"Baby Born" or "Immediate Birth" Added!

It's been a long time since we have updated this blog about our adoption journey! We have been waiting and waiting it seems forever! (actually only 4 months). We have had a lot of activity on our website for ANLC as well as several "resumes sent out to potential birthmothers. Here are our stats so far....
August (from the 25th on) - 32
September - 87
October - 52
November - 60
December to date - 18

We also have added the "Baby Born" or "Immediate Birth" option to our profile. If a mother gives birth and decides while in the hospital that she wants to give the baby up for adoption we will be called immediately to come pick up our baby! It gives us more opportuity to adopt and hopefully our baby will come home soon!
*Baby Wurmnest we can't wait to meet you! We bought you a few Christmas presents - a few books to read to you as well as a porcelain cross that says "For this Child... we have prayed" We are praying for you to come home soon dear one! We can't wait to meet you! Next Christmas hopefully you will be in our arms!

People are checking us out....

Our websites are officially up and running. We are able to check on the ANLC website to see how many hits we are getting each month. We were hit 32 times in August (only up for the last 5 days of that month) and so far we have been hit 13 times this month!!! Keep in mind that is only one of the websites and we are up on 3 others as well. Things are going well.... now if only one mother will feel a connection with us we will be set! :)  Thought we should share our "Dear Birth Mother" letters on here so you can see how we are trying to connect with a birth mother.

Letter #1

Dear Birthmother,

           

“I would thank you from the bottom of my heart, but for you my heart has no bottom.” Words can’t describe the gratitude we already feel for you and the precious gift you are giving us. Your decision is both courageous and incredible. We feel blessed that you are taking time to read our letter and are making your decision with care and love.

Chad and I met on a sunny Sunday morning at church very unexpectedly. After a beautiful courtship of two years, one year long-distance, we were married in July 2009. During our first year of marriage we adopted a small puppy named Mitzi who is our current “baby.” She can’t wait to have a brother or sister to love. Early in our relationship Chad and I knew we wanted to have children. After trying without success we felt God leading us to begin our family through adoption. Our extended families are very supportive and are ready to welcome our new little addition into the family.

We live in a cozy four-bedroom ranch-style house that we are blessed to call home. Whether we are cooking in the kitchen, watching TV in the living room, or sitting by the fireplace, our home is filled with a lot of love and laughter.  We have a nice-sized backyard that would be perfect for a swing set and a nice neighborhood where our neighborhood children ride bicycles and play.

Chad is an engineer who supervises the building of many trucks and tractors for his company. Chad is also a part time farmer working on the family farm. He is often found outdoors either in the tractor, on his four-wheeler, riding the motorcycle, or riding his snowmobile.

Currently I am a Special Education teacher, but plan to fulfill my dreams of being a stay-at-home mother when our little one arrives. I am currently working on my master’s degree in Educational Administration. When I am not in the classroom I enjoy being on the stage singing, dancing, and acting at various community theaters. While at home I enjoy cooking, reading, digitally scrapbooking, sewing, blogging, and photography.

While we are waiting for our precious baby to come home we have been preparing for the joy that is to come. Each night we pray for you, as well as our baby. Our child will know of your brave and selfless decision of love. We promise to give our child the best life has to offer, as well as a lifetime supply of unconditional love. We look forward to meeting you and caring for your precious little gift…. One that we will cherish for a lifetime.

Blessings to you,

Chad and Emily

 Letter #2

Dear Birth Mother,

“Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get, it's what you are expected to give -- which is everything.” Love above all is important to both of us. We were married in 2009 and have enjoyed sharing our love with each other. But now it is time to expand our love and start a family.  Being unsuccessful at trying to start our family, we both felt prompted by God to begin the wonderful journey of adoption.

Coming from close-knit families both of us are very anxious to become parents. Our families are very supportive of our decision and can’t wait to welcome our new little addition into the family. We are looking forward to throwing birthday parties, attending family holiday gatherings, going on annual family vacations, and instilling our values and traditions into our children. 

We live in a 4-bedroom ranch home in an adorable small town filled with young families and their children. Our home has become a place to entertain by having our friends and family over for cookouts, holidays, and game/movie nights. We imagine our house filled with the laughter of our child as we play in the backyard, watch a family movie, or just enjoy spending time together. We also have a small dog, Mitzi that we love to pieces. She can’t wait to have a brother or sister to love.

Chad is an engineer who supervises the building of many trucks and tractors for his company. Chad is also a part time farmer working on the family farm. He is often found outdoors either in the tractor, on his four-wheeler, riding the motorcycle, or in the winter riding his snowmobile. Currently Emily is a Special Education teacher, but plans to fulfill her dreams of being a stay-at-home mother when our little one arrives. She is currently working on her master’s degree in Educational Administration. When she am not in the classroom she enjoys being on the stage singing, dancing, and acting at various community theaters. While at home she enjoys cooking, reading, digitally scrapbooking, sewing, blogging, and photography.

Thank you so much for considering us to love and care for your precious gift. We promise a lifetime of love and laughter. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you even though we do not know who you are yet. We look forward to meeting you and bringing our little one home.

Blessings to you!

Emily and Chad

Waiting...Waiting... Waiting...

We got exciting news last week that all of our picture were approved and our official website profile will be up and running within the next week or so. So in our excitement we have started preparing even more for our new arrival. We have purchased and Chad has assembled our new Chicco Travel System in Midori!

We have also decided on our nursery theme... Neverland! Emily always loved Peter Pan while growing up so we thought it would be a great nursery idea. Now if we could only decide on a paint color! LOL If we have a son we can always go with a Pirate theme as a toddler-child; a girl would be a Tinkerbell theme!! We also ordered our glider for the room. Mommy is ready to rock baby to sleep.
We have been reading through the first part of "What to Expect the First Year" so we can prepare what life will be like when Baby Wurmnest arrives. Life will definately change that's for sure! But the change will be welcomed with open arms. The book is definately a winner since it has tons of information for adopted babies as well.
Keep following with us on this amazing journey!

Our home study is complete!

Yesterday was a huge step completed in our journey of adoption! Our home study social worker, Liz, came to our house at 1:00 to complete our home study. After hours of cleaning we were a little worried that the house wouldn't be ready for her - but the process wasn't painful at all! For 3 hours we went over all of the paperwork and questions we prepared last month. We answered questions on a more in depth level and went through an educational piece on adoption as well. We spent only 5-10 minutes of the entire process going through the house on a house tour. Liz said we did very well and after consulting with her boss she will be able to issue our final approval and send off our home study to ANLC. :)
After Liz left, we went to Red Lobster to celebrate with dinner (especially the Cheddar Bay biscuits). We also drove to Springfield to check out Babies 'R' Us. We walked around the store for about 2 hours looking at everything from strollers, car seats, cribs, high chairs, etc. We were very overwhelmed but were relieved by our helpful store manager Chris who showed us the pros and cons of each brand. We didn't leave the store empty-handed either. We bought a bassinet, 2 pacifiers, a bottle, and an owl toy for the stroller.  We have chosen our travel system and plan on ordering it this weekend. We will need it whenever we get to pick up our new little one! :) So many exciting things.... we can't wait to meet our baby whenever it is time!!!

The new bassinet in the box!

Getting through the fog...

Setbacks are a part of life right?!  But definately not a good part! We recieved an email this week from our website consultant saying she recieved the photos and after the department reviewed them they still needed more. We sent them 76 photos and only 3-4 worked?! It was the most frustrating part of this journey so far. We took an evening aside to take as many pictures as possible and now that time was wasted. It was one of those times where it felt like hitting a fog (one so thick you can't see anything and want to just stop and wait). But instead of stopping we pressed on.... another photoshoot. We called our friend Andrew Hanes and asked him to come over to use our new Cannon Powershot. We took pictures around our house, then took a few pictures throughout the weekend of us doing a variety of things. The photos turned out awesome - hopefully the adoption agency will think so too!
Today's devotional was called Moving through the fog... about moving through lifes setbacks and disappointments. So the verse of my day is going to be.... " I can do all things through Christ who stengthens me." Phillipians 4:13. We will get through this setback and God is preparing our beautiful baby to come home to us when it is time!
Here are some of our favorite pictures from the photoshoot....

Beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel

We are almost there on finalizing paperwork so we can do our actual home study visit. We had to finish our floor plan of our house and send in 2 missing pieces of paperwork. Even with all of the checklists I still managed to miss something. It's all in now!
We also got an email from ANLC saying they have recieved our website paperwork and photos. After reviewing them, they will put up our website in about 1-2 weeks! SOOO exciting! We will be marketed on 4 major adoption websites and our resume will be sent to mothers that are  potentiallly a good match for us.
It's kind of amazing that throughout this journey people have just come out of the woodwork who are in the adoption process or having infertility issues. It makes me feel so much better knowing we are not alone. Other families feel what we are feeling. We are all networked by this missing piece in our lives - a child! God has truly been faithful by sending us a support system we didn't expect.
The other day while at Kohl's returning a pair of capris I decided to check out the jewlery section to see what was on clearance. I spotted a small, simple bracelet with a single sterling silver charm. All over the charm the word HOPE was etched in various shapes and sizes. I purchased the bracelet and have been wearing it ever since (in the shower, while sleeping, etc). It symbolizes the hope that we have in God... that He is preparing a precious little gift for us as we speak! We are praying for our baby and birth mother each night, preparing for the day we will meet! :)

On our way!!!!

Today is a great day! All of our paperwork is done and we are dropping it off at the Home Study Agency! YEA FOR US! Chad still has to finish his autobiography but we can mail it in on Monday. The paperwork is the hardest part of the journey other than the waiting. We are ahead of the curve but getting it done so efficiently! We received a phone call from Kristin Yellin, the head of the Adoption Network Law Center in California last night. She wanted to let us know that she and her staff reviewed our paperwork we sent in Monday and we are approved! She welcomed us to the journey with them and gave me some follow up information! We thought that was pretty impressive for the head of the agency to personally give a phone call. Made us feel even better about going through them for adoption!

Here are some pictures of the massive amounts of paperwork we have been doing for our home study! It's seriously insane!

Look how thick this packet of papers is!!!!

We also are now posted on their "in progress" waiting families part of the website. Birthmothers can check us out already!! Check out the website picture below!



The Process...

Thanks to all of you who have given us support and encouragement! I was a little overwhelmed when I saw all of the responses on facebook! I began to cry last night because I feel like we just told everyone we were pregnant. I wasn't sure I would be able to feel like that but I do.
Yesterday I went to Barnes and Noble to buy a baby book for adoptive families. It is similar to other baby books, but this one has a few extra things about adoption included. :) Chad and I have been busily looking at cribs, bedding sets, car seats, and strollers. We have to be prepared for a phone call any day after we are posted which should be in 2-3 weeks. Some couples have been placed as soon as 3 days after they were posted. Others waited 6-9 months. It just varies. I can't believe how many options for baby gear there are... a little overwhelmed by it all! So if you have any suggestions for cribs, car seats, strollers, etc please send them my way! :) I definitely am favoring the Chicco brand so far. We will probably begin with buying the car seat and stroller, possibly the crib and bassinet. The rest will be registered for and hopefully given to us at showers which would be after the baby would arrive.
Sooo exciting and I am definately anxious....  I hope this wait doesn't take a long time, but if it does it means our baby just haven't arrived yet! :)

Paperwork under way....

We have been working on paperwork like it's a part time job! Yesterday was a momentous occassion because we sent in our large questionaire, adoption agreement, photo, and large check to Adoption Network Law Center. Jennifer called us last night to check on how we were doing and we were pleased to tell her that the paperwork would be arriving ASAP! They will put up an in progress profile for mothers' to view but our official profile should be up and running in 3-4 weeks. We will have to work on it with our marketing coordinator who will be contacting us in a week or so. In the meantime we will have to work on pictures and bios.

We are over halfway done with our paperwork for the ABC Counseling home study agency. We were both fingerprinted yesterday in Decatur  - long line, short process. We hope to complete our "homework assignments" this weekend and take them into Liz by next week.

It is so hard to watch all of my married friends (and yes I mean ALL) start their families. I feel inadequate because we are "reproductively challenged" as Charlotte would say off of my favorite TV show. But God has a plan and I feel like we are on the road to completing that plan. Are biological children in our future? I hope so! But adopting a child will be just as much of a blessing! I can't wait to meet him or her!!!! Sooo excited!

Consultations and Paperwork

Tuesday, July 5th was our first phone consultation with our adoption specialist, Jennifer, from Adoption Network Law Center. The time was 6:00pm... but every minute before was much anticipated. I kept looking at my cell phone praying it would ring - and finally it did! :) Jennifer, Chad and I talked about the logistics of adoption and she answered several questions for us. We recieved our official paperwork via email and we are ready to send it off tomorrow! :)
On Wednesday, July 6th we met with our home study agency consultant, Liz to go over paperwork for the home study. We have a mountain of paperwork to fill out with basic information about us to more difficult questions about our feelings as we go into adoption. We are hoping to complete this over the weekend and send it back on Monday. Once they have the paperwork they review it and set up a one time in-home study for 4-6 hours.
After the home study agency visit we went to Flat Top Grill (one of our favs) for dinner. Over dinner we had a chance to talk about our excitement and anxiousness. We also discussed potential names. After dinner I had to return our book on international adoption since we are no longer pursuing that route. When I was at Barnes and Noble I purchased a book of baby names entitled Bring Back Beatrice! 1108 baby names with meaning, character and a little bit of attitude! We are making lists of names we like but nothing is decided yet.
Today is my doctor's appointment with my OB/GYN, Dr. Morisetty. We are going to discuss my infertility drugs and other options. I am nervous of what comes next. I hate being sick all of the time. Now I have never had the best stomach, but this is rediculous. Hopefully he will offer an alternative that will work and not make me as sick. But I am hesitant to try any meds that could have long term side effects. So our options may be limited for the moment. But our prospects of adopting a baby soon is very exciting and I can't wait. When I come home today I will be immersed in paperwork! :) Every step is a step closer to our baby!

How did we get here?!

How did we get here? This is a question I have asked myself over the past 2 months. When Chad and I first got married we knew we wanted to start a family after our first year of marriage - just in case there were complications and it took longer than we anticipated. After 5-6 months of trying on our own I sought my doctor's help. He began with routine blood tests which showed my progesterone levels were in the critically low ranges. This meant I could miscarry every month without supplements. So he began by putting me on 3 rounds of progesterone daily, as well as glucophague and clomid. After some strong advice and research I decided to avoid the clomid due to so many people finding a link between this pill and breast/ovarian cancers. The glucopahgue made me extremely sick - almost felt like it should be morning sickness.
Here we are a little over a year later and IVF seems to be the next step. I know so many couples that have tried IVF and have had success and many that have had failures. It seems like such an expensive risk - not to mention all of the drugs you have to take while pursuing this option. Will I ever go for IVF? YES - I am not totally opposed, but that isn't the option that is best for me right now. Someday I definately want to have biological children if it is possible. But right now I don't feel that invasive procedures are best.
Out of sheer curiousity I decided to look into adoption as a potential option for us to begin our family right now. After doing some research and speaking with several agencies I felt in my heart that this was the way God was leading us. I had had several dreams about it for months previous to my research so it seems that this is a great way for us to begin our family!
This past month we have been researching several options to find the best fit for us. We thought we were set on international adoption from either China, Korea, or Russia. We are too young for China and Korea, but Russia would work. After further thought and consideration I felt in my heart this was not the best option for us since it was extremely expensive and very risky. I also knew what I really want is a newborn - not an 18 mos. old child. Especially for my first! :)
Once we settled on domestic newborn adoption the next step was to find an agency. Internet searches are not ideal but was the best option for me. We had bought a book called The Idiot's guide to Adoption and it helped steer us in the right direction, giving me plenty of questions to ask agencies about their programs.
We have decided Adoption Network Law Center in California was our best option. They seemed very nice and I connected to them right away on the first call. We have a phone consultation set up for next Tuesday with Jennifer our adoption consultant. We also have a home study screening next Wednesday in Bloomington with Liz a social worker from ABC counseling.
Chad and I are filled with a mixture of emotions - excited, anxious, scared, nervous, etc. We know this is the first step to becoming a family. We are ready for this journey....because at the end of it is our baby waiting to come home!