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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