Well, friends, we can officially say our home study is DONE!! Wow, what a process that was. It was a lot of work, but not nearly as bad as what I was thinking it would be. Thanks for our dear friend Paige who just went through the adoption process (who I swear is my 4th sister that got lost in the Gammon household somehow), she made it so much easier for us. She helped us make lists, what things needed to be photo copied, what phone calls we needed to make, etc. Complete with a cute, plastic folder-like thing, post-it's, tabs, you name it. Paige and I have a slight obsession with all things office-y...pens, washi tape, planners, post-it's, stickers. It's kind of a problem! Haha!
Anyway, back to my point. Part of the home study process included independent training that Justin and I had to complete. It was a lot of reading articles, watching videos, read a book on adoption, answer questions that went along with what we read, etc. One of the last things we had to do was write a letter to our unborn child. When we got all the materials and I saw that page at the end, I remember thinking..."Oh heavens, what am I going to write. Lord, give me the words to say." So last night as Justin and I were sitting down on the couch, we came to that page. He turned to me and said...
"Here, let me write it."
He picked up the paper, went over to our barstools, and sat down and started writing. When he was done, he walked back to the couch and handed it to me with tears in his eyes. He said.."It was hard getting through that." As I read it, the tears started to develop in my eyes as well. It was short, sweet, simple, yet filled with love and excitement. Here is his letter...
"Dear precious son or daughter,
Mommy & Daddy have been on a long journey to you! We also know your journey to us has been a miracle as well. We are so excited to meet you and the loving birth mommy whose selflessness allowed you to come to our arms. We love you. It's so strange how our Lord works circumstances, good and bad, to come together and achieve the PERFECT plan for us. We can't wait to hold you and tell you how much we've prayed for you, talked about you, planned what to do with you, even cried for you. You have a very brave and strong older brother named Luke. We will tell you all about him, and one day we will all reunite together in Heaven to worship Jesus. Your mommy and daddy are eager to see you and until we do, be safe and warm. Love, Mommy and Daddy"
I know, right? Are you a puddle on the floor like I was? I love Justin's heart and I love how excited he is to bring our baby home. He is an amazing dad already, and will continue to be with our next baby. I got a 6 1/2 hour glimpse into Justin's heart as a father as he loved and cherished our Luke. I can't wait to see him with our next son or daughter.
Tonight, our social worker is coming over for our home safety audit and tonight we will turn in all of our home study material. This is a very exciting step and a huge step closer to meeting our child. We covet your prayers, friends! Thank you for your care for us :) We love you all.
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
We're Adopting!
As I sit here on my couch and write this blog, it's still crazy to me to see the words "We're Adopting!". Are we really?! Is this real life?! Yes, we are and yes, this is real life. We are a bit overwhelmed by it all, by all that has to happen beforehand, yet so excited to see what God does and how our family grows.
How did we get to this place? What made us want to pursue growing our family via adoption? Let me share :) Before we started officially trying to have a baby, Justin and I talked about adoption a little bit, but our conversations never really went anywhere past the whole "Well, maybe. We'll see." If I'm being honest, I figured we'd try adoption is a last resort type of thing. I wanted "my own" kids first. I was a little naive. As the years went by and our infertility struggles continued, I began seeing adoption in a different light. It was becoming more and more appealing to me. I think that was the Lord lovingly preparing my heart for what He was going to do in our lives later down the road. Well, right before we were going to start the adoption process, we found out we were pregnant with our Luke. So, adoption was tabled. We didn't revisit it until December of 2015.
Back in December, Justin and I just weren't sure what road to take regarding growing our family. We knew we had 3 options. #1: continue trying to get pregnant with medical help. #2: pursue a child via the foster care system. #3: a full fledged adoption. We knew almost immediately that we were DONE with the infertility treatments. It was getting very stressful and calculated. So, we eliminated #1 and what a burden lifted! We both felt like a huge weight was lifted off our shoulders. Next was the foster care route. Back in December I had written a Christian foster care agency here in Columbus requesting info. She wrote me back, but somehow I misplaced her email and wrote again and asked for her to re-send it. A couple weeks went by, and she didn't respond. I emailed again asking for someone to re-send the info. She ended up calling me on the phone and I explained how Justin and I were considering a foster-to-adopt situation. As soon as I said that, it was like she became a different person. She was rude, she was short with me, her tone completely changed. I understand that the goal of foster care is reunification between families and children. But, it was like she wasn't interested in helping us with that, she only wanted couples that would be foster parents only. Her words to me went like this..."Well, we rarely have situations come up where we do a foster-to-adopt case, and if it does happen it's a 2-3 year process." Wow, talk about deflating. Yet at the same time, she completely answered my question....foster-to-adopt was NOT for us. And the more we thought about it, the less appealing it became. We had visions of getting a baby/child placed in our home, falling in love with it, and then having it taken away. We've experienced that. We didn't want that to happen again. When I told Justin about my conversation with the foster care lady, he said..."Well, there's my answer! I've been praying that God would make it clear as to which road we are to go down, and He's done that! We are going to pursue adoption!" And just like that, we started our adoption journey. I'm telling' ya, as soon as we had a plan, I was a different person. I don't like to be in limbo, not knowing what we're doing. I'm a planner by nature and when we finally decided what we were going to do, I was so excited.
So, on February 11th, 2016 we turned in our application for adoption to Choice Network Adoptions based here in Columbus. As of today, we are about 90% done with our home study. We will be doing a domestic infant adoption. We are open to any race, gender, and willing to take up to 2 children ranging in ages infant to 4 years. We are so excited to see who the Lord has hand picked to be Luke's younger brother or sister!
How can you help? We need prayer! Pray for us as we walk through this journey. I know there will be up's and down's. Pray that we will keep our eyes on Jesus and trust Him completely through this. Pray for the woman who is carrying our child. Pray that she will be as healthy as possible, that she will take care of herself. Pray for our baby :) That he/she will grow and develop as he/she should, that he/she will be protected and be safe. Pray for us, that we will be a light in a world that needs God. That will have a huge impact on our birth mom, her family and all the people we will be in contact with throughout this process. May we reflect the love of Jesus to this woman who carries our child. Also, we would love financial help! As you can imagine, the cost of adoption is very high. We don't know how we are going to pay for this, but know that if this is what God has for us, He WILL provide each and every dollar along the way! He's been faithful so far and I have no reason to think that won't continue. We do have an online donation fund that was started by our dear friend Teresa Sweinsberg. To donate, you can go to: https://www.gofundme.com/bsrj73jg
Thank you all for your continued support as we start this very exciting, very challenging, journey. We can't wait to see all that God has planned for us and what child/children we will be welcoming into our home and our family. I will update as we go, so stay tuned! Much Love!
How did we get to this place? What made us want to pursue growing our family via adoption? Let me share :) Before we started officially trying to have a baby, Justin and I talked about adoption a little bit, but our conversations never really went anywhere past the whole "Well, maybe. We'll see." If I'm being honest, I figured we'd try adoption is a last resort type of thing. I wanted "my own" kids first. I was a little naive. As the years went by and our infertility struggles continued, I began seeing adoption in a different light. It was becoming more and more appealing to me. I think that was the Lord lovingly preparing my heart for what He was going to do in our lives later down the road. Well, right before we were going to start the adoption process, we found out we were pregnant with our Luke. So, adoption was tabled. We didn't revisit it until December of 2015.
Back in December, Justin and I just weren't sure what road to take regarding growing our family. We knew we had 3 options. #1: continue trying to get pregnant with medical help. #2: pursue a child via the foster care system. #3: a full fledged adoption. We knew almost immediately that we were DONE with the infertility treatments. It was getting very stressful and calculated. So, we eliminated #1 and what a burden lifted! We both felt like a huge weight was lifted off our shoulders. Next was the foster care route. Back in December I had written a Christian foster care agency here in Columbus requesting info. She wrote me back, but somehow I misplaced her email and wrote again and asked for her to re-send it. A couple weeks went by, and she didn't respond. I emailed again asking for someone to re-send the info. She ended up calling me on the phone and I explained how Justin and I were considering a foster-to-adopt situation. As soon as I said that, it was like she became a different person. She was rude, she was short with me, her tone completely changed. I understand that the goal of foster care is reunification between families and children. But, it was like she wasn't interested in helping us with that, she only wanted couples that would be foster parents only. Her words to me went like this..."Well, we rarely have situations come up where we do a foster-to-adopt case, and if it does happen it's a 2-3 year process." Wow, talk about deflating. Yet at the same time, she completely answered my question....foster-to-adopt was NOT for us. And the more we thought about it, the less appealing it became. We had visions of getting a baby/child placed in our home, falling in love with it, and then having it taken away. We've experienced that. We didn't want that to happen again. When I told Justin about my conversation with the foster care lady, he said..."Well, there's my answer! I've been praying that God would make it clear as to which road we are to go down, and He's done that! We are going to pursue adoption!" And just like that, we started our adoption journey. I'm telling' ya, as soon as we had a plan, I was a different person. I don't like to be in limbo, not knowing what we're doing. I'm a planner by nature and when we finally decided what we were going to do, I was so excited.
So, on February 11th, 2016 we turned in our application for adoption to Choice Network Adoptions based here in Columbus. As of today, we are about 90% done with our home study. We will be doing a domestic infant adoption. We are open to any race, gender, and willing to take up to 2 children ranging in ages infant to 4 years. We are so excited to see who the Lord has hand picked to be Luke's younger brother or sister!
How can you help? We need prayer! Pray for us as we walk through this journey. I know there will be up's and down's. Pray that we will keep our eyes on Jesus and trust Him completely through this. Pray for the woman who is carrying our child. Pray that she will be as healthy as possible, that she will take care of herself. Pray for our baby :) That he/she will grow and develop as he/she should, that he/she will be protected and be safe. Pray for us, that we will be a light in a world that needs God. That will have a huge impact on our birth mom, her family and all the people we will be in contact with throughout this process. May we reflect the love of Jesus to this woman who carries our child. Also, we would love financial help! As you can imagine, the cost of adoption is very high. We don't know how we are going to pay for this, but know that if this is what God has for us, He WILL provide each and every dollar along the way! He's been faithful so far and I have no reason to think that won't continue. We do have an online donation fund that was started by our dear friend Teresa Sweinsberg. To donate, you can go to: https://www.gofundme.com/bsrj73jg
Thank you all for your continued support as we start this very exciting, very challenging, journey. We can't wait to see all that God has planned for us and what child/children we will be welcoming into our home and our family. I will update as we go, so stay tuned! Much Love!
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