Hills & Valleys: Our Faith Journey

I've been debating on whether I should post this "update," but since I've shared snippets with some, I figured it made the most sense to just share publicly as well. A few weeks ago, I joined several adoption groups on Facebook. On Oct 30, a post popped up by one of the admin about an expectant mama in the south who was looking for an adoptive family. I commented, as did hundreds of other people. I really wasn't sure if anything would come of it, I just figured I would comment and see what God did. Well...o n Saturday, November 2, we received a Facebook message from the group admin telling us that the expectant mama (I'll refer to her as A) had chosen us from all those comments and would connect with us via FB. Around the same time, I received a message from A introducing herself and telling us a little of her story. I was at Homecoming at the college when I received the message, and I must admit that I was 100% distracted for the rest of the afterno

So, you might be wondering--what on earth is induced lactation?! I figured I'd share some info here for those who might be curious. What is induced lactation? Quite simply, it's breastfeeding without pregnancy. How does it work? The process to get there varies from person to person, but usually involves some combination of herbs, medicines, etc. over 3-6 months to help stimulate the body to produce milk. Several months ago, I went on two medications to prepare (under the guidance of my doctor). I now pump throughout the day to encourage my body to make milk. Why induce lactation? It's no secret that breastmilk contains all sorts of beneficial antibodies and provides excellent nutrition. It's also a special bonding experience with your child. I felt like it was a no-brainer for me to induce lactation and give our baby the best I can. (*This is not to say formula is bad in any way, but I wanted to give nursing a shot first!) How did you learn about this? Induc

I've had quite a few people ask lately if there's any progress with our adoption. Truth be told, there isn't much going on at the moment, but here's a little bit of an update and some info about our agency at least. We're currently in the matching phase, which can be the longest part of the adoption process. Our particular agency, CompACT Family Services, sometimes has more extended wait times because they only place a few kiddos every year. (This is partly because they don't operate like a traditional agency and do not have the same number of mamas contacting them for adoptive placements.) CompACT is an organization run by the Assemblies of God. They have three main functions: foster placements in foster homes; a maternity home, where young expectant mothers receive assistance and support throughout their pregnancies; and adoption services for those who are members of Assemblies of God churches. Some expectant mamas in the maternity home choose to place the

Wow, I can't believe it's been FOUR MONTHS since my last blog post. I guess you could say I'm not very consistent with blogging. There always seems to be so much life stuff happening around here! Here's a bit of an update: We've spent the last few months going through our home to find things to sell to help grow our adoption fund. Most of the items have sold, which is very exciting!! We've also had friends donate things to us that they were getting rid of, which has also been a huge blessing. Mid-June, my friend Christina offered to have a yard sale benefiting our adoption. We spread the word to our church family and community, set the date for July 13th, and had  many  people donate items for the sale. It was truly overwhelming to see how generous people were. We set our fundraising goal for the sale as $2750--the remaining amount we needed to pay for our known adoption expenses (adoption lawyer, post-placement visits, etc). This amount felt like such a s

How has it already been over a month since my last update? Time flies! I've had a bunch of people ask about where our adoption is up to, so I figured it was time for an update. :) We finally finished all of our paperwork mid-April and got it mailed off to our home study provider. We were SO excited to have it out of our hands and hopefully schedule our interviews as soon as we could. My hope was that our home study would be complete by the end of May. Unrealistic? Maybe. I just want to have this piece complete so we can really start to get excited!! Anyway, we hit a bit of a roadblock with scheduling our interviews. We have three pieces to our interviews--one-on-one interviews with each of us, an interview with the three of us, and a home visit to make sure our home is safe. The issue was, the provider was only available during school hours. As many of you are aware, I'm in a long-term substitute position that meant I was working Mon-Fri through mid-May. The next times the

Over the past couple of weeks, we've been chipping away at our home study paperwork. It is difficult to explain just how involved it is for those who have never gone through it. Here's a quick run-down: - Birth certificates - Marriage certificate - Drivers license copies - Tax return copies - Pay stubs - Letter from employer - Background checks for every state we've lived in (we have six) - Local background checks - Fingerprinting for FBI background checks - Physical exam including TB test for all three of us - References - Statement from our vet that our dog is safe - Various documents to sign - Copy of our home study - Questionnaire completed by both of us - Individual questionnaires (very detailed) by each of us, including things like the strengths and weaknesses of our marriage, our upbringing, family values, etc. - Special needs checklist (what we're open to) - Various case studies - Letters from my counselors signing off on

We're currently in the midst of our home study, and have been getting a lot of questions lately about what is involved, how long it will take, etc. So, I figured I'd give a little insight into this part of the process. :) First up, what is a home study? A home study is an assessment of our family to make sure we are good candidates for adoption. This process involves loads of paperwork, including background checks for every state we've lived in (we've lived in 6 between the three of us). Here's a rough idea of some of the paperwork involved: - Background checks - Questionnaires for each adoptive parent on our parents, our relationships with parents, childhood, siblings, education, career history, future career plans, personality, marriage, reasons behind wanting to adopt, and questions. - Special needs checklist--determining what we are open to considering (this is a very extensive list) - Various scenarios to consider and respond to - Physical exam, in

Just thought I'd compile some of the answers to the questions we've been asked lately. :) What kind of adoption are you pursuing? Domestic infant adoption. At this time, we feel a baby would be the best fit for our family. We have looked into foster care, adoption of children, sibling adoptions, etc. While these are all very necessary types of adoption, it's not where we're feeling God's leading right now. How old will the child be that you're adopting? A newborn. :) What agency are you working with? We are working with COMPACT Family Services, which is a ministry of the Assemblies of God and provides matching services. We are so excited and thrilled to be working with them! How much does it cost? It's no secret that adoption is expensive. That being said, COMPACT operates a little differently to many adoption agencies--more like as a facilitator of a private adoption. They do not charge for their services, instead seeing it as a ministry opportu

For those who might be wondering why or how we decided to adopt...here's a piece of our story! In 2010, we felt God stirring our hearts about adoption and the many children who need homes. We started gathering information, and in 2011, began working with a Christian adoption agency. We completed our home study and were so excited to begin our family via adoption. However, just a week before we were eligible to begin matching, we discovered we were pregnant. This put everything on hold. In 2013, Caleb was deployed to Afghanistan. We didn't get to talk often, and when we did, Caleb was usually so exhausted from the 16-20 hour work days that he didn't talk much. One conversation from deployment stood out though, for so many reasons--he told me he felt like God was stirring in him again about adoption. Little did he know, I had been feeling the same thing! That being said, the timing wasn't right, with deployment still happening plus a lot of uncertainty about a job

Thanks for following me over here for a bit of an update. I figured it might be easier to post here since I have a tendency of becoming long-winded on FB posts, and it seems fitting to include it here, along-side the other baby-related updates. Let's just get the inevitable question out of the way: No, I'm not pregnant. Here's the update: A few weeks ago, we underwent a fertility procedure that would increase our chances of getting pregnant. We were so hopeful and excited that this could be our month. A million little things seemed to click into place--from perfectly timed doctor's appointments to my body's response to the medication. We dared to hope. Two and a bit weeks later, we got an answer in the form of one pink stripe-- negative. I'm not gonna lie, I think it was one of the hardest moments of this journey for me. I tested and re-tested, hoping it was just too soon, but nope...that one silly line kept showing up over and over again. The last f