Family Support

Build A Bear recently had a day where they let you come in and build a bear to go to a child waiting for adoption. Mom and Ben took Brooklyn and Brittni to build a bear. Brooklyn made a girl bear named Ava and dressed her in pink, Brittni's bear was a boy dressed in blue named Owen. I want to say a great big thank you to the girls for building a bear for someone else and not even buying anything for themselves. That is a fantastic way to give back and I appreciate your enthusiasm for our adoption plans.

If you want to help out, Wendy's will donate fifty cents for every Frosty that is purchased on Father's Day weekend to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Sounds like a great excuse for a Frosty to me.

We are knee deep in paperwork and prayer for God's direction in our lives. We know that He is in control and He has a plan, we are just not sure of the details yet. Please pray for us as we seek the "details."

Amy, Turner and Carter have returned to California after an all too short visit. Here are a few of new pictures.

Here are two pictures of Brittni on her next to last day of school - Luau Day. Congratulations on your graduation from kindergarten!

Thanks to our family for the wonderful support you give us - we are blessed with a wonderful family and we love you all.

Why We Are Adopting

Sorry that I am slow to post this week. Amy, Turner and Carter are in for a visit from California and we are taking every opportunity we have to spend time with them. Turner is amazing with her knowledge of dinosaurs! Nathan says that she could school any adult in a game of "Are you smarter than a three year old - Dinosaur Edition!"

We don't have any news this week on the adoption, except that after part two of our application and our home study are approved, the expected wait is about one year. There may be some slow weeks on my blog. I figure this is a good way to keep busy while we wait.

Since this was a slow week, I thought I would share with you how we have come to the decision to adopt and why we chose South Korea. Hang on...this may be a long post.

My Mom says that I have wanted to adopt ever since she can remember. My earliest memories of wanting to adopt are seeing the Romanian orphanages on 20/20 when I was in high school. I begged my parents to adopt. When Nathan and I were dating, we talked about how we both had a desire to adopt. Our original plan was to have a child and adopt a child, but God seems to have a plan all of His own sometimes.

We both agreed right away that we had a very short fuse with infertility treatments. We think that everyone has to come to their own decision about this. We have close friends who have gone to great lengths to have their babies and we think that is great. For us, we felt that since we have such a heart for adoption and considering my age (my Dad says I am "no spring chicken"), we felt that we would opt for adoption after a year of trying on our own, both of us having test and two rounds of Clomid.

As far as South Korea, Nathan has thought for sometime that he would like to adopt from South Korea. I had more of a heart for a Latin American country or possibly China. I did a lot of reading and talking to other people who have adopted and South Korea seemed like a natural fit for us. We are both thrilled! At this point, we plan to adopt from China next (this is subject to change).

So that is the short version! I could talk your ear off about the subject. If you are interested in adoption, let me know and I can suggest some books and websites to help you learn more. Someone gave me advice to do my homework on the subject. I took them seriously, I bought way too many books - I would be glad to share.

Have a great week. Watch next week for updated pictures of Turner and Carter.

Application Part 1 Approved!!

Great News! Our "Application part 1" was approved! We received "Application part 2" in the mail yesterday. It is daunting. I am amazed at all the questions they ask - stuff we didn't even know we needed to know. We have a lot to think about.

A couple of weeks ago, our Pastor gave out 24 $100 bills to people in the congregation with instructions to "pay it forward." Click here to read the Pastor's blog.

Our dear friend Lindee Riley received one of the $100 bills. As she prayed about what to do with her $100 she felt like God wanted her to give it to us for our adoption. How amazing is that? Can I just say, this is the exact amount of the pre-adoption workshop that we are required to attend?

We feel so blessed! This showed us that God was working behind the scenes on our behalf. Also, not only did Lindee pay her $100 forward, but this will give us a chance to pay it forward also by changing the life of a child.

Our story will be told this Sunday along with the other "pay it forward" stories.

By the way, our plan is to update this blog on Wednesdays. Thanks to all of you who have checked in and offered encouragement.

The Journey Begins

It is official! On May 1, we mailed our application to adopt from South Korea. We are very excited! We are told the process can take about 9 - 12 months, which Nathan says is a perfect gestational period for us since we seem to take things slow (dating for 7 years). This blog is a place you can check in our progress.

We can't wait to get our baby home. We have not stated a preference for gender, although our chances of getting a boy are greater from South Korea. We have no girl names picked out - so Nathan's Mom says that means we will get a girl.

Our families are excited for us. My Mom and nieces can hardly resist a shopping spree. Mom says they talk about this baby all the time. She keeps reminding them that this will be a long process, but they keep finding cute baby things that the "baby" needs. Mom told them that we don't know if it is a boy or a girl or how old the baby will be. Brooklyn's response "Grammy, everyone starts out as a baby."

We will keep you posted (pun intended).