January has been a busy month! I look back at it and don’t understand how everything fit into 31 days. I’ll catch you up on all the joy-filled moments and crossroads in our adoption journey:
January 10, We put together a gift for a special lady! It’s for our future birthmother!!! It’s a gift that will hopefully help communicate how much we care about her, how thankful we are for her, and that she is someone we will always treasure. I could go on and on about birthmoms! I have learned so much about these special women through our adoption journey and have grown in my understanding of these individuals. I wasn’t always in this state of mind though, and I realize that they’re not always respected or valued like they deserve. To that I say: Phooey! (Though I want to say more!) A birthmom is the reason we’ll one day be called “Mommy” and “Daddy!”
For our gift, we put together a special bag full of items that we hope will help bring comfort to her healing body and heart. I’ve included a list, put together with the help of Pinterest and girlfriends who shared their favorite post-delivery items, in case there’s someone out there gathering ideas for their own birthmom gift:
January 10, We put together a gift for a special lady! It’s for our future birthmother!!! It’s a gift that will hopefully help communicate how much we care about her, how thankful we are for her, and that she is someone we will always treasure. I could go on and on about birthmoms! I have learned so much about these special women through our adoption journey and have grown in my understanding of these individuals. I wasn’t always in this state of mind though, and I realize that they’re not always respected or valued like they deserve. To that I say: Phooey! (Though I want to say more!) A birthmom is the reason we’ll one day be called “Mommy” and “Daddy!”
For our gift, we put together a special bag full of items that we hope will help bring comfort to her healing body and heart. I’ve included a list, put together with the help of Pinterest and girlfriends who shared their favorite post-delivery items, in case there’s someone out there gathering ideas for their own birthmom gift:
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January 11, We learned that our current adoption agency has no needs! This was a frustrating discovery, but it may have been more of a confirmation of what we already thought. Here we were on this day, 6 months after we made the decision to grow our family through adoption and after Craig and I had been talking about making ourselves available, when we received this information about our agency. After speaking with our adoption coordinator, we learned they had no birthmoms- zero, zilch, nada- and had recently added 2 more waiting families! What?! There was more. We also were told they completed 6 domestic adoptions in 2015 (about half the amount from the previous year), but now there were 15 waiting families. I’m no mathematician, but some of these families could wait over 2 years.
This new information, while shocking at first, really confirmed our thought about our agency: They’re small. They’re focused more on international adoptions. There is no need there. We couldn’t get stuck dwelling here. We knew we had to make ourselves available, and so, the adoption journey took a new turn!
January 12, We were asked if we wanted to share our profile with a birthmother… who was scheduled for a C-section… the following morning... in Florida! The call came from Karalee, an adoption consultant. (Flashback to July 12, 2015: Karalee and Troy are the couple we sat down to lunch with to talk adoption. We don’t just love them for being plain awesome, but they’re wonderful people, parents, and adoption advocates. Read more about our lunch date on my first blog post: Chips, Salsa, and Spillin’ the Refried Beans.) We received the call because the birthmom needed available families to consider… and fast. Talk about making ourselves available! What a valuable, rollercoaster of a week this became. Read more about this on the blog post: Status: Available.
January 22, We partnered with an adoption consultant. This is a person who helps match birthparents and adoptive parents. Instead of your typical adoption agency that works with its birthmothers, an adoption consultant has relationships with multiple adoption agencies and attorneys. This network makes Craig and me more available, and it can make the adoption process much faster and smoother for waiting families. After much prayer, research, and thought, we made the decision. Karalee is now our adoption consultant! We are very excited about this new turn in our adoption journey!
January 23, The Burge Family Adoption Fundraiser was a blast! What an unbelievable night -Yea God!- which raised $4,537.60 in donations for the adoption fees! Read more and view photos from event on the blog post: Burge Family Adoption Fundraiser.
January 27, We wait again! On this day, we were contacted by Karalee with information about a new situation… make that two new situations. This meant we had to make a choice because waiting families can only show their family profile to one birthmom at a time.
The choice was obvious. I know you’re thinking, “How do you pick?” Prayer helped. Talking with each other helped. Plus, it helped when we saw the many connections to one particular birth family with similarities in our faith, goals, and hobbies. And then there’s that the internal tug that tells you which one too.
In a familiar state, we once again felt the speed pick up! We needed to make a decision that night to get our documents delivered by 4 pm the next day. We confidently made our decision.
And in a punctual, type A manner, I had confirmation that it was received before 8 am the next day. :) I can’t say that I haven’t felt nauseous or extra sweaty lately. Still, it was easier this time to put ourselves out there, trusting God’s plan no matter the outcome of this situation. God has been so good to us and His hand is in this adoption journey, so we can be confident that He has a plan. Each day brings us closer to Baby Burge!
Prayer has been a huge part of our adoption journey and it continues. Join us in prayer for the birth parents and Baby. They’ll view our profile and others on Tuesday. The very earliest we’d hear of any decision is Tuesday, but it could be a bit and I’ve been preparing myself (and now, you) for that. In the meantime, we’ll be praying.
We’ll see what February brings!
In love,
Beth
This new information, while shocking at first, really confirmed our thought about our agency: They’re small. They’re focused more on international adoptions. There is no need there. We couldn’t get stuck dwelling here. We knew we had to make ourselves available, and so, the adoption journey took a new turn!
January 12, We were asked if we wanted to share our profile with a birthmother… who was scheduled for a C-section… the following morning... in Florida! The call came from Karalee, an adoption consultant. (Flashback to July 12, 2015: Karalee and Troy are the couple we sat down to lunch with to talk adoption. We don’t just love them for being plain awesome, but they’re wonderful people, parents, and adoption advocates. Read more about our lunch date on my first blog post: Chips, Salsa, and Spillin’ the Refried Beans.) We received the call because the birthmom needed available families to consider… and fast. Talk about making ourselves available! What a valuable, rollercoaster of a week this became. Read more about this on the blog post: Status: Available.
January 22, We partnered with an adoption consultant. This is a person who helps match birthparents and adoptive parents. Instead of your typical adoption agency that works with its birthmothers, an adoption consultant has relationships with multiple adoption agencies and attorneys. This network makes Craig and me more available, and it can make the adoption process much faster and smoother for waiting families. After much prayer, research, and thought, we made the decision. Karalee is now our adoption consultant! We are very excited about this new turn in our adoption journey!
January 23, The Burge Family Adoption Fundraiser was a blast! What an unbelievable night -Yea God!- which raised $4,537.60 in donations for the adoption fees! Read more and view photos from event on the blog post: Burge Family Adoption Fundraiser.
January 27, We wait again! On this day, we were contacted by Karalee with information about a new situation… make that two new situations. This meant we had to make a choice because waiting families can only show their family profile to one birthmom at a time.
The choice was obvious. I know you’re thinking, “How do you pick?” Prayer helped. Talking with each other helped. Plus, it helped when we saw the many connections to one particular birth family with similarities in our faith, goals, and hobbies. And then there’s that the internal tug that tells you which one too.
In a familiar state, we once again felt the speed pick up! We needed to make a decision that night to get our documents delivered by 4 pm the next day. We confidently made our decision.
And in a punctual, type A manner, I had confirmation that it was received before 8 am the next day. :) I can’t say that I haven’t felt nauseous or extra sweaty lately. Still, it was easier this time to put ourselves out there, trusting God’s plan no matter the outcome of this situation. God has been so good to us and His hand is in this adoption journey, so we can be confident that He has a plan. Each day brings us closer to Baby Burge!
Prayer has been a huge part of our adoption journey and it continues. Join us in prayer for the birth parents and Baby. They’ll view our profile and others on Tuesday. The very earliest we’d hear of any decision is Tuesday, but it could be a bit and I’ve been preparing myself (and now, you) for that. In the meantime, we’ll be praying.
We’ll see what February brings!
In love,
Beth
