Dreams

All my life, I can remember having dreams about being pregnant. Strange dreams, like I delivered my baby in the hallway between the cafeteria and the band room at my High School during school hours, but I wasn't a student. I dreamed my Sister's baby came out looking like the Asian guy with the fuzzy hair from the 40 Year Old Virgin. I've often had dreams where I knew that the baby I was holding was conceived and delivered by me. Last week for the first time ever, I was holding a baby in my dream. We had been placed with the child, and the Birth Mother of this child signed the permanent surrender forms and the baby was ours. The funny part was, that all I was worried about was the fact that our paperwork wasn't completed, and if they found out, we couldn't have the baby. I remember saying over and over in the dream, "But our paperwork isn't done yet"!!!

It wasn't sad, it kind of made me chuckle, simply because our paperwork ISN'T done yet! I just wonder if, in real life, when I'm in that situation, will I care if my paperwork is done or not???

YARD SALE!!!

We have the best family and friends. They donated their unwanted stuff for us to sell, with all proceeds going to our adoption fund. As you can see, (and seriously this picture doesn't do it justice!) we had A LOT OF STUFF!!!! This picture was taken before everything was sorted and priced. It was humbling to us that so many people took the time to collect their things, and help us out. They gave us some really great things too. My mother in-law, sister's in-law, Mother and myself spent hours Friday sorting and pricing. Even though it was raining first thing Saturday morning, we got up, set up some tents, and hoped for the best. We can't thank our parents, Mel and Wayne, and Heather enough for giving up their Saturday to help us run the sale. Not to mention thanks to Marz and Rick, Adam and Heidi, and Adam and Melissa for all the stuff they donated.

Kayleigh was there, looking cute and making us smile!

Wayne and Callie were trying out the goods to make sure they were suitable to sell!

Our awesome friends, Jack and Katie, who donated many things for the sale, came out to show their support! That's them on the right. See, I told you, we have the greatest friends!

This is Donna and Melanie. Donna generously donated many things, and also stopped by and scored some cool stuff!

So people came from 8 a.m. on, and even the 1 time it rained, their were still people showing up. It was truly a God thing, that the rain held off, and we sold a ton of stuff. I don't know the exact figure, but it was more than we could have ever imagined. AND we still have a garage full of stuff so there will be another sale in a couple weeks. God is so good, and he really is leading us on this journey. People were so supportive, wishing us well, and some even gave us an extra donation for the cause. Amazing. Complete strangers. Caring. For. Us. Amazing.

This picture pretty much sums up the day. We were all exhausted, but Kayleigh was the only one lucky enough to sneak in a few naps!

Thank you to everyone that donated stuff and money, gave their time to help sell, and for the many people that came and bought our stuff. Last but not least, thank you to God for such a humbling experience. We are so blessed.

Philippians 4:19

And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

The Sweetest Thing

Saturday we attended a Baby Care Basics class at our adoption agency. It was a great way to "allow" us to get excited about taking care of our own baby. They taught us about attachment parenting, which is crucial in adoption to help your newborn learn that you are their "favorite face". How can a newborn, who has spent 9 months in a different woman's womb, hearing HER rhythm, knowing HER voice, understand that YOU are the one they can trust to feed them and love them and provide for them?

Well, starting with a loving, caring Daddy like this could help .......

It was SO SWEET!

I was so in love with my "Daddy-to-be" as he nurtured and loved on our "baby" during class. He did such a great job diapering, bathing, and swaddling the doll, and he's going to kill me if he ever reads this!!! This was the only picture I got, and he was so embarrassed I even took this one! He'll get over it!

It was awesome for us to experience this type of class with other adoptive parents. They understand where we are. The teacher of the class is a 2 time adoptive parent herself. It was a great experience and I'm so glad we got the opportunity to go!

Expect the Unexpected

That's my new favorite saying. I'm pretty sure it's the only way we're going to survive the adoption roller coaster. Expect the unexpected.

I checked my email this evening, like I do 800 times a day. This time I found an email from AC (adoption circle) informing us of possible adoption situations. Completely unexpected. Not that we are anywhere close to being ready to show our profile, but it gave me hope that there really are situations available. So there was not only 1 situation, but 2. 2 in the same day. One day, we will get those email, and actually be in the position to respond with whether or not we are interested. Crazy.

I've made it known that we are not focusing on the day that we become someone's mommy and daddy. We are focused on the daily tasks at hand; working hard, making money to pay for the adoption, doing homestudy paperwork, and completing a profile. When that's all done, and only when we're approved and waiting, will we be able to focus on that day our miracle is born. Until then, we will go with the flow, and pray for the situations that we read about in the email.

Expect the unexpected.

Busy Weekend

I spoke with the Asst. Director of G. of P. and she's sending our homestudy paperwork. She seems very helpful, and even said she's going to make the process as simple as possible. We'll see. We already have a thick stack of papers that we have to complete for AC's part of the homestudy review, or whatever you wanna call it. However, I think the thing that is worrying me the most is the fact that we have to have a final draft of our profile and birthmother letter by July 14th! YIKES! Creativity is not my strong point!

Today I spent the day with Heidi and Jake, watching the little cutie so his Mommy could pack for their beach vacation! Lucky ducks! Tomorrow my sister and I will be going to a bridal shower, graduation party, and grocery shopping. Then Justin and I will be meeting up with our friends Jack and Katie to watch the Pen's game. Sunday will be church, Justin's softball game, then birthday celebrations for Melanie (sister in-law) and Adam (brother in-law). Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it all!

AND just because I think posts without any pictures are boring, here's one taken at Tappan Lake last summer, for good measure!

Anticipation

On Friday, I received the OK from Adoption Circle (AC) to start our home study, which is awesome because we originally thought we would have to wait until after our next training session with AC on July 14th! Whew!

Since AC is in OH., we have to use a PA agency for the home study. We are hoping to use Genesis of Pittsburgh for that. I'm waiting this morning for the Asst. Director at G. of P. to get into the office so I can bombard her with my many questions and get this ball rolling. I might go nuts between now and 10:30 when she is supposed to be in the office!

Instead of driving myself crazy in anticipation....I'll try to divert my thoughts to what has been bringing me the most joy over the last 2 months! My Niece and Nephew!

Kayleigh (left) and Jake (right)