website. I worked all weekend and got those pictures compiled. I sent them to her on Sunday night. Wednesday April 15th I got an email from her saying DONE!, I was thinking does that mean we are officially on the website? I pulled it up right away and just to see our picture on there and see what was put together about our family sent waves of emotion over me. I couldn't believe how far we had come since last July when we started with an interest meeting. If you want to check us out and see the other waiting families you can go to Christianadopt.org and click on waiting familes. Then you will see our picture, click on it if you want to read more about our profile. The families you see pictures of that say On Hold, that means they have been matched and are waiting on the baby to be born...one day that will be us! :) So exciting!!!!!!

   Next we attended the second of our required workshops through the agency. One is in the fall which we already attended and this was the spring workshop. It was on Saturday and its an 8 hour deal. We literally learned so much. It was awesome! They had a pediatrician come and speak about infants for an hour, we had group break out sessions where we all shared our stories and different things and then met as a whole group again and shared, and as always they had a panel of adoptive families share. This is the part I love the most where we hear stories from people who have already adopted through the agency. There were 5 families on this panel and every story is so different as to how long it took to complete the process, how long you waited before placement, was it open or closed adoption, etc? Out of these 5 the main thing that stayed similar was how quick the turn around time was from going on the website to receiving a baby for placement. We have thought all along that we would be matched with a birth mom who had about 2 months of pregnancy left and that's a short amount of time to get everything ready so you work on things now along the way. Turns out 4 out of 5 of these couples have gotten the call from Doris that there is a baby and this baby was born 1 week later or possibly 3 weeks, or in 1 case it was that the baby had already been born and the birth mom then made up her mind to place the baby and they needed to be at the hospital the next day! This blew my mind that it could be that fast of a turn around. Its exciting and scary all at once just because we are going through life every day right now having no idea what day or time of day WE will be the ones to get this life changing call from Doris, and at that point we may bring home baby brother within a week. Also when she calls this doesn't mean we will be driving to CMC uptown, we could be driving anywhere in NC, to raleigh, the beach, the mountains, etc. You never know where the baby will be born because they work with birth moms all over NC. We left that meeting like WOW we have got to go pick up some baby boy things. So we went shopping and got the diaper bag, a blanket, some onesies that were newborn and 0-3 months, and a pack of newborn diapers. The other adoptive parents just couldn't emphasize enough how ready you need to be with a car seat, fully packed diaper bag, gift for birth mother, etc so that if you were like them and got a phone call and needed to leave your house in an hour to hurry to the hospital that was 3 hours away while the birth mom was already in labor that you can grab your stuff and run out the door. Sometimes it doesn't happen like this but we never know which end of the spectrum we will be on, the one where you have 2 months or the one where you need to GO. Please keep our family and the birth mom of our child in your prayers..this is an exciting time.
   We are in the process of nailing down a spagetti benefit dinner date. We are shooting for a weekend evening in late May to be held at a local fire dept. I will give more details when we know them! Thats all the updates for now : )

   

In the Waiting

   It has literally been forever since I have had a chance to sit down for an update on the blog. My days are just slam full and before I know its its been another month. We are still adopting...so don't worry :). But once you get to the point of waiting there isn't a whole lot else to update on as quickly or in as much detail. Billy and I have been trying to do little things to work on our relationship as was suggested by Doris. We attended an awesome marriage seminar this weekend at Ovens Auditorium called "Making Good Marriages Better,"the main speakers were Michael and Amy Smalley and they did an incredible job. We walked away with great advice and tips. We were able to head to lunch at Pikes Old Fashioned Soda Shop in Charlotte for lunch afterwards. We love going there to get their hand-stirred Cherry Coke, if you have never been its worth a trip! However you may find yourself thinking about that drink more than you want to its sooo good.
    In the waiting period we are trying to add to the nursery bit by bit and the local consignment sales held at churches in the area have been a huge help. I was also able to blow up some pictures we took at the zoo a while back for the nursery wall over the crib. Pictures of elephants and a giraffe. It looks so cute and compliments the safari theme I am doing in there. We have been busy trying to think of baby names along the way just in case we get to be the one to pick. We don't have a definite name yet but I have a definite NO to a name Maylena provided. When we were talking about names with her and I would say how about...then she leaned over and whispered in my ear how about Puma. I don't know where so got that other than coming up with it on her own, we have never told her about the puma animal but I took the time to explain to her that it was an animal kinda like, and I said a tiger at first, then I remembered it closer to a mountain lion or something like that, but then she said I will call him Puma Tiger. And that's it for her because anytime we talk about it now she says no mommy its Puma Tiger, which would make him Puma Tiger Woods. I am just not feeling that name. : )
   There aren't many next steps for us at this point other than prayer, praying for the birth mother of our child and for the safety and health of her and the baby. Anyone is welcome to join us in that. We are also still working on raising our funds and I thought if anyone would like to donate items to be sold at a yard sale I would be willing to pick them up or meet you with them because we are thinking about having a sale this spring and if you have stuff you want to donate to get rid of and make space, then we would gladly accept them and it could help us raise some additional funds.
   We will be having a spagetti benefit dinner soon as well at one of the local fire departments. We are trying to pan out the details so there will be more to come on that as well. I was able to join an awesome Adoption Support group called Adoption Journey Group. They meet in a conference room at a hospital in Waxhaw. I have only been to 1 meeting so far, they are once a month, but I was blessed by the people there and hearing their stories because we are all at different places and have had different experiences. I learned a lot from the speaker and they recommended several good books. So I am excited to continue growing and learning with them.
 

Finalization Meeting

Hello! I have been very slow in posting updates, but it turns out we really didn't have anything to share until today when we met with Doris the head of the agency. We knew this meeting was coming ever since our home study was approved and submitted. I was having a hard time trying to stay calm thinking about it and wondering how intense it would be. All we knew is that it could take around 2 hours or more and we would be one on one in a room with Doris who we hadn't really even had a conversation with yet. We weren't sure what to expect.

Right away Doris just began talking to us about anything and everything and I quickly relaxed as realized this was going to be O.K. She was very easy to talk to and you could just tell how much she cared about the agency and the birth mothers as well as you as an adoptive couple. She has such a heart for adoption and you can tell God put the calling on her life. We discussed in detail each of our autobiographies we wrote a while back and she had many highlighted areas to go over that may have raised concerns with her when she read them through. She had so much insight and knowledge to share...I felt really blessed to be in the meeting and tried to absorb all her wisdom she shared. One of the biggest areas she wants to see growth in is our marriage. I am not saying we have a bad marriage, but reading our autobiographies she could tell we need to spend more time going on date nights and taking short weekend trips together. I couldn't agree more. Anyone who has kids knows that there are so many needs and demands for your child that your own needs tend to get put aside and many sacrifices are made. She told us about the 5 C's of a good marriage: Christ (your marriage must be Christ centered to be healthy), Communication (no marriage can survive without communication), Commitment (it takes this on the good and bad days), Compatibility (we need to help each other out in areas of strengths/weaknesses), and Compromise (one person can not always be right you have to have compromise on the way things are done or how choices are made). I think these 5 things are good for all of married couples to remember and try to practice. She spoke so truthfully and so many of the things she said really hit home for us and helped us realize what we need to work on, she was like a mom talking to her children and it was easy to see how much she cared about us, she kept saying she always wants to see these couples that come through the agency succeed in life. Another saying that I wanted to pass along from her was something her grandmother used to say to her, "before your feet hit the floor each morning you should pray and ask God for Wisdom and Discernment each day, Wisdom to do the right thing and Discernment to help read other people."

We left the meeting feeling so refreshed and uplifted! It was a 2.5 hour meeting for us, but the time flew by. Doris requested to have another meeting with us in 6 weeks to follow up on if we are taking her suggestions and see how we are doing. I can't wait to meet with her again.

From here we will wait to be contacted by another lady at the agency who will help us get set up on their website and then it just the waiting period until we get the call that we have been matched with a birth mother. I can't even imagine what that feeling will be like just thinking about it now. I am sure it will be surreal, especially since you never know how long it will be or when it will come. All of our work is mostly done but it could still be a while before we hear the new that we have been matched and go to meet the birth mother for the first time. We will be in prayer for the right timing and the right match.

Puzzle Fundraiser Update

  This picture shows how much progress we have made on our puzzle project fundraiser since I last posted a picture of it. Before it was not even a complete outer frame and now it has been coming together so quickly from money donated to CAS on our behalf and mine & Billy ' s Christmas money that we put towards it. This year we requested no gifts just money that would go towards our adoption and we were able to collect a good size chunk to put towards our adoption fund.
  Puzzle Fundraiser Overview: We have sold 776 pieces total and have 224 left to sell. They are $10 a piece which means we have Raised a Total of, $7,760, and our goal is to reach $10,000 when all the pieces have sold. It's unbelievable that we are almost there!! Thank you so much to all of our supporters. I will say it has been a fun process putting this puzzle together. Our New Years Eve was spent around the puzzle on our dining room table (where it has a permanent home until completed), with my mom, sister and Billy just playing catch up to put together what has sold so far. The puzzle is still lacking some pieces to be added that have already sold. Plus Billy ' s parents made a very generous donation this week which will put us back to work for a puzzle night. It's creating great memories all around.
   I contacted the agency this week to have a copy emailed to me of our total funds raised to date. I wasn't sure how much we were lacking to finalize our home study so they could put it in the mail...they won't do that and contact us for the last meeting to become a waiting family until our 7,000 was fully paid to finish it. When I first called their accountant had been out sick for a week and Robin told me that some of the funds that may have already come in wouldn't be showing up on the account yet until she got back to sort it all out. I had a pretty good idea in mind as to where we should be and I thought we had about 1,000 left to raise...she said on her end it was showing  we still need a little over 3,000. I told her I would call back next week and see what the accountant could tell me. While I was standing in the checkout line at Walmart yesterday an email came through on my phone from Robin with an updated attachment showing the correct funds raised...turns out we were already above what was needed and had a credit of $324 dollars towards the next part. That was great news! I started looking at the breakdown and it showed there had been an anonymous donation of $1,000 posted on December 22! I was soooo excited!!! I just wish so bad I knew who it was so I could thank them for finishing off our home study payment literally right when we needed the funds they were there. What an incredible blessing. God is continuing to WOW us throughout this process. To date we have raised a total of $9,222, which is almost a third of the full adoption cost, that is so amazing considering we began our first fundraiser in October (so just 3 months ago). That doesn't include the $395 we have raised on the Youcaring.com site I set up for online donations via paypal. We have had anonymous donations on there and 1 donation from a client at Piper Glen Animal Hospital where I work part time. She saw it posted on the piper glen Facebook and gave $100!!
   CAS is putting our homestudy in the mail Monday so I really do expect our meeting with Doris to be soon and then we will officially we on their website as a waiting family and have our photo books being shown to any matching birthmoms. I really hope 2015 is the year we bring baby Wood's home!!