All in God's Miraculous Plan, Born in our Hearts

A Baby Event and more prayers~

2012-01-22T21:52:00.002-05:00

This weekend was really fun. Saturday morning mom and I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to their Baby Event. We were greeted with four months of CFA coupons for breakfast and milkshakes. When we went to the back of the store, it was like being in a convention. Vendors of all kinds, here to overwhelm you. We joined in the conversation a mom-to-be was having with an associate on car seats. Come to find out, she is the store manager at Buy Buy Baby and was so super nice. It was like having our own personal shopper during the event. She showed us all about car seats, strollers, the never ending bumper on the crib debate, and the dreaded bottles. She was so excited to hear about our adoption and told us to ask for her when we go back to CLT to her store. The raffles that they were giving away seemed awesome...although I wasn't going to be happy to win the breast pump :). My name was called for the first prize, so anticipation left early. I won a Joovy foocot, which is a modern brand. I won a child's cot with storage bag and it is a cool lime green color. It retails for $79. Ty wants to sell it, so we will see. Mom ended up getting her crib bedding on clearance for dirt cheap too. I went to BRU afterward to use a coupon...can't let those $5 ones go to waste. I was able to get 3-2 packs of pacis (1 pack is glow in the dark for night time), outfit with hat and socks, 2 teething toys on clearance with addl' off, and 3 travel size lotions for $20-SCORE.

Friday morning I got a text from my minister at church which was a little weird I must say. He said that he wanted to know if he could use part of our story to introduce his sermon Sunday for Baby Dedication day. We chatted on the phone, and went to church like normal. Several people stopped me in the hall to tell me congratulations from the first service, so I knew that it was meant to be. Sure enough, Bill began by telling that it is easy to become a parent, sort of. Then he said our names and had us wave in the audience. He said that after trying for several years and after doctor confirmation, we knew we couldn't have kids. He said that we still wanted to become parents, so adoption found us. Everyone in the congregation clapped for us. Yes, we turned vibrant shades of red. Then he told the story of how we told our family. After that, he went into more detail about becoming a parent. The goal of that wasn't to boast about us or make us feel like we are the "super couple." I mean, he called us. I think that it was a sign from God to tell the services so that more people can be praying for "little miracle." I believe that with all my heart. I sure do hope that we can be a part of Baby Dedication 2012...Ty said "it will be cool when we do it!" Yep, it sure will.

first trimester

2012-01-20T17:45:00.005-05:00

I am pretty sure that I have finished my first trimester of being paper pregnant. This next trimester is going to be H-U-G-E! We are starting the Home Study portion of this journey.

I found out today that we have been approved to begin our paperwork for our Home Study. Here are the words from our intake coordinator: "Hi Molli and Ty, you sure are approved, congratulations! I am working on putting your paperwork together right now, so I can get it in the mail today! I'm really looking forward to working with you both." She is so sweet, quick, and prompt.

When I opened the link for the "packet" she wasn't kidding that it will keep us busy til our meeting on March 9th. It contains 16 pages for each of us, and the questions aren't fill in the blank...but open-ended! YIKES!

I think we will need hand massages for each other on a regular basis :)

God has blessed us with such a smooth journey so far. Thank you SO much for all your prayers as I enter this trimester, which will be a long one~

Thoughts...

2012-01-16T10:14:00.002-05:00

Things have been somewhat quiet this week because we are waiting on our formal application to be approved from the State Director. Our intake coordinator said that this shouldn't really take long because most of the issues kick back on the prelim app. She said that we will get another "packet" to work on for our Home Study and that "should keep us busy" until our first meeting on March 9th.

I have been cleaning out and getting yard sale bins together to put in the garage. I am not sure what is going on, but I am more willing to get rid of things. I guess I know that I won't want to read all those books that I have already read on my bookshelf. I will have children's books to read to little miracle and I have my Kindle. Plus, if it can make more moola for us to pay for the "big transaction" then so be it.

If you have ideas for any fundraisers, please let me know. We usually do really well at our neighborhood yard sale that I coordinate, so I have that. We will also have a Poker Night that should do really well. We are also thinking of doing silicone wristbands too. I plan on applying for grants, but I can't until we have completed our Home Study. I would love to sell the cute, new and trendy stamped pendants, but I don't know anyone personally that does them~and I really don't want to start something new. The total due at placement isn't confirmed, but I know it's going to be a lot of zeros, like 6~~~yikes! It makes the excitement of placement kind of a downer.

Okay, I am getting ready to blog puke everywhere and let it all out. Personally, I am overjoyed and excited about this adventure we are starting. I would almost consider phase 1 complete. People that I talk with have lots to say and lots of opinions. "What if you get all this ready, and the birthmother changes her mind?" "Why are you shopping, and are so far out from placement?" "Why do you only want a caucasian baby?" "I could never give up my baby." Well, it is the ultimate sacrifice, just like when God gave up his son to die on the cross for all of us. The questions go on and on. Trust me, all of these things do go through my head. How I am dealing with everything is a simple thought...TRUST and PRAYER. I have to cling to the One who has made all things possible, both good and bad. It might or might not be all butterflies and rainbows, but I KNOW that God has a miraculous plan for Ty and I. Inhale and then exhale.

We need your prayers and appreciate all of the prayer warriors around the country!

Prelim letter

2012-01-10T21:58:00.004-05:00

Friday evening, I got an email that said our prelim app had been approved and now we have access to the Bethany Portal. On it, we can fill out our formal app, view our financial activity, ask questions, and more. This was so exciting! We like the formal app because it is all online. Here is a pic of me holding the official letter that came in the mail yesterday. Ty said it was cheesy, but this will be a part of "little miracle's" story one day~

We have been working on it all weekend, and should finish everything up tomorrow. I am waiting on some clarification from our adoption specialist on one of the components.

Things around the house are getting into swing. I have cleaned out the closet in the nursery and under the bed. That furniture will go into the other bedroom and then we will be moving out the current furniture at our adoption yard sale in early Spring. The next goal is to clear out the other bedroom, which hopefully will happen this weekend. We made room in the garage for more yard sale storage bins too.

In some of my "spare" time, I have been doing some nursery research....I will save it for another post.

I do want to share some thing so super sweet though.....

Mehya, a special student who I had in Reading last year (adopted from Korea) asked me in the hall Friday if I had a baby. I told her no, and she said is it just you, and I replied yes. Well that was the end of the conversation. I sent her mom a message because she is a teacher at my school. This was her reply: "I think she asked about the baby because I told her you are going to adopt a baby, like mommy and daddy adopted her and Nate. And we speak about a baby growing in your heart, like they grew in ours! Wonder if that is what she was thinking about!" Yep, that is planted in my heart forever!!!!

First Time, For Real

2011-12-30T20:39:00.004-05:00

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....

2011-12-29T12:50:00.002-05:00

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

2011-12-29T12:08:00.011-05:00

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

2011-12-23T22:42:00.002-05:00

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.