Just think: Our baby could be growing in someone's tummy right now! Isn't that just mind-blowing? Our baby could be opening and closing her eyes, or even sucking on her little fingers! He might be the size of a grapefruit, tennis ball, or some other weird non-human analogy that pregnancy books use to help us understand what we can't see.
I just think this is the coolest thing ever.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Pushing Boundaries
Here is something that Jonathan and I have found to be a bit ironic. The road that leads people to adoption can be deeply personal, sometimes even painful. But then, to make domestic adoption a reality, you must make your plan very, very PUBLIC. That has been a difficult shift for me to make!
We have been told over and over again by our agency, lawyer, and many adoption books that it is very important to engage in some sort of "outreach." This means letting the general population know WE WANT A BABY! Outreach can include anything from telling friends and family that you are hoping to adopt, to flying a banner over spring breakers in Fort Lauderdale. Our counselor said "Decide what you are comfortable with, and then push yourself a little bit further."
One of the things we decided to do was create adoption flyers. Here are what they look like:
Our plan is to hang these anywhere and everywhere! So far, we have papered the town of Farmington and the college campuses of St. Olaf and Gustavus. I thought that hanging flyers would be easy-peasy. Definitely not edgy or boundary-pushing for us.
Well, turns out it's HARD! Every time I talk to a store clerk or someone at a college residence hall, my heart beats fast, my palms get sweaty, and I have to give myself a little pep talk. It's silly, but I feel like I'm baring a little bit of my soul to these strangers. Overall, the reactions we have gotten from people have been very positive, so I'm getting more and more confident each time. That, and I've been telling myself to stop being such a little wuss! =)
We have been told over and over again by our agency, lawyer, and many adoption books that it is very important to engage in some sort of "outreach." This means letting the general population know WE WANT A BABY! Outreach can include anything from telling friends and family that you are hoping to adopt, to flying a banner over spring breakers in Fort Lauderdale. Our counselor said "Decide what you are comfortable with, and then push yourself a little bit further."
One of the things we decided to do was create adoption flyers. Here are what they look like:
Our plan is to hang these anywhere and everywhere! So far, we have papered the town of Farmington and the college campuses of St. Olaf and Gustavus. I thought that hanging flyers would be easy-peasy. Definitely not edgy or boundary-pushing for us.
Well, turns out it's HARD! Every time I talk to a store clerk or someone at a college residence hall, my heart beats fast, my palms get sweaty, and I have to give myself a little pep talk. It's silly, but I feel like I'm baring a little bit of my soul to these strangers. Overall, the reactions we have gotten from people have been very positive, so I'm getting more and more confident each time. That, and I've been telling myself to stop being such a little wuss! =)
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Leave No Ball Behind
Spring has sprung and Cody is in seventh heaven! The snow at the dog park is melting to reveal hundreds and hundreds of TENNIS BALLS! (And piles of poop, but nobody wants to hear about that.)
The following pictures were taken with my phone at the park today. Cody gathered all of these balls one by one as we walked around the path. At no point did I touch any of them... he did it all on his own. How does he carry them, you ask? In his mouth, of course. And believe it or not, he fits them all in there AT THE SAME TIME!
(Yes, he actually carried four balls in his mouth at the same time today. Well, three whole balls and one broken one. Talk about talent!)
YAY SPRING!!!
The following pictures were taken with my phone at the park today. Cody gathered all of these balls one by one as we walked around the path. At no point did I touch any of them... he did it all on his own. How does he carry them, you ask? In his mouth, of course. And believe it or not, he fits them all in there AT THE SAME TIME!
(Yes, he actually carried four balls in his mouth at the same time today. Well, three whole balls and one broken one. Talk about talent!)
YAY SPRING!!!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
I can breathe now
Remember how I said I was going to have mini heart attacks every time my phone rang? Well, a few things have happened that are helping me get over that!
One. A few Fridays ago, our agency posted a text-only version of our birth parent letter on their website. It is accessible to anyone who visits their website and clicks on the "Choose A Family" link. That was a big deal to us, because it meant our info was really and truly OUT THERE! For anybody and their brother to see.
Jonathan woke me up the next morning by shaking our laptop in my face. "Look at this!" I groaned and said "What is it? I don't have my glasses on." He told me I would most definitely want to put them on. I remember thinking that it better be pretty good and not just some mediocre YouTube video of someone dancing around with a light sabre.
Well. Turns out that it was worth putting my glasses on. In our adoption e-mail box, we had a new message from a girl who had seen our profile. Among other things, she said "I want to give you my baby."
WHAT? WHAT?! WHAT?!?!?!
A trillion things went through my mind, but mostly... what do I do NOW? I went to all the trainings, listened intently, took notes. But now that it's actually happening... I've forgotten everything! What's the next step? Anyway, to make a long story medium-lengthed, it turns out that this person was either trying to scam us or was not the right situation for us. The next e-mail I received from her said that her daughter was "not small" and they've been living in an apartment and have run into financial difficulties. She even said her daughter has brown hair and brown eyes and "is very sweet." She ended the e-mail with "Think about it. I'll pray for you."
So. Either it was a scam (as our adoptive counselor suggested) or she has an older child that she is looking to place for adoption. Either way, not for us. This was okay, because I was a little hesitant from the minute I read the first e-mail... something didn't seem quite right. She didn't sign it, there were only a few sentences with no details about anything, etc. My hopes were not shattered or anything of the sort.
Two. A few days after that, our special adoption phone rang! We have two numbers that are dedicated to adoption stuff, one is a local number and one is a toll-free number. They are both routed to my cell phone so that I don't have to carry around two phones. We assigned a different ring tone to the adoption numbers, and I most definitely heard that ring coming from my pocket while I was at work the other day. Since I was with the kids at the time, I couldn't answer it. It was all I could think about until I could check my voicemail later that day.
Turns out, it was a wrong number. =)
So- those are the two reasons why I no longer have panic attacks when my phone rings these days. It's funny how things work out the way they do, because I never would've thought to HOPE for a scam and a wrong number right off the bat. However, it was probably the best thing that could have happened, because I am now (a little) more relaxed and feel more prepared for when we get the real call! Just goes to show that God knows what I need even when I don't.
One. A few Fridays ago, our agency posted a text-only version of our birth parent letter on their website. It is accessible to anyone who visits their website and clicks on the "Choose A Family" link. That was a big deal to us, because it meant our info was really and truly OUT THERE! For anybody and their brother to see.
Jonathan woke me up the next morning by shaking our laptop in my face. "Look at this!" I groaned and said "What is it? I don't have my glasses on." He told me I would most definitely want to put them on. I remember thinking that it better be pretty good and not just some mediocre YouTube video of someone dancing around with a light sabre.
Well. Turns out that it was worth putting my glasses on. In our adoption e-mail box, we had a new message from a girl who had seen our profile. Among other things, she said "I want to give you my baby."
WHAT? WHAT?! WHAT?!?!?!
A trillion things went through my mind, but mostly... what do I do NOW? I went to all the trainings, listened intently, took notes. But now that it's actually happening... I've forgotten everything! What's the next step? Anyway, to make a long story medium-lengthed, it turns out that this person was either trying to scam us or was not the right situation for us. The next e-mail I received from her said that her daughter was "not small" and they've been living in an apartment and have run into financial difficulties. She even said her daughter has brown hair and brown eyes and "is very sweet." She ended the e-mail with "Think about it. I'll pray for you."
So. Either it was a scam (as our adoptive counselor suggested) or she has an older child that she is looking to place for adoption. Either way, not for us. This was okay, because I was a little hesitant from the minute I read the first e-mail... something didn't seem quite right. She didn't sign it, there were only a few sentences with no details about anything, etc. My hopes were not shattered or anything of the sort.
Two. A few days after that, our special adoption phone rang! We have two numbers that are dedicated to adoption stuff, one is a local number and one is a toll-free number. They are both routed to my cell phone so that I don't have to carry around two phones. We assigned a different ring tone to the adoption numbers, and I most definitely heard that ring coming from my pocket while I was at work the other day. Since I was with the kids at the time, I couldn't answer it. It was all I could think about until I could check my voicemail later that day.
Turns out, it was a wrong number. =)
So- those are the two reasons why I no longer have panic attacks when my phone rings these days. It's funny how things work out the way they do, because I never would've thought to HOPE for a scam and a wrong number right off the bat. However, it was probably the best thing that could have happened, because I am now (a little) more relaxed and feel more prepared for when we get the real call! Just goes to show that God knows what I need even when I don't.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Seriously. Try this.
When you find that you have too much on your plate and there's no way you can get everything done, there's only one thing to do:
Play this game.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~pontipak/redsquare.html
Below is a description of the game. The Air Force fact may or may not be true, but it's fun anyway!
Play this game.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~pontipak/redsquare.html
Below is a description of the game. The Air Force fact may or may not be true, but it's fun anyway!
How are your reflexes?
The object of the game is to move the red block around without getting hit by the blue blocks or touching the black walls. If you can go longer than 18 seconds, you are phenomenal. It's been said that the US Air Force uses this for fighter pilots. They are expected to go for at least 2 minutes. |
Sunday, March 7, 2010
The Friendly FedEx Man
As you all know, we are... (drumroll please)... "In the Book!" The birth parent letter we designed to go into the waiting families book is on a double-sided 11x17 piece of paper. This is much too complicated and much too important to do on our little printer at home, so I headed to FedEx Kinkos.
When I gave the man behind the counter our jump drive, I directed him to the correct document which was in a folder labeled "Adoption." He went to warm up the printer and came back to chat. "So," he said. "What made you want to adopt? Have you always just felt it in here?" He patted his heart.
I had to smile, because he seemed so earnest and had no clue that this is a very personal question that one probably shouldn't ask a stranger! A million thoughts went through my head during that split second. Do I explain about my infertility? Do I really want to say the word "uterus" out loud to a man I've never met? But if I say "That's how we plan to build our family," it sounds so vague and evasive...
So I said "I'm not able to get pregnant, so adoption is the way that we're going to build our family." Too much information? Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not sure.
PS- Because the copier wasn't working and I had to stand there for 55 minutes, he and I went on to have a very in-depth conversation about adoption. When I left my jump drive there and had to go pick it up a few hours later, it was sitting behind the counter with a note attached to it: "Jonathan and Becky, parents to be!" It was a strange, but nice encounter with a strange, but nice man. =)
When I gave the man behind the counter our jump drive, I directed him to the correct document which was in a folder labeled "Adoption." He went to warm up the printer and came back to chat. "So," he said. "What made you want to adopt? Have you always just felt it in here?" He patted his heart.
I had to smile, because he seemed so earnest and had no clue that this is a very personal question that one probably shouldn't ask a stranger! A million thoughts went through my head during that split second. Do I explain about my infertility? Do I really want to say the word "uterus" out loud to a man I've never met? But if I say "That's how we plan to build our family," it sounds so vague and evasive...
So I said "I'm not able to get pregnant, so adoption is the way that we're going to build our family." Too much information? Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not sure.
PS- Because the copier wasn't working and I had to stand there for 55 minutes, he and I went on to have a very in-depth conversation about adoption. When I left my jump drive there and had to go pick it up a few hours later, it was sitting behind the counter with a note attached to it: "Jonathan and Becky, parents to be!" It was a strange, but nice encounter with a strange, but nice man. =)
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
It's Official
We received this letter in the mail on Tuesday:
Oh my gosh! This means that I'm going to have a heart attack every time the phone rings because it could be somebody telling us to pick up our baby from the hospital! Or it could be the birthmother of our future child, calling to see if we're the right family for her! Or, it could be a telemarketer trying to get me to increase my credit limit.
Perhaps I'm going to need to learn some relaxation techniques.
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