Spring Has Sprung!

Hello all! I know it has been over a month since our last post and everyone is probably wondering if we have heard anything. Life has been moving right along and we have been super busy wrapping up our cheer and basketball seasons. We also enjoyed a very relaxing spring break. We have now been back to school for a week and things are slowing down, so here is a little update on the adoption front.

So, we are still #1 on the US list. We have been in contact with Faith International about once a week since the first of March. We have been informed that the program has slowed down a little in the past couple months. I know most might seem frustrated with this news, and we feel the same, but at the same time, we are very thankful. We are thankful because while things slow down for us on the list, several women on the other side of the world have chosen to overcome the odds and the obstacles stacked against them and raise their little ones. In the months of February and March, ten women at Baby Life in Japan chose to back out of the program, and once again, that's okay. That's wonderful, actually!

Another obstacle for us is that many of the birth moms are choosing Canada over the US. I love that the birth mothers have a say in where their little ones go, so this once again does not frustrate us. It gives us peace of mind. Some have asked us why mothers have been choosing Canada over the US. The short answer is that the US requires the birth mother to be interviewed at the US Embassy, and Canada does not have this requirement. Some birth moms would rather skip the interview at the Embassy because it makes them feel uncomfortable or sometimes even ashamed, so they sometimes choose Canada for this reason. Either way, it is their choice and we are happy the mothers have this option/choice.

So where does this leave us? Things are possibly speeding up again. There are approximately ten women due between now and the middle of May. From what we have been told, eight of these women, as of now, prefer the US over Canada. We do not know specific due dates, but we feel certain one of these little ones is meant for us. We are praying our little cherry blossom will be coming home sometime in April or May.

So what else has been going on? We had a few of the best friends anyone could ask for and our moms throw us an amazing baby shower! Of course the theme was Japanese Cherry Blossom and the colors were my favorites...teal and pink...it turned out beautifully! I cannot thank these ladies enough for throwing us this beautiful shower! And of course I had some pretty awesome friends and family members show up and the gifts were incredible! Thank you to everyone who made it a special day!

Other than that we have just been enjoying the beautiful spring-like days and oh yeah, we celebrated my birthday...ugh...another year older...it was a great day though! I also had my cheer banquet with my girls...boy do I have amazing ladies on my team...and we had the dreaded cheer tryouts...those are the worst...now we are just finishing out the school year and getting ready to bring our little one home.

We still have a little over 400 puzzle pieces left to sell out of the 1000 piece puzzle for $5 a piece and if anyone would like to order a t-shirt, we are going to try to put in another order. We just need to have at least ten or more to put in the order.

I think that is everything for now...hopefully the next update will be us telling you we have received a referral for our little cherry blossom! Till next time! Love to all!

The beautiful baby shower pics at a friend's house!

Birthday shenanigans!

Enjoying the beautiful days in between the cold ones! :)

Me showing off one of our adoption t-shirts and these two books we bought from an Usborne book party. "Babies Come from Airports" is the cutest little adoption book, and "Happy Birthday Coco" is a Japanese book...this is the first US edition. It is adorable also!