Adoption, Adoption, Adoption

Adoption Profile

Turkey Trotting

Well my sister and I went on a 10K run/walk this morning.  I enjoyed it.  I never thought I'd enjoy these kinds of events but I keep signing up for them and am happy when they are done.  I bought a knitted turkey hat and she wore a pumpkin one.  We finished in a decent time, but unfortunately they were already starting the kid events.  There were still people behind us who were much slower than us.  I plan on commenting on their page especially since they touting walking was an option too.

Thanksgiving and Videos

We went to my parents' place for Thanksgiving.  We stay with them too.  Oz had his own room and he seems to be okay even though he's not spending every waking moment with his cousins.  We will take the boys with us on a few adventures but it's good to be home and just be with family.

We are also working on taking videos of the family.  We have to lug around a camera that came from the adoption agency and video people.  My good friend (so much so we call her my sister) and her husband spoke about us on the video and so did my brother.  This is supposed to help birth mothers in making a decision.  I get it, it's hard to just pick a person you've never met and this video allows for them to see a little bit of us as we are, animated and real.  Hopefully our video will turn out okay and we won't look dumb, or totally boring.

Big Step

This afternoon we took the advantage of Oz being in school to go over some paperwork for the adoption agency.  We hit the "submit" button on the APQ - Adoption Planning Questionnaire.  This is the form that tells the agency what we can afford, what gender if any we'd like, was medical conditions are okay for us and answering questions about if we understand how the process works.  In a day or two, the next section will be available which will allow us to fill out our letters about ourselves, a letter to the birth mom and descriptions about why we are super awesome and would be great parents to any child.  We are finally moving forward and can't wait!

Post Turkey Trot 10K present

Thought these might go well for a post run/walk this Thanksgiving!

Christmas is coming!

These look pretty awesome for a Christmas present for the kiddos!

Awesome Shorts!

New Toy

So I just tried this today and loved it. I only got my hair stuck once but that was totally user error. If you buy one from this link we get up to 10% of the purchase price which will go towards adoption fees!

First Step, New Journey

Today we went to DC for an adoption seminar.  Yes, we decided to move on to adoption.  I found out that my endo more than likely caused by a crappy C-section is now in the walls of my uterus, right where an embryo needs to implant.  So even if we had went with a donor egg but his stuff, it probably would not have implanted.  If we had the money, I'd say let's use a surrogate and donor egg but we are not independently wealthy (However, we DO play the lottery).

The seminar was info as well as question and answer.  They also had an adoptive family come and tell us how it went for them.  Oz came with us of course.  He was actually quite excited at the idea of adoption and having a sibling.  We wondered how he might react, but he was very excited.  So much so that at the end of the seminar he asked the staff of the Agency we are working with, where his little brother was and why can't he take him home.

We ended up going with American Adoptions.  We liked their approach.  They aren't pushy or overbearing and spent time after the event to answer a billion questions from not only us but several other prospective parents.  We also liked that the family that spoke to us that day was a military family.  Sadly, some agencies shy away from military families because we move -a lot.  This made me feel better knowing that another military family was successful in adopting.  They were also helpful by telling us some of the ins and outs of things like Tricare, DEERS, etc that the Agency would not necessarily know.

It's costly, unfortunately.  And the paperwork for the home study is about as bad as getting a TS clearance.  But we are on our journey to expand our family and make Oz a big brother.

Happy Birthday to me

Well I'm now 42 and we've come to the conclusion that my body is done having babies. We have been blessed with one child, one beautiful, smart, funny, loveable son who is totally awesome and cool. It's taken me a long time to come to the understanding that my body didn't fail me, because well we have a six year old, a healthy, happy six year old in our lives. He has dad's body, hair, eyes and fingers. He has my nose, smile, ears and somehow managed to have my brother's sense of humor. So my body is done having babies but it didn't fail me with blessing me with one son who is a wonderful member of our family. I wish I had seen that sooner, had understand that I have something so wonderful sitting right in front of me. But, I do see it and I know how lucky we are to have a great kid as our own.