A few weeks ago our social worker asked if we would be interested in helping to pilot a new program that the agency is considering using with all of their adoptive families. We watched two online tutorials that were basically about networking and advertising yourself as a hopeful adoptive family. One of the suggestions was to create a website since today's expectant parents are likely so tech savvy. So... Here it is!
www.sean-and-heather.com
We would greatly appreciate you sharing our website with anyone you know. The more it gets out there, the more opportunity for it to be viewed by someone who knows someone who is considering making an adoption plan for their baby.
Thanks!
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Birthday Cake
Last Monday, July 18, was my 29th birthday. I'm not much of a party person, but I did ask Sean to get me an ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins. He said that after I asked him to get the cake, he was thinking all day about having them write some nice words on the top and wondering what he would have it say. He went to BR, bought the cake, and came home with this...
So clever. He always knows how to put a smile on my face. :)
So clever. He always knows how to put a smile on my face. :)
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Highly Recommended
This book was given to me by a dear friend when we submitted our profile last year. The author talks about how we are all adopted into God's family and how everyone can take part in caring for the fatherless in the world as well as his own experience as an adoptive father. One of my favorite bits of wisdom from this book is that "adoption is a past tense verb", not an adjective. In other words, the word "adopted" refers to how a child joined a family, it does not describe who he/she is.
I would recommend this book to anyone, not just those considering adoption as a way of building their family.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
"Any day" means ANY day
Most of you who will actually read this probably already know what has (and hasn't) been going on lately, but seeing as I haven't posted anything in three months, I thought an update is well past due.
For the past four months, whenever anyone asks about the adoption process, my response is usually something like, "We could get a call any day now," meaning that maybe the agency would call us to set up a match meeting with a birth mother who liked our profile and if it went well then the baby would come a few months later.
About a month ago we received a call from our social worker about a baby that had already been born. She let us know the possible ethnicities of the baby and brief medical information, and she asked if we would like our profile shown. My initial reaction was, "I'm not ready for this!" It was a HUGE wake-up call. I hadn't believed that our life could change quite so quickly. But this baby was already in the world. If this birth mother chose us, we could have a baby as soon as the next day. I had been saying it could be "any day", but I didn't realize until this first call that "any day" could literally mean today or tomorrow.
We said yes to showing our profile (the first time it had been shown to anyone) and went out and bought a car seat and stroller that very night. After all, if we were going to become parents the next day, we needed to be able to get the baby home. By the end of the next day we hadn't heard any news, but I was definitely more excited than nervous or scared. (Sean had been nothing but excited from the beginning.) It was a weird place to be, knowing and trusting that God would place this baby in his/her forever home, wondering if it would be with us or not, wondering if our lives were about to change drastically in an instant or stay exactly the same.
Over the next couple of weeks we received occasional updates letting us know that the birth mother was still making her decision. As time went on, I felt more and more certain that this was not our baby, but continued to pray for his/her birth mother and the life changing decision she faced. Eventually we learned that having her baby placed in a family that loved their dogs was of high importance, and since we have no pets right now, we knew we were no longer being considered and we later learned that she did end up choosing a family with dogs.
I feel like a lot of people think this must have been devastating for us to not be chosen, but really it wasn't that bad. We knew that if this was our baby, it would work out, and if this was not the baby God has for us, we would just move on. There are other things in this process that are by far more difficult to deal with than this "rejection" but I can write more on that later.
We've asked to be updated on the status of our profile at the end of each month, and so far, this has been the only time our profile has been shown due to factors that we have currently indicated we are not open to pursuing. However, we received another call today regarding two different situations and have said yes to one of them, so we shall see...
Whoever does read this, thanks for being interested in what's going on. It means a lot.
For the past four months, whenever anyone asks about the adoption process, my response is usually something like, "We could get a call any day now," meaning that maybe the agency would call us to set up a match meeting with a birth mother who liked our profile and if it went well then the baby would come a few months later.
About a month ago we received a call from our social worker about a baby that had already been born. She let us know the possible ethnicities of the baby and brief medical information, and she asked if we would like our profile shown. My initial reaction was, "I'm not ready for this!" It was a HUGE wake-up call. I hadn't believed that our life could change quite so quickly. But this baby was already in the world. If this birth mother chose us, we could have a baby as soon as the next day. I had been saying it could be "any day", but I didn't realize until this first call that "any day" could literally mean today or tomorrow.
We said yes to showing our profile (the first time it had been shown to anyone) and went out and bought a car seat and stroller that very night. After all, if we were going to become parents the next day, we needed to be able to get the baby home. By the end of the next day we hadn't heard any news, but I was definitely more excited than nervous or scared. (Sean had been nothing but excited from the beginning.) It was a weird place to be, knowing and trusting that God would place this baby in his/her forever home, wondering if it would be with us or not, wondering if our lives were about to change drastically in an instant or stay exactly the same.
Over the next couple of weeks we received occasional updates letting us know that the birth mother was still making her decision. As time went on, I felt more and more certain that this was not our baby, but continued to pray for his/her birth mother and the life changing decision she faced. Eventually we learned that having her baby placed in a family that loved their dogs was of high importance, and since we have no pets right now, we knew we were no longer being considered and we later learned that she did end up choosing a family with dogs.
I feel like a lot of people think this must have been devastating for us to not be chosen, but really it wasn't that bad. We knew that if this was our baby, it would work out, and if this was not the baby God has for us, we would just move on. There are other things in this process that are by far more difficult to deal with than this "rejection" but I can write more on that later.
We've asked to be updated on the status of our profile at the end of each month, and so far, this has been the only time our profile has been shown due to factors that we have currently indicated we are not open to pursuing. However, we received another call today regarding two different situations and have said yes to one of them, so we shall see...
Whoever does read this, thanks for being interested in what's going on. It means a lot.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
And now... we wait.
It's done! We are now officially a "waiting family". We drove up to Bethany Christian Services in Fresno yesterday afternoon and handed over 8 copies of our family profile and the largest check I've ever written in my life (though the largest in this process is still yet to come) which basically emptied our "baby account". A sincere thank you again to all of those who have helped us prayerfully and financially along the way; you have truly blessed our lives and that of our future family.
Now comes the tough part - waiting. They show our profile to any birth parent(s) who fall into the scenarios we indicated in our preference survey and we pray for God to speak through our profile to the right birth parent(s) who are pregnant with the baby that He has planned for us.
Whew. We've been asked if we're nervous and I think Sean would agree with me that we have experienced many emotions thus far, but the nerves will only truly come out when we are on our way to our first meeting with a birth mother. That will definitely be something we do with God's strength alone and through no power of our own. He has provided for us in unimaginable ways every step of the way so far, and we know He will carry us through the rest.
But for now, we wait. And pray. And pray. And pray. We greatly appreciate your continued support and prayers that ultimately God will be glorified throughout this entire process and the life of our family to come.
Now comes the tough part - waiting. They show our profile to any birth parent(s) who fall into the scenarios we indicated in our preference survey and we pray for God to speak through our profile to the right birth parent(s) who are pregnant with the baby that He has planned for us.
Whew. We've been asked if we're nervous and I think Sean would agree with me that we have experienced many emotions thus far, but the nerves will only truly come out when we are on our way to our first meeting with a birth mother. That will definitely be something we do with God's strength alone and through no power of our own. He has provided for us in unimaginable ways every step of the way so far, and we know He will carry us through the rest.
But for now, we wait. And pray. And pray. And pray. We greatly appreciate your continued support and prayers that ultimately God will be glorified throughout this entire process and the life of our family to come.
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:6-7
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Another Short Update
So, I know it's been quite awhile since I last posted anything of real substance. It has been a very busy beginning of the school year and things are finally beginning to settle in (as much as that is possible, anyway). There really hasn't been much happening on the adoption front during these past two months; therefore, this update will be quick.
One recent highlight is that we received a letter and a "certificate" last week stating that our home study is complete and we are now a waiting family, which is exciting. However, before we can be officially waiting (as in, they could call us any day with a possible match), we have to save up a little, er, a LOT more money.
So that's basically where we are. The yard sales and the monthly savings chip away at the fees a little bit at a time, but it will still be a slow process to come up with the remaining approximately $14,000. We will also apply for grants and maybe loans, but they do not seem as promising of prospects as they once seemed to be.
In general I am at peace with and excited about this journey through the adoption process, but then there are certain parts, such as feeling that we have to "buy" our baby when most other people get their babies for "free", that gets discouraging at times. However, I must remember that God's timing is SO not my timing, and His plan will always be what is best. He must get a pretty hearty chuckle out of every time I think I can do it better on my own. Ha.
One recent highlight is that we received a letter and a "certificate" last week stating that our home study is complete and we are now a waiting family, which is exciting. However, before we can be officially waiting (as in, they could call us any day with a possible match), we have to save up a little, er, a LOT more money.
So that's basically where we are. The yard sales and the monthly savings chip away at the fees a little bit at a time, but it will still be a slow process to come up with the remaining approximately $14,000. We will also apply for grants and maybe loans, but they do not seem as promising of prospects as they once seemed to be.
In general I am at peace with and excited about this journey through the adoption process, but then there are certain parts, such as feeling that we have to "buy" our baby when most other people get their babies for "free", that gets discouraging at times. However, I must remember that God's timing is SO not my timing, and His plan will always be what is best. He must get a pretty hearty chuckle out of every time I think I can do it better on my own. Ha.
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