It's is ALMOST HERE!

I am gearing up for the most important first/blind date imaginable this week.  So many people have asked about how this whole adoption scenario works. When do we leave, when do we come back etc. Many things are up in the air right now (which for me is incredibly hard for me to deal with!) Here is what we do know. My mother-in-law is heading down our way Wednesday after she gets off work. Jesse and I fly out super early Thursday morning to head to Utah. Our social worker will meet us at the airport. We will get our rental car, head to our hotel and try to get settled.  Thursday evening we will finally get to meet face-to-face with our birthmother R. at dinner. She has chosen to eat at Olive Garden. Both our social worker and her social worker will be there as well. I am extremely nervous about this meeting and really have no idea what will be discussed, how we will feel, etc.  R. is being induced the next morning either at 6 or 7 am. We will get a call to head to the hospital when she is dilated to a six or a seven and is comfortable. That is all we know. We have no idea how that day will look. We don’t know if she wants us in the room for the actual delivery, if she wants to hold the baby, if she wants the baby to stay with her etc. Those first twenty four hours are going to be very difficult. She cannot sign the legal paperwork until 24.5 hours after the birth. Once she signs, the baby will be considered ours.  Jesse has to fly back home Sunday morning to relieve his Mom. My sister will be flying up on Tuesday so I am not totally alone.  The baby will more than likely be in the NICU.  We will have a better idea after the first 2 to 5 days how long the baby will need to stay in the hospital, but it is not a guaranteed timeframe.  Hopefully after the first week Jesse and the boys can come back up. If not, I will stay, regardless, until she is released to come home. We have been told this could be from one week to six months. We are praying it is a shorter stay. I haven’t been away from the boys for more than a couple days, so even though I am excited to meet Jillian, I am very sad and know I will miss them terribly. We will keep everyone updated the best we can once we arrive! Thank you all so much for the love and support and we cannot wait to have the best Valentine’s Day gift ever!

Light in the Darkness

It has been one week since we were “matched” with our birth mother and the reality of everything is starting to sink in.  We have busily spent the last six days frantically making plans, backup plans and backup-to-the-backup plans.   Plane tickets have been purchased, hotels booked, and bags are packed. Now we wait.  And as we wait my brain has been running nonstop. We have experienced a myriad of emotions; shock, excitement, fear, joy.  I am mentally preparing myself for what may very well be the hardest experience of our lives to date.  The fear of the unknown is very hard for me. I like to have control in situations. I like to plan for the future.  We have absolutely no way to prepare or to know how the birth of our daughter will go. We know she will be born addicted. We have done the research; I have watched the horrific videos. It will not make us change our minds. It will not make us love her less. In fact it will make us love her more.  We are as prepared as we can possibly be. It is going to be traumatic and we are terrified. We have made the choice to face the darkness with light in our hearts. I appreciate people’s concern. We are concerned too. However worrying is not the answer, no good can come of it.  Things can wrong in an ideal pregnancy. If anyone knows that, it is us. Overall, the outpouring of love and support has been amazing.  We are so blessed to feel so much love from our families and friends. If there is one thing I am certain of, it is that this is not going to be easy and that we will need help. I feel so fortunate to be surrounded by amazing people that I know will be by our sides during this amazing experience.  Thank you. No words can describe the appreciation I have for you all.

 

Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.
William Shakespeare

Answered Prayers!

So just like that ~ we have a match!!!  I am experiencing all sorts of emotions right now: excitement, nervous, stressed, scared, but mostly OVERJOYED.  Our profile book was shown yesterday evening.  Within a couple of hours the social worker wanted to schedule a conference call with us and the birthmother (R.)  So as we nervously awaited the phone call we were told to keep the conversation light and to talk to her like you would talk to a friend you were just getting to know. The conversation was anything but light! R has had a very hard life and she was very open and honest with us.  She didn’t hold anything back. She wanted us know exactly what to expect for the present and the future. Our daughter will be born addicted to methadone.  Her birth and weaning her off of the drugs will be very difficult.  The hospital stay could be extensive.  We will cross those bridges when we get there.  R. is currently in Utah and that is where the baby will be born.

She shared with us her experiences growing up in Kentucky, being an Army brat (that is why she picked us ~ the ARMY connection!), working the farm, riding horses, and going hunting and being outside.  She loves to read and went to college.  It was really neat seeing the similarities she had with our family.

We spoke for about an hour and toward the end of the conversation she said “well I consider this a match.  How soon can you be here?” We were in shock!!!  We didn’t think it would be quite like that. The social worker was supposed to call each of us after the talk and see what we thought, give us time to think etc.  It was quite overwhelming.  We did speak to the social worker and after sleeping on it last night (really I didn’t get a wink of sleep!) we are agreeing to move forward!

Our daughter (name to still be decided but we are leaning towards Jillian) is due on Valentine’s Day!! We have hardly any time to plan and prepare so the next couple of weeks will be fairly frantic!  The kids are not allowed to be at the hospital with us so we have some serious logistics to figure out.

I am flooded by emotions writing this letter but wanted to let everyone know we are so grateful for your care and love. It means the world to us.  Our daughter is going to be so blessed to have such an amazing support system. 

Please pray that R and the baby are both healthy during the next few weeks and during and after delivery. Please pray that R. feels confident in her decision to choose us to parent her baby.  The months ahead for the baby and R. will be very difficult but my heart is swelling with love and gratitude for her sacrifice.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Lindsey

Baby Blues

Sometimes I question being so honest and open during our adoption process. It is hard being so exposed and raw and I wonder if it makes me seem weak.  Then I realize there are so many people pondering adoption and I wish I had known more about the process ~ all parts of the process, the good and the bad.  Lately I have been feeling down about the decision.  It didn’t start out that way. I had thought about adoption and my daughter for the last few years.  When Jesse finally came around I was ecstatic! According to him I was “glowing.”  I felt like I was glowing. I loved getting the nursery ready, shopping for tiny pink creations, and the planning side of me even loved doing the paperwork.  Fast forward a few months and the waiting began.  This was hard for me. I am not by nature a patient person. I know this about myself.  I thought the waiting would be the worst part of the experience.  Finally when we were off of the waitlist and able to be matched I got extremely excited again.  Then the waiting began again.  After not being shown any local profiles for several months we reached out to another agency. I was excited again about the possibility of seeing many more profiles and being exposed to many more birthmothers. However, once the matching process begins you realize nothing prepares you for “not being chosen.”  Think about the worst rejection you have felt in your life: a horrible breakup you thought was destined for marriage, a job interview you thought you nailed, only to be turned down. Multiply that times a thousand.  That is how “not being chosen” feels. It is horrible.  We have had our profile shown four times and we started this process one year ago.  You are waiting in anticipation from the time you agree to have your profile shown until the time the birthmother makes a decision.  Again, waiting is not my forte. I am constantly thinking about the birthmother and what she is thinking, how many profiles is she shown, will she pick us, etc.  It is excruciating for me and I can’t focus on much else. Sometimes it takes over a week for her to decide.  Needless to say, we have not been picked. Being told you aren’t chosen is absolutely heartbreaking. It is devastating. Now, I feel like I am getting into a funk. I am less hopeful about the process each time we are told “sorry” and I am getting depressed.  The costs are sky high and I feel guilty and start to rethink our decision.  Yesterday we were notified that we were not chosen again. We have been waiting since Christmas Eve to hear this birthmother’s decision.  We were told “if it is any consolation, the reason it took so long to get a decision is because she was having a hard time choosing between your family and another family.”  No, that absolutely does not make me feel better. In fact, it makes me feel worse.  It is not like we are any closer.  The next birth mother may want something totally different and may be shown completely different profile books. It is really taking a toll on my heart.  I have heard “it wasn’t the right one or it wasn’t meant to be.”  While that may be true, that isn’t comforting and it doesn’t make the hurt any less debilitating.  I will continue to pray and acknowledge and be aware of my feelings so that I don’t dwell on them as much.  Just know that if I am distant or not as social there is a lot weighing on my heart and mind right now. I am sure once I am holding my daughter the struggle and hurt will be a distant memory, but right now I can only see the rain, not the rainbow.

Profile Book

We had to work very hard to create our profile book. This is what is shown to potential birth mothers that we are interested in! Most birth moms make their decision quickly and solely on these books.

http://app.picaboo.com/WebView/Project.aspx?clientID=260c903ddaee0a372266ce608f14e3d2&version=397697&siteID=ViaPreview

Heavy Hearts

My heart is hurting. It is hard being patient. It is hard not getting frustrated.  It has been over a month since we have heard a peep from our adoption agency.  No profiles have been shown, no phone calls made. I am having a difficult time just sitting back and waiting for something to happen. There has been absolutely no movement at all. People keep asking me “have you heard anything?  What’s going on?”  I am not sure what to say.  Ethan asked Santa for his “baby sister” for Christmas. How do I explain to him that is not a possibility? He threw coins in the wishing well everyday while we were on vacation, and every day he told me he was wishing for his “baby sister.” It breaks my heart.  I know it is the season to be merry, and I am. I feel extremely blessed for the amazing family I have, but it is difficult to not feel like there is a void in our lives.  In January it will be one year since we submitted our application for adoption. I honestly thought we would have a baby by now. It is hard not to be disappointed. I am going to try and make a conscious decision to focus on the positives for the rest of the year and pray that things will fall into place.  Love to you all.

Emotional and Financial Costs

When you think about adoption you envision families being completed, birthmothers making selfless decisions for the baby they love, you think of smiles and happiness, and baby cuddles.

Unfortunately, until you are in the mist of the process, you don’t think of money.  The cost of adopting is like adoption’s dirty little secret.

We have had some disheartening conversations with our adoption agency recently.  Long story short, we were informed there are no local babies.  That Oregon has some sort of “stigma” about adoption.  That the only agencies that are going to survive are the ones like in Utah, which bring the mothers to them, giving them housing and medical care.   

These agencies are nearly double the cost of using a local agency because as the adoptive parents you are picking up the tab for that housing and medical care.

Essentially we are being told, if we want a baby, that is route we are going to have to take.  No mind given to the thousands of dollars we have already spent (which of course is nonrefundable.)  Now we are talking about spending nearly double what we had anticipated spending.

I know it is child’s life we are talking about and how can you put a price tag on the process? Unfortunately you can, and depending on what scenario you want the price goes exponentially up. And unfortunately what comes with that is guilt ~ guilt about taking that money away from your current family and guilt about potentially going into debt. 

Many of you have asked for updates. I wish I had more to give.  We have submitted paperwork and are going to be working with one of those Utah agencies as well.  I am praying for strength, fortitude, and guidance with our decisions.  It has been incredibly hard so far.

Thanks for the love and support ~ as always.