It's a girl!!

Unexpected blessing and a detour

John, Aaron and I are so excited to announce a sweet little one will join our family in March! This pregnancy was a complete surprise. Being in the middle of an adoption, we were NOT trying. After over three years of trying to add a child to our family, three losses, secondary infertility and a year and a half in the adoption process we are so excited to become a family of four! 

It has already been quite a ride. This pregnancy had a rocky start and due to my history it was hard to be excited. Each appointment has continued to bring good news. It was quite a thrill to hear our reproductive endocrinologist say he believes we will have a healthy pregnancy and baby. 

This pregnancy has stretched my faith so much. I have been so fearful at times. Each of those times as I've prayed I hear God tell me to have peace. Not necessarily peace that everything will turn out the way I want it to, but peace in His sovereignty and that His hand is on this little one. 

Really, isn't that what parenting is all about? Faith that God's hand is on our precious little ones and that He will guide us in raising them? I do believe God's hand is on this child. He knew about this little one all along. We pray for God's protection and that He will continue to knit this sweet child together. (Psalms 139)

So, how does this affect our adoption? Let me make one thing clear. WE ARE STILL PLANNING TO ADOPT! Adoption was something we chose, it was never second best or a last option. We feel God lead us down the adoption road for a reason. Even though this journey is taking a detour, our hearts are still drawn to adoption. 

It is our agency's policy that if a couple becomes pregnant during the adoption process their file is put on hold. Our file will be on hold until this little one is six months old. At that time we would go "active" again and would likely keep our spot on the list. As excited as we are about this pregnancy, the timing was quite a shock. I would be lying if I said we didn't experience some disappointment. It's tough after working so hard on adoption the process has come to a screeching halt. We will continue to trust that this is all God's plan and timing. 

Many, Lord my God,

    are the wonders you have done,

    the things you planned for us.

None can compare with you;

    were I to speak and tell of your deeds,

    they would be too many to declare.

Pslams 40:5

Summer Recap

Since I've fallen a bit behind on updating this blog, I thought I would do a recap of our summer. We have had a fun, busy and surprising summer. I can hardly believe summer is over and fall is here!

• Crested Butte! This is the forth year in a row we have taken a summer trip to Crested Butte. It is always a wonderful time with family enjoying the wildflowers, hikes, mountain bike trails and restaurants. 

• We were able to go camping a couple of times this summer. We went with friends both times and it was great! The weather was really good for both trips. The first trip was in State Forest State Park and the second was near Cameron Pass. 

• John and I went to Denver with my parents and brother to see the band Grizzly Bear. This was quite a treat for us. We love music and seeing it live, but are not able to attend as many concerts these days. Thanks to John's wonderful sister we got to go out to dinner and catch the show!

• Our little boy turned four! We celebrated with friends and family. Aaron asked for a "mighty machines" birthday. He is very excited to be four and feels that he is now a big boy. 

Waiting

It's been a while since my last adoption update. There really hasn't been much to update. We are just waiting at this point. It's been a little discouraging and at times it's hard to have believe that we really will have another child someday.

There is always hope though. We have faith that everything will happen when it should and the way it should. It seems clear to us that there is a reason for our long wait, even if we don't know what that reason is yet.

Some changes could possibly happen soon. We are speaking with our agency trying to get all of the information that we can. I will definitely update soon once we have more information and decisions have been made. It's exciting and scary all at once, as adoption often is.

Here is a picture of the three of us. A waiting family indeed!

Working vacation in Fort Lauderdale

I can hardly believe a month has already passed since our trip to Florida! Time has flown by lately.

As soon as we found out that John was being sent to Fort Lauderdale to teach a class, we planned on me and possibly Aaron coming along. It is really wonderful that John has a job that is ok with me and Aaron joining him on business trips. Florida is certainly one of the nicer locations he has been sent. So we began planning a working vacation right away.

What a great way to take a trip together. Since it was trip for work, John's airline ticket, hotel and meals were covered. John was scheduled to work for most of the week.  We decided to extend the trip by a couple of days so that we could spend time enjoying the beach and sightseeing.

After a lot of discussion, we chose to have Aaron stay with my parents instead of joining us. I knew it would be really hard for me to leave him for a week. However, it was definitely the right decision. So much of the trip was spur of the moment, running from place to place and evenings at restaurants. It would have been tough to entertain him all day and keep him under control while out to eat with John's boss. He adores his Nan and Pops so I knew he would be happy and in good hands!

John and I had a wonderful time! John's teaching went really well. He got the go ahead for the next level of teaching courses for his company. I spent the week catching up on reading, catching some sun and of course walking up and down the beach. On John's off time we went to a bird refuge, Everglades National Park, visited a sea turtle rehab facility, enjoyed the beach, kayaked in the everglades and visited the Miami zoo.

The highlight of the trip was definitely kayaking in the everglades! We did a five hour trip that took us through mangrove tunnels, estuaries, a bird rookery and the bay. The mangrove tunnels were almost creepy, they were dark and very swampy. We saw osprey, anhinga, herons and even had a couple of dolphin swim near our boat.

Thanks to family and John's job for making it possible to go on fun vacations! We feel so blessed to be able to take the trips we get to take while only spending a small amount of money. We both love to travel and really wouldn't be able to do as much of it without ways to lessen the expense. Fort Lauderdale was quite memorable. What a treat to have some time alone together. Who knows when that will happen again!

Tender Hearts Baby Home

I wanted to share this video with you all. This is an interview with the gentleman who runs Tender Hearts Baby Home. This is the baby home that our child(ren) will most likely come from. I was incredibly touched by the video. You can tell that Ken and his wife Cathy truly have a heart for these children. What a blessing to know that such a loving couple is caring for the children at Tender Hearts. I pray that God will bless what they are doing in their community.

For more information on how to support Tender Hearts and Ken and Cathy, visit: http://www.nightlight.org/tender-hearts-babys-home-in-uganda/

Dossier Completed!

Some of the paperwork for our dossier.  

We are so glad to be able to say our dossier is complete! It ended up being a little more challenging than we had anticipated. Mostly because of some odd views Uganda has on notarized documents. Long story short, we had to have everything notarized by a notary public with a commission expiration date that was at least two years away. This became especially challenging when we needed to find a notary to bring to our doctors office! We are thankful for various connections and wonderful people in our lives that helped us out!

So, that is behind us and God has proved his faithfulness again and again throughout. We sent the massive pile of documents to our agency to be reviewed. We received an email last week letting us know that everything looks good! Then last Friday our agency emailed us to let us know that we are on the waiting list. We are number 15!!!! There are 30 people in the program, so we are dead center. We still do not have a very specific timeline, it just depends on so many things. Our agency is saying 9 months give or take.  

What's next in the process? Mostly, we wait for a referral. As far as how long that will take is anyone's guess. Their goal is to match children with the best possible family. We are open to one or two children, up to age three. Also, we are open to a number of special/medical needs. We are praying that 2013 will be the year that we bring our little one home!

It is very exciting that the next step in the process is receiving a photo of our son or daughter!! That will be an amazing day. Most of my friends think we will be adopting a daughter. If you ask Aaron, he is convinced that he will have a little brother AND a little sister. I told him that he can pray to God about it. His response was, "I will ask God and he gonna say yes". Oh boy! He actually does pray about it, and if God says yes we are going to have our hands full!

The fee to accept a referral and be matched with our child is $4500. Thanks to our amazing family and friends we have enough to accept a referral! What a relief. After we accept a referral, our agency will get us a court date. Once we have a court date, we will travel to Uganda to meet our little one!

Here is where we're at with the finances:

Donations: $11,127

Fundraisers (coffee, hats, garage sale): $1,378

Total raised: $12,505

Out of pocket: $5819

Adoption cost is estimated at $27,000+

Praise God!!

Check out this mysterious donation: 

The note says, "Don't give up on your adoption, be encouraged!"

We checked our mail today and this was in our box! It's rubber banded to junk mail. Our neighborhood has locked mail boxes. No one would have access to our box. It has to be from our mail carrier. We have no idea how they knew we are adopting. So crazy!

Also, the adoption tax credit passed! This is great news. We are still trying to figure out what exactly it means for our adoption. We know it will help, we just aren't sure to what extent. We have some grants/programs to apply for now that our dossier is finished. I can't believe how close we are to having all of the funding we need! 

Thank you, thank you to our family and friends. This adoption WOULD NOT 

be possible without your generosity. We simply do not have the words to express our gratitude.

Things to pray for:

• God's glory be shown through our lives and this process to everyone involved
• That our hearts would be prepared to meet the needs of a grieving child or children
• The the hearts of the kiddo(s) would be protected and be prepared for a new family
• The courts favor toward us and being granted guardianship of our child or children.
• All of the details that will go into traveling to Uganda. The timing, help with Aaron, someone to take care of our house/animals and time away from work for John.
• The rest of the finances, mostly in-country expenses and attorney fees.

Red Mountain Pass Ski Trip!

It's been sometime since I've updated this blog. Our holiday season was busy and crazy, but lots of fun too. We enjoyed spending time with family and friends who are like family. We even spent Thanksgiving at home for the first time in our marriage! It was a wonderful time with lots of memories.   

After the insanity of the holidays, we enjoyed a long weekend in the San Juan Mountains! It was the perfect way to wind down from Christmas and New Years and begin 2013. This was our third stay at the "Addie S" on Red Mountain Pass, and it was a fantastic trip!

While there wasn't much new snow, it was still pretty darn good. The avalanche conditions were pretty stable which is always a plus. The temperatures were chilly, but we had beautiful bluebird skies the whole time. We enjoyed some skiing across the street from the cabin and also on US Basin. Backcountry skiing on Red Mountains Pass is such a treat. We love being able to escape the crowds and enjoy the Colorado mountains in the wintertime.

Our little guy had a good time as well. Aside from the 7 1/2 hour trip anyway. He loved the time with Nan and Pops, playing in the snow, swimming at the Ouray hot springs and sledding down the big hill. Were we all blessed by my uncle and mom's cooking. Aaron especially loved Uncle Steve's pancakes and bacon!

We are very thankful for family that makes these trips possible. It's wonderful to be a part of a family that loves spending time together in the mountains!

Around the cabin

The Addie S and Red Mountain Pass

Birds of course!

Aaron having fun!

Some awesome photos my aunt took! I didn't have my camera while skiing.
Glad she grabbed some great shots.

Enjoying time in the mountains.