#1 Has Never Felt Better

Ashley
Feb 28, 2017
5 min read

Well, as you can probably infer by the title of this post, we are officially on the list and have already moved up to #1 on the American list as of today!!! I guess I should fill everyone in...

So, we were officially placed on the waiting list in the middle of January. With everything going on with Storm and losing my grandpa, I just didn't write a blog about it. So as I was about to write a blog post about being #3, we were told two weeks after being placed on the list that we were now #2! We were a little shocked that we moved up so quickly. So I prepared to write that blog post, but everything kept getting in the way. So as I was preparing to write a blog post last night, I felt tired and something told me to wait until tonight. I'm very thankful I did, because we received an email tonight telling us we are officially #1 as of today. The couple ahead of us received their referral today, so we are #1!!! So in less than six weeks, we moved from #3 to #1! I should also mention that Kelsey from Faith was the one who emailed us. She is still on maternity leave at home with her adorable kids, but wanted to reach out to us and make sure we knew we were moving up on the list. We thank God we found her and Faith five years ago. Kelsey has been amazing, and has made us feel so special! She has been a great support in this crazy journey and has helped us more than she will ever know or than we will ever be able to repay her for.

So, the next potential birth mom is due March 28, and with my birthday being March 25, I feel as if this is our baby. Who knows, we could be wrong. There could be a birth mom who comes into the program in the next couple weeks ready to give birth, or this birth mom may choose to keep her baby or adopt her baby to Canada instead of the US, but for now, we are planning on a late March baby with travel time expected to be early to mid April. But with adoption things can change so quickly, so we will keep everyone updated as fast as we can. :) All we do know if that everything happens for a reason, and our time will come, very soon it seems.

I would like to take this time to thank a few special ladies in my life as well. I have my mom and mother-in-law along with several amazing friends, Emily, Julie, Erica, Michael, and Kalyn who have been planning us a baby shower...an amazing baby shower at that! Sometimes events in our lives show us who our true friends and family are, and these ladies are the best of the best. I cannot express how much they mean to us. I will never be able to repay them and thank them enough. I hope they know how much we love them!

We have gotten the nursery finished...almost! ;) It is looking amazing and we cannot thank Thuy, our friend and family member, enough for painting the nursery by hand. The giraffe, elephant, and tree are absolutely breathtaking! Also, we put up curtains, pictures, and shelves. So we are so close to having it finished. It's so peaceful in the room. We love it!

On a side note...My cheerleaders are also doing amazing things right now! We have been preparing for our Regional competition and did well enough to earn us a bid for the state competition this Sunday, March 5. I could not be any more proud of them! We are so excited! At one of our practices, they actually surprised me with a baby shower! Gifts AND cupcakes!!! They are super thoughtful. I will add pics below of all the gifts! They are the most incredible young ladies, and I am so blessed to be their coach! Wish us luck this weekend!

In the meantime, we have been playing with our fur babies and enjoying coaching and our last remaining weeks as a family of two (and a bunch of fur babies). :)

Since we are so close, we have a huge favor to ask...we need $25,000, plus travel expenses. We have raised and saved $1200 of that since paying out our initial fees last fall and it is in our adoption account. We owe Faith International $5,000 as soon as we receive the referral of our baby girl or boy, and $20,000 to Japan and the program over there that takes care of these ladies and their babies. We are being realistic and know we may not be able to raise $25-30,000 in 4-6 weeks, but we think we can raise the $5,000 to pay Faith so we only have to take a loan out for $20,000 for Japan. We plan on using our American Express points and card for the plane tickets and hotel expenses. Hopefully our coaching checks and tax return will cover those travel expenses. So I guess what I am asking is this, we have $3,800 left to raise in order to pay Faith the $5,000. We are selling t-shirts here on our blog or people can give us orders directly. We have sold almost 20 shirts (which is part of the $1200). We also have a little less than half of our puzzle pieces left to sell. So if anyone would like to purchase a puzzle piece for $5 or a t-shirt, let us know! Now is the time to do it. :) Those who have ordered shirts, they should be in later this week! We are also trying to organize another day for spring mini-photo sessions in March. We made $900 in the fall and $200 in the winter from those mini-sessions. So maybe that will help as well! We will keep everyone updated on those.

By the way, Stormy had a vet appointment a week ago today and his values are coming down and are closer to normal. His weight is getting better and his BP is normal still! We are thanking God he is improving and are hoping he will continue to thrive for several more years! We are giving him fluids, a special diet, and what feels like a million pills (herbs, BP meds, and vitamins) a day, but it is so worth it! He is feeling so great! :) Just like with adoption, nobody said it would be easy, just that it would be worth it! And both are so worth it!

Until next time...here are some pics...you know how I love my pics! Now if only I could talk Vince into taking more pics with me...it looks like I ban him from my selfies! I don't, I promise! Haha! We love you all! :)