It's a girl!!!! :)

It's been a hectic few days getting adjusted and having many visitors. Right now my little princess is still sleeping (she only got up 1 time last night!!! :)) so I thought I would use this quiet time to post our story. 

If you have been reading my blog then you know that we have had a rough adoption journey. We have been officially waiting for 13 almost 14 months. We have had 4 failed matches. It hasn't been easy but it was so worth it! On April 12th, we got an email from our SW asking if we would want to be considered by an expectant mother. She gave me VERY little details and I said yes. She said they were meeting with her that afternoon and they would let us know when a decision had been made. By that Friday I hadn't heard anything so I emailed for an update. She replied back that we were still being considered and she would be in touch by the middle to end of the next week with the decision. She also asked us to keep the expectant mother is our prayers that weekend. We did (and already had been) and by Thursday of last week I still hadn't heard anything. Since Friday was Good Friday and we are using a Christian adoption agency, I figured they might be closed so I emailed her again Thursday afternoon asking for an update. She replied back that a selection had not yet been made but that they had received more information they would like to discuss with us in person. She said it wasn't anything bad and not to worry but of course I freaked out because we had never been called in before. I replied back and said we would be there Monday at 4:45 (her suggested time/date) and that she had me worried. She responded with please don't  worry and try not to think about it much this weekend. Um yeah right! :) 

So all weekend we went through what we thought it could be. We had some ideas and one of our ideas came true but we didn't want to get our hopes up about anything because we had no idea what it could be. Well we get there and they start telling us about the "Birthmom." They told us a few details about her and said "What do you think?" I was thinking to myself If they called us down here for this, I'm going to be upset! LOL We said it sounds great! She said well then we have other news..... The baby GIRL was born on 4/12. Her Birthmom signed on 4/13 and her 10 day revocation period is up ... (looked at her watch)..now... she's yours! Oh and she's here... do you want to meet her? I almost passed out!!!!!! We got to love on her for about an hour that evening and were told to be there at 11 am Tuesday morning to bring her home. We made a quick Babies R US stop on the way home that night to buy some pink stuff. All of our failed matches had been for boys so we had lots of boy clothes (my sister has 3 boys and passed them down to us) but only 1 pink blanket and no pink outfits! Now -- 3 days later -- her closet is completely packed with girl clothes! :) We are truly blessed!!!!!!!

Adoption really is a family affair...

There is a book out with the title "Adoption is a Family Affair."  I need to try to pick it up sometime and read it. I was just thinking this morning about how true that title is. During this process, and the ups and downs that have gone along with it, I have been so focused on how the roller coaster ride has affected Ryan & I. Obviously it affects us more than anyone else BUT I never really gave much thought to how much it affected our families. Our parents have thought they were going to be grandparents (Ryan's for the first time) 4 times now only to be disappointed each time. Our siblings have had to ride that roller coaster thinking they would be aunts and uncles (some of them for the first time) over and over again as well. I feel so bad that I've only focused on how it affected us and not thought about how they would be feeling about it. :( I've been selfish and I intend to change that going forward! I'm not sure how many of our family read this blog but if you are reading this, THANK YOU for going through this process with us! Thank you for being supportive and at the same time trying to be cautious in what you ask so that you don't make it harder on us! Thank you for the thoughts and prayers that we don't even know about. We can't wait to introduce you all to your new grandchild, niece, nephew, cousin! I also can't wait to be able to share with them how loved they are and how many people have been praying for them long before they were even born!!!!!

Most importantly, I want to thank GOD for letting us go through this process! Yes it's been hard but already it's been so worth it! We have met the most wonderful people through this process! Some will be lifelong friends. God has also helped us be able to educate people about adoption which has been amazing. Mostly though, he has used this journey to help bring us closer to him and for that in itself, I am incredibly thankful!!!!!!!!!

While I'm writing, I should say that we are still just waiting for "THE CALL." We met with our new caseworker last week and we really like her! She seems really sweet and seems to be a very caring caseworker. We loved and miss our last caseworker but we are excited to see what happens this year and are excited to have a fresh face to work with! We have already told her that we hope not to work with her long. Haha! We have been working on getting our paperwork updated since we have been approved for a year now (I can't believe it's been that long already!). At first, it was hard to realize we have been waiting for a year and were having to update everything but we are confident that this year will be MUCH better!!!! Thanks to everyone who is keeping up with our journey. I'm sorry that I'm not a better writer. I should have Ryan do the posts as he is a lot better with words than I am! Regardless, I hope to give an update with good news really soon!!!!

It's almost Spring!!!

I can't believe how warm it's been already! We have had high's in the 70's some days. We are really enjoying it. I can't wait until it's officially spring!! :) Hopefully the warmer weather will inspire me to update this blog more often! My sister yelled at me last week about not updating so here goes.... 

We really haven't had anything happening in regards to the adoption lately. We are still just waiting. At the moment, we are working on updating our home study since it is now a year old. Ugh! To be honest, I NEVER imagined we would wait this long... however.. our Faith is still in God and we know he has a plan! For now, we are trying to just enjoy the life we have now and enjoy doing the things we won't have time for once we finally are blessed with a baby like going to movies, taking Sunday naps, etc. Anyways hopefully I will have a real update to post soon!!!