Day 128

Hi there!
Matt and I have been enjoying spring so far. This week I was on spring break and I really needed a break. It felt so good just to be home and accomplish my to do list. I did some deep spring cleaning, organized closets, painted some furniture for the nursery, planted flowers, and of course worked on masters stuff. Matt Troyer finished our closet this week! It is awesome! So big and it is already filled. I got rid of a lot of clothes and shoes that I had not worn in a really long time!

My grandma finished our nursery bedding. It is BEAUTIFUL...I LOVE IT so much! I cannot wait for our little one to be in the crib. Inna, social worker at Kids First, emailed and told me that a birth mom called yesterday and wants to set up an appointment. She has had several appointments set up with other moms, but they end up not showing up, so I am praying that this is our mom and that she will show and talk with Inna. So please pray!!! As you can probably tell by my earlier post, I have been struggling with this whole waiting thing. It feels like time goes by so slow and that it will not happen. But this week, I feel hopeful again and refreshed. I think it was just the break from school (not that I don't love my job because I do), but it made me do a lot of praying and talking with friends and I feel so much better. It will happen I just have to be patient...so hard sometimes you know.

Matt and I really enjoyed going home for Easter. We were able to see my family and his in really one night and two days. It was a little busy, but it felt so good to see everyone. Easter at Matt's grandma's house was wonderful. The sun was out and it was warm. The little ones were hunting Easter eggs and the boys were playing baseball. It felt really nice to be with everyone and see all the adorable little ones enjoying Easter.

Liberty turned 3 on March 27, so of course we had a little treat for her. I cannot believe she has turned 3. When Matt and I moved into our home, she was this tiny little puppy. She is such a sweet little dog and she brings so much happiness to us. She will be a great big sister. She practices with little Oliver and Lincoln all the time. She gives lots of kisses and just sits by them while they play. Although, she is not sure if she wants them to touch her.

We will keep you in touch if hear anything about our little one. Pray that a birth mom comes in and talks with Inna! Love ya!

109

HI there! Sorry it has been so long...life has been a little crazy on our end. I guess lately I have felt that with school, masters, life, home, and hope for baby I am juggling a lot of balls right now. I am trying to not drop one but somedays it has hard. I feel exhausted most days and overworked. I have officially 6 weeks left of my masters and literally it is sucking the life out of me. Always so much to do...one thing is done another is piled on. I have lately felt really weak and having no strength. I want to read baby books and dream of baby's room, but then I can't because I have lesson plans to do, IEPs to write, 5 chapters in this class to read, 5 chapters and responses in the other class....just won't stop you know. But yesterday due to the gorgeous weather...I decided I needed a break.....

I went outside and cut away all the dead stuff in our flower beds. There is something so therapeutic about being outside and working on landscaping. It was so neat to see the little green plants that were under all that dead. It made me hopeful...that with spring brings new life. It makes me hopeful that maybe our baby is coming and that under all this pain, confusion, waiting...there is our baby ready to spring into our lives.

I have felt God talking to me lately. Some days are hard and I am tired of not knowing when our child is arriving and tired of waiting. I just want our nursery to have our little one there. I just want an answer of when. One morning.. I was crying and praying to God for strength to help get me through this because I was feeling so weak. It was crazy, but that day one of my friends, Theresa, brought in a card and baby book. She said she had been thinking about me and the card said that she was proud of my strength and that it must be hard to not know when our baby is coming. I was amazed because God did that. He knew I needed to hear it. It meant so much to me!

I know it hasn't been long since we put in our adoption paperwork, but some days are GREAT and I am feeling full of strength, excitement, where other days are hard. Please keep our birth mom, baby, Matt, and I in your prayers. I know God has his timing and our baby will come when it is suppose to. I know right now probably would be hard with the ending of my masters, but I just want an answer or clue of when. Thank you all for all your support again.

Matt and I are blessed to have some many people who love us! WE cannot ever thank you enough for all the gifts we have received and prayers! We love you all so much!

Love ya!

Day 81

Wow! It has been a little while since I have written you all. Things are good on our our end. Actually more than good. We are blessed beyond belief. Since writing our letter to family and friends, we have raised 2,000. Matt and I are shocked at the amount of love and support we have received. We will never ever be able to thank you all enough. WE are so appreciative of the prayers we are receiving too. Every day someone comes up to us or emails us to say we are praying for you and hopefully your baby will be home soon. That means the world to us. Each night and through out the day, we pray that God will be with our birth mom and baby. It amazes me that God knows who this person is and knows our child already. How awesome is He? What an amazing love He has for us? I am in complete awe.

I am loving getting ready for our baby. Some days are hard for me because I am tired of waiting. I am tired of wondering when I will be a mom. I am so excited to be a mom. My mom and dad helped us out in a huge way and bought us a crib. It was so cute seeing Matt put it together. He was SO excited and it truly melted my heart. He said he couldn't wait to get home that day from work to put it together. He told me not to come up until it was all put together. He ended up needing my help, but I am glad he did because us working on putting the crib together was an awesome thing. It was neat to just take a step back and see how committed we are to this little one. It didn't take us long. We then rearranged the nursery (oh the nursery I LOVE saying that word) I never thought I would be able to say that...oh it melts me! We still have to get decorating things, but I was kinda hoping to wait until I know if we are going to be given a boy or girl. There is a deep part of me that really wants a girl...after all I am such a girlie girl, but I know a little boy will melt my heart as well.

I also found a great deal on a rug. Natalie, Mia, and I spent a day together for Natalie's birthday. We went to Anthropologie. I found a rug that was originally 348 for 69 dollars. This rug and I were meant to be. So cute...it is all colors and has pom pom yarn balls on it. So adorable.

Now walking by the nursery (giggle) makes my heart race with excitement. Oh I cannot wait to have a baby and have a baby sleeping in that room. Sometimes I go in there and sit down in the middle of the floor and just pray. Pray that it will be soon. That God is protecting our child. That the birth mom will go on to lead an amazing life and know that she gave her child to a family that loves and adores them. I love to just sit in there and just dream of what I want for our child and think about memories that will happen with our baby. I know it might sound corny, but sitting in that room gives me huge peace and joy. I know God is there with me! I can feel him! Please God bring baby spencer home soon! Please!

I cannot wait to see Matt has a dad. Today we helped out in the church nursery. We had 8 little ones with us under 2. He was adorable with the kids. I found myself just watching him interact with the kids. It made me so excited for what is yet to come. How lucky I am to have him in my life. He is such a wonderful, loving husband. He truly puts my needs before his own and seeing him set up that crib made me realize how truly excited he is for our baby. It makes me smile just thinking about him as a dad. He will be awesome!

I am attaching some photos of the crib. Matt's official helper (Gypsy), rug, bassinet Matt finished painting, and our hope bear that my friend Kate gave us in the crib, and an adorable light switch cover I got. It is not truly set up yet, because well it is not finished...but we are making progress.

Love always,
Janelle

Day 62

God is good! Matt and I have been trying to figure out how to finance the last 4,000 for our adoption if we don't get these grants. After much prayer and deliberation about whether we should call on our family and friends for support, we decided that God would rather us ask for support then drown in worry. We are so thankful God lead us here to this point. Although, it is extremely humbling to ask for support, we are so thankful that we did. Today we received two checks in the mail! What a huge blessing! We are so thankful! Thank you so much for helping us bring our child home. We can never thank you enough! What a huge blessing you are in our life. Thank you for your generosity. God will provide and we just have to be patient and continue to be faithful! Thank you all for all your prayer, encouraging words, and all the support we have received. Our baby is going to be so blessed to be surrounded by people who love and adore him or her! Happy Monday!!

Day 61

Hi there
So exciting! We painted the nursery on Saturday. It is a really light gray color. My fabric swatches came so I can order fabric. My Grandma Bushong is making the crib bedding! I am so excited. She is so sweet and is very excited about it. Here are some pictures of the fabric and room.

The animal print is the crib bumper and the reverse side is the dark grey with white polka dots.

The white soft fabric is the crib sheet. The white and yellow stripe fabric is going to be the crib skirt.

I really like the fabric and color of the room. It is all coming together!

Day 59

HI there
Matt and I are overwhelmed with the support we are getting from our family and friends that we sent out. I cannot begin to thank everyone enough! Wow! We feel so loved and we cannot wait to share our baby with you! Thank you Thank you Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! We can never repay any of you for all your generous support!


Matt and I are coming to you all with very humble hearts tonight. We are so excited to be adopting our child. Honestly, I am smiling just typing this. We are struggling to find the last bit of funds we need to bring our baby home. A birth mom has not selected us yet, but we need to be prepared for when she does. We are waiting to hear back from some grants, but we are unsure if we will get them. We are coming to you all because we love you and we trust you all so much. Our pastor, who adopted a baby last winter, encouraged us to call on the support of our family and friends to help us with our struggle. It is not an easy thing for Matt and I to ask for. We have prayed and prayed about this. I really hope we don't offend anyone by asking for support and if you cannot help us, really we understand. If you know of anyone who might be able to please feel free to forward our attached letter to them. Thank you all for all you do! We love you with all our hearts.

Dear Family and Friends,

Matt and I feel so blessed to be on our journey of adoption. We cannot begin to thank you enough for all the support and love we have received from all of you. We feel that this is the path that God has lead us to and He knew this was our path from the start. We have completed our adoption paperwork and home studies, and we are now officially waiting for a birth mom to select us. We are in awe of God's plan and how natural each step feels as we get closer to bringing our child home.

As we are preparing our home and hearts for our child, we get more excited each day as we realize our child is coming! Adopting a child is a very expensive process. Adopting our child will cost 15, 000 to 17,000 dollars. We have been saving and trying to find financial support anywhere we can. Since we don’t know how soon our little one will join our home, we need to be prepared for the final adoption cost. Matt and I would appreciate any support you could give us to help us bring our baby home.

Again, we are so thankful for all the support and blessings we have received from all of you. If you feel compelled to help us, we would really appreciate the support. We love you all so much!

God Bless you,
Matt and Janelle

Day 51 :)

Hi there
I am SUPER excited today! Today we had no school because of freezing rain, and Matt had a half day today. It was really nice to spend quality time together. We went to Noblesville to look for an antique dresser for the nursery. I want to use it as a changing table! You are never going to believe it....but we found the exact thing I had thought of in my head. I told Matt I wanted it to be painted white. We found it! :) I cannot believe it. We were both so excited because it was our first real purchase for the nursery! It is more of an off white, and it has pink handles....does this mean we are having a girl? If not, don't worry I will change the handles so my son isn't scarred for life! Anyways I am so happy! It was a great day with my hubby!