Well, as many of you know already, Saturday was a HUGE success! Andy and I had an amazing group of friends working together to make our 5k special for us...and it was. Brooke, Kristen, Matthew, and so many others made Saturday the success it was. We were blessed far beyond what we had hoped for and God is continuing to pour out His blessing on us. I know I've already said this once, but there truly are not words good enough to say how thankful we are.
Sunday morning we went to Church as usual, but this Sunday was different. After the run on Saturday, other than being extremely sore from being so out of shape, I felt great and very uplifted by the kind words we received from so many people. Jay Walker, a longtime friend, said a special prayer. It should be a prayer that we all say daily. He was talking about how precious life is, and how so many children are out there without loving homes, and he went on to tell the church how Andy and I were adopting and that God had great plans in store for us and had the perfect child in mind for us. He said the sweetest prayer and Andy and I both were fighting back tears. This might sound a little strange, but during that prayer I had a feeling of peace and reassurance that God is in total control of everything we do, and that He has an incredible plan in store for us. The anxiety of the wait was gone, the not-knowing was gone, just total peace about everything. God is good and He hears our prayers and He takes care of us.
So right now we are playing the waiting game. We are "waiting" for a birth family to choose us. We are neither gender specific not race specific. Hopefully, we won't have to wait too long. We are just trusting that the Lord brings us to the child He has created for us. Please continue to pray for us and the child He has coming. Pray that we are good parents and that we can raise our child in His ways.
Again, thank you. You have blessed us beyond measure!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Excitement Building
Well, as of right now we are waiting to hear when our Home Study and Safety Evaluation will be. This will be the last thing we have to do before we are officially "Waiting." I have to admit, not knowing when they will call to say they are coming to Cookeville has been great for our house. I don't think it has ever been cleaner! Each night we are making sure everything is in place and clean so that when we get the call we aren't running around like crazy. So other than becoming professional Merry Maids, we are doing pretty good.
Most everyone on FB knows about the 5K coming up. We are so excited! So many people have messaged us about coming, or that they can't come but have made donations...we are just so humbled. Some of you we have known our whole lives, some of you we have only recently met, and some of you are total strangers. God has definitely blessed us beyond our wildest dreams. I feel like I am a complete emotional train wreck each time I look at the event page, or read someones wall post about the 5k, or read the messages and letters we have been getting. I'm laughing... I'm crying... Andy thinks I've lost my mind. I am not sure how to express our gratitude. Who knows when this child will come to us, but man will he or she be lucky! To have so many people praying over them already is so amazing.
We hope to hear something from our adoption worker this week about when the home study will be so we can get that checked off the list.
Hope to see everyone at JCS bright and early on Saturday morning!!!
Most everyone on FB knows about the 5K coming up. We are so excited! So many people have messaged us about coming, or that they can't come but have made donations...we are just so humbled. Some of you we have known our whole lives, some of you we have only recently met, and some of you are total strangers. God has definitely blessed us beyond our wildest dreams. I feel like I am a complete emotional train wreck each time I look at the event page, or read someones wall post about the 5k, or read the messages and letters we have been getting. I'm laughing... I'm crying... Andy thinks I've lost my mind. I am not sure how to express our gratitude. Who knows when this child will come to us, but man will he or she be lucky! To have so many people praying over them already is so amazing.
We hope to hear something from our adoption worker this week about when the home study will be so we can get that checked off the list.
Hope to see everyone at JCS bright and early on Saturday morning!!!
Sunday, August 7, 2011
It's been a while
I know it's been a while since I updated, we've had a lot going on it seems like. We finally got all our paperwork submitted, all our doctors appointments done, and sent everything off. Now,we are waiting to find out when our home study will be. This is where everything is going to get a little tougher. Up to this point, everything has been on our time table. We controlled when we finished our paperwork, we controlled when to schedule appointments, we called the shots. Now, Bethany will tell us when they will come and do our home study and home safety inspection. But, this is also where some fun begins.
As many of you are probably already aware, Running for Baby Stites, a 5K fundraiser, is scheduled for August 26th. To say that Andy and I are excited would be a huge understatement. We are so grateful and humbled by what our friends are doing for us that neither one of us can find any words that seem to be good enough. I don't want to name any names specifically because I am afraid that I would leave someone out. They know who they are and they will forever hold a very special place in my heart. I get on FB every day and look at the comments that are posted, I have messages nearly every day, some from dear friends and some from total strangers, encouraging us and reaffirming our decision to adopt. We are so thankful to have family and friends who support us.
Right now, we need prayers. Prayers for a successful fundraiser. Prayers for a quick process. Prayers for patience. Someone told me once that God doesn't give us patience, He gives us opportunities to exercise patience. I like things done now and done my way so this will definitely be an opportunity for me. Please be praying for our birthmother also. We don't know who she is or where she is. Pray that she gets the medical attention and the emotional care she needs during this time. Pray for us as this will be a scary, emotional, overwhelming, exciting, and somewhat trying time for us all.
Again, HUGE "THANK YOU" to those who have worked, and are still working, so hard to get this 5K going! Again, we are grateful and excited about it. We cannot wait!
As many of you are probably already aware, Running for Baby Stites, a 5K fundraiser, is scheduled for August 26th. To say that Andy and I are excited would be a huge understatement. We are so grateful and humbled by what our friends are doing for us that neither one of us can find any words that seem to be good enough. I don't want to name any names specifically because I am afraid that I would leave someone out. They know who they are and they will forever hold a very special place in my heart. I get on FB every day and look at the comments that are posted, I have messages nearly every day, some from dear friends and some from total strangers, encouraging us and reaffirming our decision to adopt. We are so thankful to have family and friends who support us.
Right now, we need prayers. Prayers for a successful fundraiser. Prayers for a quick process. Prayers for patience. Someone told me once that God doesn't give us patience, He gives us opportunities to exercise patience. I like things done now and done my way so this will definitely be an opportunity for me. Please be praying for our birthmother also. We don't know who she is or where she is. Pray that she gets the medical attention and the emotional care she needs during this time. Pray for us as this will be a scary, emotional, overwhelming, exciting, and somewhat trying time for us all.
Again, HUGE "THANK YOU" to those who have worked, and are still working, so hard to get this 5K going! Again, we are grateful and excited about it. We cannot wait!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Faith of a Mustardseed
Finally! We are getting closer and closer to finishing up all of our paperwork and trying to get our doctors appointments and psychological evaluations finished. I can just imagine some of the thoughts that just popped in your head just thinking about Andy and I and a psychological evaluation. We are getting excited about our progress though. I think one reason we were slowing down on everything was that we wanted to make sure we had everything we needed when it came time to turn in our big book. And by everything I don't just mean the paperwork, I mean $5000.00 too! Yeah, close your mouth because if you're like me when I first heard that, your mouth just dropped. We have brainstormed on fundraising ideas and things we can do to raise money. We are going to be having a yard sale sometime soon, Matthew(my sweet brother) said he would do a race and get his friends to help get sponsored if I wanted to do something like that, my Zumba teacher was talking to me about a Zumba-thon, and there are several more ideas that keep coming. I was getting so excited about all the stuff we could do while at the same time stressing out a little about all the funds we have to raise and I was at my mother-in-laws one day and she spoke something to me that really slapped me in the face in a way.
"Stefanie, when has God ever not provided what you need at the exact moment you needed it?" Think about it, it's so true. When has God ever just said, ok, hope all goes well for ya, check in when you can? She wasn't saying that we shouldn't do fundraising, she was simply pointing out that I wasn't giving God enough credit. Ouch. Not something you want to admit about yourself. My mother-in-law is a very wise woman. I think so many times we try and make things happen on our own, and we don't ask for God's help. Or, we ask for His help and then immediately go out and try to make things work without giving Him a chance to show up when He's not working as fast as we think He should be. That's me, I'm guilty of that. I hope that this journey Andy and I are on will not only strengthen our relationship with one another, but also our relationship with God. Being able to solely rely upon Him to provide us with what we need. Matthew 17:20 says, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "move from here to there" and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Thinking of how small a mustard seed actually is makes me realize that what He is saying is that if we have the slightest bit of faith, we can do extraordinary things. Placing our entire adoption journey in God's hands will only bless the final outcome even more! We are excited to make this next step in turning in our book and getting closer to the "waiting pool" stage!
"Stefanie, when has God ever not provided what you need at the exact moment you needed it?" Think about it, it's so true. When has God ever just said, ok, hope all goes well for ya, check in when you can? She wasn't saying that we shouldn't do fundraising, she was simply pointing out that I wasn't giving God enough credit. Ouch. Not something you want to admit about yourself. My mother-in-law is a very wise woman. I think so many times we try and make things happen on our own, and we don't ask for God's help. Or, we ask for His help and then immediately go out and try to make things work without giving Him a chance to show up when He's not working as fast as we think He should be. That's me, I'm guilty of that. I hope that this journey Andy and I are on will not only strengthen our relationship with one another, but also our relationship with God. Being able to solely rely upon Him to provide us with what we need. Matthew 17:20 says, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, "move from here to there" and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Thinking of how small a mustard seed actually is makes me realize that what He is saying is that if we have the slightest bit of faith, we can do extraordinary things. Placing our entire adoption journey in God's hands will only bless the final outcome even more! We are excited to make this next step in turning in our book and getting closer to the "waiting pool" stage!
Great Expectations
I know it's been a while since our last post. We have finished our training classes (thank the Lord) and I finished my self-study yesterday (thank the Lord) and so now we are waiting for Andy to finish his up. Yes, I am blaming him. Not really, everyone works at their own pace and I've had more time lately to work on mine! So, what's new?
Our Expectations Meeting. You have to complete an Expectations Meeting before you can go on to the Home Study. Andy and I had to go to Nashville our last training session so we just made a day of it and killed 2 meetings in one day. We got to the Bethany office around 2 and we were done by 2:45. I wasn't sure what to think after the meeting was over. Let me back up.
I wasn't 100% sure what to "expect" out of our Expectation Meeting. I don't know anyone who has ever had to go through one of these meetings so I was completely blank. We walked in, sat down, Amy came in, and the questions started coming. For those of you who know me well know that I like to talk....a lot. I'm a talker, I can't help it, I get it honestly from my mom! So the questions are coming at us, how did you meet, how/when did you know he/she was the one, what do you families think about your relationship, when did you know you wanted a family and what plans have you made? You know, the simple questions everyone likes to talk about. Then came the tough ones, how do you feel about not being able to have a baby, have we grieved over not being able to have a child naturally, how does it feel having to change our plans, do we think we will be able to cope with having a child that is not biologically related to either one of us, and some other questions along those lines that I can't really remember. As the tough questions came I started thinking ok, does she think I cannot have a baby, does she have me confused with someone else, does she think I don't want to have a baby with Andy, and the questions kept coming and coming in my head. I felt like she was trying to trip us up, or get us to say something negative, or I don't know. I have to say, I nearly cried when I heard one of Andy's answers. The question about how we would handle a child not biologically ours, Andy said something like "I don't really care. Once that baby is in my arms, they're mine and Stefanie's. We don't need genetics to define who our child is." Ok, I know I sounds a little cheesy, but just hearing him say those words made me really look at him in awe and in that moment I thanked God for finding me worthy enough to be his wife. For those of you who don't know him, my husband is one of a kind. He is a true blessing in my life. He is going to make one incredible dad some day. We answered the questions the best we could but I just sat there thinking, that's it, we're done, we're not going to pass this. She was writing things down on her notebook and I was just imagining what all she could be writing about us. And then like that, the meeting was done. When we got to the car I just broke down and cried. I don't know why but sometimes I really let Satan take hold of me and let him totally control my thoughts. I was telling Andy we weren't good enough, starting our family shouldn't be this hard, we must have said something that made her think we weren't ready, why was God making us go through all this crap just to have a baby, just completely letting Satan fill my head with all these horrible thoughts and emotions. Andy just stopped and started praying for me. For me. What about him? Did I for one second stop and ask him what he was feeling? Of course not. He is the most caring man I've ever met next to my dad. He just hugged me and told me everything I needed to hear at the exact moment I needed to hear it. By the time we reached the church where our training classes were, I felt so much better.
Class went great, it was a little bittersweet though. We have become friends with some of the couples in the group and knowing that we won't be seeing them anymore kind of makes us sad. They all live in and around Nashville so email works...if we used it!
Our Expectations Meeting. You have to complete an Expectations Meeting before you can go on to the Home Study. Andy and I had to go to Nashville our last training session so we just made a day of it and killed 2 meetings in one day. We got to the Bethany office around 2 and we were done by 2:45. I wasn't sure what to think after the meeting was over. Let me back up.
I wasn't 100% sure what to "expect" out of our Expectation Meeting. I don't know anyone who has ever had to go through one of these meetings so I was completely blank. We walked in, sat down, Amy came in, and the questions started coming. For those of you who know me well know that I like to talk....a lot. I'm a talker, I can't help it, I get it honestly from my mom! So the questions are coming at us, how did you meet, how/when did you know he/she was the one, what do you families think about your relationship, when did you know you wanted a family and what plans have you made? You know, the simple questions everyone likes to talk about. Then came the tough ones, how do you feel about not being able to have a baby, have we grieved over not being able to have a child naturally, how does it feel having to change our plans, do we think we will be able to cope with having a child that is not biologically related to either one of us, and some other questions along those lines that I can't really remember. As the tough questions came I started thinking ok, does she think I cannot have a baby, does she have me confused with someone else, does she think I don't want to have a baby with Andy, and the questions kept coming and coming in my head. I felt like she was trying to trip us up, or get us to say something negative, or I don't know. I have to say, I nearly cried when I heard one of Andy's answers. The question about how we would handle a child not biologically ours, Andy said something like "I don't really care. Once that baby is in my arms, they're mine and Stefanie's. We don't need genetics to define who our child is." Ok, I know I sounds a little cheesy, but just hearing him say those words made me really look at him in awe and in that moment I thanked God for finding me worthy enough to be his wife. For those of you who don't know him, my husband is one of a kind. He is a true blessing in my life. He is going to make one incredible dad some day. We answered the questions the best we could but I just sat there thinking, that's it, we're done, we're not going to pass this. She was writing things down on her notebook and I was just imagining what all she could be writing about us. And then like that, the meeting was done. When we got to the car I just broke down and cried. I don't know why but sometimes I really let Satan take hold of me and let him totally control my thoughts. I was telling Andy we weren't good enough, starting our family shouldn't be this hard, we must have said something that made her think we weren't ready, why was God making us go through all this crap just to have a baby, just completely letting Satan fill my head with all these horrible thoughts and emotions. Andy just stopped and started praying for me. For me. What about him? Did I for one second stop and ask him what he was feeling? Of course not. He is the most caring man I've ever met next to my dad. He just hugged me and told me everything I needed to hear at the exact moment I needed to hear it. By the time we reached the church where our training classes were, I felt so much better.
Class went great, it was a little bittersweet though. We have become friends with some of the couples in the group and knowing that we won't be seeing them anymore kind of makes us sad. They all live in and around Nashville so email works...if we used it!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Paper Pregnant
Yes, you are reading that correctly. Sounds kind of funny doesn't it? When we first heard that, we both looked at each other and laughed. I think everyone in the class was laughing actually. And speaking of class, we went to Orientation a few weeks ago and then to our fist of eight training classes. With these classes comes a lot of homework plus trying to get all the required paperwork done for the applications. Wow, it's a little overwhelming. The first couple of days I was on it. I would come home from work, take Winston out and put his food down, and then start working on adoption papers immediately. Now I'm hitting the harder questions and I'm not sure how to answer them.
First, how do you describe your "ideal child?" We were asked to close our eyes and imagine our child, what he/she looked like, older or younger, white or other, one or multiple, foreign or domestic, you get the point. I felt off because all I could see was a child. I couldn't see what he or she looked like, I just saw that they were ours and we were a family. On the drive back home, I asked Andy what he had pictured and he said he saw the same thing I did. Neither one of us could clearly define what our child would look like. How can you describe someone you have never met. I think when we meet our child we will know him or her.
Second, how do you describe yourself without sounding full of yourself? You want to tell all the amazing things about you and your family but at the same time you don't want to turn it into a brag fest about yourself. Several people who have gone through this same process have said that I cannot think of it as bragging. Andy and I have to view this as our only way to tell a birth mother how incredible we are. But how do answer questions about yourself, while trying to say what's great about yourself, without sounding like you are full of yourself? Have I said the same thing throughout this entire paragraph?!
This whole process is overwhelming, frustrating, and scary. But it is also very exciting and uplifting to know that we are not alone in this journey and that we will have a baby in our arms at the end of it all. However he or she comes into our lives, Andy and I will have our precious child!
First, how do you describe your "ideal child?" We were asked to close our eyes and imagine our child, what he/she looked like, older or younger, white or other, one or multiple, foreign or domestic, you get the point. I felt off because all I could see was a child. I couldn't see what he or she looked like, I just saw that they were ours and we were a family. On the drive back home, I asked Andy what he had pictured and he said he saw the same thing I did. Neither one of us could clearly define what our child would look like. How can you describe someone you have never met. I think when we meet our child we will know him or her.
Second, how do you describe yourself without sounding full of yourself? You want to tell all the amazing things about you and your family but at the same time you don't want to turn it into a brag fest about yourself. Several people who have gone through this same process have said that I cannot think of it as bragging. Andy and I have to view this as our only way to tell a birth mother how incredible we are. But how do answer questions about yourself, while trying to say what's great about yourself, without sounding like you are full of yourself? Have I said the same thing throughout this entire paragraph?!
This whole process is overwhelming, frustrating, and scary. But it is also very exciting and uplifting to know that we are not alone in this journey and that we will have a baby in our arms at the end of it all. However he or she comes into our lives, Andy and I will have our precious child!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Where to Start
For those of you who have not heard the news yet, Andy and I are beginning the adoption process. Well, I think it is technically called "our adoption journey." We have been trying to start our family for a while now and we feel God is pulling at our hearts to seek out adoption. We have been praying for a clear sign as to where to begin, and we finally got an answer. We are working with Bethany Christian Services in Nashville. We had our first meeting last night and it was very overwhelming! A lot of info in a very short period of time, but it was great. As for now, we are going with a domestic adoption unless God leads us another direction.
Beginning this journey together is one of the most scary and exciting things Andy and I have done to date. We are extremely excited and cannot wait to see the plans God has in store for us!
I have never blogged before, in fact, I had not really heard of a "blog" until this past year. Since we got married and moved to Cookeville, keeping in touch is a little harder so hopefully everyone can keep up with us and see what's new with the Stites!
Beginning this journey together is one of the most scary and exciting things Andy and I have done to date. We are extremely excited and cannot wait to see the plans God has in store for us!
I have never blogged before, in fact, I had not really heard of a "blog" until this past year. Since we got married and moved to Cookeville, keeping in touch is a little harder so hopefully everyone can keep up with us and see what's new with the Stites!
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