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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