Adoption excitement!

Well everyone I think you can see where we decided to go with our choice. We are actively pursuing adoption and getting the house ready for a home study; which, I didn't realize would take so much extra work! I'm so glad that we have made some wonderful friends down here that have that kind of background in construction or just wanting to help regardless. I never figured that so many would just offer to do whatever we needed. I wish I could think of a way to thank them, but for now just a plain ole "Thank you" will have to do. :)

Jeffrey did start a gofundme ( <--- Thats the link...right there) account for us. We are actively saving on our end and leaning on our friends and family to help us. I am seriously blown away by everyones generosity. I never ever expected all this help!! We met the first part of our goal of $8,000 in 5 days! This chunk of money pays for a lot of things. I think the most important is the book. We are now able to get our picture book out there so that "mothers to be" will be able to view us, hear our story, and get to know about our life here in Jasper County!

I can't even express the humbling feeling Jeffrey and I have. Some of you have given a lot of money and we don't know how to react other than "are they serious?" or "that is too much!" One note we got brought me to tears. Their children get to work with Jeffrey and I in different capacities. It was very touching. I guess you just never realize the impact you have on the children you work with even when you are just doing your job. All the kind words and messages of hope are so encouraging and it really makes me realize we made the right choice!

I took some pictures of some things around Ste. Marie and Newton, especially around our home and our church. Good thing my momma got me a professional camera for Christmas (probably another sign)!!! We are going to MAKE our picture books. With a little help from our friend Megan, aka T-Megs, who does computer design stuff for a living (WOOP WOOP)! They will look awesome and I hope they will stand out from the rest. We need two of them, one for the Mt. Vernon office and one for the Belleville office.

We have to pay a total of $16,000 for the whole thing!! EEEK....But.....it will be worth it in the end! We will have Baby Finley, my parents will become first time grandparents, Jeffrey's parents will have another grandchild added and this child will be SPOILED ROTTEN and LOVED beyond belief from BOTH sides of our family. I hope that the "mothers to be" will realize that!

IVF....adoption....what is going on??

I know this doesn't happen very much....but seriously people i'm lost.

Let me start from the beginning. Jeffrey and I have ALWAYS wanted to adopt. Our plan from when we were dating was to have our family and then adopt because we wanted to be able to give a child a good home and a steady life. So this route was always going to happen regardless. Now that I have had issues with holding a pregnancy this is just changing our perspective on everything.

.......Enjoy my thinking out loud.......

Do we actively pursue adoption solely? Pour all of our time and money into something that will be a FOR SURE thing. That in the end we will walk out of this with a child in our arms. BUT we know there could be ups and downs with this process too. That baby would be loved SO much and have such a great future. He/She would have a HUGE family to love them.

Do we put off some of the adoption process to do another round of IVF and chart off into an unknown future of this not working again? Or it working and me having to possibly deal with ANOTHER miscarriage while I'm at camp in July? Or it could work and I could have a totally normal pregnancy...But then I think...Will I ever get the feeling of a baby in my tummy? Will I know what it is like to be pregnant and to have a child of our own? Is this really important to me...UGH I DONT KNOW!!!!!

Or do we pursue the adoption route and once that is settled then do another round of IVF after? My age is going to start being a major player in that arena. I mean IVF isn't going anywhere. I could probably stay on birth control just to keep me moving. I'm so confused I don't know where to go with my thoughts anymore.

My question is how on God's green earth are we going to afford adoption?!?!? Its SO expensive...we thought about maybe trying a gofundme thing but I feel horrible taking peoples money...AHHHHH.......

I would appreciate your opinions and thoughts and nice words and encouragement and stuff.