Tuesday, July 14, 2009

New house, New jobs, we love it!

Hello from Tennessee! I know I have been bad about posting news on the blog...I am so sorry! We are in our new house in Clarksville, TN now and are finally settled in. We took off wall paper, painted almost every room, updated lights, mirrors, and cleaned everything!

Thanks to all of our family and friends who helped us move and make some improvements on the house. We could not have done it without you. We are looking forward to having many family memories in this house.

Some of you have asked about the adoption process. We have a meeting set up for Thursday (July 16) with the agency from Nashville. She is going to visit our home and do an updated home study. Once this is complete, we will be good to go once a mom picks us. So we will keep you updated.

I will take pictures of the house soon and post them for everyone to see. Mark is doing well with his new job at the Clarksville Best Buy. I have been attending some in-services for teachers and meeting some of my new co-workers. I took Mark to the new school on Monday. The building is not yet completed, however, it should be done in the next two weeks.

I will be traveling to Wisconsin on July 20 to visit my mom. Everyone please keep my mom in your prayers as she is going through a tough time in her life right now. It would mean alot to our family.

Hope everyone is enjoying there summer. I promise to post more often. Please visit back for pictures!

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Update from Tennessee

Hello everyone! Well, for the 2 or 3 people that actually read our blog, I thought it was time to update it. We have sold the house, loaded up the moving truck and now have all of our stuff in storage in Mark's parents basement. I am staying with my dad and family for right now until we find a house. Mark is still working in North Carolina and will arrive in Tennessee on June 5.

Mark got the job in Clarksville, Tn, which is the same town I am working in. He starts his new job on June 7. We will take a family vacation to Minnesota on June 13 fro a week. We are looking forward to that very much. I know Mark is ready for a little rest.

For now we are house hunting via Internet and have a realtor who will show us some houses this week. We would like to buy this summer, so we will see how that goes. The dogs are split up into two houses, KC is with me and Bailey is with Marks parents. They don't like being separated, but they are doing o.k.

I started teacher training last week. Things sure have changed since I did my student teaching. I am looking forward to working in the school system. This seems to be a great school system. I have also been shopping for clothes for work. You would think after being in college athletics for 8 years...I would have enough clothes!

I am trying to help our parents as much as I can. Taking Frank (father-in-law) to doctor and therapy tomorrow. Trying to help with whatever we can, so I don't feel like a lazy slug.

That is about all the updates for now. I will try to do better at keeping you posted. Have a great week!

Monday, May 11, 2009

WE ARE MOVING!!!!

Well, it has been a long time since my last post. I have been so busy with softball season. We just finished a very disapointing season, and I am officially working my last two weeks at Elon University.

I have accepted a position at West Creek High School in Clarksville, TN. It is a brand new high school and I will be a Physical Education Teacher and the head softball coach.

We put our house on the market and with the grace of god, it sold in 11 days. Someone upstairs was looking out for us. There were two houses in our nieghboorhood that have been for sale fr a long time, and we just got very lucky to sell our so quickly. We close on the house on May 15, but the new owners will let us stay in there until May 26...rent free....so nice of them!

Mark has put in for a transfer to a Best Buy in Tennessee. He has had three phone interviews thus far. We are praying for the job in Clarksville, TN as an Operations Supervior. That would be the ideal position, however, we will not know until the end of the month. Please keep him in your prayers as he has been a very patient husband through all of this and I just want him to find a job he will be happy in.

Our final day in North Carolina will be May 25. We will be leaving that morning with the moving truck. Mark may have to stay and work for a little longer depending on his job transfer.

Please keep us in your prayers as we are waiting on news about his job. We love and miss you all and can't wait to be in Tennessee!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Waiting for our miracle

Well, the official wait time has begun. Out album has been completed and the agency has three copies of the books. We are also listed on the website in the waiting families page. To visit the page, click on the CAS adoption link on the blog page, then click on the Pregnant square where it says more info. Scroll down to the bottom of that page and click on waiting families. We are on page 2.

Now we just have to wait and pray. They will call us if a birth mother decides she wants to meet us. If that happens, and she picks us, then we get listed on "hold". This means that someone has chosen us and we are just waiting on her to deliver the baby. Although she could still change her mind during this time.

We know that God has a plan for our child and he will bring him/her to us at the right time. We have the nursery completed and a few baby items ready to go. We just ask you to keep us in your prayers and thank you to everyone for all of your support. This has already been a long process, and depending on the wait, it could get even longer. But, it will definately be worth the wait.

Love and miss all of you.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Meeting on Tuesday

Well, we had a meeting with the owner of the agency yesterday. Her name is Dorris and she is from El Salvador. She is an awesome woman. She and her husband started this agency 30 years ago. One of the reasons we decided to go with this agency is because she is a tough woman and she does not take any lip from anyone. She really knows the adoption laws and her heart is so big.

She told us that we are all set with paperwork and from a financial point. All we needed to do was finish our photo album on Shutterfly and then send it to the agency for final approval. So we did that as soon as we go home and also got our pictures together for the web site.

The photo book is something every couple has to design on Shutterfly. It is actually a hard cover, bound book with pictures of our life. the pictures tell a story of our life from start to finish (when we met till now). I will post the book on the blog as soon as it is approved. The book is about $30 and we must order two of them to keep at the agency. Mothers can come in and look at our book and decide if they would like to meet us. WOW....lots of pressure for just a book! I stressed over it for days, but Mark and I sat down and I think we did a good job.

Bottom line is when they receive the book (once I order it) then the ball is officially rolling. Meaning that anytime after they receive a book, a birth mom or family could pick us. It could be as quick as two weeks, or as long as a year and a half. We just have to wait and see. Right now the agency has 14 couples on their website. that means that the birth mom's have 14 couples right now to pick from. 3 of those couples are getting ready to go on "hold" which means that a birth mom has met with them and has picked them, but she has not had the baby yet.

SO, this means that once Mark and I get on the website, we will be added to the 11 couples/families to pick from. 12 couples the mom will have to pick from. Pretty good odds huh? That's what I thought...however, Dorris told us that they tend to get more "girls" or "birth moms to come to them when they have a bigger selection to pick from. So, we will see. We know that God has a right time in mind and he has a plan, we will just pray about it. I think with the economy the way it is, is a big reason the numbers of families waiting to adopt are down.

We thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers through all of this and we ask you to continue to pray with us as God has a plan and we will be patient.

We love all of our family and friends and wish you all a great weekend. I go on the road this weekend to start a season full of travel and softball. Please pray for Mark and he will be eating lots of frozen dinners and hot pockets! Love you all!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Next step here we come......

Well, the agency sent us a letter stating that our home study was "officially" accepted! Yay!!! They told us to call the agency and set up a meeting with the owner to go over the legal rights and such. They also want to go over the photo album that will be printed for potential moms to look at and the album that will go on the internet. We are very excited about getting to the next step.

I was reading the blog that the Christian Adoption agency put on their website for waiting families to read. They give tips on how to put together a successful photo book. They even said that some peoples books are so good that they get picked after only two weeks. Now, of course that got my hopes up and I thought right away that we should hurry and get the book done so we can get picked. I have already started working on it on Shutterfly, but I want it to be perfect so I am going to take my time.

The meeting is scheduled for February 10. So we will need lots of prayers from that point on. Once we get the book done we will also create an album on-line. Once that is completed I will post the link and you can view our album on line.

Thank you for all of your prayers thus far. We still need plenty. God has a plan and we are trusting in him to know when the time is right. Have a great week!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Nursery Finished

Well, we managed to clean out our third bedroom that was our office (and the dogs room) and make it our nursery. We purchased the crib and brought in some other pieces of furniture and we painted last weekend. It was so much fun getting all of the baby items ready. We tried to stay with nutural colors and mostly green with some yellow and tan mixed in. I have included some pictures so everyone can see what the finished product looks like.

We needed to get this room done to put some pictures in our photo book and hopefully our on-line album for the agency. We have not heard from them since our homestudy was complete, but with the holidays, we figured there would be some delay.

We will keep you all updated on the next step, but enjoy the pictures and we thank all of your family that made it possible for us to complete this project.











Last Yankee/Boston series in Yankee Stadium

Nursery Pic 2

Nursery Pic 2
Nursery Pictures

Nursery Pic 1

Nursery Pic 1
The crib