New Blog

New Blog is up and running! I'm still working on design but will be posting while doing that. Leave a comment with email address if you would like to follow along.

Back to Blogging

I miss the days of sharing our journey, the ups and downs of life. This summer I'm going to turn over a new leaf. I know I've gone back and forth about going private or not going private. This blog will remain open in its current form. This was about our journey to Faithe. So I don't feel right continuing to blog about the other ins and outs of life. So I decided to start a new blog and will share via email to those interested (I have the emails of those who wanted to still follow once private) once I have it started and set up the way I want. I want to blog weekly there about the ins and outs of life, my pinning addictions, sewing and craft projects, teaching and many other things. I'm excited and I hope I'll be able to keep it up. If you are interested in following along, email me or leave a comment with your email and I'll send you the link.

If you pop up on this page a few months or years from now and would like to see where the rest of life has taken our family feel free to drop me an email.

I hope this blog will still give hope to those who stumble upon it that are going through infertility and adoption some hope.

Not Going Private

I have spent the last month really thinking about if I want to take our blog private. I do but I don't. Here is the what happened.

We have an open adoption with Faithe's birthparents. Since she was born we would text regularly. I feel we have a good relationship. Last month I received a series of texts asking questions about our blog and with a link to the blog. At the time this freaked me out. I mean I felt very uncomfortable. We pretty much share everything with Faithe's birthparents so them seeing our blog is not a big deal. But in doing some behind the scenes research on the blog I discovered that the way our blog was found was through a specific google of our blog name. Which ensued some questions. So yes I was uncomfortable, and still am a bit.

Since this transpired our relationship has changed with our birthparents. We no longer text and now communicate through a website set up for adoptive parents and birthparents to communicate. In the long run I think it will be better for all of us. If I email them they can decide if they want to read the email versus a text it pops up right on the phone. This website is also where I post all the lifebooks for them as well. I am glad this website is there and will allow us to communicate with each other as often as we like.

This is still considered an open adoption and Faithe will know who her birthparents are and the love that they have for her. You never know how an adoption triad will go until you are in the situation. Other adoptive parents who I've spoken to have said we have a rare relationship. I'm grateful for the relationship we have with them. I'm glad that Faithe will be able to ask us questions about her birthparents and if we don't know the answer we will be able to ask for her.

The only thing that might change here on the blog is the amount of pictures we post of our sweet girl. It is hard to control if someone copies the pictures off our blog. So I haven't decided how to address this issue. I may start watermarking the pictures or just making the picture posts private.

Thank you for being patient as I have made decisions about our blog.

Going Private

If you follow me semi regularly for my sporadic posts then you know in the last week I set my blog to private. For the next few days I've decided to come out of hiding to let everyone know that my blog will be going private.

We recently became uncomfortable with the level of information on our blog and decided we need to go private. However, there are many of you who we have traveled this journey with. We want to continue that journey.

So if you would like to continue to follow along please email me and I will add you to the list.

Hope to continue to share our journey with all of you.

The Cute Things She Does

And the funny things that are also cute.

Faithe is very loving.

• She will crawl over to us and lay her head on us. Giving us "aws" aka hugs. 
• Every once in a while she will be reading a book with a baby in it and I'll find her hunched over kissing the baby. 
• On Christmas she opened a book and gave it "aws"
• This girl loves to dance. She'll start dancing and then moving her head. Think Stevie Wonder without sunglasses. She's even been seen dancing while laying down or sitting in her carseat. She'll dance to any music even from commercials. 
• She is very smart. She saw my mom once retrieve a toy from under the couch. Every once in a while I'll catch her laying on the floor reaching under the couch. 
• She loves to take a bath which is a team effort between Cart and I. While he is getting bath ready I undress her and put her on the floor. There is nothing cuter than a naked baby crawling across the floor to the bathroom.
• Faithe loves to read. I've captured her in the middle of all her books with multiple books open around her. 

That is all I can think of right now. There is more, I'll have to add them as I remember. 

Sadness

Yesterday I was on FB and a message popped up. It was a group message of which I usually ignored. But I read on and was brought to tears to learn a friend lost her husband.

I met this friend online and have never met. Her and her husband struggled to get pregnant like Cart and I. Then they decided to adopt. They brought their son home and fell into family life. We no longer visited the website we met on, but keep up on FB and blogs.

While I've never met her I am so saddened for her and her son. I've been praying for her and her son. I couldn't imagine losing my husband. I pray God gives her the strength to get through the grief and that God gives her son the understand his amazing daddy is in heaven with Jesus.

Please pray with me for this family.

2012 year in Review

Wow what a year! My blogging has been basically non-existant. I'm hoping to fix that in 2013. I'm going to try to make a point to blog once a week. It is hard with a little one and being in my first year of teaching but I feel like I should document it.

Our year in 2012:
January 3: I started my first teaching job. Teaching 5th grade Social Studies
January 8 : My dad went to be with the Lord. This was a sudden loss and he is missed every day.

January 20: My sweet baby girl was born.

January 22: Consents signed and Faithe is officially ours.
March 18: 6th wedding anniversary
May 5: I walk at graduation finally after graduating Dec 16, 2011.

June: I turn 31.
June: I'm hired for my first contract job teaching 3rd grade self contained.
June 21: Happy Adoption Day!

August: Start teaching
November 4: Faithe is dedicated to the Lord.

November 22: First Thanksgiving as a family of 3.

December 25:: Faithes first Christmas.

 

Happy New Year and see you in 2013.