Great day!

We just got in from our parenting conference in Concord and it was great!  Well, 3 out of the 5 sessions were great.  The other 2 weren't horrible.  The information was good but the speaker was a bit of a snooze.  So we felt really great about the information that we picked up from this conference.

Today was also a great day because we registered at Babies R Us!  It was so much fun!  Completely overwhelming but still great!  We are making the move to become more eco-friendly so it was important for us (me mostly) to look for organic or otherwise eco-friendly products.  We are also leaning towards doing cloth diapers.  They have come such a long way from when I was a kid!  So I am very excited about learning all of these things!

And the last piece of awesomeness of the day was that we received our wall art to go over the crib!  We were looking for something to go above the crib and I asked a friend of mine if she had any ideas of what we could do as she's very gifted (she's getting her website up and running so soon you'll be able to check it out here!)  So we got our package yesterday and we got it put up today!  It is so amazing!  I almost started crying when we got it all put up and I sat on the bed looking at it.  She is an amazing artist & I can't thank her enough for helping us create the nursery for our baby!

The economy affects adoption too

We had recently sent in our application to ABBA fund that provides adoptive parents with a 0% interest loan for adoption expenses. In short they provide the money upfront for the pending tax credit and once the tax credit is received it is given back to the ABBA fund. Anyways, it seems that the economy has hit them too and currently they are not able to provide funds for any adoptions. They said that they would give us a call when everything is back up and running and they also made sure to tell us that if we get a placement to call them back and they would take our case back to the board in hopes of being able to help us out. So, we have felt a little defeated the last day or two. It seems that we are stuck on a treadmill--we are working really hard, just not getting anywhere. So we spent last night filling out grant applications in hopes to receive at least a little help with the remainder of the costs.

On the good side though (as there always has to be at least some silver lining), we completed our online courses through Adoption Learning Partners (http://www.adoptionlearningpartners.org/) and they were amazing. We took the Journey of Attachment, The Conspicuous Family (transracial adoptions), and Missing Pieces (dealing with the grief and loss associated with adoption). We really enjoyed them and felt like we learned alot plus they provide great lists of resources.

We are also attending a parenting conference this weekend in Concord, NC put on by Weaving Family Adoption Services and are excited to get away, even if its just for one night. We will definitely post what we've learned when we get back!

Oh and just in case you didn't see the note above, we have reduced the cost of our tshirts to $10!

Updates

So we've been a little slack about posting updates because we're basically just "waiting." However we do have some updates...

We sent our photobooks off to the agency---this is what the birthmothers will be looking at as they consider who they want to adopt their child. We also finished some online adoption courses as a requirement from our agency. These were very insightful and helped us gain even more wisdom to become the parents God wants us to be. AND...we are within weeks of being able to pay our placement bill (while is several thousand dollars)...God has truly blessed us and provided for us!

ALSO---IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PURCHASING T-SHIRTS FROM US please let us know...we have PLENTY of shirts we need to get rid of...we can even negotiate lowering the cost ($20)!

Until next time...

Let Me Sleep A Little Longer...

Last night I had a dream...it was the typical dream where not a whole lot makes sense, you know? Anyways, I was on my way home in the dream and Jamee had a surprise for me. When I arrived home, she was holding a baby girl in her arms...it was our adopted child. I went over to the child and could literally FEEL the emotions in my sleep flow through me...then I woke up.

I woke up wishing I could have slept just a little bit longer. I woke up wishing my dream were true...I know in good time it will be.

Updates: we have finished our photo album for our agency (though we have some editing and re-ordering to do). That's exciting! The birth-mothers will view this when they start looking at our agency. And Jamee and I are both back in school for the semester, so things are busy! I'm already looking deep into what I have to do this SUMMER...where has time gone! Man!

Until next time...