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PINK!

Birth mother's ultrasound confirmed (within 95%) that we are having

November -- National Adoption Month

In honor of November being National Adoption Month, we wanted to pass along a couple of stories from the the many different perspectives of adoption.

From an Adoptive Dad's Perspective


From a Birth Mother's Perspective


Feel free to check out the entire blog (link below) as there will be a new story added every day in the month of November.

Portrait of an Adoption


Enjoy!

How to be The Village

We've been so graciously (and continuously) asked by our friends and family "How Can We Help?"

First, know this: we are somewhere in the middle of Waiting Purgatory. Please let me explain something about WP: It sucks in every way. Oh sure, we try to make it sound better than it feels by using phrases like “We’re trusting in God’s plan” and sentiments like that. But we are aching and sometimes getting frustrated and going bonkers when you’re not watching. It’s hard. It feels like an eternity even though you can see that it is not.

Let’s break this down into two categories:

Support Before the Airport

1. Just kind, normal words of encouragement. Not the kind that assume we are one breath away from atheism. Not the kind that attempt to minimize the difficulties and tidy it all up with catchphrases. We don’t actually need for you to fix our wait. We just want you to be our friend and acknowledge that the process is hard and you care about us while we’re hurting. That is GOLD.

** I can assure you, at no point in this journey did we think about kicking Jesus to the curb, but we still get to cry tears and feel our feelings, folks. Jesus did. And I’m pretty sure he went to heaven when he died.

2. Your questions are welcomed! We’re glad to talk about adoption, and we’re thankful you care. I assure you we didn’t enter adoption lightly, so sharing details of this HUGE PIECE OF OUR LIVES is cathartic.

3. When you say you’re praying for us, the birth mother and our baby, and you actually really are, not only does that soothe our troubled souls, but according to Scripture, it activates the heavens. So pray on, dear friends. Pray on. That is always the right thing to say. And please actually do it. We need people to stand in the gap for us when we are too tired and discouraged to keep praying the same words another day.

Support After the Airport 

1.Please do not disappear. If you think the waiting stage is hard for us, it won't even hold the barest candle to what comes after the airport. Not. The. Barest. Candle. We need you after the airport waaay more than we ever needed you before. Call. Email. Check in. Send us funny cards. Keep this behavior up for longer than six days.

2. Come over sometime when our baby is asleep (or not) and sit with us. Our future schedule, as we see it, we are going to be home, home, home, home, home. Good-bye, date nights. Good-bye, GNO’s. Good-bye, spontaneous anything. Good-bye, big public outings. Good-bye, nightlife. So please bring some community to our doorstep. Bring friendship back into our lives. Bring adult conversation and laughter. And bring some beer.  :)

Here’s one last thing: As you watch us struggle, celebrate, cry and flail, we also want you to know that adoption is beautiful. God invited us into something monumental and lovely. We need you during these difficult months of waiting and transitioning, but we also hope you see that we serve a faithful God. And even through the tears and tantrums (of ours), we will be able to look at our child and marvel that God counted us worthy to raise them. We are humbled. We’ve been gifted with a very holy task, and when you help us rise to the occasion, you have an inheritance in their story; your name will be counted in their legacy.

Thank you for being the village. You are so important.

Adoption Rocks!!

One of Rachel's acquaintances (who is also an adoptive mom) recently helped raise adoption awareness through her local radio station:

This clip is from an adoptee's point of view.  I hope our child grows up to be as enthusiastic and gracious about adoption as this young lady is!

Adoption Rocks - Radio Clip 1 

This clip is from Sarah herself...and she does ROCK!  (that's her sweet daughter Payton in the background)  

Adoption Rocks - Radio Clip 2

Appointments, Names and Voting

We previously mentioned that the birth mother would have a doctor's appointment this week and it would include an ultra sound (u/s) that could potentially tell us the sex of the baby. Well, it looks like the birth mother was mistaken and very disappointed to find out that this week's appointment was just a quick blood work, weight check sort of appointment and that in 2 weeks will the be u/s appointment. Whaaaaaaat!!??  You mean we have to wait 2 additional weeks to potentially find out the sex of the baby. Birth mother was really sort of 'cute' when she relayed the information; I think she was more upset about not being able to get the u/s and know the sex more than we were...if that's possible.

Many of you have asked if we have started thinking about names. We have. Neither of us (I don't think) really knew what a daunting task this would be. What if it was too long? Too short? Hard to pronounce? Sound made-up? What about having a you-neek spelling...did we want our kid to always have to correct people on how to say or spell their name? (for example: Sallye - pronounced Sally; so why the extra 'e'?) Can a name be too 'out there'? What about names from literature? Family names? What potential nick names are there? How does it flow with our last name? What about 'trendy' a name, do we like those? What about a name that is considered unisex - Quinn, Dylan, Blake, Logan, Riley? So much to consider.

So, how about taking a gander at our baby name list and casting a vote:

Our Baby Name List

(NOTE: there is no 'submit' button; after voting either close the entire page or surf to a different website)

Thank you for all of your continued prayers for us as well as the birth mother.