Home     About Me     My Hubby     30 by 30

About Me

My photo
I am a Christ-follower; wife to Chris; and mother to two beautiful daughters, Lilliana and Emmalyn.
Powered by Blogger.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

7

7 months in the books as of Friday. This month has been difficult. Even though we are actively working on getting back on the list, my heart has been aching for our child. So ready to meet him or her. Hoping this month goes by quickly and we are an "official" waiting family again very soon!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Gratitude

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone! You have all been so supportive of us, and we are so blessed to be a party of the adoption community!

Just a quick note of clarification, we are not officially back on the waitlist yet. We have to redo all our financial paperwork and do a homestudy update first.

But the good news is, Chris officially has a full-time job and I have already completed the financial paperwork. We are just waiting on a new employment letter to update our homestudy. Please pray that all the paperwork gathering will go smoothly and we will be back on that list ASAP!!!

Thanks again for everything, I appreciate each and every one of you!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Sharing our story

Today I shared our story on the blog of the magazine I work for. Here's what I wrote:

For several years my husband and I have talked about adoption. Our plan was always to have biological children and then once they were in school we would start the adoption process. Last summer, our first child was about 18 months old and we were starting to talk about bringing another biological child into the family. But God had other plans.

All of the sudden, adoption was constantly on my mind. It was all I could think about at home, at work, at church. So, without my husband's knowledge, I began to really look into it. I researched agencies, I watched webinars, I talked to friends who were adopting. And then I got up the nerve to tell my husband.

Thank goodness he didn't think I was crazy. In fact, he was feeling the same way I was. So I presented him with my list of agencies and we looked at them together. We finally chose one and a year ago this month we officially began our adoption paperwork.

No one ever told us adoption was easy. And I'm glad they didn't, because it's not. Our families were happy when we told them the news, but they didn't jump up and down and cry happy tears like they did when we told them we were pregnant with our daughter. Our paperwork took several months longer than we thought it would to complete. Then our agencies timeline for a referral (when you are matched with a child) was increased by several months. And just recently, my husband was laid off. We put our case on hold while he searched for a new job, praying that he would find something soon. My heart ached for that child we haven't even seen a picture of yet because I knew the longer we were on hold the longer it would be before we got to meet them.

Just last week my husband started a new job. We called our agency and told them we were ready to go back on the waitlist. Now I am, again, filling out paperwork, hoping that everything will fall into place quickly. Our hopes are that we will have a referral sometime in December or January.

Though this journey has at times been disappointing and frustrating, I know that God has a plan for our family and we are following in His will. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "'For I know the plans I have for you' — this is the LORD’s declaration — 'plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.'" And it is on those words that I rest my fears and stress.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Halloween 2010




Superhero Lilli to the rescue. (And no, she is NOT just Super Lilli, she is SuperHERO Lilli. Geez Mom.)

We didn't do any neighborhood trick or treating this year. But a trip to Nana and Poppa's house for a cupcake, followed by a trip to Gigi and Popeye's for M&Ms was more than enough. Especially when we needed to go by the grocery store on the way home and she had to have her sprinkle cookie while we were shopping. Not to mention that when we were leaving the manager gave us a cupcake cake that they hadn't been able to sell. There was definitely plenty of sugar to go around :)

You can't see it in this picture, but she is also wearing a super cute cape that has the same L on it that is on the shirt. I will try to get better pictures this week. She wasn't in the mood last night.