A new perspective....

I received an email today that gave me a new perspective on our journey.  I have spent so much time wanting to be a Mommy and have a child that when we chose to pursue adoption, I felt like this baby, our baby would be the biggest blessing in our lives.  And that was it.  I almost feel like I have been selfish in thinking how our baby would make us so happy and complete our lives.  I had never looked at it from any other point of view until today, when I read the following portion of the email I received from our adoption consultant:

"So a lot of busy work in the beginning and now it is a matter of sitting back, waiting, hoping and praying for your birthmother to come along.

 Again, I really enjoyed your websites.  You are an amazing couple and I respect you tremendously for the commitment you have both taken part in, and that is the journey of saving a child and building your family through adoption.  I am honored to be with you on this journey."

Until now, I had only thought of how this baby would save us, from heartache and emptiness.  I hadn't even begin to think about the loneliness, heartache and sorrow we could be saving this baby from!  I am so humbled, even before we have been chosen, by the idea that somewhere out there is a young woman who is so mature and selfless that she is able to say, "I can't do this.  I can't raise this baby the way I want to.  But I think you can and I trust you to do this well."

If you are a parent, you may say to yourself, "I have no idea how someone could give up their baby!"  Consider this, our birthmother loves our baby so much, she is willing to give him or her to us and allow them to have the opportunities she would never be able to give them.  What an amazing and precious gift!!  We are all going to be given the unique chance to "save each other"!!

Addresses for our web pages....

We have looked over our web pages and are so pleased!  I have the links to the pages below, if you would like to see what they have done for us.  Once you go to the web pages, the best way to find us is to search by region and just look for us!!  We know for a fact that our web site on Adoption Network has been viewed 21 times this month!!  That is so exciting!!!!
So, if you have a few minutes, take a peek and let us know what you think!

AdoptionNetwork.com, CourageousChoice.com, AdoptionSpacebook.com and TheAdoptionFoundation.com

Web pages are up!!!

I got an email yesterday that our web pages are up and running!  We are live on 4 websites that are marketed to birth mothers for chosing adoptive families.  I have decided not to post the links to those websites on this post because Jon hasn't had a chance to see them yet and I'd like for him to see them before people who read my blog.  No offense, but I think it's kind of important for him to have a first peek!
I am so excited that these are finally up and available.  On one of the websites, we have the capability to track how many people have viewed the site.  As of this morning, that particular site had been viewed 5 times already today!!  That is so wonderful!!!  Of course, we have no way of knowing if the viewers are actually birth moms but at least we know there is someone out there looking at us already!!!
So, now we just wait..........if you know me, I'm not a good waiter!  I'm trying real hard to stay patient and positive as we wait for our baby!
Thanks for thinking of us as we make our way through this together and thanks for following along with us.

133 is better!!

We got an email last Friday, on our anniversary, from the media dept at the Adoption Law Firm saying they received our pictures and were able to use them to complete our websites.  They told us to expect it to take 2-3 weeks for the websites to be up available for viewing and we can't make any changes to the web pages for 3 months.  I'm assuming we can send them newer pictures if we have some that we take and feel like they can be used.  I, for one, am over it!!  I don't plan on having another photo shoot for a loooong time!!!  I'm sure JP won't have his feelings hurt if he doesn't have to do that again, either!!
We have received all of our background clearances and submitted our completed home study, so now, we are truly and completely "waiting to be chosen"!  I look forward to hearing from them when they have our web pages up and running so we can take a peek at them.  Pending my approval, I may attach the links to the pages in a blog post for everyone else to see.
On a funny note, I have been doing some "research" about baby things.  Since we know we are having a baby, it's just a matter of when, I thought I would do some browsing.  My mother has been ever so gently pressuring me to pick out a "theme" for our nursery so she can get busy on her next grandbabies quilt!  So, I picked out a unisex crib set and showed JP.  Bless his heart, he thought the price tag was for the entire nursery, furniture and all, not just the crib set!  He really has no idea, does he?!  Well, that got me thinking, just exactly how much does nursery furniture cost?  As it turns out, it's not cheap either!!!  Originally, I had said I wasn't going to buy anything because I didn't want to have a nursery set up and then, God forbid the worst happens and we come home without a baby to fully decorated nursery.  That seems so "Lifetime Movie" and I didn't really want to have to deal with that.  But, I have decided that waiting until we have been away from home for at least 2 weeks and dealing with the expenses that will incur will probably not be the best time to go shopping for everything you need in a baby's room.  So, I told JP we should go ahead and get the stuff for the nursery and just have it.  We don't have to set it all up but if we have it, then when we get home, we can put it all together or even while we're gone if I know my besties and my mother!!  So, the plan is to slowly shop for those necessities from now until then but save all the fun stuff for the baby showers that we will have after we are all home!
Several people have asked me lately how things are going, so I thought I would update the blog and share all of the latest information with all of our faithful supporters! 

76 is not enough!!

So, we received an email last week from the adoption law firm stating we needed to submit more photos.  Of the 76 photos I sent them, they were only able to use less than 20 because of shadows on our faces, glares or squinty eyes.  I was very frustrated and almost had a meltdown when I read the email requesting more photos!  It is extremely difficult to come up with action photos of us that meet their requirements!! 
Thankfully, I calmed down and we came up with a plan.  We enlisted the help of my bestie, Julie and she had some excellent ideas and suggested we come to her house for a photo shoot.  I also emailed Sue at the media dept. in the adoption law firm and let her know our plan.  I shared my frustrations with her and she was also able to give us a few suggestions to work with.
So, we went to Julie's on Sunday, with 3 outifts each and spent a few hours having our very own photo shoot!  We were able to get what I think are several great photos and I plan on sending them to the adoption law firm on Wednesday when I'm off.  Hopefully, we will have enough pics after sending these new photos to them so we can have our webpages complete!!
We are both ready to have this part of the process checked off our list and be moving on to the next step.  We are ready to be officially waiting!!!

All assignments complete!

We finally got all of our pictures taken to submit to the media department of the adoption law firm so they can create our web profiles!  I mailed the cd of the pictures today so they will be able to start creating our profiles.  I also sent all of the "required text" that are used to create the web profiles, along with the pictures.  Let me tell you, getting all of these pictures together has been quite an assignment for us, well, I guess I should say me!  But, I did enjoy going through old pictures and memories!  We are so blessed!
We have done our part for the home study information, including all of the background checks and fingerprinting.  Now it's just a matter of waiting for all of the information to be compiled and submitted to the adoption law firm.
I called my Grandma May today to wish her a happy birthday and give her an update on where we are.  I told her that now we are truly at the "hurry up and wait" part.  As soon as our web profiles are complete, we will just be waiting to be chosen.  Since we have done all of our work, we are now waiting......  I think we will be doing a lot of that in the near future, and for those of you who know me, I don't wait well, so say a prayer for me!
Here's a line from one of the letters we had to submit for our web profiles.....
"Our family will be complete when we are not just two people, but three hearts making our way through this life as a whole family."
This is truly how we feel and we are excited for the next step!!

New Webpage

Our niece, Mindy Pittman, asked to create a website for us as we continue through this adoption journey.  The website has a link to my blog, so you can keep up with the story as we go.
We were so touched that she wanted to create this page to help us!
Thanks so much Mindy!

http://jjpittmanfamily.weebly.com