In the book!

In our past couple updates we have told you that things were "on hold" as we wait for the courts to certify us to adopt. We were needing to wait because we needed to apply for grants and the grants that we found would not allow us to apply until our certification was complete. Well, since then, we have found some grants that accept applications before certification! We finished up our first couple grant applications and got the last one sent in yesterday.

This has also allowed us to move forward with presenting our profile to birthmom's who are looking to place their baby with a family. A while back we created a 4 page scrapbook about ourselves and our family and friends. The pages that we made were officially put in the "Matchbook" last Monday! The matchbook is a book of adoptive family profiles that is shown to birthparents at all the Crisis Pregnancy Centers in Arizona, and is also used at some hospitals. Our profile is out there, waiting to be chosen by the birthmom that God wants to unite us with!

Our agency places babies through two main routes; a preplanned match, and hospital calls. A birthparents working with our agency or with a Crisis Pregnancy Center will make a plan for their child and at about 7 months along in the pregnancy. They will be given the opportunity to choose and meet some potential adoptive parents for their child. If chosen, we would meet with the birthmom or birthparents together and both us and the birthparents would leave that meeting and decide if it was a "match". We would have a couple of months to get to know that birth family before the little one arrives.

There is also potential for a hospital call from our agency. This would mean that a baby had already been born and the birthmom chose to make an adoption plan and picked our profile from the matchbook. Depending on how many days old the baby is, we would head to the hospital and pick up the baby to bring him/her home. It is a little crazy to be "on call" for such a huge life changing event! We could be parents tonight or it could be 2 years from now!

We know that God's timing is perfect! When we asked in one of our first meetings about the normal "time frame", our caseworker reminded us that God has the child picked out for us, so their is no normal time frame. We have been holding tight to this truth, knowing that God knows the "when" and "who"!

We took a class with about 7 other couples who were all at about the same place in the adoption process. These classes were a prerequisite to adopting through our agency. The classes ended last spring (March or April) and 5 of the couples have babies in their home and one couple has a baby due in March if everything works out! We can't believe how quick it has been for all of them!

We really aren't sure how to prepare for something that has no exact time frame. I have prepared a weeks worth of copies at work and am working on wrapping some things up, just in case. Kurtis and I spent some time at Babies R Us the other night and started our registry. ;o) That was a pretty overwhelming, but fun time together! I cannot believe how much stuff there is for tiny babies!

We are really excited to share the experience with all of you when God brings a little one into our home! We continually request your prayers for wisdom, direction, and peace as we wait! We are so thankful for all he has provided so far! We also ask that you pray that God will provide for the birthmom and the little baby who may already be conceived!

Love,

Kurtis and Emily

Trusting, waiting, typing, thanking...

Carole, our adoption caseworker, tells us we should be certified through the court system within the next few weeks. Things have been backed-up because of National Adoption Day. As far as we're concerned that's a GREAT reason to wait a little longer :)

Adoption certification means we can start applying for grants!

We trust the Lord to provide for this adoption financially. He's already doing so! ...

We wanted to say "thank you" to my sister Kristina, whose love for her brother and sister-in-law, as well as her desire for a baby niece or nephew, drove her to start an online fundraiser as a birthday gift to Emily. She's the reason for that box on the left :) Thank you, Sis!

Thank you to everyone who has given! Kristina reports that people we don't even know personally have donated! WOW! ... I'm rarely speechless but I just spent 15 minutes trying to type out a thank you that came close ... Nothing came close!

Our hearts are full! Thank you!

So, to sum-up; 1) A whole bunch of children were adopted in November (Woot!!) 2) We should be certified for adoption soon so we can officially start filling out grant applications. 3) My sis rocks! and 4) We have the best friends, family, and friends of family in the world!

Can't wait to introduce our son or daughter to you!! :)

-Kurtis & Emily

Waiting and Trusting

Sorry it has been so long since our last post! I want to give you a quick update on where we are in the adoption process.

September/October: We spent many hours making a "Matchbook Letter" to go in the books at all the Crisis Pregnancy Centers. It was quite a challenge to figure out how to best sum-up who we are within a 4 page scrapbook! After many hours of picking photos, designing pages, and writing about our lives, we made 40 copies and sent them off to our agency. Our agency then takes the letters and sends them out to all the CPC's in Arizona.

We also took some time in October to review the total adoption expenses and look at our own finances. We reconfirmed that we will need some financial assistance to make this adoption happen. We are very thankful that there are foundations out there that help fund adoptions through adoption grants. The only problem is that you must be certified to adopt before you can apply for any grants. We are in the process of being certified, but aren't quite there yet.

Our paperwork is at the court, but they are backed up with work from "National Adoption Day". Not a bad reason for our paperwork to be held up! As soon as we are certified (our caseworker believes it will happen by the end of December), then we will send out some grant applications and also send out our matchletters. We trust that God will provide for the adoption and we know that it will happen in the right time!

It has been really interesting to have to put the adoption "on-hold" for a short time. It has taken a lot of trust in God's timing and we are seeing that He is so faithful! There have been many babies placed for adoption during the time that we have been waiting, but we know that they were not the ones we were supposed to adopt. God has a very specific little one for us and I am so glad I can trust Him with that. If I had control, this process would be way too overwhelming. I can see how easy it could be to second guess everything! (If we had only...) I cannot believe that it has already been a year since God started us on this journey!

October 30th: We got to see baby Savannah and her family at our annual Fall Festival! It was so great to see them all doing so well! I got to hold miss Savannah and I was amazed by the peace in that moment. It was so obvious that the right decision was made. We are thankful for the new friends we have in Hayley and Jason and are excited to watch Hayley's daughters grow over the years! I asked Hayley for permission to post a photo of that night for you to see how much Savannah has grown. She is beautiful! She is a little hard to spot... She is in a pumpkin hat sitting with Jason.



Thank you all for your prayers over these past few months! I will update the blog once we are certified and our letter goes out to the Crisis Pregnancy Centers.

Decision Made

After a very long week we sat down with Hayley yesterday to discuss the plan for baby Savannah. As you know, we have been praying that God would give Hayley and us guidance as to what would be the best thing for this precious little one. We really know that God provided that direction for all of us. After many days of questioning, Hayley decided that it would be best for her to keep her baby. We were not surprised by her decision at all. Hayley is in a much different place right now than she was 6 months ago when she found us. She has support around her that wasn't there before.

We spent some time with her celebrating what God has done to provide for all of us and celebrating this new life and new friendship we have found! Although I am sure we will have moments of grief over the loss of what might have been, we are really at peace with how it all worked out. We have no regrets about building a relationship with this mom and are planning on staying in touch and being a part of this little baby girl's life as she grows!

Thank you so much for all your sweet comments, encouraging phone calls, meals, and prayers over the past couple weeks and months! It has been an amazing journey so far and we are really excited to see where God leads us next! The next step is to write a "matchletter" to birthparents that will go in the adoption books at all the local Crisis Pregnancy Centers. From that point we wait to receive a call to either meet a birthmom before she is due or pick up a baby from the hospital. We will keep you informed when things begin to happen.

Until then, please pray for Hayley and baby Savannah as they adjust to life together, pray for wisdom for us as we seek out the next path God will lead us down on this adoption journey, and please pray for protection for whatever little one he is preparing for our family. Thank you!

Love,

Emily and Kurtis

Her Grand Entrance - 9/4/09

As most of you know, Hayley went into labor on Thursday night and her little baby was born at 3:29 a.m. on Friday, September 4th! She weighed 7lbs 12oz and was 20 1/2 in. long. Hayley named her Savannah Renee. Hayley was very sick during the delivery and is still in the hospital with pneumonia in both lungs. They are doing lots of tests to figure out what is going on with her. Because Hayley has been so sick she has not been able to spend very much time with Savannah. We have been able to go in the nursery and hold her a few times, but we wear masks just in case; since we were exposed to whatever Hayley has. Please pray for this little one that she is getting all the love she needs right now in that nursery. The nurses seem to be really sweet, but I wish we could be there more to hold her!

We have only been spending a couple hours a day at the hospital, as we are trying to give Hayley the space she needs during this time. We have gathered from her that she is still very unsure about her decision about adoption. Some complications that have come up are making it even harder for her to choose adoption. As we have said many times, we trust that Hayley will do the best thing for that baby and we trust God for grace and strength when that decision is made. The earliest an official decision can be made is Tuesday after the long holiday weekend. She does not have to make a decision at that point. It is looking like she is going to be in the hospital for awhile and so she may wait until it is time to go home to decide whether or not she is taking the baby with her.

We ask that you pray for Hayley for healing in her body! She is feeling so sick and really wants to be spending time with her baby. Pray for wisdom for her in her decision making. Pray that this precious baby will be held and cared for even when we can't be there doing it for her. Pray for strength for us. Every time Kurtis and I think that some sort of resolution is coming, it seems to stretch on further. We are pretty worn out. God has been providing for us and we know He will continue.

Thank you for your prayers and encourging words! We feel very blessed!

Love,

Kurt and Em

Little Miss Chubby Cheeks

We wanted to put a face with the little baby that we have been talking about since March so you all could see how precious she is. With today's amazing technology this is actually possible! At the ultrasound on Thursday we all giggled at her little chubby cheeks and funny expressions!

As we are nearing the due date, things are not looking very good as far as the probability of us actually adopting this little one. There are many complications right now. We are writing to ask for prayer. Not that we will get to adopt this baby, but prayer for God's will, for wisdom and strength (for Hayley, the birthfather, for us, and everyone else involved)! We do not know where this little one will end up, but one thing we do know for sure is that she is precious to God!

One month to go (or less)...

These past couple months have been a roller coaster ride! As of just a week ago we were pretty sure that the adoption would not be going through. We talked with Hayley and she told us that she was having a very hard time with the decision and was considering keeping the baby. She really wants to do the best thing for this little one, and she felt like that might be best because there were some complications with the birthfather.

Then I received a voicemail from Hayley a couple nights ago saying that the birthfather has agreed to sign paperwork and that they have a meeting with the pregnancy counselor on Monday! This is very exciting news for us.

These next couple days are going to be pretty huge in the whole process. Hayley's friends are throwing her a baby shower today for all the basics in case she ends up keeping the baby or has to have the baby at home for a short time. She has invited us both to attend. At first this seemed too uncomfortable for me (Emily), but we really care about Hayley (no matter what decision she makes) and are excited to go to support her and celebrate this baby! Monday will be a big day with the birthfather and then Thursday we have been invited to attend one last ultrasound with Hayley before the baby is born.

So, that is where the adoption stands. I am sure the decision will get even harder for Hayley as we get closer to the due date. Please continue to pray for wisdom for all involved and for this baby girl! We are really excited to meet her!

As I was talking with some friends the other day about this whole process I was thinking about all that Jesus has done in my life to get me to the point where I can really say these things with peace and confidence! Until recently, my life has been overrun with anxiety and fear. Even just a year or two ago I would have been an absolute mess over this! I am so thankful that God brought healing in my life and has given me an amazing peace, not just in this adoption process, but in all areas of life! I am not saying that I never worry or never fear, but it no longer controls me and for that I am so thankful!

We are really excited for what this next month holds! Whether we adopt this baby or not, we know God has cool things in store for both us and all who are involved. Thank you for your prayers!

Emily