New Adoption Video

I decided to update our YouTube adoption video since our old one was a little outdated. Please visit our video so we can get some views! Also PLEASE share it! Share it any way you want, with friends, other bloggers, family, etc. We are trying to network as much as possible. Thanks!

Balance

For those who don't know, I'm a speech pathologist at a school for kids with special needs. I love my job, and it's what keeps me busy from thinking about wanting a baby every second of the day. It has given me the chance to "be a mom" while waiting for God to bless me with my own kids. This school year has been a little different than usual. I had always planned to work part time (or not at all, if possible) once we had kids. So last spring when we were in a match, I talked with my supervisor and planned to work part time starting in the fall (this academic year). When the adoption fell through, Dan and I decided that I would continue with my plan to work part time this year in hopes that we would be blessed with a baby soon.

We have received a few calls, but unfortunately we have yet to bring home a baby. At first, it felt very awkward working only half the work week. On my days off, I felt guilty staying home as Dan left in the morning. After a few months, though, I started to realize that I'm significantly less stressed, enjoy my job more, and have more time for myself and my husband. Sure, I was able to get everything I needed to done when I worked full time, but now I'm finding myself enjoying everything more. This time at home is giving me the opportunity to really enjoy spending time with my husband, making dinner, doing laundry, and all the little things around the house. Even cleaning bathrooms sometimes brings me a sense of satisfaction. Don't get me wrong, it still takes me a big push to get moving and do the chores- the couch is often calling my name. But I have most certainly been affirmed in my calling to be a wife and someday mother. Serving my family is bringing me so much joy and fulfillment.

So this change, although scary at first has brought me exactly what I didn't realize I've needed for a long time... balance. I'm still putting my education to use and helping provide for our family by working, but at the same time I feel like I can really enjoy everything else as well. So as much as I am dying for a change (ahem, a baby) I have learned that God is taking this time to show me the beauty of the life I am living right now. I can choose to be happy and find fulfillment in my calling right now, or sit around and be miserable all the time. So I'm choosing to enjoy this time and just be miserable some of the time. I'd be kidding myself if I said I was never feeling discouraged, but what used to be days that would leave me down in the dumps has turned into little moments that pass just as quickly as they came. I have so much to be grateful for. I just needed a little time- time to heal wounds, time with the ones I love, and time for change.

Prayers for a Friend

Throughout this journey of infertility and adoption I have learned the importance of prayer and support from friends and family- especially from those who know exactly what it feels like to go through. We have been blessed with the support and understanding of one particular couple. They know all too well what this journey is like and have been there to vent and rejoice in our little victories. They understand that unavoidable pang of jealousy or sadness in the everyday encounters of what seems to be a very fertile world around us. They also understand the incredible power and comfort of prayer. And that is the purpose of this post today.

This afternoon, I received an email with extraordinary news. They are pregnant! Although this is extremely exciting, it can also be scary and full of unknowns, as they have experienced 2 miscarriages in the past. They have decided to storm heaven with prayers, with a goal of 5,000 Memorares between now and 12 weeks. If you would like to be a prayer warrior for our friends and their newest little blessing, please visit their post To All the Prayer Warriors and make a pledge to pray for their baby. 

Thanks!

Hope

Despite many of the obstacles that this journey through infertility and adoption seem to throw in my face, there are days when I am grateful that God has given me this challenge. Today is one of those days. Though I'm not particularly thrilled to be faced with a challenge, I'm blessed for the ways it has changed me constantly. My point is that there are some things that have come to light through these challenges that I am grateful to have had the opportunity to discover. I have always been pro-life, but after all we have been through, my respect for life has multiplied time and time again. I have had a chance to truly recognize how absolutely precious and incredible the gift of life is. It is something that can be and is abused constantly, particularly through abortion. On this anniversary of Roe vs. Wade (the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the U.S.) let us pray that more women (and the men in their lives) choose life. May they find courage and support in making this incredibly selfless and honorable decision. Maybe instead of passing judgment on a young woman who is pregnant, we should celebrate her decision to choose life!

I will be praying a novena, starting today, to St. John Bosco. This is a novena for hope, particularly hope in our world, that we may wipe out abortion. If you would like to join me in praying this novena, you can sign up at Pray More Novenas. It is a wonderful site, run by an alum of the University of Illinois and creator of a pro-life nonprofit organization. If you sign up, you will join thousands of others praying novenas throughout the year. We usually pray one novena each month or so. During these novenas you will receive daily email reminders with the prayers for the day. I really love being a part of this giant prayer group. It has helped me to have a better prayer life and pray some novenas I wouldn't have thought to on my own.

 

Networking... Help?

So we have been a part of the pool of waiting families at our agency for a good 16 months now... not that we're counting or anything. I talked to our counselor last week, and she suggested we find more ways to network. So right now I'm doing my research and finding it incredibly overwhelming trying to figure out the best websites to post on and to come up with other ideas. So far we have made a youtube slideshow (which I am in the process of updating), have our Cradle short profile online on their website, told every friend and acquaintance about our hopes to adopt, made a facebook page, and most recently my parents have gotten some help from their pastor (and we plan to talk to ours soon as well).

So here is where I need help. Does anyone know of some successful networking plans for adoptive families? Have you heard of any reputable websites to post profiles that aren't insanely expensive? Any suggestions would be amazing!

To start to take that next step I have created an adoption email so that no personal information is exchanged immediately (to protect ourselves a bit here). We will use this email if and when we choose to advertise more online: danandlisaadopt@gmail.com

Any suggestions would be amazing! You can comment here or send an email to the adoption email account.

Prayers are always amazing too! Thanks for your support!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year a week late! Here is to hoping for a year filled with blessings, growth in faith, and fun. Last year I was saying 2012 would be the year we'd become parents. Here is to hoping for a baby in 2013! And if that is not the case, I can only ask for peace and patience.

We rang in the new year with some of our most wonderful friends. Here are some pictures from our Dance Central dance party. Enjoy :)