Slight Change of Plans...

When we announced we were going to adopt, there were many people that came up to me and said, "Now you'll get pregnant!"  Well folks, I am officially a statistic.  Ben and I are expecting another little bundle in October! 


It is still fairly early, I am only a little over 8 weeks, but this morning we saw the heartbeat and everything is looking great.  The only other time we have gotten to see and hear a heartbeat was with Benson so we are considering that a win!  My doctor started me on some new medicines when I found out I was pregnant this time, and so far they seem to be doing their job.


We will still absolutely adopt and are still excited about adoption, it will just be a little further down the road.  We will stay live with our agency until I am further along and then simply go on hold until after the birth and we feel we are ready for another baby.  The adoption process has been hard with having three failed matches in the last few months.  I would be lying if I didn't admit that it will be a welcome break from the stress and heartbreak of it for a few months.


We are beyond excited and feel so unbelievably blessed by this little surprise.  Even though I am still slightly in shock, it is slowly wearing off. 

Sometimes...

Most of the time adoptions go smoothly after the match and everything works well.  Sometimes though, for whatever reason the birthmother changes her mind and decides to parent.

We are on the somtimes side of things right now.  We found out this week that the birthmother decided to parent the sweet boy that we were going to adopt.  We are sad and frustrated, but also holding onto our Faith and knowing that he just wasn't the baby that was supposed to be a member of our family.  We are praying for him and hoping that he has a happy life filled with love and laughter, and that the birthparents are content in their decision. 

We are not discouraged.  We know that one day we will get to be parents to a sweet baby who needs us just as much as we need him or her.  This isn't the end of our journey, just a little hiccup.  We are looking forward to Christmas with Benson now that we will be here, and are excited to see his face on Christmas morning when he sees Santa finally brought his presents he has been asking for.

We hope everyone has a Very Merry and Blessed Christmas!

Baby Boy Glenn 2.0!

We got the phone call we had been waiting for on 11/5/2013.  It was our caseworker telling us we had been chosen by birthparents.  I was driving in the car to pick up dinner and started bawling.  Like really bawling, I'm pretty sure everyone at The Grill thinks I am a crazy person.  I called Ben (who was at the gym....yes, he was working out and I was picking up a cheeseburger and fries) and he thought I had been in a wreck because I couldn't even talk.  Carol (our caseworker) told us to wait for a call from Mia (birthmother caseworker).  We were so excited we couldn't handle it.  The next day, Mia called to give us all of the details.  The only worrisome thing is the baby is 25% Native American.  There is a law titled the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).  Basically this law states that if a baby is an eligible member of a tribe, then that tribe has the final say as to whether or not the baby can be adopted by a person who is not a member of the tribe.  She said all of the paperwork had been sent and received by the tribes and they were waiting on a response.

 

In the meantime, we read over her case file and tried very unsuccessfully to not get our hopes up.  We talked on the phone with the birthmother on 11/20/2013 and everything felt so right.  After the phone call, we were officially "matched" and set about waiting on word from the tribe. 

 

We got word today that per the tribe's laws the baby is not an eligible member.  This means everything is a go!  We are officially going to be parents to a sweet baby boy due in ELEVEN DAYS.

 

We are so extremely excited but also still a little nervous because like all cases the birthmother still has the right to change her mind.  Even though we are nervous we are also CELEBRATING and trying to get everything somewhat ready.

 

Please please pray for us over the next couple of weeks.  Pray for the sweet birthmother as she makes this difficult decision and also for the whole process to be a smooth one.  Also please pray for Benson as he makes his transition into a Big Brother.  Every time we ask him about it he tells us that, “He doesn’t like a baby brother!”  So it could be interestingJ.

 

(Also, to all of the people who have asked me if we have heard anything since the 5^th, I am so very sorry for lying right to your face.  We were not prepared to tell everyone until we had all of the ICWA issues understood.)

 

Husband

Ben has always been incredibly sweet and caring.  Not a day goes by that he doesn't make Benson and me feel like the luckiest little family around.  He always makes me feel special with his sweet gestures and kind words but then there are things he does that really blows me away.

Adoption is expensive, there is no denying it and no way around it.  We have been saving like crazy, but we have also had to cut back in quite a few areas.  Tonight Ben pulled up in a 2005 Chevy Impala that we will be the proud owners of tomorrow evening.   My husband is selling his truck to help put a little more cushion in our adoption fund and be driving the "Silver Bullet" (his name, not mine) so that we can better prepare for Baby Glenn 2.0.

If anyone knows of someone wanting to buy a truck, please send them our way.  The Dodge is officially for sale.

One Month...

As of today, we have officially been waiting for one month.

Waiting is actually a little bit harder than I thought it was going to be.  Such a huge part of our life is beyond anything I can control.  We are at the mercy of the agency, social workers, and birthmothers who have never met us and only know 10 pages worth of information about us.

On the other hand, I am very thankful that we have jobs, family and friends keeping us busy and our mind off of things.  We are trying to live our lives and not sit at the computer or by the phone.

We are still praying for patience and that we will have peace in the process and trust in His timing rather than our own.  We will get an update from the agency at the end of September detailing how many people have viewed our book etc.  We are really looking forward to that!

Done and Done.

Our book is DONE and currently being printed!   This means that as of Monday, our books are OUT and we are officially waiting!

This is beyond exciting for us.  We now have officially done all we can and it feels so good to know that we aren't holding anything up or causing this to take longer than it should.

The bad side of this is now it is the hard part.  The waiting.  We are asking for prayers during this time.  Prayers to be patient and trust in God's timing and know that who, when, and how is already determined and we just have to be faithful.

Yay for Progress!

We received the first three pages of our book tonight and we are beyond excited!  When you're wading your way through a paper pregnancy any progress is good, but this is really encouraging.  Hopefully the book will be complete and out to the masses sooner than we thought.  That means one HUGE step closer to baby!

Here is a copy of the first page, the company we hired to design and print our book are doing an amazing job!