A point of view

“We won’t post pics until the birth mom has given us permission to parent her child.”  So there, don't ask for them.  :)  And even once that happens, we won't be publicly posting hardly any, until finalization happens after 180 (minimum) days.  Which also means if you happen to have a picture of us, you can't post it either.  


With that being said...here is one point of view on open adoption in the blog world...


http://openadoptionbloggers.com/2012/04/12/virtually-speaking-respecting-open-adoptions/

Not that I agree 100% with everything said in this blog post, there are actually many comments after the blog post that give further information that is helpful too.  I encourage you to read the post and the comments that follow to gain a little bit of understanding as to where we are coming from.

Yes, we are excited for said child to be placed into our family if that is indeed what happens.  Are we preparing and doing all other things biological parents would do if they were due in a few weeks...yes, because I'm type A, organized and freakish about making sure everything is ready - not just about a baby, about life.  Freakish, I said.

We really just want people to understand where we are coming from and reasons behind it.  We love and respect this set of expectant parents that have chosen us to be the adoptive parents, if they continue with their adoption plan.  We want to honor them in this time.  We also need to bond with the child if we do get to parent this child, so posting pictures will be far from the top of our list of things to do.  With that bonding comes holding, feeding, diapering, singing to, reading to, cuddling, soothing, whispering to...ALL the things that we are so excited to do with a tiny little baby.  When you can't just have a baby on your own schedule, you long for it so much more and the "dirty" jobs like diapering and cleaning bottles, aren't chores, they are treasures, we look forward to them, because it means we have been entrusted to a precious little one.  So, if we don't let you hold the child...because 1. our agency won't let us for a period of time and 2. because maybe we feel like that time needs to be longer or 3. because we just want to hold him...it's not because we don't trust you.  It's because the child needs us, the child needs to know that we are his parents and we provide for him.  It's all about attachment.  I'm hoping to find a blog post about attachment to share.  So does that mean you should just stay away?  No, we like visitors!  We'd love to show him off and there's other jobs I could give you if you really wanted to do something. :)

Anyway, we pray right now that the baby's best interests will be taken into consideration and that will be done.  Whether that means we parent this child or whether that means the expectant parents decide to parent the child.  God's will.

Preparations

With the time drawing nearer, it was time to get more things ready for baby.  We decided Thursday afternoon that we would paint the boys room that night!  Spontaneous is the name of the game.  Maybe it wasn't the best day to do it, after a full week, but it wasn't going to happen over the weekend!  Jacob was very excited about painting!  He didn't quite understand why we couldn't paint IMMEDIATELY (because that's how a 3 year old think), but once we were set, he had a blast!  He was a bit concerned about his T-Rex in the morning, but we just told him that his T-Rex was camouflaged!  

I worked really hard Friday morning to put the room back together!  

Then, Friday night we had the opportunity to help out at the Show Hope booth at the Matthew West & Casting Crowns concert.  We were able to share our story adoption story with many people.  We were blessed to be able to participate at this event.  

Now, at the beginning of this new week, we have no extra activities scheduled - except maybe a family activity Saturday evening.  It feels great to look at the calendar with a sigh of relief!  Once May hits, I have several meetings a week, plus preparations for the end of the school year (preschool graduation, report cards, year end clean-up...), and a baby due & all the preparations still to come with that :).  Nate's schedule also picks up a bit.  Thankfully, we can face one day at a time - we never know what each day may bring that's not scheduled, but trusting in the Lord's plan!

A must read...

Please, do us and other adoptive families a favor and read the post dated April 16, 2012.  http://www.christianadoptionservices.blogspot.com/

I agree with all of the points and said, "YES!" many times!

So there you have it.

Please pray for our baby and his expectant parents.  With roughly 4 weeks to go, we ask for strength, knowledge, good health and God's protection over them.

One...

One year ago we decided to start adoption process number 2.  One month from today is the due date of the boy we hope to adopt!  I can't believe we have been "doing this" for a year already.

A day for Jacob

 With the impending changes ahead, we thought it would be fun for Jacob to have a day for him.  We had planned a trip to the Sioux Falls Zoo (Great Plains Zoo I think is it's real name).  If you have been following the weather for the mid-west, you know the forecast for today...catastrophic I believe was a word used to describe the forecast.  That is not a word I would like to hear.  So we debated about leaving town or not today.  We figured we could get up early, leave the house before 8 and arrive when the zoo opened that we would be able to be back home in time before any weather threat set in.   Also, at this point, I was very glad that we had not planned a trip to Omaha - which their weather seems to be a bit more severe than ours at the time being.

 We were able to go and have an enjoyable morning at the zoo.  I don't know if I have seen a peacock with it's wings spread before!  This bird was so beautiful!  It was quite the trick, good thing it wasn't a windy day, because it seemed like quite a feat to keep its balance.

 The petting zoo was fun, Jacob loved getting in the goats faces!

 Isn't this so sweet?!  :)

 Jacob testing out some rhino ears.

 Jacob found this "reptile" and quickly became 'friends' with it.  It was very sweet.  I love the stories that he creates.

 He was so excited to see the tigers!  He was so adamant telling two other boys (who were maybe 7-9 years old) how he was going to ride on a tiger.  I'm surprised these boys put up with his story!  

Checking out a T-Rex on the wall.  Pretty proud and excited!

 

And then, we saw the robotic T-Rex...NOT as excited.  He liked the first couple displays that we saw, but as we were approaching the T-Rex his grip definitely tightened on my hand, his knees buckled and he did not want to get near it!  Once we were in the car later he explained that he did not like the T-Rex because he was afraid it would eat him.  Even though he knows theropods eat herbivores.

But he liked the sauropods!  They were the "nice" dinosaurs who are "herbivores", so they wouldn't eat him. :)

 We had fun pretending to be paleontologists, brushing off the bones.

 We had a very exciting day!

It was good to go away and be back home at a good time too.  We are just getting some good rain showers right now (much needed might I add!)  We are praying for our family and friends who are located in areas that are PDS - "Particularly Dangerous Situation" areas.  The Lord is good.  

Baby update:  35 1/2 weeks.  Mom & baby are growing and healthy.  No signs of labor.  At this point things seem good.  We are continuing to prepare for baby.  Today Jacob said, "I'm lonely without my Simba".  (what he calls his baby)  "I can't wait for Simba, cause we'll ask him to be here and he'll have to come."  By the way, we are NOT naming our child Simba! :)  Jacob is calling him that, and may still continue?  Not sure.  We have not told him the potential name - no one knows except Nate and I, so you won't be able to drag it out of him...or us.  

We are also quite close to our financial commitment towards the adoption.  We have been truly blessed by the gifts we have received towards this child.  We knew this was God's plan for our family to grow through adoption, and when faced with the huge mountain of adoption expenses it seemed daunting.  But we knew God would provide.  We are seeing that, almost a year (April 16, 2011) after making the decision to adopt again His faithfulness continuing.  We feel honored that others are hearing God's calling in our lives to adopt and the financial burden being lifted.  Thank you!