July Update

Hey hey and happy summer! We are finally feeling the summer vibes! Between pool hangs with friends, watching the fireworks down at the Trinity, and cheers-in’ our free slurpees from 7-11 on our anniversary, summer is here! 

BIG milestones have been made for our family this month! We received two profile inquiries aka two calls!

Reminder on how this process will start, Gladney will reach out to us stating “we have a profile for you to review”. This will be information about the birthmother, birthfather, and infant. After reviewing, we can inform our social worker that yes, it seems like an opportunity for our family or no, it does not feel like the right opportunity for our family.

If we say yes, then our profile book gets sent to the birthmother where she will decide yes or no regarding selecting us as adoptive parents.

The first one however, was sent to us by mistake. Yes, a mistake made by our social worker. The very first time we got the call, it was not for us, meant for someone else. But it wasn’t known to us that it was a mistake until after the roller coaster of emotions, thoughts, breathing, adrenaline, readiness, butterflies, tears, worry, and decision making neurons turned on. It was incredible. It was heartbreaking. And there were lessons learned on both sides, ours and Gladney’s. 

After this mistake, we went to Gladney and met with someone that would hear our concerns, advocacy for supporting us as parents in waiting, and the vulnerability of how that impacted us. We were seen and heard and cradled with care.

Then a week or two later, we received another profile, for us! A real one! 

Together we sat down, read and reread all the information that was sent to us about the out of state family and the sweet 4 month old baby that was in need of adoptive parents. Honoring the privacy of the family, we won’t be going into detail as to how and why we arrived at a no for this opportunity, but what we can say is that it was decided from a very calm, clear, grounded place of considering what would be best for all family members.

This experience felt exciting, exhilarating, like a spark had been lit within us. That our time is indeed getting close. At least closer than we have ever been! It was also reassuring to see that Pat and I, after months of talks, discussions, curious questions, we were aligned, a team, parents in agreement when talks turned to action during this experience, and it felt really, really good.

This experience has caused some momentum. We realized that there were some tasks to tackle that we hadn’t thought of before such as…

Who is going to take care of Jolene if we need to jump on a plane or drive across state lines to meet our baby?

How to handle work schedules, reschedules, and communication when we are needed in another state with a 48hr notice?

Are we financially prepared to travel with such a short notice? Stay in a hotel or airbnb situation for x amount of days/weeks?

Do we need to have a suitcase packed? OMG! We need to pack a suitcase for our baby!!!

Sparks are flying with excitement, and curiosity! Our next milestone is in August, where we will honor being active (on the list) for one year! We have been talking about celebrating by shopping and purchasing a rocking chair for the sweetest rocks, and snuggles with our little one to come.  

We also have our monthly meet up with our fellow parents in waiting group. This time, a Friday night out with pizza, gabs, and community. 

Thank you again for checking back here to see how and where we are on our journey. Do you have any questions we can answer? Let us know!

Thank you for loving and supporting our family!

~Anna