July Update

Dear Reader(s),

I've decided I want these email's to be as conversational as possible in the hope that you never feel like you've been duped into reading a chain email (you must forward this email to 12 of your friends by midnight or the sorting hat will place you in Slytherin!)  Plus, if I'm being honest, it makes me feel less awkward about sharing such personal details about our lives.  You, the people who love us, have questions and we WANT to answer them.  There's a fine line between sharing and over sharing when it comes to adoption.  Down the road there will be things we simply will not share to protect our child's personal story.  However, we want you all to know as much of what's really happening as possible.  I sincerely hope that doesn't scare the pants off you.  If it does I can tell you that you're not alone.  I've lost my pants on multiple occasions already in this whole process.  Maybe we can start a support group...

News items:

The last time we talked we were preparing for our individual interviews and the home study.  It was a BIG week.  Monumental really. When our case worker, Allison, visited us at home she was able to tell us that we passed! (insert a HUGE sigh of relief here....actually maybe more like multiple gasps, flapping arms and fist pumps.)  We've celebrated by not properly cleaning the house since.

What does that mean?  What happens now?  Is your house still dirty?  Well, Allison is out of town until the beginning of August, at which time she will complete the necessary paperwork.  Once we/she has the official paperwork ready we can begin applying to agencies.  In the meantime we are working on filling out grant applications and working on our profile or book.  The profile is how the birth mom/parents choose you.  It's between 10-12 pages long and includes information about us and an over abundant amount of photos of you, your family & friends, etc.  Forgive the crude analogy, but it's basically our sales pitch.  The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach (also see pants being scared off above.)  Luckily though, we have an angel friend who's agreed to design it so it looks like us and not a precious moments explosion.  Once we have our profile created, we will be ready to send our information to different agencies - God willing, we will be at that point sometime in September.

Here are a few questions we've been asked repeatedly that i thought I'd share:

Q&A:

1.  I ran into Mr./Mrs. Whatsits face the other day at church/dinner/while snorkeling and your name came up.... I wasn't sure if it was okay to tell them you guys are adopting or not?

     Go tell it on the mountain - really we don't mind who you tell.  The more the merrier.  The cool/crazy thing about domestic adoption is that you really don't know where your child could come from.  One of YOU could know someone, who knows someone, who knows a woman who needs a birth plan for her child-to-be! So, please tell people.  We're flattered that you'd want to.

2.  I noticed you haven't put anything on Facebook/Twitter/etc about the adoption.  Are you planning to?

    We go back and forth.  I think at some point we will let the cat out of the social media bag, but that would be it.  In terms of updates, we plan to stick to email and eventually I'd like to blog.  Let us get passed all the grant paperwork and then we'll blog it up!

3.  What 'kind' of baby are you hoping for?

    The church-y answer to this is "the one God wants us to have" and, at least in this case, the honest answer is exactly the same.  We didn't put a lot of parameters on it.  Our only real specification is infant.  We are happy with a boy or girl and we will happily accept any race.  That being said, according to our agency many if not most caucasian families specify they want caucasian babies, so there's a relatively high probability that our child will be a different race.

4.  Did I hear correctly that you guys are open to TWINS?  Are you both out of your minds?

    Yes and yes : )

5.  How can we help?

     As I've said in the past, the biggest thing you can do is pray.  You have no idea how honored and humbled we are when you approach us and say you've remembered us and our family in your prayers.  Truly, it's the most personal and sincere thing you have to offer.  Your prayers are just that, YOURS.  That you would use your words and time with our Redeemer - okay, I have to stop because I'm sobbing....  You honor us with your prayers.  There's nothing greater you can give, period.

6.  Are you planning to fundraise?

    Most likely.  Once we get though the grant paper work, we will begin exploring our options.  Not sure exactly what that will look like yet, but we will keep you all posted.

7.  How are you two doing with all this?  How are you really doing?

    Right now we are good, really.  Not to say that it hasn't been tough at times.  We feel like we had a rough couple of years to bring us to this point so, we choose not to dwell on the fear  that this process brings.  Instead, we try to focus on what we can DO.  We talk a lot about what we'd be doing at any given moment if the baby(s) were with us.  We talk about how amazing it will be when we can introduce our new family member(s) to all of you!  We went shopping for a car seat and stroller the other day, which was an out of body experience to say the least.  Most of all we try to constantly remind each other that our God is bigger than all of this and HE is in control.

    

So, there's the scoop for now.  If you have questions, feel free to email me.  

Thank you for loving us so well,

Annie & KB

"But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, 'You are my God.' My times are in your hands." Psalm 31:14,15

June Update

Hello Friends & Fam!

First, please allow me to say thank you to each of you for your support thus far. This may sound trite, but honestly we wouldn't have made it this far without all your prayers, encouragement, texts, phone calls, sweet notes, chats over coffee, etc. Thank you for being you!  You can't begin to imagine how blessed we feel to have SO many people who are supporting us in prayer and encouragement.  It's been extraordinary - truly. High fives all round! Our baby (or babies???) are already SO loved and lifted up in prayer by so many.  Knowing that just buoys us up to handle whatever may come our way. We are crazy excited about the future of our family, which is an answer to prayer and a blessing in and of itself.  We appreciate y'all more than you can ever know. Philippians 1:3 comes to mind - We thank our God upon every remembrance of you!

I'll be honest, I've found it difficult to keep everyone updated and end up forgetting who I've told what! So, in an effort to be as thorough as possible, I figured I'd start sending emails... DISCLAIMER: If email is not your thing and you find yourself wanting to scream or you'd rather be pinched on the underarm repeatedly than read another email - don't despair.  Call me and I'll give you the update via phone :)  My goal is to keep it short & sweet.  If I can get my act together at some point I will start a blog... stay tuned.

News items:

Many of you may already know this but, we completed and turned in the paper work portion of our home study two weeks ago.  This is COLOSSAL.  As anyone who's been through this process can tell you, there is a copious amount of paperwork.  Finishing this was such a relief and it has felt like a huge albatross was lifted off our necks, which is a major praise.

Our individual interviews are scheduled for tomorrow (Kris is @ 8am, Annie is @ 2:30.)

Allison, our caseworker, will be coming to conduct our home study on Thursday @ 1pm.

How can you help? - just keep on doing what you've already been doing so brilliantly, pray.  We covet your prayers this week.  Specifically, pray for peace in our hearts and minds.  Pray that we will remember that GOD is in control not Kris or Andrea.  Pray that everything goes smoothly.  Pray too for our case worker, Allison. She is an instrumental part in the home study process since she interviews each of us and conducts our in-home visit.

Also, if I may be so bold to ask this of you, pray for the birth mother and father who are somewhere out there. Pray that they are safe.  Pray for the choices they will be making (especially those that can/will affect the health of the baby.)  Pray that God will give them (and really ALL of us) confirmation of the decision they are making.  Most of all please pray that this entire experience will be a testimony of God's sovereignty and faithfulness - this is our ultimate goal.

We cherish each and every one of you.  Thank you for being you, dear friends.

Much love,

Annie & KB