The waiting game and updates

Sorry it's been so long since our last post. As you can imagine, things are pretty busy here. Since we've been matched it's been an interesting couple of months. First I'll fill you in on what's been happening with us over the last few months. 

In October, we bought a house!! God blessed us by selling our house and we stayed with Scotty's brother Chris for what we thought would be a few months. We were only there for about a month before we closed on our perfect house. It's awesome :) Here is a picture on our first day in the house, Halloween. 

 Mom, Gramma, and I were able to sneak in a trip to visit Taylor in Savannah for a big game. She didn't know we were coming and was really surprised! Taylor is home now for Christmas break and we all love having her home!

In November I threw a shower for Sarah, along with two other of her best friends. She and her husband Jon are our very best friends and are expecting a little girl to be born today or tomorrow!

 For Thanksgiving Scotty and I planned a trip away to Sky Valley, Georgia. We met up with one of my best friends from Anderson and her husband. We had an awesome time and enjoyed cooler weather :)

In December we celebrated Scotty's 30th birthday. One of our close friends from college Eric and I worked on getting him here from California as a surprise. He hid in a bag that Scotty thought was a gift...it was quite the surprise! The video is on my facebook page if you would like a laugh at Scotty's expense ;) Here is a picture of us at the Cox Fire Christmas party. We loved having Eric here, can't wait for him to come back and visit! 

Our friends Emily and Freddy had their son Leland, this picture brought a lot of confusion on facebook...some thought we had brought our baby home! This is THEIR son Leland :)

We've been working on the baby's room slowly but surely. We picked a neutral color since we didn't know if it was a boy or girl. This picture was taken a few weeks ago, we've done quite a bit since then. The 'T' was because we had decided on a name, but have since changed our minds. So we have no name as of yet, a couple options though. We're open to suggestions!

 

This picture is of our gender reveal cake made my best friend, Tia. It was beautiful!!

  

The inside showed us.....it's a boy!!!! We were thinking Tucker for a name but that's out the window now! 

 

This is a facetime screenshot of our nephew Brody in New York when he found out it was a boy cousin coming! So sweet!

We have been blessed by our friends and family throwing us multiple showers. I don't have pictures of the others but this one was last weekend at our new house. We have been so grateful for all of the love and support we've been given.

I don't have a picture on my computer to post but my two college best friends came down for the shower this past weekend. Whitney and Jess both flew in from Indiana to throw the shower along with Tia. It was such a special day and they all worked so hard to make it perfect! 

 

As for the adoption, we are waiting for the phone call that either our baby has been born and is ready to be picked up or that our birth mom is in labor and to head to the hospital! His due date is Christmas day so we are hoping he will make his arrival early and we can have the best Christmas present ever! The birthmom said she went late with her other children so she thinks he'll come between Christmas and New Years Day. Whenever he comes we will be thrilled!! 

Please pray for the continued effort with the birth father to serve papers. Also, please pray for our birth mom. She is doing what she knows is best but also hardest for her. She doesn't have a support system currently so we're really worried about her after everything is said and done. Our adoption is a unique case, but still pray that everything works they way it should. I am so anxious now and worried that something will happen and we won't be able to bring him home. I know it's just fear but I have to try and focus on the end result, our baby. 

Love Always, 

T & S

It's a match!

Here are the events that led up to our happy news...

On Friday, August 24 we heard from our caseworker that she was bringing our book and four others to a mother on Monday. Since this has happened many times, we didn't get our hopes up. On about Wednesday we realized that we had not heard an update so I emailed our caseworker. She replied to me on Wednesday that the birth mom had kept two books (we sent in a photo book so the birth mom can learn and see more about us) and ours was one. Now, our hopes were up! She thought that she should have an answer by Monday.
That weekend we were camping with Scotty's family and were on pins and needles. Scotty and I decided not to say anything since we had been in this situation before and had been let down. I kept my phone on me the entire weekend...we received small updates. Still deciding, hasn't returned my call, still deciding, etc. Fast forward through many, many emails to Thursday. We were told by a friend of the birth mom (couldn't reach the mom) that she was leaning heavily toward Scotty and I. WHAT???!?!?!?!?!
So as calmly as possible we tried to keep our cool. Our caseworker thought that she would have an answer for us by Friday. Friday comes and I can't help it and email asking for a status update. NOTHING. Saturday morning comes and goes, nothing. Finally, while Scotty and I are sitting at my sister Taylor's soccer game in Savannah on Saturday evening I HAVE to send an email and get an update.

"Hi S*****, Hate to bother you but I am just DYING to know over here. Have you heard anything?"
5.....hours......later.
(Not really, it felt like five hours but was more like 5 minutes)
"Hi Tera,
The mom said yes. She loves you and Scotty and chose you."

I don't think I can really describe the feeling I had when I read that. One thing I thought was, is this really happening??? I read the email and then very casually handed it to Scotty. (I was wearing sunglasses so he couldn't see that my eyes were filled with tears.) He never fails to surprise me...he reads it and says, "Cool, that's pretty exciting". I said, "do you know what this means??" Of course he did but was being Mr. Cool-we were in front of a ton of people!

So there you have it. Our "match" story.

Here is what we know so far, the baby is due January 13. We don't know if it's a boy or girl, and we don't know if we will be able to find out although we both REALLY want to know :) We won't be able to meet the birth Mom, but we have already been in contact through letters. She is a sweet lady making an extremely difficult and selfless decision. She seems confident that adoption is the right choice, but it's apparent in her letters that she's heartbroken. Please pray for her and the baby through this. It is a Florida adoption but not local so we aren't sure if we will be able to be at the hospital.

As of today, our baby...that feels funny to say...is 26 weeks along. He or she is the size of an eggplant ;)

Be on the lookout for shower information...we're already registered at Babies-R-Us. I was in Anderson, Indiana this weekend for homecoming at our college AU. While I was there my sweet college roomates made me (us) a cake and gave us our first baby gifts! It was another moment where it starts to sink in that this is happening!

A mish mosh of posts-IRONY

I was looking back at older posts and realized, I suck at blogging. I hardly ever post more than once a month, and usually it's not even that often. I guess I just never feel like there is anything exciting enough to be worth posting.

So here is the update for all of the


June 9 update** I thought I would post this unfinished blog because it's too funny not to. I was blogging about how bad I suck at blogging....and never finished the blog post. :) 

Blessed & Humbled

Hi Everyone, 

Tera here. Scotty and I thought it was important to write a blog post with how floored we are at the amount of support during our auction. It has left us speechless at how many of you have bid on items, shared our site, donated items, committed to praying for us, sending us donations, etc. We have such gratitude to all of you, in each way that you have helped. The auction has been a huge success! And it's not over yet....

In adoption news, we FINALLY received our home study! It took Scotty sending an email "being a bulldog" (which is normally my nickname since I am the one to take care of those sorts of things) and asking politely but firmly to get the show on the road...it worked! We have not gotten any updates because we have been assigned to a new caseworker. She is supposed to be contacting us in June to talk more and hopefully get us caught up. 

We leave in one week for vacation with my sister Taylor to celebrate her graduating high school. She graduated on Friday with honors. She will be attending college to play soccer in the fall. It has been a super fun week because we have family in from out of state. After that we will be spending a week with Scotty's family on the beach-much to Scotty and his brother Chris's dismay-they hate the beach. The fishing is good though, as well as the boating which is what I am sure he and his Dad and brother will be doing while Linda, Jan, and I are lounging in the sun :) Two weeks of beach sounds AWESOME to me!!

Here is a picture of Taylor and I at graduation....

Thanks again for your help with raising money for our baby. www.holdingourhearts.com

xoxo

Tera

Update time!

Hi Everyone,

I spoke with our case worker this morning and got a small update. Here's a review in case you haven't been kept up to speed.

Before this morning there were 4 birth moms (BM) that met OUR criteria. (Race of the baby is our only criteria, we've said Caucasian or bi-racial.) They are all due around the end of the summer.

This morning I was told that two of the BMs had a change of heart and have backed out. While this makes my heart sink, I couldn't help but think of their own hearts in making such a difficult decision. I'm going to pray that they made the right decision for their family and will love their little one the right way.

So now we have two BMs left that we qualify for. Our caseworker can't tell us very much but I do know that both BMs are due around the end of summer/beginning of fall. In both situations, BF (birth father) and families are supportive of the adoption.

With that small sad news, we found out both BMs have looked at our book already! PLEASE pray that their hearts would lead them to us. It is still too early to make a decision, they're receiving counseling to prepare them for that day. Maybe it's selfish of me, but even though there are families that have been waiting over two years, I want it to be our time! We started our process officially in December of 2010, so this December marks 2 years.

I think that the pending adoption has made me take a step back to look at our lives. I feel very blessed to have a husband that rocks, family that loves and supports us, and friends that I consider family. I know a lot of our lives will change when we do finally have our baby, but I'm excited for those changes :)

Thanks for reading and praying fervently!
T

The longest 4-6 weeks of our lives...

I spoke with my caseworker this morning and received an update on the birth moms with our agency.

What I learned is that there are now 6 moms currently with our agency. Of those 6, 4 meet our criteria. So in the next 4-6 weeks, our book will be shown to all 4 moms. Our book...along with 5-7 other family's books. (Long sigh inserted here)

The most encouraging piece, I believe, is that our caseworker (knowing the birth moms and us) is optimistic that of these 4 women, we will have a match!!

So, I am asking again for your prayers. I've been seeking patience and peace through this, along with that I've asked God in my prayers for movement. Something, anything! Well, we have movement :)

-Tera

Merry Christmas!

I hope this Christmas was one spent with loved ones and making memories. We got to do just that, here are a couple pictures.



Christmas Eve at Moms.



Disneys very merry Christmas



At the haunted mansion.



Two of my favorite people, gramma and grampa. Look at Grampas shirt, he cracks me up!

And last for your viewing pleasure, and mine since I just found this today and Scotty caught this beauty on "film" Taylor enjoying Scotty's gift to himself, the kinect.

I had posted a Haiti blog but my blog app swallowed it up, I hope I can find it!

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Anderson

This past weekend we went back to our alma mater for homecoming. This time of year Indiana is beautiful, leaves are changing, crisp temperatures. It had rained all week, but held off for our trip.
Earlier that week my best friend celebrated her birthday and got engaged so the timing was perfect!
We went to the street fair, cheap thrills (a comedy show the school puts on), visited some of our favorite places (one of which is a gas station-don't judge me), took engagement photos for the newly engaged couple, and got to catch up with all my college roommates and Scotty's too.

Here are some photos from our trip...



At the street fair


Look at that bling!


The girls together again



Scotty and his "boyfriend" Eric




Some quality planking



Pray for us this week as we leave tomorrow morning for Haiti, I don't know if I'll be able to blog but I will post when we get back.

Tera
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Home study #1....check!

Last night was our first home study visit. I was SO nervous, I got home early so I'd have time to clean up, as if our HOURS of cleaning the night before wasn't enough! Before they arrived I had the stuff for brownies, sugar cookies, and cream cheese dip all out trying to decide. Of course Scotty was finishing his "HW" last minute so I was left to stress over "to feed, or not to feed?".

I chose peanut butter pretzels in case you're interested, they were a hit.

We spent a lot of time talking about our families, our relationship, and how we arrived at our decision to adopt. Both of the ladies who came were so sweet and kind, especially with my unique family situation, compared to Scotty I sounded like a Dr. Phil guest! (Not in a bad way. My family is all incredible!! I just have A LOT, and the way they're connected to me requires a detailed explanation)

We talked about what we want in a child, age, race, how many!!! That thought never crossed my mind! She said sibling groups and I think I choked on a pretzel, lol. So we are looking for baby under a year old, either boy or girl, Caucasian or Hispanic.

We ended the night talking about E-mealzcouponing, and toilet paper. I emailed our social worker today about some things and told her that by the time they left I felt like they were friends visiting!

We also found out that they set their fees on a sliding scale based on your income and we are going to be paying A LOT less than what we were anticipating! YAY GOD!

Our agency works with the state too but I think our meeting helped solidify that we are going in the right direction.

Love to all! T & S


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A fork in the road...

We have arrived at a fork, we are in a pickle, we have a conundrum.

Here is our dilemma: private adoption or child welfare adoption through the state?

Private Adoption pros & cons:
Pros...
-You choose the age, newborns are definitely available. Possibly a relationship with the birth mother during her pregnancy.
-BM are carefully screened, we would have a very transparent view of the BMs pregnancy.
-Our agency will guarantee most of the money even if our adoption should fall through.
Cons...
-Cost of adoption starts at $15,000 and goes up. $15K would be a LOW cost.
-Since a BM chooses you, there is potential to have a longer wait. (it could also move more quickly)

State adoption pros & cons:
Pros:
-FREE. That's right, it's free. There may be minimal fees but not even close to a private adoption.
-Due to the high need of families it would move much faster than a private adoption.
-There's a huge need, google heart gallery. It is so sad and unbelievable how many children don't have families.
Cons...
-The average age of a child adopted is 8. Under 5 years old is rare, and at any given time there are 300+ families waiting for a toddler.
-The odds of being chosen for a toddler are very small.
-Kids up for adoption are in the foster care system, which means they will have been through emotional trauma and have special needs to connect to a new family.

So, we need to decide ASAP. We have been seeking God's plan throughout our journey, and right now we really want to continue on the path He has for us. One other prayer request is a financial one. Our homestudy is scheduled for this Thursday and on our second visit we will have to pay half of the cost. ($750) Scotty is working on a 5k to raise money but we seem to keep running into roadblocks. He's persistent and very resourceful, so we are pressing on! If you have connections or are interested in sponsoring something for the race, email or call one of us.

Thank you for following our journey, and we are so thankful for your continued prayers!

Tera & Scotty

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Home study is here....almost!

We finally have movement! Our agency had been without an adoption social worker for some time, they finally have one. She called me to set up our first home study visit which will be the first week of September!

We've been working on the spare room, here is a picture of Scotty putting together a changing table.



He put it together so quickly I hope he has the same talent for changing diapers!!!

You can see the new color in the room too. Kind of a teal-blue. It was a "merlot" shade before, but not anymore thanks to the Bayliss family!

School starts on Monday, no kids for another week though. I was given a small promotion to team leader, so that Helps make the upcoming year more exciting!

Hope you all are enjoying your summer, and staying dry!!

Tera & Scotty



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Maggie Valley vacation

In June Scotty and I went to Maggie Valley with his family. On the way there we stopped in Sky Valley, Georgia so he could golf in his favorite place in the world. There's so much to love that it has quickly become one of my favorite places too. Here are some pictures from the trip, enjoy!








How I golf... :)



Horseback riding. Scotty happened to be riding in front of me on Pretty Boy who is the gas -iest horse ever :-P



This is Angel Falls when we visited in March before the trees had filled in, the picture after was the same location but in the summer. What a difference!
Before:



After:


Freeeeeeeeezing water! We had a picnic here





Austin hit the jackpot!


Goofing around!


We stopped for the night in Savannah, Georgia on the way home. In front of the Marshall House where we stayed.



What are you up to this summer???

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Myrtle Beach

This week I went to Myrtle Beach, SC for my brother's baseball tournament. On our way we stopped at three colleges for Taylor. It was just girls (Mom, Gramma, Taylor & I) on the way up which was nice. Here are a few photos of the colleges.

Anderson University (not to be confused with MY AU, this one is in SC)


Lenoir Rhyne, one that Taylor crossed off the list.



Lees-McCray, my favorite :)





In the middle of the mountains!





Tyler played really well, it was fun to watch him do his thing too!





We also met our family from NY and I was able to spend the first part of the week with them. They had to leave for Mazzy's 6th grade graduation so I HAVE to post a picture of Mazz at graduation :) You're welcome Mazzy!!!!



Brody's ready for the beach!



Two little pirates and a "good looking wench"-according to the Captain :)



Some of us took our pirating seriously.....



Some didn't!


The whole crew!


Ripley's aquarium



Taylor & Brode, he really does like her I promise!




Taylor & I at Friendly's last night



This is where I am currently blogging from on our last day. Yes, you can punch me later. (as soon as I get my lazy butt out of the hammock!)