Update

Day 140 Approved and waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

We had our second telephone conversation with S today. It went really well! We had a really fun conversation with her and got to just have a somewhat casual chit-chat. We learned a lot about her and her two children, and we're going to be sending them some fun gifts tomorrow through the mail.

We found out that she has actually been to the hospital twice now thinking she was in labor. She's dilated to 3 centimeters and having irregular contractions. Sometimes they come every thirty minutes, sometimes they come every hour... So we're excited for when they start coming more regularly! S said that baby girl is really active, especially at night. So I guess that means we'll have some really fun sleepless nights ahead of us! :) S also said that her previous three babies have all been just under 7 pounds. The other thing we're really excited about is that S has a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, so after hearing what the doctor has to say, we're hoping to make more firm travel arrangements. So far, the idea is that I should go out there a few days early to be able to meet S and do what I can to help. Then Malone will follow.

S also said her mom is still really disapproving of her adoption plan. We are worried that her mom is going to try to talk S out of placing. So our request of all of you is that you pray for her mother's heart to be softened. We feel really confident in S but we don't want her relationship with her family to be damaged. So please please please remember us in your prayers.

So for updates, that's pretty much it. We're most likely going to hear from S again tomorrow and are really looking forward to building a good relationship with her. As always, we'll let you all know when we find out more!

Scared, Nervous, Excited, Frantic, and miracles

Day 139 approved and waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

Oh my gosh, I am so overwhelmed right now. I have five million emotions going through my head that I can't even reign in. I've only had about 12 hours of sleep in three days, because my mind is constantly going a million miles a minute.

We won't get a chance to talk to S again until tomorrow. I have been so anxious all weekend to get to talk to her again! We're so worried about how she's doing. Especially because I think she was planning on breaking the news to some of her family members this weekend that she is planning to place. We have been praying our guts out for her, and my whole family is just so excited.

Right now one of the biggest hurdles on my mind is... travel arrangements. Where do I start!?! The other thing that we're thinking about is buying baby items. For now, we're just buying the essentials. So yesterday we got a car seat, and we're working on getting a diaper bag packed so it will be ready to go at a moment's notice. We are assembling the bassinet that was given to us (Thanks Jeremy and Theresa!) so that it will be ready when we get home. And I have to say, I'm so thankful to my friend Beth who just adopted recently. She put together a list of the essentials she needed when she went to pick up her daughter who was just born in February. That list is now my best friend, and I'm using it like a road map for packing. lol The other question we're trying to find an answer to is... where do we stay? If we can, we would absolutely love to stay with a member of our church who lives in North Carolina so that we can avoid paying a hotel. We're just so tight on our budget right now, anything that we can save will be helpful. Anybody have any contacts new High Point?

Other than that, we had a great time with the fourth of July. We set off fireworks. Twice. (What can I say, I belong to a family of Pyros! :) ) We watched our city fireworks. And today we had our THIRD barbecue in three days. We'll have to post pictures. Eventually. :) It was a really fun day today actually, because my newest niece was blessed in church. She's about 7 weeks old. She looked way too cute in her white dress, and was so quiet and good while all the attention was on her! I'm so excited that our baby will have a cousin so close in age.

Okay, I know this is getting long, but I really have to tell you about this miracle. So my little brother, Bryce, is currently serving a mission for our church in Phoenix. While serving in one of the wards, he got to know this really sweet family, and I guess he happened to mention our story. The mom of this family, Edna, was intrigued so she started following our blog. Well, not too long ago, Edna emailed me. She let us know that she wanted to help us in our journey to adopt and had decided to hold a fundraiser yard sale like the one we did not too long ago and donate the proceeds to our adoption fund. Well, Edna emailed me to let me know that she had raised $200.00 for us in her yard sale!!! This email came just shortly before we found out we were matched with S. I am so touched and humbled at her example of Christlike charity. She is a miracle in our lives! I have also been so overwhelmed and humbled by the outpouring of kindness we have received from everyone since we found out we were chosen. I have had so many offers of donations of baby items, and it is going to save us a ridiculous amount of money. So thank you to all of you. You are touching our life and changing us for the better. THANK YOU!!!

Details about our big, Huge, GIGANTIC news!

Day 137 approved and waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

SHE WANTS US!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday evening we had our conference phone call with our birth mom (to protect her privacy, I will just call her S.). (That sounds so exciting to say OUR birth mom!!!) It went really well. It went so well in fact, that the caseworker actually had to come on the line and tell us it was time for the conversation to end, because we were basically just chit-chatting about everything. So we hung up the phone so that the caseworker could have a chance to talk to S. about it. Only about five minutes later, the caseworker called us back and said, "congratulations! She loves you guys, and she definitely wants to match with you." I swear I almost passed out. The caseworker said that S. was saying that she just knew in her heart we were right and that she felt a calm and peace the minute we started talking.

Oh my gosh, so the baby is due in less than three weeks and we actually found out that S. had a labor scare this past Sunday! So this baby really could come any day now. Holy smokes! I have to get ready! We have to buy a car seat! We have to dive into the legal paperwork! I have to buy some baby clothes and pack a diaper bag! (Can you tell I'm feeling somewhat frantic?) I don't believe I've been this stressed ever since hubby and I got married. But it is so worth it. All this craziness will be worth it for our daughter.

So, now I get to go throw myself together for our big BBQ tonight and hope that I'm not toooo scatterbrained about everything. (yeah right!) I'll update more later, but in the meantime, we need everybody to pray and, if you can on Sunday, fast for S., the baby, us, and S.'s whole family. There is some discord right now with some of S.'s family members who don't approve of her adoption plan. We don't want them to hurt her feelings. But she's staying so strong, we're so proud of her. Please pray and fast that she will be able to remain strong and that she will feel comfort and peace in her heart. We just love her so much already.

big, Huge, GIGANTIC news!

Day 136 approved and waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

So I know in the previous post I promised more updates on everything that's been going on lately. Well, I'm going to skip that for now in favor of our big news. I'm sure after reading this, you will forgive me.

We got a call about a birth mother who wants to match with us!!! Everything isn't 100% certain yet, because the birth mom wants to have a conference call with us before she absolutely commits to us, but this is looking really solid! I can only share a little bit of information about the situation, because I want to protect her privacy. But here's what I can share:

-The birth mother is in her upper 20's
-She lives near the east coast with her two children whom she is single parenting
-The birth father wants nothing to do with either her or the baby
-The birth mother and the birth father are both African American
-Her due date is July 23 and she is expecting a (drumroll please) GIRL!!!

So here's the part where I get really candid. This match is coming through the matching agency, Adoption Advertising. So it's going to cost us an extra $5,000.00. (Yikes!) We have managed to save up about $6,200.00. But that leaves us short about $4,300.00. We're obviously going to have to take out a loan. But we really would like to take out the least amount possible. So, we are shamelessly asking for help. If you feel like you can spare any amount for our adoption fund, we would be eternally grateful. If you can't, don't feel bad, we understand. But we are hoping to raise at least a little bit more money to reduce the amount of debt that we have to take on. You can either donate with the paypal button on the right, or contact us at maloneandbrittanyadopt@gmail.com for other options.

In the meantime, stay tuned for more updates! We will be having our conference call very soon and I promise to update when we find out! Please pray for us... we're so nervous...

In Tribute

Day 126 approved and waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

I am back from my soggy camping trip. I know I have so much to catch up on, but that's just going to have to wait for my next post. Because right now, I have something much more significant on my mind.

Today is my son, Gavin's, second angel-versary. It was two years ago today that I held my precious baby in my arms and said goodbye to him. I miss him like crazy. I think about him every single day. In my mind's eye, I can still remember just what he looked like.

It's hard to believe that if he had lived, I'd be chasing a toddler around right now. But surprisingly enough, I am at peace as I'm thinking about him today. Instead of feeling pain, I feel gratitude. I know that he is watching over me, and because of my religion, I am confident that we will be together again someday. I thank God for that knowledge and for the blessing of peace that's in my heart right now.

Will come back to life!

Day 119 approved and waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption.

Hello friends... I promise I will come back to life after this week. But tomorrow is the first day of Girls' Camp so I am going to be M.I.A. until Friday. Sorry if you can't get a hold of me! And will you all pray for me and the girls? This is going to be a crazy week, and I'm just hoping that I managed to throw it all together well enough in the short 3 weeks that I've had to prepare.

Oh! My! Gosh!

Day 105 approved and waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

So.... I have been absent from blogging, emailing, calling, and most general socializing lately. I know it, but I have a good excuse!!! I recently received my THIRD calling in our ward. (For those of you who aren't members of my church, a calling is a position in our church in which members are asked to serve by our leaders without monetary compensation.) I'm starting to think that God is trying to distract me from the waiting process by flooding my schedule with too much to do.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly happy to serve in our church, but this is a little confusing. There are TONS of couples in our ward! There are probably people who don't even have one calling, and now I have three. I'm a nursery teacher, the ward literacy specialist, and now I am the ward Girls' Camp director. And get this, Girls' Camp is in just 2 1/2 weeks! Apparently they've had two other women back out on them for this position, so they were pretty desperate.

I am o-v-e-r-w-h-e-l-m-e-d. I think this will be fun, and I'm looking forward to working with the girls, but SERIOUSLY. I have so much to do, where do I start!?!

Needless to say, I'm going to be very busy for a while, so you all might think that I've fallen off the face of the planet. But no worries! I'm just taking a temporary leave! I'll be back, providing this doesn't kill me first! ;)

Taking the plunge

Day 92 approved and waiting for our child through the miracle of adoption

Malone and I have been thinking and praying and debating and praying and thinking some more over the past couple of months about whether or not to take the plunge with the matching agency. When we prayed we kept getting the feeling, "not yet, not yet..."

Well, this past weekend we got the feeling like now is the time to let them start presenting situations to us for consideration. So today we emailed them. The caseworker we have talked with is super nice and optimistic, which really makes a big difference. She is giving the family coordinator the go-ahead to start finding potential matches for us! We are at peace with this decision, but of course the extra $4,400.00 is a bit hard to swallow. We're still going to work hard to raise more money, but we feel like it's within our reach now. Please continue to pray with us and everyone involved.

So I guess that's it for my post today. I have a lot more stuff to post about, including pictures, but it's already WAY past my bedtime. So I'll just have to get back with y'all later!