After rereading my last post, I want to make sure everyone understands that adoption has not been an easy decision for us. We have and continue to struggle with this decision. I have no concern about loving a child, mine or otherwise. The concern is whether or not it is God's will for us to adopt and whether or not the adoption means that we are giving up having a child naturally. Basically, that is part of the point of writing this blog. We want to be in God's will and we want a family.... either naturally or by adoption... or both. We have come to the conclusion that it doesn't have to be one way or the other. We can pursue both ways of having a family.
So, that brings me to the title of this post. "Lifeline and Crochet Class" What does crocheting have to do with having a baby. Well, about 2 years ago, our home church, Central United Methodist Church, started a Prayer Shawl Ministry. The crocheted shawls are prayed over as they are being made and then by our church staff. They are then distributed to people who are sick or hurting. It has been an awesome ministry and has touched my family personally several times. I digress.... So, I also refer to the weekly meetings as crochet class because this is where I have learned to crochet. Mrs. Susie is amazingly patient and helpful with learning new stitches.
After we developed a stockpile of prayer shawls, we decided to increase our ministry. Mrs. Susie was involved with a similar group in a different city but they made baby blankets for babies that were being adopted. The goal was to give the child something that was with them from birth. The blanket would be with them in the hospital and then moved around with them until they reached their forever family. We decided to do the same thing. Originally we were looking at using the same agency. However, someone mentioned that a church member's child was now the director of a local adoption agency branch of Lifeline Children's Services. So, we had the director come speak of the children, their need, and how we would be helping them. I left with tears in my eyes. The church had them give a similar presentation on a Wednesday night and Jonathan had the opportunity to hear them as well. That was it for us, and we began the process.
We filled out paperwork and more paperwork, have attended several meetings, and are now in the autobiography and interview part of the home study process. I will keep you updated with how Jonathan is doing on his autobiography (I am finished with mine).
Hopefully, tomorrow I will catch you up on where we are with the pursuit of conception.
And for the record, I am finding that this blog is becoming very therapeutic!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
A Little History
We had Christmas with my mom's family yesterday... what a busy day! But, I enjoyed being around family and even having my sister, her husband, and their very sweet dog spend a couple of nights with us.
The only bad thing about family functions is having to deal with the idea of family. Or, in our case, the lack thereof. There are actually several people on t hat side of the family who are trying to concieve, but with no success yet. However, one of my cousins, who was not planning on having a baby anytime soon, is pregnant. She is excitedly nervous about it. At the same time, it is difficult to be excited for her unplanned pregnancy while our planning doesn't seem to be doing much good.
I thought I would give a little history on Jonathan and myself, just so you could get to know us a little better. Jonathan always says he has a thing for older women.... even though we are both 31, I am about 3 months older than him. We have been married for just over 4 years. I have been teaching upper level sciences to high school students for over 9 years. Jonathan is a Paramedic with a local emergency service. Within the last 4 months he accepted the call to become a minister. I'll explain more in a future post, but that is what he is working toward at the moment.
About 7 years ago, my OB/GYN diagnosed me with PCOS and Type II Diabetes. PCOS stands for polycysticovarian syndrome. Basically, it means that my ovaries tend to produce cysts. PCOS goes hand in hand with Type II Diabetes. (for more info: See Diabetes.org) My doctor has always told me that I may have trouble concieving, but she has always been optimistic that we would have children, it just might take some time and medication.
So, almost three years ago I got off birth control and started the whole calculating the length of my cycles and approximate ovulation date. I will probably talk more about this process later, but for the moment, just know that my cycles are REALLY long. So during the course of about 2 1/2 years inculding a couple of extended breaks, we tried multiple rounds of a fertility drug called Clomid. The purpose of most fertility drugs is to increase the number of follicles (eggs) released during one cycle. Well, we didn't have much success there.
In fact, Jonathan and I started talking about other options to have a family. What is a family? For us, it is a group of people who love one another unconditionally and share similar values. Usually, there are parents and children, but not always. We started thinking about adoption. Where did we go first, the internet. That actually scared us. First problem, the price. I am a teacher and Jonathan is in the emergency response profession (or he was at the time). Second problem, we were hours away from an adoption agency. Then, the Lord brought us to Lifeline.... or He brought Lifeline to us.
The only bad thing about family functions is having to deal with the idea of family. Or, in our case, the lack thereof. There are actually several people on t hat side of the family who are trying to concieve, but with no success yet. However, one of my cousins, who was not planning on having a baby anytime soon, is pregnant. She is excitedly nervous about it. At the same time, it is difficult to be excited for her unplanned pregnancy while our planning doesn't seem to be doing much good.
I thought I would give a little history on Jonathan and myself, just so you could get to know us a little better. Jonathan always says he has a thing for older women.... even though we are both 31, I am about 3 months older than him. We have been married for just over 4 years. I have been teaching upper level sciences to high school students for over 9 years. Jonathan is a Paramedic with a local emergency service. Within the last 4 months he accepted the call to become a minister. I'll explain more in a future post, but that is what he is working toward at the moment.
About 7 years ago, my OB/GYN diagnosed me with PCOS and Type II Diabetes. PCOS stands for polycysticovarian syndrome. Basically, it means that my ovaries tend to produce cysts. PCOS goes hand in hand with Type II Diabetes. (for more info: See Diabetes.org) My doctor has always told me that I may have trouble concieving, but she has always been optimistic that we would have children, it just might take some time and medication.
So, almost three years ago I got off birth control and started the whole calculating the length of my cycles and approximate ovulation date. I will probably talk more about this process later, but for the moment, just know that my cycles are REALLY long. So during the course of about 2 1/2 years inculding a couple of extended breaks, we tried multiple rounds of a fertility drug called Clomid. The purpose of most fertility drugs is to increase the number of follicles (eggs) released during one cycle. Well, we didn't have much success there.
In fact, Jonathan and I started talking about other options to have a family. What is a family? For us, it is a group of people who love one another unconditionally and share similar values. Usually, there are parents and children, but not always. We started thinking about adoption. Where did we go first, the internet. That actually scared us. First problem, the price. I am a teacher and Jonathan is in the emergency response profession (or he was at the time). Second problem, we were hours away from an adoption agency. Then, the Lord brought us to Lifeline.... or He brought Lifeline to us.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Welcome
Welcome! My husband Jonathan and I have decided to start a blog chronicling our journey to have a family... either naturally or by way of adoption. We have been trying to concieve for almost 3 years and started the adoption process during 2012. The more we have learned from our experiences, the more we wanted to share. Our hope is that this blog will be a way that we can share with family, friends, and others seeking their own families our journey.... and a way that others can share their journey with us.
I have tried blogging before, with never much success. But I have never been so passionate about a topic before. Over the next few days I will post several blogs giving our future readers some background on each of us, the decisions we are making, and what we are going through right now. We have decided that for the moment, we are going to blog quietly. Most of our close friends and family know what we are dealing with, but we have not shared it publicily. In time, we will share our story with everyone via this blog.
Until tomorrow,
Jessica
I have tried blogging before, with never much success. But I have never been so passionate about a topic before. Over the next few days I will post several blogs giving our future readers some background on each of us, the decisions we are making, and what we are going through right now. We have decided that for the moment, we are going to blog quietly. Most of our close friends and family know what we are dealing with, but we have not shared it publicily. In time, we will share our story with everyone via this blog.
Until tomorrow,
Jessica
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