Baby Veil due February!

Ryan and I are so excited to tell everyone that we are expecting. Baby Veil is due February 8th!! I know it's been a long time since we've posted a blog so we wanted to fill everyone in on what's been going on for us. 2016 has been a roller coaster ride and we apologize to everyone who's been asking us about adoption stuff. We've been vague in our answers because we weren't ready to tell our story until now. 

3.5 years ago we started the journey of beginning our family. We had always talked about adoption being part of our story and when we weren't getting pregnant, we decided, lets start the adoption process. So about 2.5 years ago we started all the paperwork, home study, and did a couple really successful fundraisers. We just want to say another a huge thank you for everyone's help & support to make those possible! We still look back on that and are truly grateful!

About 2 years ago (June 2014) we entered "the pool" of waiting parents. Basically meaning a baby could come at anytime. To be honest, we were naive or maybe overly hopeful because we didn't think it would take so long. A year and a half in and not hearing anything was hard and humbling. We know God has a plan for us, but it was definitely hard to see.

In January of this year, everything changed when we found out I was pregnant. Words can't describe how excited we were. We were starting to wonder whether we could even have kids. God answered our prayer!! We told close friends and immediate family and everything was perfect! Due to timeline and logistics of our adoption agency, we decided in February to put a temporary freeze on the adoption.

A stepping stone we made to remember

At the 9 week appointment we got the news that baby stopped growing. It came as a complete shock and was the worst news to receive. You never think something like this is going to happen to you. It was a dark time and we questioned whether a family was in our future after hearing nothing in the adoption and having a miscarriage. It was hard to wrap our heads around what just happened.

We questioned why God would do this or let this happen especially after all this time of waiting or trying. And honestly sometimes I still wonder. But we know that God is good and Jesus came to die for us. Not only did that open the door for us to go to heaven, but it also opened the door for our baby to go to heaven and one day we will get to meet him or her. Now that is good news!

Dear Lord, I would have loved to have 

held my babies on my lap and tell them about you,

but since I didn't get the chance,

would you please hold them on your lap 

and tell them about me? 

 

As we processed and grieved, it was nice to be on a break from the adoption so we could heal from the loss of our baby.

In June (2016) we decided we were ready to continue with the adoption plans. Updated paperwork had been started and new pictures were taken to update our profile. What we didn't know at the time was that I was pregnant! The picture below is actually of the 5 of us!! We found out about a week after we got the pictures taken.

Baby Veil!! 

So at this time, some people didn't know we took a freeze on the adoption, some people thought we were going back into the adoption process and some people knew we were expecting. Talk about confusing!

We ultimately decided to keep the freeze on the adoption as we are preparing for this pregnancy and baby. We wanted to let family, friends and supporters know that we still plan on adopting and will be returning to the adoption pool later this year. Money we have raised is still set aside for adoption costs. We are so grateful for all of you and your support with the adoption, miscarriage and pregnancy. Our journey is not over and we are excited to see Gods plan for us. Please pray for us, for baby Veil and our future adoption.

Love you all,
Allie, Ryan & baby Veil :)

Waiting, waiting, and more waiting...

It has been so long since we've updated everyone. Part of the reason we haven't been posting is because there really hasn't been any new news.

Since the beginning of June, we've been officially in the "waiting pool" of adoptive parents. This basically means we are waiting for a birth mother or birth parents to pick us. From everyone we've talked with, they all say the waiting period is the hardest; feeling like you're in limbo because you never know when your going to get "the call". Though we've been keeping busy, the longer we wait the harder it gets.

We continue to pray for patients, for the birth parents, for the future baby veil, and that we'd get matched with birth parents soon! We'd love if you'd keep us in your prayers during this difficult and unknown time.

ALSO, we hope everyone knows that if someone you know is thinking that terminating a pregnancy is their only solution, we would welcome the opportunity to be introduced to them. We would love to talk with them not just about us as an adoptive family but their options in general and that termination isn't the only way. We have realized through the adoption process that many people in uncertain pregnancy's feel like abortion is the only way. We know all children, even in the womb, are God's precious gift and it saddens us to hear when people think abortion is the only solution.

Allie & Ryan

Our Profile Book!!!

May 30th was the magical day that we entered the pool of waiting parents. We have a webpage on Lifetime Adoption's website you can check out: click here

We also have a profile book! (Check it out below!!)
There has been a lot of time and energy put into this book and we finally put our 50 copies in the mail today. This book will start getting dispersed to birth mothers and this is how they choose adoptive parents. If a birth mother likes our book/us, then she lets Lifetime know, who then lets us know there is someone interested. This doesn't mean we have been matched, but it gives us and the birth mother the chance to talk and see if it's good fit.

We have no idea how long we'll have to wait, but we'll keep everyone updated as things happen.

Fundraiser Totals

First, we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who was involved in our Garage Sale and Photo Shoot fundraiser. There is no way we could have pulled either of them off without your help, so THANK YOU! It has been a huge blessing to see so many people come together and we are so grateful for everything and everyone.

There have been a lot of people wondering how much we raised between the two fundraisers. Money is still trickling in for the garage sale because we're selling some items online, but here are the totals thus far...

Garage Sale: $5,651.64 (and counting)
Photo Shoot Fundraiser: $5,407.00
GRAND TOTAL OF $11,058.64!!!

With needing to raise about $30,000 for the adoption, we are amazed that the fundraisers brought in over 1/3 of what we need! Between the fundraisers, supporters and what we have put in personally, we are at about $23,000.

We are hoping grant money will help with some of the $7,000 we still have left to raise. Otherwise we might need to do another fundraiser. So if you have any good fundraiser ideas, please let us know.


YOU CAN NOW GIVE TOWARDS OUR ADOPTION AND GET A TAX WRITE-OFF!

We now have a profile with Adopt Together which is a non-profit that helps raise money to help couples adopt. We realize that many of you have already given and we are extremely grateful for that. For those that wish to give more or those who prefer to receive the tax benefit when giving, now's the time. Give at: https://www.adopttogether.org/veiladoption

Adoption Photos

This past Thursday, we had the privilege of working with Danica Donnelly (http://danicadonnelly.com) on our adoption photo shoot. She did an AMAZING job and we are excited to share some of the images with you!

One of the reasons we did this photo shoot is to celebrate this process we have been working on for the last 6 months. Many couples do maternity photos during a pregnancy to celebrate that process; this is our version of "maternity" photos you could say. With most of the paperwork done, we're excitedly moving forward into preparing to become parents.

Another reason for this photo shoot is to help fill our profile book with updated photos. The profile book is what gets sent to birth mothers to look through as they decide which family to place their child with. We've been told that many birth mothers make their decisions solely off of photos and we couldn't be more pleased with the skills of Danica Donnelly. Thank you SO much! Enjoy the photos everyone!

Garage sale was VERY epic!

The left-over items are packed and ready to be delivered to Salvation Army and the tents are coming down. It's no longer a FEMA site at Ryan's parent's house. The garage sale was a crazy success; lots of money was raised and there are numerous stories which will be shared over the coming days & weeks that left us feeling very blessed and loved by family & friends as well as complete strangers.

During the 3-day garage sale, $5,587.89 was raised. In addition to that, there are still several items of higher value that were kept aside to be sold later via Craigslist so that total will increase even higher.

We can't even begin to express our gratitude. The overwhelming support shown by people donating items to be sold and those giving tables/tarps/manpower to run the sale has been humbling and inspiring. The words "thank you" don't seem like enough, but seriously THANK YOU!

Here are a few pics of the madness known as Tent City

Garage Sale is SET UP!

After weeks / months of collecting items we finally started setting up for the garage sale! 6 carports, 2 tents, and about 20 tables later, we completely filled up the space and realized we only have about half of the stuff out! (And this isn't counting the garage full of furniture items).

We are really excited for the garage sale to start, when we were setting up earlier tonight, we actually had people come and buy things... the sale hasn't even started yet and we've sold items. This is crazy!

We seriously couldn't have done this without you! A HUGE thank you to everyone who helped us out today, it was extremely amazing and we feel so blessed.

Here are some pictures so far.

Hope to see you there, and please don't forget to spread the word!

THANKS
Ryan & Allie