Beginning again?

Because our adoption with Emily is a family member adoption we could have adopted another child at any time, including when Emily was born or even before. In fact the very day we got a call saying that Kristina had chosen us, we also got a call from our case worker, not two hours before saying that a baby had been born the night before with Down Syndrome. The baby's parents were painfully considering adoption because they did not know if they could care for this baby the way she deserved. (the parents were married with 4 other children and didn't know how they would be able to care for a special needs child as well since they didn't make a lot of money to begin with.) I can't imagine how hard that decision must have been for them. We had to make the decision on whether we would like to have our profile presented to them. Jacob's Aunt has Down Syndrome and our case worker knows this. So she called to see if we would want our profile presented because we were one of the families who had marked that we were o.k. with Down Syndrome in our profile with the agency. We considered it, but by the time we found out we were chosen by Kristina we had already made the decision to not have our profile presented. It was a really hard decision. I spent the next 24 hours wondering if we had made the right decision. But ultimately we felt that the parents were the ones to raise this sweet baby. And we were right. The next day we got a call saying that the family had been given help and resources to help with the care of their little one and they had chosen to parent. I was so happy for them. After informing our case worker that we were indeed chosen by Kristina, I asked her if this other family had chosen adoption, would we have been able to still be "in the running". She said that yes, because Emily was a family member adoption, we could absolutely adopt at any other time. Just before Emily was born we chose to have our file put on hold so that we could adapt to having a baby in the house and concentrate on our new family member. We didn't close our file, just put it on hold. And because we didn't adopt through our agency we won't have to do the full application process again should we choose to take our file off hold. We will need to update a few things, but that will be it.

Which brings me to a few weeks ago. We got an email from our case worker. She is leaving the agency to become a stay at home mommy. We are so happy for her, but sad to lose her as our case worker. She wanted to set up a meeting with us to discuss when we want to take our file off hold and to also introduce us to our new case worker. So that brings us to now. Our meeting with them is tomorrow. We need to decide what we are going to do as far as our future hopes to adopt. Do we want to pursue adoption again? If you had asked us a few months ago we would have said no. At the beginning when Emily was first born we couldn't wait to add to our family again. As the months went by we had pretty much decided that we were done. Not because we didn't feel we were supposed to adopt again, but because we didn't know if we could go through the waiting process again. So how do we decide. We have no idea..... We have prayed about it, we feel that we should adopt again. But we are just so scared of what the future holds. What if we wait years again? What if we are chosen right away? What if we are never chosen again? And so.... tomorrow, we talk to our new case worker. And we have pretty much decided we will tell them we are ready to start again. We want Emily to have another sibling. She loves Tamara to death, but by the time she is in school, Tamara will be out of the house and either off at college or married or both. We want Emily to have another sibling close to her in age. And we feel like our family is not complete. And so.... we begin again......


We have a family photo session set up for this weekend by the awesome Angie from Ray Of Sunshine Photography. We were originally going to do the shoot to celebrate Tamara's 16th birthday, Emily's upcoming 1st birthday and our upcoming 10th Anniversary, but it's looking like we will also use the photos for pass along cards and updating our profile. Exciting.... but nervous too!

Happy BirthMother's Day!

Today is BirthMother's Day. Since beginning this adoption journey this has been a special day for me, but no more so then the last two years. I always knew how amazing BirthMom's were. To make the amazing, selfless sacrifice that they do for their little ones, is beyond describable. Just this last July I got to witness this first hand as Kristina placed Emily in my arms, and then again as she signed the papers that would forever change all of our lives. I can't even begin to thank her, and tell her how much her sacrifice on behalf of Emily means to us all. Not just Jacob, Tamara, and I. But to all who love us, and love Emily.

Kristina,
Know that on this day, and every day, we are thinking of you, loving you, and missing you.
Always,
Sharon, Jacob, Tamara & Emily

just some of my favorite photos of Kristina and Emily these last 9 months.

9 months!

The last two months have flown by! Last I knew Emily was 7 months old and now here she is a happy bubbly 9 month old!

Emily is now:

Crawling, pulling herself up on people, very close to pulling herself up on objects, walked around furniture twice, got her first tooth (sort of, it's there, has broken through, but hasn't come up more, it's been like that for two weeks!), she is wearing 12-18 month clothes, size 4 diapers, is 21lbs. 13oz. and 29 1/2 inches tall. She is in the 91% for weight for her age group, and 97% for height. She says, mama, dada, nay nay (Tamara's nickname), baba(bottle), ba (ball), waves while saying ba ba (this means bye bye), her favorite word to say is hi. And she even said cat the other day. She is loving the mommy and me gym class we go to. I love it too. I can't beleive she is 9 months! Crazy!

Living up to the blog name. :D

I know, I'm a really bad blogger these days. Life has been crazy and wonderful. Ha! We live up to our blog name! LOL Hubby is really busy with school and work and this weekend is doing one of his final drill weekends with the reserves. He has 2 after this and then he will be able to concentrate on school and work. He also figured out that he will be graduating with his Bachelor's next Spring. YAY! Of course he will go into the Master's program after that, and then the PhD program after that, but still (he is going to be a college professor). Tamara is in track and is enjoying her last couple of months as a Sophomore and is ready for her Jr. year to begin. I'm not so much ready for that. She is less then 2 months away from turning 16 and will be getting her driver's license soon after that. Emily is teething right now so we don't get much sleep around here. She just learned how to crawl a few days ago and is trying so hard to pull herself up on things. She's getting really close. Her first tooth is so close to popping through. I can feel it, so I'm thinking in the next day or two it should be up. I'm just staying busy with everything that everyone else has going on. Anyhow, I promise I will do a real post soon, I have several people who are working on guest blogs, and I have a few planned for the week after next which is National Infertility week. Anyhow, for your viewing pleasure, I present, crawling Emily!

2nd Annual Adoptive Parents Retreat! Super FUN!

Last weekend I was thrilled to attend the 2nd Annual Adoptive Couples Retreat in Orem UT. Can I just tell you, it was fabulous! No, it was more than fabulous, it was fanfreakintasticalfabulousness! Seriously! All the work we as the committee did totally paid off. And really, the major thanks for the awesomeness that was last weekend, goes to Jessa. I hope everyone else had as great of time as I did. Can you believe though, I didn't take a single picture? I even took my camera on Friday and never took a single one. :( I hope someone else did and would be willing to share their photos.




Jacob wasn't able to go with me. He is in the Reserves still for another few months and has drill this weekend so he is gone until tomorrow night. Sure wished he was with me! He was home Friday night because formation wasn't until this morning, but he stayed home and watched Emily so I could have a night off of mommy duty. Although I missed them both terribly and wished they were both with me. :( (Isn't it funny how that happens, you're happy to have a night out, but you end up spending the whole night missing your little one. Is it just me that this happens to?)



Friday night was a mingle night where we got to mingle and get to know other couples who are a part of the adoption world as well. Such a fun night! I got to talk with so many people! Loved it! Such a fun group! I love being a part of this adoption world! We even met another couple, Hi Crystal and Matt! Who also did a family member adoption. They were kind enough to share some insight with me.




Saturday was AWESOME! I was late, I was up all night with Emily who didn't want to stay asleep unless I was holding her, so I over slept this morning (she’s teething so she has been fussier then normal). I got there just in time for everything to begin so all I missed was breakfast and mingle time. Still sad though. :( The wonderful couple behind The r house , Josh and Lindsey, were our keynote speakers. SO fabulous! Seriously love them! They spoke about honesty in adoption, hope in adoption and shared a little of their journey so far. What they do for the adoption world is beyond amazing!




Our Adoptive Parent Panel was great! We had a few different types of adoption represented. David was representing Domestic adoption. He and his wife adopted three children who are all in their late teens early 20's now. It was so neat to hear his prespective on things. Jennifer (who was a guest blogger recently) was representing foster adoption. She and her husband have adopted 2 children through foster care and are about to finalize their 3rd foster care adoption. My favorite line from her was that you should always be open to foster care. There is a misconception that all kids in foster care are bad kids. But they aren't they are children who unfortunately have lived hard lives and have come from not so great circumstances. But they all are great kids. And you never know how your child will come to you, so be open to it. (Side note, Jennifer, I am so sad we didn't get to talk much! I was looking for you afterwards but you were occupied and then the next time I looked you were gone! We need to get together soon!) Ashley is the author of children's book about adoption. She and her husband have adopted 4 children. 3 domestically and 1 internationally. So Ashley was representing International adoption. First of all, her kids are stinkin' adorable! Her son has adjusted to life in America like he was born here. After only 6 months here he speaks perfect English. What really stuck out to me about Ashley was just that she is pure awesome! Hearing her talk about how her family has brought this young boy into their home is nothing short of inspiring. He is from Taiwan and they have not only adopted him, but they adopted a love of his country. They celebrate all of the Taiwanness holidays in their home. I love that! I think that's something every family who adopts a child from a different culture should do. If we decide to adopt again and we adopt a child from a different culture, we will for sure be doing that! Love it!




During lunch the lovely Alexandria spoke to us. She is an adoptee. Her dad is the one who spoke on the adoptive parent panel. She spoke about her love adoption, and more specifically, her love of her life. She had us all captivated. She is beyond adorable! One thing that she said that really stuck out to me was that she can't imagine life any other way, then to be adopted. I love that! She feels that her life is exactly how it should be. Amazing I tell you! She is amazing!




Our birthparent panel was fabulous, what I got to hear of it that is. I had to go out with Emily for part of it so I wasn't there for the whole thing, but what I did hear of it was awesome! Amanda placed her son 6 years ago. She shared her journey and spoke about her healing process. She spoke of her experiences with her son's parents. Sterling placed her son just a year ago. She shared her journey as well, and spoke of the love she has for her son's parents. Daniel was a great addition to the panel as well. He happens to be Alexandria’s birthfather so it was really a neat experience to get to hear the same adoption story from three separate points of view.



I hope we get to do a retreat next year! It was seriously fabulous experience!

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Hope your day was awesome!

My Girls, March 17, 2011

Tamara sporting her Green wear!

Emily in her Green! Tamara made her bow, sooo cute!

Blessing pictures

Just a quick post. If you're on my facebook you've seen this. If not, I thought I'd share. I was going to get professional pictures of Emily in her blessing dress done, but was never able to. So I decided to see what I could do. These are all by me. I'm not a pro, just a hobbyist. I love taking pictures. :o) Enjoy!

Classic Emily look. She's so goofy!
Silly girl!

Baby feet. :D

My friend Kim had the greatest idea to take a picture of Emily's shoes at her baptism and at her wedding as well. Love it!

The hook and eye closure that was used on Em's dress was from my grandmothers sewing supplies. She passed away in 97 and my mom got a lot of her supplies. When I heard my mom had added it to Em's dress I about cried. I love that there is something from such a special person on her dress.

Details of the dress

The Gorgeous dress my mom made.

Sweet girl!

My baby!

Love her!

Emily's birthmom has a matching necklace. I had to get a picture of Emily wearing this special bracelet. (Custom made and avaliable at the r house couture etsy shop)