November 25, 2009
November 3, 2009
Face to Face
Today was an amazing day that Dan and I will remember forever. Remember those sweet people I posted about a month ago? We got to meet them today! It was awesome! We found out about a week ago that we'd be able to meet them and I'd been looking forward to it all week. Last night, I was so full of anxiety. I asked Dan to give me a blessing so I would be able to calm down. It worked wonders. :) Thank goodness for the priesthood. I did pretty well this morning - I was able to keep myself distracted. But as the afternoon crept up on me and we were driving to Salem, it hit me all over again. As we sat in the parking lot of the Olive Garden, I thought I was going to pass out. As soon as I saw them and we met, I calmed down. I was right - they are the sweetest, nicest, most selfless people. I loved talking with them - for 3 hours. There are so many similarities. I loved every second of it. Our caseworkers were there for the first half which was really nice and helpful. And then it was nice to relax a little bit more and talk for a while longer. I so look forward to meeting with them again and getting to know them better!
September 22, 2009
A Phone Call
Words can't quite describe how I'm feeling tonight, but yet I want to write something. Dan and I got an exciting phone call today. Our caseworker called to let us know that a couple has expressed interest in us! I feel such an amazing love for these sweet people, and yet I haven't even met them. I can't begin to imagine the courage they have and the feelings they're facing and I admire them so much for it. I know they might not end up choosing us, but I feel honored that they have even considered us. Please keep these sweet people in your prayers. Even if we're not the path they choose, I want them to make the best decision for themselves. Thank you all for your continued love and support! We love you all!!
Prayer Trading
"My mom introduced the beautiful concept of adoption in a very simple manner. She said, 'There is something that is called prayer trading, and we're going to trade prayers with somebody. Somewhere out there is a girl praying for a good family for her baby. We are going to pray for a good tummy with a baby in it, and we are going to answer each others' prayers.' "
-Troy Dunn
I've seen this quote a couple of times now - from my friend, Brenley, and my sister, Steph - and I love it. I think it's the perfect definition of adoption.
August 11, 2009
When I Knew
I've told this story to some people, but I love it so much and it's so close to my heart that I want EVERYONE to know it. This is the story of when I knew adoption was for us.
People used to ask us if we had thought about adopting. The truth is that we had thought about it, but it just didn't feel right for us at that point, so it was never really at the front of my mind. I had never had anything against it, I just thought we'd start our family the traditional way.
We absolutely love our ward here in Eugene and we have been called as the Cub Scout leaders. But, on the side, we've been substituting in Primary for almost a year now. :) We don't mind it at all because we love our primary. On January 18 (I believe), we were sitting in Primary and one of the classes was doing Sharing Time. It was crazy and hectic and the kids were pretty wired. My friend Brenley, who I actually didn't know at the time, was the teacher of this class that was presenting. The theme was about families. It was hard to pay close attention to the lesson with everything going on, but I heard something at the very end that she said that really caught my attention. She mentioned that through adoption, they had been blessed with their little boy that they are now sealed to.
Now, to fully appreciate this story, it goes back a little bit further. After telling Brenley my story, she added to it. Tell me if I get anything wrong, Brenley, but I belive this is what you told me. Brenley had been preparing her lesson and had gone back and forth about whether or not to talk about the adoption. She didn't know if it fit well or if it would work into the lesson. Ultimately, she decided not to talk about it. Even during her lesson, she wasn't planning on it, but at the end, she felt impressed to say something about it and it was the thing that struck me that day.
I didn't talk to her after her lesson and we were gone the next Sunday, so on February 1, I caught Brenley after church and just mentioned that I was curious about adoption. Poor Brenley had ler little one year old that did not want to be sitting there anymore and was trying everything to get away, and she still talked to me for a few minutes. We exchanged em
ail addresses and I got an amazing email from her later that night talking about their journey with adoption. She also mentioned that she wanted to come over in the next couple of days to give me something. So she came over on the 3rd and brought me the greatest book, From God's Arms to my Arms to Yours. We talked for about an hour, with her giving me so much information and answering all of my questions.
When she left, I immediately opened the book and started reading. By the time I got to about the third page, I was completely filled with the spirit so strongly, that I just started sobbing, much like I am now and much like I do every time I tell this story or even think about it. I knew without a doubt that adoption is for us and this is how we will be blessed with the beginning of our family.
I know in my heart that this is what we're supposed to be doing right now. There are so many reasons we were led to Eugene, to this ward. I know Brenley is one of those reasons. She has helped so much and has helped get me to this point. I am so grateful for her and for the spirit prompting her to say those short, simple words in Primary that day for my ears to hear. This has been so amazing and I hope I never forget how I feel right now whenever I think about how blessed we are to be a part of this. I absolutely love adoption and I love love love these sweet, amazing birth mothers that are so full of selflessness and love!!
People used to ask us if we had thought about adopting. The truth is that we had thought about it, but it just didn't feel right for us at that point, so it was never really at the front of my mind. I had never had anything against it, I just thought we'd start our family the traditional way.
We absolutely love our ward here in Eugene and we have been called as the Cub Scout leaders. But, on the side, we've been substituting in Primary for almost a year now. :) We don't mind it at all because we love our primary. On January 18 (I believe), we were sitting in Primary and one of the classes was doing Sharing Time. It was crazy and hectic and the kids were pretty wired. My friend Brenley, who I actually didn't know at the time, was the teacher of this class that was presenting. The theme was about families. It was hard to pay close attention to the lesson with everything going on, but I heard something at the very end that she said that really caught my attention. She mentioned that through adoption, they had been blessed with their little boy that they are now sealed to.
Now, to fully appreciate this story, it goes back a little bit further. After telling Brenley my story, she added to it. Tell me if I get anything wrong, Brenley, but I belive this is what you told me. Brenley had been preparing her lesson and had gone back and forth about whether or not to talk about the adoption. She didn't know if it fit well or if it would work into the lesson. Ultimately, she decided not to talk about it. Even during her lesson, she wasn't planning on it, but at the end, she felt impressed to say something about it and it was the thing that struck me that day.
I didn't talk to her after her lesson and we were gone the next Sunday, so on February 1, I caught Brenley after church and just mentioned that I was curious about adoption. Poor Brenley had ler little one year old that did not want to be sitting there anymore and was trying everything to get away, and she still talked to me for a few minutes. We exchanged em
ail addresses and I got an amazing email from her later that night talking about their journey with adoption. She also mentioned that she wanted to come over in the next couple of days to give me something. So she came over on the 3rd and brought me the greatest book, From God's Arms to my Arms to Yours. We talked for about an hour, with her giving me so much information and answering all of my questions.When she left, I immediately opened the book and started reading. By the time I got to about the third page, I was completely filled with the spirit so strongly, that I just started sobbing, much like I am now and much like I do every time I tell this story or even think about it. I knew without a doubt that adoption is for us and this is how we will be blessed with the beginning of our family.
I know in my heart that this is what we're supposed to be doing right now. There are so many reasons we were led to Eugene, to this ward. I know Brenley is one of those reasons. She has helped so much and has helped get me to this point. I am so grateful for her and for the spirit prompting her to say those short, simple words in Primary that day for my ears to hear. This has been so amazing and I hope I never forget how I feel right now whenever I think about how blessed we are to be a part of this. I absolutely love adoption and I love love love these sweet, amazing birth mothers that are so full of selflessness and love!!
July 8, 2009
APPROVED!
Yesterday was a fun, fun day for us. After a few phone calls with Brent (our caseworker, to make sure they had all of our information), we got the fun phone call saying we're approved and our profile is online!! Brent is so great and has been so helpful every step of the way. He spend most of yesterday working on our profile - getting everything ready to go online and making sure he had everything from us. So, now we're official!! It actually doesn't feel like we've had to wait too long to get to this point, even though it's been 6 months. I loved putting our profile together - figuring out which pictures to use and writing our letter to the birth parents. It was interesting to see how we felt inspired to put certain pictures in or what descriptions to write. Writing our letter was especially interesting. I really thought it was going to come out different that it did, but we had prayed right before that we would know what to write, and I know we wrote the things that we needed to.Our profile is open for the public to view. You can see it here. So now all we do is wait for our sweet birth parents to find us and for us to find them. This is such an inspired process, I know everything will work out how it's supposed to!
June 24, 2009
Almost There...
I got great news yesterday! I was swimming and had a voicemail on my phone from a Portland phone number. I figured it had to be LDSFS with hopefully good news, but didn't want to get my hopes up too high. It was Pauletta (I just love her - she's so great) from LDSFS letting us know that our background checks came back and everything looked good!! I was bouncing because I was so excited. It just feels so REAL now. Now pretty much everything's done! We're so close. I talked to our caseworker, Brent, today to see what to do now. He's meeting with the board on July 6 to go over all of our information (home study, pictures, letter, everything) and will know that day if we've been approved!! That's in a week and a half!! Assuming everything goes well, we should have our profile up online then.
Even though this last part has taken so long, I have still loved every single part of this process and wouldn't change it for the world. I know this is how everything has needed to work for us. I know we've had so many prayers offered in our behalf, and again, I'm so grateful for them. Thank you all so much for being so supportive and excited! It makes all the difference in the world to be surrounded by such great, loving people!
Even though this last part has taken so long, I have still loved every single part of this process and wouldn't change it for the world. I know this is how everything has needed to work for us. I know we've had so many prayers offered in our behalf, and again, I'm so grateful for them. Thank you all so much for being so supportive and excited! It makes all the difference in the world to be surrounded by such great, loving people!
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