Movin' movin' movin'

Day 183 Waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

We are moving on SATURDAY! We found a great house to rent. It's so cute. It's a 2 bedroom, 1 and 1/2 bathroom home with a small yard. The landlords don't rent out the basement, so we have it all to ourselves! Finally for the first time in our four years of marriage, we no longer share a wall/ceiling/floor with other families! We are so excited, but stressed. We really weren't planning on moving, but the rent in our other place just wasn't justifiable with a baby on the way. We figured we would rather save some money and we really lucked out to find this place for less per month than what we're paying now. The house is older, but has all new flooring and paint. It's in a great neighborhood. It has a small creek running by which is adorable. The creek is fenced off so kids can't get in it but the landlords said that in the spring there are always baby ducks to throw bread to. The landlords are also really really nice. This place practically just fell into our laps, and we are so thankful because we know Heavenly Father blessed us to find it.

Update

Day 175 Waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

Today was wonderful. We took the day off of work and drove down to meet our birthmom, J, in person. We get along so well with her! I think one of the reasons why I love her so much is because she reminds me A LOT of my best friend, Cessi.

Anyway, we started the day out by going to her doctor's appointment with her. We met her doctor and we got to listen to the baby's heartbeat!!! This is the same doctor who delivered both of her other babies she placed, so she really feels comfortable with him. We are going to be able to go to another doctor's appointment with her in October to find out whether we're having a boy or a girl!

After the appointment, we took her to IHOP because it was still early in the morning. We had a good time just chatting and eating breakfast. Then we wandered around the mall together. After that we gave her a ride home. All together, it was a pretty great day! Next time we go down we're also going to get to meet some of her family, so we're pretty happy about that. The only thing we're concerned about right now is the birth father, T. He says he is supportive of the adoption plan, but his family is VERY negative about it. So we are praying that things will work out with him. Please join us in those prayers.

So other than that, we went to my little sister's wedding this past weekend. It was great! It was really neat to be able to watch them be married in the temple, and remember the day almost 4 years ago when we were in their place. Plus Ashley looked beatiful!

Malone will be starting his classes again soon. He's looking forward to getting back into the structure of school, but not looking forward to being so busy with research and two classes. I'm not looking forward to that part either, but I guess we have to pay our dues just like everybody else!

One last thing. We are looking for a new place to move to. This apartment has just gotten too expensive, and with a baby on the way we are looking to save as much as possible. Anybody who lives here have any good suggestions?

The Secret's Out!

Day 171 Waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

So here's our big secret.

Mind you, nothing is for sure yet, but everything is looking very positive.

We were contacted yesterday by a birthmother who is already registered through LDS Family Services. She found our profile on the Its About Love website and she said she just fell in love with us. I'm shocked! She lives about three hours away from us, and is due February 19th. The birthfather and their families are supportive of the adoption plan. They are all LDS. She wants us to go to her doctor's appointment on Monday!

I am currently in a state of shock! More info to come later...

Secrets

Day 170 Waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

I have a secret...

But I'm not going to tell you yet...

MUAHAHAHAHA (evil laugh)

The Prize

Day 155 Waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

All right, I think I've kept you all waiting in suspense long enough... for now.

The prize is going to start off with a $25.00 gift card to the vendor of your choice. Now I know what you're thinking... "what does she mean by: start off with?" By that, we mean that periodically, we are going to be adding something new and great into the pot to compile one GREAT grand prize. By the time October 1st rolls around, the prize is going to be pretty amazing. You'll just have to keep checking back to see what's next!

Now remember, if you haven't sent me your address yet so I can send you pass-along cards, you need to do so ASAP to maloneandbrittanyadopt@gmail.com. But anyone can jump in the contest all the way until the very last day! (For those of you who have already sent me your addresses, look for them in the mail very soon if you haven't gotten them already!) Just let me know every so often how many cards you have given away, and I will keep a running tally here on our blog so you can check out your competitors. Once you've given away all that we sent you, just email us and we'll send you more. We aren't afraid that any cards will be "wasted." We are perfectly happy to send as many as you'll give away!

There are also bonus ways to get "points" towards your total. If you add our adoption button (see the right side of our page) or if you blog about our story and our giveaway we will give you extra points. I am working on compiling "the rules" for you guys so this will be less confusing, but seeing as how this little game is still in the early stages, I'm still working things through in my head. :)

In other news, Malone and I will be attending the National FSA Conference on July 31st and August 1st. We're so excited to meet so many of you there! We've heard it's always amazing, so we're really looking forward to it. How many of you out there will be there?

I can't believe we just did that

Day 152 Waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

We did what I thought we would never be able to do yesterday.

Yesterday we were presented with another birth mother who was interested in matching with us. We SO BADLY wanted to scream: YES YES YES YES YES!!!

We prayed...

It was NOT right for us. We received a CLEAR answer to our prayers. That baby girl is not meant for our family, but is meant for someone else.

So we said no.

We are waiting for God to lead us to OUR baby, not just any baby. We need to connect with the RIGHT birth mother, not just any birth mother.

But saying no broke my heart nonetheless. I don't know how much more my heart can take before it physically breaks into pieces.

Who will win?

Day 150 Waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

All right! Since Malone and I have decided not to use the matching agency again (at least not for now) we are going to have to be our own best advocates. That includes a big push to get our pass-along cards out there! So.... here's our new idea.... let me know what you think!

We are going to be having a CONTEST! We will send you as many of our pass-along cards as you want. Whoever can give away the MOST cards by October 1st is going to win our prize! And don't worry if you're just one of my blog stalkers and I don't know you in person... I still want you to participate too! So come out of those lurker closets, and send your address in an email to maloneandbrittanyadopt@gmail.com. Plus, when you blog about our contest, I will count that as an additional 2 pass-along cards to your final tally. Same goes for if you add our adoption button to your blog.

So... the big question is: what is our prize? Well...

You're just going to have to hold your breath and check back later for that one. I'm going to keep you all in suspense! Muahahaha! (evil laugh) But lets just say... you are DEFINITELY going to want to win this one!

Onward and Upward

Day 149 Waiting for our baby through the miracle of adoption

So I can't believe it's been a whole week since the day we got on a plane thinking we were finally going to be parents. Heavenly Father is working overtime to heal our hearts. There are occasional moments when I feel overcome with anger, despair, hopelessness, etc... But for the most part, I am successfully moving on. After much thought and prayer, we have decided to continue to pursue adoption. Although we have lost a lot of confidence, we still have faith that God can help us build our family through the miracle of adoption. However, we are going to be very cautious about matching with a birthmother who is from a state like North Carolina again. To have a "period of revocation" or a period where the birth mother can change her mind is not a law that we are very happy with. It's not only hard on the adoptive family, but it must also be hard on the birth mother. I can only imagine what it would be like to be a birth family who has to endure that time period. It's hard enough to ask them to make that decision once, but to ask them to make that decision every day for 7 days (or more!) must be torture.

The matching agency we hired has offered to give us a full refund of our money. Although we really enjoyed working with them, we have been praying and have come to the conclusion that at least for now, we need to wait things out with LDS Family Services. So, we are asking our family and friends to make a renewed effort on our behalf to help us find the missing part of our family. We are taking a leap of faith, and are waiting for Heavenly Father to show us how this experience will be for our good. I have a very strong feeling that I need to send out our pass-along cards, so if you haven't sent me your address yet, please do so at maloneandbrittanyadopt@gmail.com.

We also wanted to say thank you to all of you. We have been so touched to see how all our friends, family, co-workers and even complete strangers have come together to support us. We have received the occasional insensitive comment, but for the most part we have been extended a lot of love.