Just Stopping By to Say Hello!

Sorry old pal, I know it's been a while.  I have a good reason, trust me.

March blew through like a hurricane and April was totally wild as well!!!! More on those stories at a later date though...

So last I posted, we were working on a yard sale fundraiser, and that is still on!  I need your castoffs.  Sale date is May 17!

I'm so excited about this fundraiser.  It's going to be chock-full of Pinterest inspiration and hopefully help us reach our financial goals.  Plus, I will be kind of excited to clean out my house.  It's starting to look like a full-on Goodwill store in here.  Eek!

I'm hosting a baby shower for my beloved sister-in-law this weekend, too (thankfully not in my messy house!).  Can't wait to celebrate with our awesome family!

I know this was a quick little update.  Stay tuned for more!

Decluttering My Life - An Adoption Fundraiser!

Well, we are officially done with paperwork for now it seems.  That is, a new form hasn't crossed my inbox for about a week.  YAY!  So we are truly in the waiting I guess, with nothing else to do.

Obviously, I've been working on the nursery lately.  It's certainly coming along.  I got the curtains I wanted as a gift this week!  Andrew and I picked up some cheap-o frames at Ikea recently and I printed off some adorable pictures of characters from some of our favorite children's books.  So there's a bit of color going on in the room now.

Now that the baby room is almost done, all the stuff that WAS in the room had to find a new home in our house.  I've decided it'll be much easier just to get rid of it all.  That's not going overboard is it????  Really, I started walking through the house and thinking about what I could live without if it meant that I could bring home my baby.  That list grew QUICKLY!  Thus begins my yard sale brainstorming.

Since sharing my idea with friends and family, we've had TONS of stuff given to us to sell.  I have actually had to set up a room in our house just for yard sale stuff (thank goodness the home study is over!).  This weekend I started pouring over everything, pricing things, sorting boxes like a department store (electronics, women's clothing, etc.).  This is my new little pet project I guess.

I've heard that big yard sales, especially ones involving multiple families contributing like this one, are fabulous fundraisers.  I've never really been a fan of yard sales, but Pinterest has a never ending list of valuable tips and ideas for putting on a great sale.  I'm going to give it a whirl and see how it goes.  I'm inspired and encouraged by the ever growing pile of boxes at my house - it may just be fantastic after all!  Stay tuned!

(If you're reading this and you've thought you'd love to help but don't have a lot of cold hard cash to spare, please feel free to bring me that box of stuff you've been stashing in an upstairs closet for two years and waiting to get rid of.  I will gladly sell it!)

Pass It On

My mom cleaned house recently and sent me a box chock full of some of my childhood belongings.  Here are a couple of my favorite items:

That's right.  This girl (points to myself) LOVES to read.  I'm sure some will find these to be odd choices, but you can tell these are some well-read favorites from my own childhood!!  You can see my favorite German Christmas story book and a non-fiction book about space.  This definitely explains my love for language and literature and for science and technology.  Reading makes well-rounded people.  I still adore reading to this day.  I'm so grateful for a mother who sat next to me and read with me all the time.  It made me love reading and learning!  Now I teach technology classes, and then I come home and curl up with a Jane Austen novel to unwind.

As the saying goes, "Readers are made on the laps of their parents."  I hope I can pass along this same passion for reading and learning to the next generation.  I don't know that these particular books will survive at the hands of a child, but I am sure that we will find quite a few to stock baby's library.  Nothing sounds more precious to me than curling up in that sweet rocker and reading with future Baby I.

Thank you, Mom!!!

A Nursery for Baby

Thank you to everyone who recently participated in our Thirty-One fundraiser!  It was delightfully encouraging to experience that level of support!  And a HUUUUUGE thank you to the lovely Marcia for taking on such a big project!  Remember, if you need anything Thirty-One down the road, check out her web site. https://www.mythirtyone.com/marciasthirtyone

We’ve been busy bees lately with fundraising, paper work, and trying to prep our home for a future baby. 

Adoption starts off feeling like a far-away dream.  Then you start meeting people and having conversations.  Then you have endless stacks of paperwork (one of my friends found a shirt that says “I am paper pregnant.”  Love it!).  There's lots of waiting.  And lots of work to be done on the house.  

Recently we started the nursery with the rocker.  I love that thing!  Then the crib came in the mail!  I’m so excited!!!  And I can’t wait to tell you the GREAT deal we got on it!

Maybe a year ago, Andrew and I started saving our rewards points on the credit card for a lovely vacation.  We want to go back to Europe so much.  I figured, hey we can save the points and cash them in for plane tickets. 

But as this adoption moves along, I realize we have new priorities.  While standing in a nearly empty room, I suggested to Andrew that we could also cash our points in for giftcards.  We did, and we found a great crib and changing table!!  And there you have it, a furnished nursery for very little mullah (remember, the chair was a hand-me-down and free)!!

(I’m not recommending using credit cards.  They work for our family because we diligently pay it off monthly and refuse to carry consumer debt.  You may find not having a credit card works better for your family.) 

I’m so glad I remembered our rewards points and was able to score a great deal for the nursery.  We are another “baby step” closer to bringing home Baby I!  Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and continuing to lift us up and encourage us.  You, our readers and friends, are a light in our days during this long process.  Please continue to remember us in your thoughts and prayers.

Organizing My Life - An Adoption Fundraiser!

I love being organized.  It's kind of an obsession.  A friend of mine at work constantly comments on how clean my desk is.  I find comfort in the order.  In this time of waiting in my life, you can bet my house is cleeeeean!  One of my favorite tools for organizing my life is my hoard of Thirty-One bags!!!

I have a few of the Organizing Utility Totes - one for school, one for our dog Jax (yep, when we travel he gets his own bag!), and one for miscellaneous stuff (church bag, Jazzercise bag, weekend dash out of town bag).  I've got the Cindy Tote - which I LOVE for air travel.  It zips and holds a lot!  Great for a carry on!!  I've got a couple of purses - the Demi purse (no longer sold) and the skirt purse.  I love the skirt purse!  It's great for changing around to match what I'm wearing/doing that day.  Since I bought mine, they've come out with a bigger version (so jealous!).  I have a couple of the Thermal Totes, and let me tell you, I could not imagine life without them!  I use one daily to carry my lunch to school, and on those days I forget to bring it home (who me???), I can use the other one the next day (I just have to bring them both home or things get yucky!!).

The list could go on.  I'm a big fan of the brand.  They really tailor their gear towards being practical, and it is top quality.  And of course, they are based on Christian principles!  I was so excited to hear a friend of mine has become a Thirty-One Independent Consultant!  I went to Marcia's debut show, and she is FABULOUS!  If you need anything, she is the lady to go to!  And because Marcia is just so awesome, she has offered to do an adoption fundraiser for Baby I with Thirty-One!

So if you're like me and always on the look out for great products to make life a little easier, I totally recommend vising her site.  www.mythirtyone.com/marciasthirtyone  And for a limited time (2/17/14-2/24/14) you can click on Michelle's Adoption Fundraiser and when you shop you support our adoption!  Happy shopping/organizing!

Everyday is Valentine's Day

Hey ya'll!  Well, I don't want you to think we've fallen off the face of Earth.  Quite the contrary.  We have been so swamped, I feel we've hardly had a moment to sit and reflect, much less write a blog post.  But with "snowmageddon" going on outside, a few days of forced "do not go outside" has brought about the perfect opportunity to do just that.  So here we are again!

February marks the second month of our blog, and the sixth month of our adoption journey.  It's hard to express what I'm thinking and feeling.  I'm completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of love this has brought to our lives.  I must say: I am SO proud of our friends, family, co-workers, church folks, and friends of friends.  Every day, everywhere I turn, someone wants to give me a hug and celebrate this time in my life.  I could not be more proud to be surrounded by such open-minded and big-hearted people!!!  I've read a lot of stuff where other adoptive mommies have said basically, "You will not believe some of the dumb, hurtful things people will say, but you've got to ignore it."  Fortunately, no one I've encountered has said any of those things (at least not to my face!).  Rather, when I am so stressed out and wondering how I can hold myself together with this waiting game, I am offered the one thing I need most right now: a hug.  Thank you!

So again, with the wretched weather outdoors, we've been stranded indoors, and we actually did start on a nursery this week!  One day there will be a little Baby I to occupy said nursery, but until then, we've got a lot of work left to do.  I'm so lucky to have a bestie (who was my bestie before such a term even existed) who gifted me a COOOOOZY glider rocker and ottoman!  Annnd, my husband's dear grandparents gave me a birthday giftcard to the fabric store, where I purchased the softest fabric on Earth!!  So, with a mug of hot chocolate sitting near by, I was able to sew my heart away and create this beauty:

Don't you just want to curl up in that with a good book???  I may have to put in some time pre-baby!  And all for $0!!!  THANK YOU BELOVED ONES FOR THIS GIFT!!!

That's the start of the nursery.  I'm itching to put together our puzzle, too, and hang that on the wall.  We have quite a few pieces left still!  Several people have asked lately, "How can we help?"  Frankly, I would LOVE for your to sponsor one of our "Color of Love" puzzle pieces.  So our puzzle fundraiser is still on!!!  Please feel free to contribute: http://bringinghomebabyi.blogspot.com/2014/01/paypal-safer-easier-way-to-pay-online.html  Coming soon, we're also doing a Thirty-One fundraiser (Because who DOESN'T love Thirty-One bags?!?!? My closet could sooooo be an advertisement for them!) and a huge, multi-family yard sale.

There you have it.  We are waiting.  Sometimes, I'm just barely hanging on and keeping myself composed, but we continue to wait.  That's the good and the bad of it.  And this Valentine's Day, I couldn't pick a better man to have sitting next to me while I wait.  And I couldn't be more grateful for the amazing people who surround me each and every day.  Happy Valentine's Day!  I love you all!

Serendipity

I am amazed at all of the serendipitous aspects of our adoption process so far.  Money has, of course, been the big question mark in the process all along.  And yet at every turn, there have been little exclamation points to answer that question mark.  People we haven’t seen or talked to in ages have given toward our adoption. People we’ve never even met have contributed.  Everything we read about adoption funding said, “you’ll be surprised and humbled by who God uses to help you bring your child home.”  We knew to expect those surprises, but we have still been overjoyed and overwhelmed by the vastness of our little village.  To you all who have helped make our adoption possible and to those who will continue to surprise and humble us, thank you!

Not only have we been able to continue to save toward the adoption (with a little help from our friends and from beautiful strangers alike), we’ve just recently encountered what I would call a helping hand from God.  Some might call it a series of coincidences or a stroke of good luck, but regardless it is a great story.  To make a long story short, we managed to stumble into a situation that actually meets our needs and desires, but also will save us at least $10,000 on the adoption!

It started when one of Michelle’s coworkers referred us to a social worker to do our home study.  For those of you who don’t know, every family trying to adopt has to have a home study completed by a certified professional, so we knew we’d have to find someone to do the home study.  Michelle’s coworker, who is an adoptive parent, recommended a person from our home town to do the home study.  The fact that this person came highly recommended was great, but the fact that she works and lives in our home town seals the deal. 

A bit later in our home study process we found out that my parents have known our home study provider for almost as long as I’ve been alive!  We had no idea about this connection prior to the home study.  In our conversations with our social worker, she suggested that we should, in addition to considering our national agency, consider a couple of local attorneys in the Upstate who are well-respected and experienced.  Michelle talked a bit about the family fair we attended in the post below.  We found out we have a number of personal connections with the attorneys.  Again, another little “coincidence.”

Still, we had a lot of questions for these lawyers.  The agency we were working with offers services to birthmothers, advertising services, and nationwide placements.  One of the attorneys we met with offers all of this, as well.  The agency has a low disruption rate (low incidences of the adoption not going through once placement is made)—the attorney we met with has a slightly lower rate.  The agency does a large number of placements per year (300 or so, with a large nationwide pool of potential adoptive parents)—the attorney we met with does 60-80 placements per year and actually has a shortage of potential adoptive parents right now. The agency offers limited financial risk should an adoption disrupt; the attorney offers a very comparable level of financial protection.

The attorney and agency compare favorably in all the areas that are important to us.  Of course, we know the attorney personally now and feel like we would have someone working for us and someone close to home instead of halfway across the country.  It also helps that he is a passionate adoption advocate and an adoptive parent of two children—he’s not in it for the money and he is comfortable talking about adoption as a calling. So we had a good feeling about all of this and we were beginning to lean toward changing to work with the attorney instead of the agency.

But what really sealed the deal is that the attorney costs will be $30,000 (or maybe even a bit less) instead of $40,000.  That’s a huge difference!  It boils down to several things—lower overhead, lower cost for the profile (no video to make and have edited), lower advertising costs and fees, and less inflated legal fees since we’re cutting out the middle man, so to speak, and working directly with the attorney.  

As an added benefit, since we’re working with a local attorney, he can handle most out-of-state adoptions under our state's jurisdiction which can be helpful when working in states that have very persnickety or archaic laws.

Needless to say, we’re excited about this series of fortuitous events!  We’re even more excited that we have less money to save up.  That means that we should be able to get our child even more quickly!  It also means that any gift you give makes an even bigger impact and helps us toward our goal that much faster!  Continue to celebrate with us, ask us questions, give us words of encouragement, and if you feel called to do so, donate today!

-Andrew