Our Adoption Story, Part 1

When we started our adoption journey, I had myself convinced that we would only be waiting for a few months. After all, we were one of the youngest adoptive families. We were sure to be chosen quickly. I was quickly humbled when we waited months without so much as a peep from our agency. After only 7 months of waiting, we were matched for a baby girl, only to have that adoption fall through. At the time it was heartbreaking, and really it killed me for months after. Now I see that God had our little one waiting, and she just wasn't the one. He truly does have incredible plans for us even when it's hard to see.

Over the next year and a half or so, we were called four more times. In three of these cases, the birth mother ultimately chose another family. In one case, she chose to parent. Each call brought more hope (especially when the calls were coming more frequently), but each "no" made it feel like we would never bring home our little one. I never fully lost hope, but I certainly became extremely cautious with my emotions. I learned to build a wall to try not to get too invested in each potential match, and  I often failed. It's hard not to start dreaming of what could be. 

Then we got a request for our profile mid-October. We had recently received two other calls, so we were getting a bit worn out emotionally. We decided to keep things quiet this time. We figured this way we wouldn't be so focused on it while we waited for her decision, and it would be a pretty awesome surprise to be able to call our families and friends and tell them that we were chosen. 

A week passed and we hadn't heard anything (which was pretty consistent with past experiences). Our counselor texted to let us know that they hadn't heard a thing from the birth mother, so we should be prepared for her to parent. At that point we pretty much checked out. We had experienced two other cases in which the birth parents chose to parent, so we knew all too well that it was a strong possibility. So needless to say, I was completely shocked when I had a missed call and text from our counselor on November 1 saying to call her as soon as possible. We were in a match! Baby boy was due December 15 in central Illinois. 

We were still extremely cautious. Our agency was concerned about how long she had taken to choose a family, and she had changed her mind about wanting to meet us. She only wanted email contact for the time being. So we knew to be cautious. Within a few days, we received birthmom's email information, and we exchanged our first emails. Fortunately after just one email, she decided she wanted to meet us and wanted us to be at the hospital and bring baby home upon discharge. We were thrilled! This was a huge step. We knew to continue to be cautious, but we also knew that things were moving in the right direction. We would meet birthmom at the end of November. We knew that things would start to get pretty real at that point...

Quick Takes Friday

This week has been such a blur. We had a wonderful Christmas celebrating with family. It was also a great time to celebrate our Christmas miracle.

1. We spent Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family at my aunt's house. It was a small crowd, which was nice and relaxing. There was still a line to hold Nathan most of the night. Nathan opened his first Christmas gifts, which was lots of fun!

2. This is one of my favorite pictures we took as a family. Here's my immediate family on Christmas Eve.

3. On Christmas day we headed over to my parents' parish for mass (the same church we got married at and where Nathan will be baptized next week!) After mass, Nathan met the pastor of the parish, who has been very supportive ever since he found out were hoping to adopt. While talking with him, a little boy that was sitting a few pews in front of us during mass came over with his parents for a peak. They told us he thought Nate was baby Jesus :) 

4. We spent the rest of the day at my parents' house and exchanged gifts with them and my brothers. Nathan made out quite well! 

5. He also got to meet my aunts, uncles, and cousins that evening. It was so much fun sharing him with the rest of our family. Those pictures are giving me a hard time with formatting, so I'll just post my favorite of him from the day :) 

6. Nathan met his Grandma and Grandpa (Dan's parents) and Aunt Julie yesterday! He was so excited that he peed all over the living room before they got here. 

7. We can't wait for his shower and baptism next week! We hope everyone had a blessed Christmas.

Check out the link-up over at Jen's.

PS- A bit more of our adoption story will come soon! I just have to get myself to sit down and write.

Quick Takes: Nathan Style

I have been waiting to make this my quick takes for far too long. We got our great news yesterday that we are official, surrenders are signed!!! I will write more about our wonderful experience later. All I have to say is that his birth mother is an incredible woman, and this adoption is even more beautiful than I could have ever imagined! So for Quick Takes this week I'm going to share our sweet little guy.

1. His first moments

2. Our first family picture

3. First bath

4. He found his finger

5. Just chilling

6. Meeting his future girlfriend for the first time

7. They're totally getting married

Introducing...

Nathan Joseph was born at 8:01am, 7lbs 15 oz, 19 inches. He is happy, healthy, and cuddly. Pictures to come later.

7 Quick Takes: Pre-Adoption Edition

I am currently trying to avoid driving myself crazy in anticipation of our (hopefully!) arrival Monday morning. So Quick Takes, here I come!

1 (million): The number of times I washed my hands and disinfected today. Of course just days before our adoption, when my nerves and craziness are at their peak, one of my students came in with lice. And by the way, apparently that isn't reason enough to send a kid home from school or keep them home anymore. Kinda ridiculous if you ask me. If you were around me the past two days, you would have thought I was exposed to the plague with the number of times I washed my clothes, showered, and disinfected my desk. The last thing we need in this house is a mama crawling with lice... shudder... I have now added to my list of prayers for the lice to stay away from this household. I know I'm likely overreacting, but that's just going to happen with all these nerves right now.

2: I was going to think of something meaningful for each number, but I've realized I'm already going to break that on number 2. We bought a new camera last weekend, and I'm really excited to use it next week. We decided to take the leap and get a DSLR, and I think we are going to be really happy with that decision. I know very little about cameras and photography, but fortunately the auto mode on the camera pretty much requires me to aim and shoot. I think I can handle that.

3: Days until baby is here! Eee!!! So exciting :)

4: Have I mentioned how glad I am that I'm officially done with work until February (as long as baby comes home with us, that is). I am sooo sick of work lately, and I welcome the break. I'm so ready for this.

5: I'm also looking forward to the moment I can stop ending my sentences with "hopefully" and "we'll see". I'm ready for this baby to be in our arms and for papers to be signed. Breathe...

6: I'm looking forward to this weekend. We are thankfully going to be pretty busy the next couple of days. Tomorrow night we are going to a concert at one of the churches in the city. This church is absolutely gorgeous, especially around Christmas, and their choirs are amazing. I'm really looking forward to a relaxing evening. I just hope I can sit still and keep my mind at ease. Sunday we are going to the first birthday party of our friends' son. We actually met these friends through the adoption process. We took all of our classes together and have been a support for one another ever since. They adopted their sweet son last year, and it is so exciting to celebrate his birthday this weekend! I hope we will be doing the same thing in our house this time next year :)

7:(30am): If you are awake at that time Monday please keep birthmom, baby, and us in your prayers. She is scheduled for surgery at that time. I will probably be going to one of my go tos that morning of either Memorares, Divine Mercy Chaplet, or attempt a Rosary (if I can stay focused that long). It will likely end up being me repeating please please please over and over again without any coherent prayers.

Have a great weekend!

Gotta have faith

So I had a freak out moment... Okay it was more like a freak out day today. I hadn't heard from birth mom in much longer than usual, so today I decided to go worst case scenario and assume it meant she was having second thoughts. Needless to say, after many prayers begging God for this little one and for even just a response to my email, God told me loud and clear to sit back and trust in Him. Just minutes after finishing my St. Andrew Christmas novena tonight I heard from birth mom and all is well. I can breathe again... I apologize in advance. It is likely going to be a long few days around here  with a good chance of the occasional freak out moment. At least this one is over, and I can rest easy until I scare myself again soon :)

The Countdown

Only 1 week until we are one step closer to becoming parents!!!! My heart aches to hold him/her right now. Pray for us!

Giving Thanks

This post is a few days late, but it doesn't have to be Thanksgiving to talk about the things we're grateful for.

First of all, I'm grateful for this guy.

 

He keeps me sane and laughs at my insanity. He's patient. His faith pushes me in my own faith. He's hardworking. And well, he is pretty much an incredible husband. 

I am blessed with a wonderful family, who has supported us through the toughest stuff these past few years.

We have some of the most wonderful friends, who really are family to us.

We were blessed to become godparents to our beautiful goddaughter, Mary Claire :) 

And yes, this beautiful miracle belongs to Waiting in Joyful Hope. And we get to be her godparents!!!!

I am grateful for this community of Catholic bloggers. I love having the chance to read blogs from incredible women who have been through the difficulty of infertility and come out the other side through adoption or pregnancy, who are still carrying this cross, who have beautiful insight and give encouragement when I need it most, who share their parenting ideas which are awesome and Catholic, who remind me of the joy that is to come with hilarious parenting stories and quotes from their little ones, who are my prayer warriors, and who confirm that being Catholic is pretty awesome!

I am beyond grateful for our beautiful experience so far with this match. We have met yet another incredibly strong birth mother, with nothing but pure selfless love for her child. We have been fortunate enough to meet her twice and talk with her through email frequently. Both of these things have helped to ease some of our nerves. The sheer terror has subsided to occasional moments of my stomach dropping in fear... improvement? I'll take it. We got the sweetest ultrasound pics of this little one yesterday. And I seriously can not wait for him/her to be in my arms (We know the gender but are trying our best to keep it a surprise- so far it's not working so well). C section is scheduled for Dec. 16. Please keep us all in your prayers!