Adoption Thoughts

"God is the Father to the Fatherless through us.  And if we are living lives that make sense to non-believers then we are doing something wrong.  Our lives are not supposed to be safe, secure, and comfortable.  When we choose to stop living for Christ, we are choosing to be unmoved by the deafening silence of an orphanage filled with children, we are choosing to allow children to sleep in DCS offices and age out of a system never knowing family, and we are making the world wonder where is the church."

Ransom for Israel blog

This post is completely unplanned but this quote has rocked me to my core and I felt the need to write about it. When Craw and I decided to adopt, we knew that we were reaching outside of what society says is the "norm" for a young married couple. Society tends to think that the only time a couple would adopt is if they are unable to have kids. While that is true for some people, I hate that is the first thing a person thinks when they hear someone is adopting.

I have already mentioned on the blog what led Craw and I to adoption but I think this quote sums up exactly how we feel. Adoption is not something we are doing because we can't have kids. And it is not something we are doing because of my health. While my health does play a part in us needing to wait to have biological kids, it is not the reason we are adopting. 

We are adopting because it is something that God has called our family to do. We cannot sit back and claim to be "pro life" and do nothing to help these mamas that could have chosen abortion. We cannot sit back and claim to "love like Christ" and turn our backs on children that need a mama and daddy to love them for the rest of their lives. Adoption is something that scares me every day. I don't know what to expect. I'm terrified of the birth parents changing their minds after choosing us to be the parents to their baby. I'm terrified of the expense as we don't have $30,000 just chilling in our bank accounts. I'm terrified of what it may be like to raise a child that is racially different than us...not because I don't think we can do it but I can already see mama bear coming out if a person were to make a comment regarding the race of our child.

Please know that I am not saying that all Christians should adopt. I definitely believe that adoption is a calling. However, I DO believe that all Christ-loving people should be living for Christ daily. We have seen the beauty of Christ through so many people already. Our first fundraiser was a HUGE success and it was because people decided to give money to help us be obedient to God. I have people tell us all the time they pray for us daily and they are praying for our birth mama. That makes me smile with joy as people all around us are supporting us in this journey.


I'm not sure if these words even make sense but this was on my heart so I wanted to share.

 

Baby Bolton Shopping Trip

This weekend was epic and one that has me all excited for Baby Bolton's arrival. My mom and I went on a shopping trip to Charlotte to get items for the nursery. We are still in the paper work stage but we knew that there were things we would eventually need so we wanted to go ahead and knock some of them out.

We left for Charlotte Saturday morning and were so excited to spend some time together. My mom is my best friend and although we see each other every week, its nice to get some alone time together every now and then.

Our first stop as soon as we got to Charlotte was IKEA.

I LOVE IKEA!

We knew that we would be getting majority of the items from IKEA because I had already looked online and made a list of everything I wanted. A dresser was our number one purchase. We also got a highchair, rolling cart, drawer organizers, and lots of other home goodies.

Once we left IKEA, we checked in to the hotel and relaxed before dinner. We ended up eating at Dogwood Southern Table and Bar and I'm going to be straight up honest for a second. Dinner was terrible. I'm a picky eater so nothing on the menu appeased me. I had heard some great things about it but I wasn't impressed. I also heard that the bacon jam was TO DIE FOR and it.was.terrible! I can still gag just thinking about how it smelled. If you're ever in Charlotte, please don't let me stop you from trying it but I'm just being honest when I say that I was not a fan.

After dinner, we went to SouthPark Mall and OH MY WORD, that mall is amazing! I was blown away by how big it was. We basically only made it through Belk (it's 4 stories) by the time we were ready to call it a night.

Sunday morning, we woke up and went to The Original Pancake House and we enjoyed a delicious breakfast. Afterwards, we went back to SouthPark Mall and shopped until we couldn't shop anymore.

If you know me, you know I love my Panthers and it nearly KILLED me to be in Charlotte and not go to the first home game of the season. I joked with Craw all week that I was going to find us tickets. Mom and I found a picture of BOA stadium so we took a picture and pretended we were at the game.

We ended our trip with one last stop by IKEA to pick something up for a friend. We had a great weekend and came home with some exciting new things for Baby Bolton's nursery. 

Application: Submitted

Today was a VERY exciting day. We have officially submitted our adoption application to an agency that we hope and pray is going to be the one that helps us find our baby. That seems so surreal to say. We still have to wait for the agency to approve us but I was straight giddy today when I hit submit. The application itself was not very difficult but we took our time making sure we had everything filled out correctly. Now we wait for the approval and once we get the approval, we will make a small down payment and hopefully start the home study process.

I did want to quickly mention a couple of things about the adoption and where our hearts are with the information we plan to share and the information we prefer to keep private. I mentioned this a couple weeks ago but we do plan to keep our agency name and location private for now. The internet can be a wonderful space but it can also be cruel at times and we don't want to say or do anything that could hinder the journey to Baby Bolton.

We are excited to share this journey with all of our family, friends, and people we haven't met because it brings awareness to the beauty that is adoption. We will continue to share updates about our journey, especially once we are home study approved and officially matched to our baby. One of things that led Craw to adoption is the stories that I would share with him that I found through the blogging community. Hearing peoples firsthand experiences can really encourage someone else that may be on the fence about adoption.

I'm going to be honest...I'm usually bad at keeping secrets but I really want to keep some things a surprise. For example, once we are matched, we want to keep the due date and gender a secret. I dream about the day when we can officially announce the birth of our baby and how the element of surprise is going to be such a fun thing to share. The surprise will also help protect our hearts because at the end of the day, the birth family has the right to change their minds. I can't imagine what it would be like to announce we were on the way to get our baby only to then have to inform you that they changed their mind and we are coming home empty handed. Our family and closest friends will be aware of the travel plans but we are hoping to surprise them with the gender as well.

Please continue to pray for us on this journey. I'm a little nervous about the home study and how stressful it may be but it will bring us one step closer to our baby. 

A Little Bit of Life Lately

Busy. The only word that can possibly describe our life lately. I feel like we have been all over the place but August was so much fun.

We had fun dressing up for Craw's cousins wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and we loved getting to spend time with family the entire weekend.

It was fun getting to catch up with these girls also.

My best friend gave birth to her THIRD baby boy in August. We love Carter James so much already and every time I hold him, I think about how we will be holding our own baby very soon. It makes me want to cry all the happy tears.

We got to attend ECU's first home game of the season this weekend. We had so much fun and are very thankful for Craw's Aunt and Uncle for gifting us the tickets. We even found Allie and Coop and got to hang with them for a few. The game itself was very ugly and lets just hope ECU can get it together before the next one.

Our Panthers play THIS SUNDAY and we are SO EXCITED for football season to finally be here. We already put our flag up and are ready for football Sundays.



PUZZLE PIECE FUNDRAISER RECAP



On the first day of August, I announced that we were kicking off an August fundraising challenge. The plan was to see how many puzzle pieces we could get sponsored in 31 days with each piece being $25. Craw and I designed our own 250 piece puzzle and the ultimate goal was to have all 250 pieces sponsored in August.

To say I was nervous to begin this fundraiser would be the understatement of the century. You can ask all of my friends. Would we be able to get all 250 pieces sponsored? Was I setting the bar too high? Was $25 a piece too much? Was I annoying people by my social media posts? And the list goes on...

The first week was a huge success and it definitely started to calm my fears a little bit. While the goal of 250 pieces was still a long ways off, we were at least getting closer with 94 pieces sponsored the first week.

Week two was when the doubt and fear started to creep in. Six days in to the second week and we had only sold 4 pieces. I started to really question if the goal of 250 was feasible and if the success of the first week was just a fluke. And just when I started to question everything, God showed off and in ONE day, we sold 36 pieces ending week two at 134 pieces.

The third week was a little slower paced but I also took a step back from social media to enjoy a mini vacay with Craw. I also wanted to make sure I wasn't annoying everybody with my posting. We ended week three at 150 pieces which was a blessing. However, that meant that the last week and a half of August, we needed to get 100 pieces sponsored if we were going to meet or August goal.

Craw and I knew that there were many people that were waiting until the end to give. We also noticed that social media played a BIG roll in encouraging people to give. We did a live video during week four updating friends and family on where we were in the process and also updating them on our August fundraiser and all of a sudden, more people started giving.

And this is the part I know you have all been waiting for...

.......drumroll please.......

All 250 pieces have been sponsored!!!

How incredible is that? I am in awe of God and how much he loves us and how much all of the people around us love us. Craw and I both received donations from people we have never met, friends from high school that we haven't talked to SINCE high school, friends of friends of friends, and the list goes on. It's truly beautiful how much love we have received.

So...from the very bottom of our hearts, we say THANK YOU. In fact, thank you is not enough but I don't know what else to say. You have ALL helped us get one step closer to bringing home Baby Bolton and we cannot thank you enough.