Day 20

Hi all! Matt and I are overwhelmed by your love and support that we have received! Honestly we are amazed by all the love and prayers we have received from all of you. I have to admit, we were very nervous about sharing our news. It was something that we prayed and prayed about hoping that God will give us the strength. It wasn't that we didn't think our friends and family would support us, it was just we were not sure what comments we would get or hear. I guess we were afraid, but we are honestly so amazed and thankful of all the love we have received, more than we could ever imagined.

Matt and I know this will not be an easy road. Right now we are just so overjoyed and excited that we are are getting a little one, but this could be a really long process with lots of what ifs which is scary. Honestly, Matt and I are just taking one day at time and trying not to get caught up in what might go wrong. There are many questions we have received from people we work with or people we have met that have been hard to answer. I guess I really don't know when someone says I cannot imagine giving up a child or I hope you have a calm birth mom so your baby doesn't cry all the time. Do you worry she will do drugs or use you to get medical bills paid? I wish I knew the "correct" way to react to this is, but I just try to respond the best I know how. I guess the biggest thing Matt and I have learned is that we are in no way in control of our lives. I hate to say that it took me 26 years to realize this, but has. God is in control! We are honestly just taking a huge leap of hope that it will all be okay that God will be with us every step of the way. We feel God lead us here, so I expect that he will protect us through it.

This past year has not been an easy one for us and it took us a while to get to the choice of adoption, but God put this in our hearts a long time ago. It just took us a while to listen. I am not sure if it will ever be easy to hear about people who have babies and are doing things they shouldn't like hiding a baby under a porch or letting their one year old roam the streets. I wonder why these people can have children but it is not my place to figure that out. I know throughout our child's life we will deal with issues that come up: questions about their parents, kids saying things to them about their background, and not being able to say that our child looks like us, Matt and I realize that it will not always be easy, but raising a child never is. We know our child will be lucky enough to be loved by two sets of parents. One that loved them enough to give them a better life and one that wished for a baby in their heart. I know God will protect us and guide us whatever happens.

Please pray for our birth mother and her child. We have not been priveledged enough to meet this remarkable woman, but I know God knows who she is and who our child is. Matt and I feel so excited this holiday season as we await the arrival of our child. We realize it could be months to a year, but whenever he or she arrives we will be so overjoyed as we know all of you will be too!

Hope you have a Merry Christmas! We wish you much love, joy, peace, and happiness in the new year!

Love you all

Day 15

Hi all!
Do you ever feel like you cannot catch up no matter how hard you try? Honestly, I have felt a little overwhelmed in every aspect of my life right now. Christmas is coming and I am NOT ready! We are finishing our last week of school before break and trying to help the kiddos make it through this week! Masters classes were ending, so I had finals this week. Then our adoption stuff too! WHEW...this week is almost over. I haven't really been able to focus yet on our adoption scrapbook, because of all of the above and I am really looking forward to just finally diving into it over break! Tons of ideas are swirling around in my head. My friend, Jess, gave me her book to look through which really helped me have a template! Yesterday, Matt and I had our first home study. We met our new social worker, Heather. She is really sweet and is around our age. We both felt really comfortable with her. Yesterday, we went over the LONG checklist of things we have to get done during our home studies. When I say long...I mean long! Just lots of background checks, CPS report, driving record, insurances, taxes, pay stubs, physical, etc. None of the paperwork was hard..just a lot of things to gather and collect and think about. Matt and I are so good though, we already have two things checked off the list...YEAH! We are so excited and really can't wait to meet our little one! Our next home study is Wednesday, December 30th. We will meet Heather at the agency. This will be the personal one, where we discuss our history, views of parenting, childcare, and what we want for our child. After that one, she will come to our home and be sure it is suitable for a child. When we left yesterday, we realized each appointment or each thing we complete gets us closer to our baby! Very exciting and a little nerve wrecking too. Our dear friend, Mia, who works for an advertising agency gave us our first real baby item. It was a case of formula that she was using for a project. Silly how exciting it is to get something "baby". We are hoping to get started on making the closet bigger and moving our laundry room, so our new little one has some where to put his or her clothes...so that means we will be contacting Adam or Matt in January...hopefully they will be willing! Well, I think that is it! I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas! Talk to you soon!

Day 5

Hi all! Matt and I are so excited to report our first home study is on December 16th. Kids First called to set it up. We spoke to Heather who will be our social worker as we go through this process. We will have three home studies total. Our second one will be at our home and then the third back at the agency. I think the first one we just talk about our application and review our application. WE are SUPER pumped. I am sure you can all tell how thrilled Matt and I are. Honestly my heart feels like it is going to burst. God is Good. We made our list of things to do before and after the home studies. It became a longer list the more we thought about it and I am sure we will add more too it as we go!

Also, we can finally say congrats to Aunt Leslie and Uncle Corey because we finally got to talk to them on the phone about the adoption process...we tried ichating but it just never seemed to work out. Thank you guys for all your support! Also I got to talk to my good friend Kate. She is so adorable and I cannot wait to talk mom talk with her.

We are so excited to go home this weekend to see everyone at Bushong Christmas. It will be the first time we see everyone since we broke out our big news! I cannot wait to see all my little cousins. I even get to watch little baby Scout this week. And, Matt and I are also baby sitting for little Lincoln on Friday. What a great week!

Love ya,
Janelle

Day 1 Officially

Hi all! Today is the first time I can say we are officially on Day 1. Tonight we had our adoption meeting at Kids First. We were so nervous and excited about getting there. We met in a conference room with other couples looking to adopt. It was an informational meeting where she explained the process to us. It was really scary and nerve wrecking and by the end of the meeting, Matt and I were overwhelmed and nervous about the finances of it. Something in my heart told me to stay after and I am really glad we did. We talked with Inna..she is adorable and is the director. She really made me feel at peace again, excited, not so overwhelmed. The whole time she was talking with us, I felt like she was an old friend and I knew God will somehow provide. We are taking a huge leap of faith and hope, but I know in my heart this is where we are suppose to be. Getting in the car, we felt like a new couple! We both looked at each other and said we are going to be parents. WOW! SO exciting! We prayed to God to help us with this process, send us a birth mom, and help us financially. To say that Matt and I are excited would be an understatement...we are so happy to be parents and cannot wait to meet our little one! So in other words...it was wonderful! We are starting our journey today, and she will be calling us tomorrow to set up a home study! Better get cracking on that scrapbook. She gave me lots of good ideas about that too.

Oh also, now you can add comments thanks to Eric Troyer! Thanks Eric! :)