Friday, May 29, 2015

Heading into a new season!

Keeping up with this blog sure was easier before our first gift (aka Jeremiah) became a very busy two- year old and has been keeping us on our toes!  He is such a joy and we love every minute of being his parents.  In fact, I just saw on my Timehop that it was 3 years ago tomorrow when we met Stephanie for the first time.  Now three years later, I am literally living my dream of being a stay at home mom with the coolest kid ever.  I really realized it yesterday when we took an impromptu trip to the Toledo Zoo with my best friend for the day ... something I never could have done if I was still working.  It's the little things that I have really been reflecting on lately and the amazing love of God.  Now we await another life changing event!

What an amazing few weeks it has been!  As many of you know, we have been matched with an amazing expectant mom since March, and she is due with a little girl on June 10!  It is amazing to look back over our adoption journey to all the ups and downs and see where He has brought us up to this point. In October, we were asking Why? and How could this happen to us? as we had to endure an "interrupted adoption."  Now we see that we have a complete picture of what can happen with adoptions and we feel better equipped to help others that may be looking into adoption.

Last Thursday was our fundraiser at church.  What an incredible night!  It was a night that would not be possible without a supportive church, amazing friends and musicians and the best bakers around for some yummy desserts.  If you were there, you saw the power of adoption and how it can change and grow a family exponentially.  If you weren't there, I'm working on getting the video up so you can see what you missed.

Our heart is to share the beauty of not only adoption, but open adoption.   In fact, we even introduced a non-profit organization we are starting called Miriam's Watch.  Stay tuned for more information on that and check out www.miriamswatch.org as we grow this organization.  Our first event will be a golf outing on September 12 at Heather Highlands in Holly!

But back to Thursday night, we were truly blessed from the fundraiser as we were able to raise three times as much as we did in the fundraiser we had for Jeremiah's adoption.  It will go a long way in easing the financial burden that goes along with an adoption.  So thank you to those that have supported us prayerfully, emotionally, and financially.  We are continuing in our fundraising endeavor, so if you do feel led to support us, you can visit www.gofundme.com/davidandleahadopt.  Thank you so much for following our story.

Then for the icing on the cake, last night we visiting Bethany Christian Services office to listen to Stephanie speak on a panel with another birth mom to "waiting" adoptive families.  She is such an adoption advocate in so many ways, and really shows the reality of the birth mom's choice for their child.  We are so blessed to have her in our lives, and it continued to push us toward our mission to show the beauty of open adoptions.  We met another courageous birth mom who was there with the adoptive parents of her daughter and heard their story of open adoption, too.  We never can get enough of hearing the amazing success stories!

-Leah