First Time, For Real

Today mom and I went out shopping, and we had planned on going over to the stores at Wendover. Babies 'R Us is in the strip mall. You see, this was a surreal moment for me. I have to be honest, because it's a blog, right? Well, I have been known to go into BRU to buy a gift for someone....and wonder around wishing and dreaming and "pick out" what I would get if I were buying something for my little one. I imagined what it would be like to have that certain pack 'n play, paci, baby bath tub with the matching washcloth, hoodie, and robe. Well, today was the day. Mom and I went down each row, and after a while I checked my watch and realized that we had been in there for well over an hour. You can really get lost in that place I tell ya. I looked at mom one time after touching each soft lovie and blanket, and said..."I think I am going to cry." The really cool thing is that a while back I signed up for the BRU rewards program. I have bought several gifts and headquarters must have known I am an avid couponer and won't pass up a baby deal now because they sent me $4 reward dollars and other coupons in an email just the other day. Mom got "little miracle" (the babies nickname for now since we don't know the gender to call it by name) some good loot. She couldn't help herself she said. :) I do know one thing about this shopping trip though, I have a lot of research to do on necessities from bottles, pacis, and on down the aisles. Not a problem.

Here is little miracles first gifts! I bought the Boppy slipcover.

Getting our Sign on....

When we got home from KY last night, we got our preliminary packet ready to be mailed. I counted 9 signatures for us both. Well, here it goes!

The Idea and Reveal

It was Christmas Eve, and I still didn't have all of the details lined up for telling the family about our wonderful news. I had an idea, but when driving to pick up a quick dinner, it all came to me. I swung by the only grocery store still open for the jar of Prego spaghetti sauce. When I came home and told Ty about it, he was really emotionless. He said it didn't really matter to him because he didn't like attention drawnn to himself...but he said he knew I didn't mind. I simply told him that if we were pregnant, then we would be telling family in a creative way, this is our pregnant. I wrapped all three gifts and tucked them safely away in the other gifts to exchange on Christmas Day. Picture of us, piece of notebook paper, and a jar of Prego.

Right after dinner, my heart began to beat fast and I could feel my palms get sweaty. I knew that my brother had to go to work, and I didn't want him to miss this. I also knew that the kids would be itching to open presents...so I called for the game to begin. Several reactions included "I don't want to play a silly game." "Leave it to Molli to be the activity director." I didn't want it to be obvious, so I gave each member of our family a number. I sat the three gifts on the coffee table and said that inside each bag was a clue to a puzzle, and they needed to figure out what was the phrase.

I picked number 6, 8, and then 2 (our wedding date). After Hunter opened the picture the family began calling out: love, sex, togetherness. Then Paw-Paw opened the paper, and they had no clue. Carly opened the Prego and guessed that we were going to Italy. Then Dawn said "You are getting a baby from Italy!" Nope, so I had to finally tell everyone the good news. Tears flooded down everyone's face, especially Dawn, mom, and Nana. Deb immediately wanted to know all the details. I followed by reading the Adoption Creed, bible verse, and another poem. I was then crying, and even though he denies it...Ty did get tearful. Everyone was so excited and were full of questions that we tried to answer as best we could. Everyone then said that okay, Christmas was over and this was perfect. I was so thrilled and it made the party even more awesome than it already was. Something that really surprised me was how emotional Hunter became. We took pictures before we left with mom and dad and headed to KY to do the same thing with Ty's family.

We went to KY, and on the way up the road, we talked about baby names. I will save that for another post.

After getting to Ty's sister's house, we immediately opened presents. I then said that I wanted to play a game. Again, nobody really wanted to play! What was up with that? Charlie opened the picture of us. After glancing at Becky, she then covered her face, and continued to cry. She knew. Bryan opened the paper and began saying things about meeting in college. The Prego can opened by Ty's mom totally stumped them. Ty told them the news and they were very happy. We told them that we really wanted prayer...so we got in a circle and his dad prayed a beautiful prayer for our baby and the journey ahead. We took pictures again with his family, and then talked some more.

Both of us thought that it was a fun way to tell the family, and felt that a huge wait was lifted off our shoulders because we shared our news. The purpose of telling is so that our journey can be bathed in prayer. Please pray for us and our little one.

Our BIG Announcement

I can't believe that it is time to go public about this....we are adopting! We are so excited about this journey and wanted to reformat my old blog and turn it into an adoption blog. We hope to record the journey here.

The agency that we are working with is Bethany Christian Services out of Charlotte. I felt so comfortable and connected when I spoke to them on the phone. I think another draw was that they are a Christian agency. We will be adopting a domestic newborn here in NC.