More info and Oh Christmas Tree!!

If you read my previous post you know that we have been told there is a birthmother in our area who is considering placing her child for adoption and is interested in Allen and me. The grandparents of the baby know Allen's parents and therefore they know we are interested in adopting. All we know right now are these few things: The BM has other children which these parents are raising; she is due the end of February; We do not believe she has used drugs; The baby is a GIRL!!! We have to wait until after Christmas to move forward for a couple of different reasons. We will be contacting our agency at that time if we do decide to pursue this private adoption because we cannot have our profile on file if we cannot commit. I am praying first and foremost for God's will to be done through this. If we aren't supposed to adopt this little girl then I pray the door will close. However I have a feeling in my heart that this may be the opportunity we have waited 3 1/2 years for.

Last night, Allen and I went to pick out our Christmas tree. We went to a local farm that grows them. They were all so pretty!!

I spent some time decorating it and was pleased with the finished product :)

 I always enjoy putting this ornament on the tree. This is my 1st Christmas ornament. I cannot wait to put it beside our baby's 1st ornament!!!

I also got this ornament tonight at Hobby Lobby. Since we found out today that this baby is a little girl and we could potentially adopt her, I thought I'd go ahead and get an ornament with an L on it for Laney. Even if this doesn't work out we may have a little girl one day, or I could always give the ornament to a friend!!

I love how it looks on the tree :)

Today at school our team wore our candy cane shirts!! Don't we look cute?? We also had a gift exchange! We all got each other such cute stuff!! Rachel drew my name and gave me 2 cute scarves, a necklace and earrings :)

These are the funny gingerbread men my kiddos made!!

We have our team Christmas party tomorrow night and then we have several next weekend! Please pray for us as we continue to wait and see what God has in store!

Crazy!!

I need everybody who is a prayer warrior out there to pray for us!! Allen's parents got a call today from some friends whose daughter is pregnant. She is older, not a teenager we think, and has several other kids that these parents are raising. She told Allen's mom, "Tell Allen and his wife if they want the baby, they can have it." Yep..just that simple! HA! Anyway, she is due in Jan or Feb, not on drugs..that is all we know at this point. We just sent our profile fee check YESTERDAY..how crazy God may be working huh? We are praying for HIS will to be done. If this is not supposed to be our baby, then we pray for peace about it. It is hard to not get excited and get our hopes up, but I don't want to go down a road we aren't supposed to. We are going to try to get more details tonight and contact a lawyer to see what needs to happen, but the timing of it all is definitely divine. I just wanted to document this day just so we can look back at it. Allen's dad called him about an hour ago as we were getting ready to walk Hank. So we discussed all of the details and called Joel to ask about a lawyer. Now we are waiting to find out more details!! Allen said it would be so funny to have a baby in our home by Jan or Feb since that is the same time 4 people in our SS class are due! I would be so excited to have a baby the same time as so many friends :) Please pray for us. Please pray, even if this doesn't work out, our profiles will be shown soon and that we will be chosen!!

	I love this verse!!! I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.  1 Samuel 1:27

Adoption Timeline

So I have been reading all sorts of blogs this week about couples who have adopted domestically! I've decided since we are done with everything (Sending the profile fee check tomorrow!!), that I would take this time to outline our adoption timeline. This way we will always be able to look back at the dates and see how the process progressed. Our social worker emailed today and said she received the profile books and they look great!! I was so glad :) She said she was SO excited for us and that we really worked quickly compared to other couples. That was nice to hear since I felt like we would never get to this point. I'm only hoping that the whole process will move quickly as well!! As crazy as it sounds, we could get a phone call over Christmas that we are chosen!! How crazy would that be? I'm not getting my hopes up that it will work out that soon, but I know God has it under control and I can't wait to be amazed!!

I did decide to do an adoption announcement on the back of our Christmas card this year. I saw this on someone's blog and decided to steal it :) The front is just a normal Christmas card but the back has a picture of Allen and me and underneath it says, "We're Adopting." It asks for prayer as we pursue adoption and feel God is going to bless us with a miracle through the beautiful gift of adoption. I guess it's kind of like a birth announcement since we are technically "paper pregnant." :) Anyway I am going to document our timeline below and hopefully one day will be able to look back and remember how it felt when we were dreaming of our little miracle :)

June 22, 2008 : Allen agrees to start TTC
December 2008: 1st doctor visit
February 2009- HSG (made sure tubes were open)
April 2009- Changed doctor
June 2009- Started rounds of Clomid and IUI's (took several breaks during this time)
February 2010: First laparoscopy to check for Endometriosis (had mild case)
June 2010- 1st appt with an actual fertility specialist. They decide to try HMG shots
July 2010- Another round of HMG shots
August 2010-Jan 2011: Took a break from everything (This was the point where once a week I got a phone call announcing someone was pregnant.)
Jan 2011: Decided to try one last round of shots (Started getting curious about adoption.)
(took a break for a bit)
April 2011: 2nd laparoscopy (still had some Endometriosis. Removed and very hopeful!!)
June 2011: Poured out my heart to Allen about our childless family :( Prayed about and decided to pursue domestic infant adoption. Contacted a family friend who works for Lifeline Children's Services in Birmingham, AL.
June 24, 2011: Turned in application to Lifeline
July 2011: Approved and began home study paperwork
August 2011: Fingerprinted and went to open adoption seminar
September 2011: 1st home study visit (We traveled to Nashville)
October 2011: 2nd home study visit (She came to our house.)
November 2011: Started getting overwhelmed and felt we would never finish. Paid for home study and finished up all the necessary paperwork for both agencies...bi racial questionnaire, desire of child form, etc...
Started working on our profile. Found a really good deal on photo books on Shutterfly so worked diligently to finish before the deal ended!!
November 29: Amy looked over our profile, we made a few changes and ordered the next day!
November 30: Profile books ordered
December 7: Profile books arrive at Lifeline
December 8: Sent last profile fee check (When this arrives we will officially become a "waiting" family)
I have faith that the Lord is going to bring along a wonderful baby in 2012. I pray for patience and understanding if it doesn't happen quickly. Our family and friends are so encouraging and supportive, telling us we will be chosen right away, but even I know it's not that easy. There are bound to be other couples just as cute, sweet, and appealing as us, right? :) Regardless I know our story is going to be so exciting and amazing. I think I am going to paint the "nursery" in the next few weeks mainly so that it will have another color besides boring white. Once we bring a baby home it will be hard to paint so it will be best to do it now in case it does happen quickly. As far as everything else, we will be waiting. I am not one to go get an entire nursery ready when we have no idea what we are getting into!! I am so glad we are finished with everything before Christmas so that we can just relax and not stress. I will post when Amy contacts us and says our profiles are being shown!! Please pray that our little miracle will arrive soon!!!!!!!!!!!

Profile Complete :)

For those of you wondering and waiting....We are FINALLY done with everything for our adoption!! (we have one more payment but as far as paperwork, we are done!! Can I get a Halleluiah??? I worked on our profile the last few weeks and sent a rough copy to our social worker the other day. Apparently it wasn't as "rough" as I thought it was because she said it looked great!! She loves my colors, pictures and texts...I have to be honest, I am NOT very creative/crafty so I was really worried she wouldn't like it :) But praise the Lord she did!! We had to make a few changes but very minor. This was all perfect timing because we used Shutterfly and they were running a special until Wed the 30th, buy one book get any after that 50 % off!! Talk about a steal...did I mention we had to buy 5?? Yep! So that helped us out! PLUS they had free shipping AND my friend gave us a 10 dollar off code!! So....we bought 5 books, 25 pages a piece for a grand total of 119.00 shipping, tax etc and ALL!! Can't beat that :) I am so glad we didn't go broke over the profile books because we still have to pay 500.00 for our profile fee. I am so relieved it is done, especially right before a very busy time. We have 3 choir performances this weekend, a Christmas parade, and a youth workers Christmas dinner!! Sheeesh... and that 's only the beginning of December! HA!! I seriously have something going on at least every other night from now until around Christmas :) Tis the season to be jolly, right? ;)

Another thing I thought I'd share is what a sweet friend at school bought us. She told me she was going to wait until we brought a baby home, but then decided to give it to us when we had all our adoption stuff finished.

 She knew since we were Phillies fans that our future baby would HAVE to own a Phillies bib :) HA!!
I also wanted to show you a pic of my sweet niece Grace. She is 6 months old and apparently into everything now!! I can't believe she is crawling and Hannah, my other niece is walking everywhere. It seems like they both should still be little babies.

I can't wait until these sweet little girls have a cousin to play with!!! We know it could still be years but we are praying for that sweet baby that will become a part of our family one day :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Goins' house!! I'm baking 2 chocolate pies today and Mac & Cheese Casserole tomorrow :) Guess now that I'm 30 I need to start doing my part in the Thanksgiving dinner :) HA!! We didn't travel to see my family this T-giving but I'm so glad we can spend time with Allen's sweet family! I've already gotten a lot of sugar from sweet Hannah (who btw is walking and is into EVERYTHING!!).

    Tuesday night Vanessa (SIL) and I went to see Breaking Dawn Part 1!!It was sooooooo good :) I am going back next week to see it with my girls from school!

Last night we hung out with Allen's family and looked through some old photo albums while watching Christmas Vacation! Love that movie...it never gets old :) Here are a few pics of Allen that I thought were blogworthy!!!!

 If the Lord does bless us with biological children, poor things cuz Allen and I both went through an EXTREMELY awkward phase:) Does anybody else think Allen might be wearing skinny jeans in that picture??;)

Allen and his"RAD" moment (He is big time into BMX bikes again so he was so excited to find this photo :)

Hannah giving Allen night night sugar :)

Allen's parents had a swing at their house that Hannah used when she was a baby. We decided to take it home and put it in our "nursery"! So we have a new addition to the nursery now :) And it's even in my boy colors, blue and brown!!

I also got a sweet pic from my other sister in law today! Sweet Grace is now 6 months old!! Crazy how time flies!! She is crawling everywhere and just got her first tooth!! How much has she changed??

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lady Antebellum and a little hockey

What a fun weekend! I feel like I post that weekly now :) Guess I have a pretty fun life right now!! Friday night I went to see Lady Antebellum with my girls from school! I was so excited about this concert. This was their first show as a headliner. They are so awesome and very entertaining!!

I just brought my stuff to get ready to school on Friday and got ready at Amanda's house. She helped me accessorize my outfit by providing cowboy boots, a scarf, and a cute jacket! I am going to buy my own boots one of these days! I know which kind I like I just can't find my size and I hate spending so much money on them when we are trying to save money for the adoption!!

We met up with Lori and then Rachel and Emily and grabbed a bite to eat in Market Square at Soccer Taco! YUM :)

1st grade teachers plus Lori!

Amanda, me & Emily lovin some Mexican food!

Rachel & Lori

After we finished dinner we headed over to the concert! Like every other woman in the place we had to make a stop at the restroom! I felt it was a photo opportunity while waiting in line!! ;)

Looking cute in our boots!!

 We found our seats and listened to Randy Montana and Josh Kelley. Then Lady A hit the stage! They came out with "We Owned the Night" (one of my favs) and it was incredible!!!

They were incredible and we had soooooo much fun! I just love these girls :)

Saturday I cleaned while Allen went fishing and then I did a little shopping! We are in major need of some nice sheets and towels. I am so tired of getting the cheap-o stuff. I'm asking for both for Christmas :)

Saturday night we went back to the Coliseum to watch the Knoxville Icebears Hockey game. Allen and I had never been before and Amanda's son Noah was skating during intermission so we thought it'd be a good night to try it out. We met up with everybody at this awesome barbeque place called Dead End Barbeque before the game. Then we all road together in our car to the Coliseum. Our seats weren't the greatest (we were right above the Icebears goal so we couldn't see when they scored!) but they were good seats to see Noah when he was skating and we had lots of room to move around :)

The boys

Section KK

Enjoying the game

Noah is the little one in yellow going after the puck!

I won a prize from the Icebear's dancers :) HA!!

We had a blast hanging out with everyone! Honestly I really didn't watch much of the game but it was fun to go. Sunday we got up and went to church. Then Allen and I ate lunch and went to get stuff for our Operation Christmas Child boxes. They were due that day and I had forgotten :( So we put them together Sunday afternoon! Sunday night church is a prayer service. It has really become a special time for me. I love praying with fellow believers at church and just leaning on others during the hard times. This week was an emphasis on adoption since November is National Adoption Month. At the beginning of the service our Associate Pastor had everyone who has adopted or is in the process of adoption come forward to be recognized. He then asked that during the prayer time people come gather around those of us up front and pray over us with the whole adoption process. I have to say it was one of the most moving moments I've had in a while. I felt the Holy Spirit pouring down on us. Hearing all of these people praying aloud for us and our child was something I cannot explain! It was amazing just to know that God is in control and that we have the support, love and encouragement of this church body to help us along this journey :)

I had to share this picture with you. These are some kiddos from 2 families in our church. All of these children were adopted, most from birth. We have several other families who have and are still in the process of adopting internationally as well. I just wanted to show you these sweet faces :) This gives Allen and me a lot of hope. These mommies and daddies waited a long time for these precious babies and I know God is going to be faithful to provide for us as well!

One last picture before I go!! This is sweet Isabella, the cutest 3 year old around :) Her parents waited 15 long years for her and she is truly a walking miracle. I am so blessed to be surrounded by so many people who are going to love our baby one day!!

Fun Fall Weekend

This past Friday night Allen and I went on a double date with Matt and Amanda! We decided to go to dinner and then bowling! It was nice to hang out and just talk! Dinner was great and next we hit the bowling alley! We were joking about how dorky looking bowling shoes look on us...especially in skinny jeans/leggings! Good thing we still look cute tho :)

We bowled 2 games and I even bowled a 127 the 2nd game!! The boys obviously did better than us but we had an awesome time. We have so much fun together...I always feel like I'm laughing :) HA!!!

Matt & Amanda

Allen & Me

Getting ready to leave... Matt acting silly

Saturday morning I got up and cleaned (of course :) My brother Shane and his brother Michael came in for the UT game. It was homecoming and they played MTSU so not a big game but fun nonetheless! We got down there a little early to tailgate!

Me and my brother

Eating a little before the game

GO VOLS :)

They obviously won, 24-0....Thank goodness! Not a very good season for the old Vols!!

 On another note we are finished with everything for our adoption except the profile. Hopefully we'll be starting that this week! I am so excited and very relieved to be on the home stretch. I also had my second evaluation at school and my scores were really good! So that's a nice encouragement!! I hope everybody has a great week!!