Adoption Update

Dear friends,
I'm writing today to tell you all about our update involving the adoption. It would be nice to share this with you all in person, but obviously that would be a lot of phone calls. So here's the update all written out for you.
After months now of feeling discontented since we started back in the adoption process Evan and I made the very difficult decision of canceling our adoption. Since we started back in the process late summer we have both felt stressed about the process and overwhelmed by the urgency of trying to finish paperwork and bringing a child home prior to Evan starting dental school. The paperwork was more than we thought we would have to go through again, and the wait list has nearly tripled since we went through in before, and the agency said they are sorry for the "misunderstanding" but we would have to wait the entire wait list again, all of this would bring the total time to nearly 3 more years. After a lot of prayer, discussion and tears we realized that it would be impossible to have a child home with us prior to Evan starting school, and once he's in school the days are long and overflow into the weekends, leaving little to no time for Evan to be intentionally bonding with a newly adopted son. A process we both desperately want to be present for and intentional about. We both feel this is the right thing for our family now and we feel such peace and relief since making the decision. We're trusting this peace is from God and know that we will fulfill His call for our family to adopt once Evan is finished with dental school and we can provide the best possible home for a newly adopted child. Thank you all for your support through the past few years as Evan and I have been going through the process of starting our family and for the support you continually give us as we continue in that journey. I'm so thankful to God for the friendships we have with all of you and the blessings you are to us both.

Life's just crazy!!!

One of our family pics from our family and Brody's one year photo shoot with our brother-in-law Garrett!

Well, if anyone even still checks my blog and reads this, I'll give a super quick recap of the past year and a little more... I just can't believe how life got so crazy and then just flew by!!!
I'm pretty sure most, if not all of you know that after I was put on bed rest last year, I was induced on 10/20/09 after a visit at the perinatologists at St. Vincent's. I was confirmed to also have pre-eclampsia, which in combination with the cholestasis, made me a high risk patient and there was enough risk of continuing the pregnancy to Brody and me that the best thing for us would be to deliver. So, I was induced and delivered Brody at 6:14pm on Wednesday, October 21, 2009!!! He was the most precious thing I'd every seen!!! We had three nights in the hospital, the last of which was on the pediatric unit for Brody to be under bili lights for his hyperbilirubinemia. I was of course a wreck for all of this, but Evan was my strength and encouragement. The next week I had a gallbladder attack (worse pain than labor and delivery if you ask me!) which sent us to the ER at St. Vincent's at 4 in the morning one night. A few weeks later I had my gallbladder out and I have felt great ever since!
Then, the past year just flew by! It's been full of everything wonderful that comes with having a child... his first Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Easter, 4th of July and every other Holiday we celebrate, along with all his milestones... rolling over, sitting, first word "mama" quickly followed by "dada," swimming lessons, crawling (while visiting the Campbell grandparents in DC), standing, creeping and walking with a walker toy, soon to be on his own! Brody has brought such joy to our lives and we thank God so much for the precious gift he is to us! I cannot imagine life without him!
Now, we are back in the thick of adoption paperwork for son #2! Once Brody was 9 months old we re-entered the adoption paperwork process, but unfortunately all of our paperwork from before had expired, so when I say re-entered, I really mean restarted! We started from step one again, but have moved as quickly as possible through all the paperwork and we are almost done with our home study paper work. Once we finish it again, then we'll have our home study interviews, visitation and then submit our dossier, and then we'll be on the wait list once again! Unfortunately, the wait list has more than doubled since we were on it before! :o( Therefore, it will most likely take 1.5-2 years from now before we bring our son home. Although this time line is disappointing, we are trusting God and know that He has the right and perfect son for our family and we are trusting His timing... and I just need to keep reminding myself of that! :o) Thank you for your continued prayers for this process and we'll keep you posted as things progress, and I'll try to be better about posting pictures of our family and Mr. Brody Bear!