A long time coming...

***I started this post a long time ago. Liam is now 14 months old and I am now 8 months pregnant. WHAT?! But the sentiments are still the same. So I thought I would share it. We are now nearing the one year anniversary of Liam's adoption and my Facebook memories have been filled with pictures of Liam. It was also three years ago (yesterday) that we shared the journey that God called us to. November is National Adoption Month. Many people told me through our journey that they thought God could be calling them to adopt, DO IT!! Our lives are deeper and richer and just more because of the experiences and people that we met through it.***


So it has been about a year since I last blogged. A YEAR! After meeting our birth mom and accepting the match, things just got so... much... I don't know how to put it. Looking back on that time it was a time of deep faith. I didn't necessarily "feel" God's presence during that time, in fact it seemed like I didn't feel Him at all at times. Now that I have gained some distance from it, I can see His hands all over it.

We made the decision to be less verbal on the internet about what was going on because there are just so many people involved in a situation like this. Add that to the smallness of our community, and it felt like everyone was involved in some way or another. Our goal has always been to be respectful and loving towards Liam's birth family. Not only because we are aware that they are hurting each in their own way, but because we love Liam and they are forever a part of him. How could we be anything less that loving and grateful?

I decided to "break the silence" because of my original purpose in starting this blog. I wanted to share our experience with others who are traveling this journey. Each journey is different and unique to it's own situation, but it is helpful to know what others experienced. Adoption is the most ugly-beautiful thing I have ever experienced in my life. I read an adoption blog (actually I scoured the internet for them and devoured them as soon as I found them) that was written by a birth mother. The blog is called The Happiest Sad. She is a birth mother and shed so much insight into adoption from a point of view that I have no reference on. It was so helpful to me.

The adoption itself was really very smooth. With the exception of waiting on court dates, which is unavoidable, it went pretty quickly too all things considered. Liam's birth parents both relinquished rights on October 1st, Liam's one month birthday. It was a bittersweet moment. We finalized his adoption on November 20th, which also happens to be National Adoption Day. It was such an amazing experience. The DHW put on an even at the courthouse to celebrate all of the adoptions taking place that day. It was an amazing thing to sit in a room with other adoptive families and just marvel at the relationships that were being legally recognized that day. That evening we had a drop in celebration at our house to celebrate the day and even Liam's birth mom came! It really wouldn't have been the same without her!

So where are we now? Now, we are in a new home (a whole other blog post... or seven), settling into our family of 5. AND LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT! Even the parts that aren't so glamorous. Liam is such a precious addition to our family, it is like he has always been here. Ava and Ryan are completely smitten with him, as are his many cousins! He doesn't go a day without kisses from everyone, it's no wonder he started giving them so early. He is seven months old now (WHAT?!) and such a happy baby! He is such a good baby that I tell Jayson that he makes me want to have a couple more :). Jayson doesn't find me very funny!

It is always amusing how when we are out with the kids people will comment about how much Liam looks like me and how nice it must be to finally have a kid who looks like me since the older two take after their dad. We just smile and agree! People have said that his birth momma and I look alike, apparently that came in handy! I think the truly shocking thing is that Liam has blue eyes like me and his brother and sister. His birth parents have green and brown eyes. It's funny how things work out.

Sweet Liam

God is good. I am reminded over and over of His goodness as we travel this journey.

 

On Tuesday I went home from work early because I was sick. I knew that our birth mom would be finding out the gender of the baby this week, but I didn't realize it was that day. She texted to see if she could drop something off, of course we said yes!

 

She brought over some sweet pictures of our new little man! It is so uncommon to have these little treasures in adoption, but we get to see them and experience this part of the journey.

 

 Have I mentioned that God is good?

 

He is.

 

Here is sweet Liam's face. It looks like he is wearing a hoodie and you can see his nose, lips, and chin poking out.
Jayson thinks he looks like a Sith Lord :/.

Here is his profile and spine. These shots always bring to mind David's Psalm about how fearfully and wonderfully made we are.

Match Maker, Match Maker, Make Me a Match!

We have been waiting one and a half years to write this post...

 

WE HAVE OFFICIALLY BEEN MATCHED!!

 

We are very excited about this opportunity and feel that God has had His hand in the details.

That being said, we aren't sharing many of the details :).

 We want to respect the privacy of all involved.

 

We are also aware that this is not set in stone and we have some time before the baby is due. A lot can happen during that time. We are praying that God prepares our hearts for any outcome.

 

We have made the decision to share it with everyone because we believe in the power of prayer. We are asking you, our beautiful community of loved ones, to pray for us and for the birth family.

Ways to Pray:

1. Pray that we have wisdom when we need it.
2. Pray for Ava and Ryan who know about the match, but know that things can change. We decided to share this with them because we believe it is an opportunity to teach them how to depend on God especially in the unknown and vulnerable.
3. Pray for the birth family and the relationships we will have with them.
4. Pray that through all of it, God would be glorified.

Thank you all for your love and support. Our hearts and lives have been blessed by all of you immeasurably!

Lord of the Rings

So I have found that either you love Lord of the Rings, or you have not seen it. There really doesn't seem to be any middle ground here. Which makes sense.

We love it.

It's how we kick off summer every year. Starting on the last day of school we start our marathon. We used to watch one whole movie (extended versions of course) a night. So it took us 3 nights to get through. But then we got older and so we started watching one half of a movie every night which then of course made the marathon 6 nights. But then they made The Hobbit movies and we have to add those in so this year our marathon will be 9 nights, or possibly 12 depending on if we can get through a whole movie a night! I am so excited I can hardly stand myself!

We have 8 more weeks of school. Or in other words, 8 more weeks until our marathon!

I may be a nerd. But that's ok. Because I married someone who is just as much of a nerd as I am. :)

Hike to Table Rock

We took a group of teens from our youth group up Table Rock this morning! So much fun!!

Spring Break!

One of the things I love most about my job, is Spring Break! I love that I get to be home for a week and regroup before the big push at the end of the year. This year my plans are pretty laid back.

 

I want to work in my flower beds some. I am not a great gardener, but I at least like the front to look nice. I try to pick things that are low key and easy to keep up with.

 

I also want to run every morning of spring break. I have another 5k coming up and I have been slacking lately so I need to get it in gear! I think this year I am going to do a couple of 5ks. One in the next couple of months and one at the end of summer.

 

We are also planning on going to the zoo a couple different times during break. I think I have mentioned before how much we love the zoo. :) If I could have any animal as a pet, it would be a monkey. I love monkeys. Jayson won't let me though! My dad had a monkey growing up named Stumpy. He liked to eat cigarettes. The monkey, not my dad :).

 

I am also hoping to get a little more caught up on house work and that chore-which-must-not-be-named.

 

And I want to quilt some more. I am working on a quilt right now and it is coming along nicely. I am excited to see what it looks like when it is all done. I am making this one as a gift so it is a little more stressful. I am hoping that the person I give it to doesn't quilt, lol. That way they won't see all of the flaws :).

 

After spring break, it's eight more weeks until summer break! Who could feel bad about that?! Not me!

Ryan Turns 4!

When we went in for Ryan's ultrasound, we agreed we would wait to find out the gender until he was born. Turns out, Ryan had his own plans. When the doctor put that thing on my stomach, the first thing that showed up on the screen was his "gender". And pretty much that's all we saw through the whole ultrasound. We almost had to reschedule the appointment because the doctor was having a hard time getting all of the measurements she needed because he kept flipping around and showing us "that".

 

We should have known right then and there how strong willed that boy is! When he wants something, by golly he wants it right now! I think that this will benefit him when he is an adult. He will know what he wants and go for it!

 

This trait has carried over into his fourth year even. We had planned on going to the zoo on Saturday to celebrate his birthday. The forecast all week said that Saturday would be sunny and 70*. Sunday was supposed to be cool and rainy. So imagine our surprise when we woke up Saturday morning to RAIN. Lots and lots of rain. We tried to talk Ryan out of the zoo and suggested we move the party somewhere else. But he insisted "I wike duh zoo in duh wain." (aka "I like the zoo in the rain")

 

So we loaded up in coats and hoods and rain boots and headed to the zoo! It actually turned out nice! It rained almost the whole time we were there but the animals were all out. And there were lots of puddles to jump in! And who doesn't love to jump in a good puddle?! Ryan loves it! So we let him jump to his heart's content, it was his birthday after all. In our family, birthdays are kind of like a "get out of jail free" card. You can eat whatever, do (almost) whatever, and stay up late!

 

Here is a picture of the birthday boy with his Spiderman cake.

 

 

Me and the birthday boy! Please excuse the bangs, it was raining and it couldn't be helped.

 

I would like to say I got a ton of pictures but we were having so much fun, I didn't get many :/.

 

We are all quite happy that "zoo season" is back! We already have our next two trips in the works!

 

Happy birthday sweet boy!