At 7 months, Lucie began to crawl. Two weeks later, she began to pull up to a standing position. Now, she scoots along furniture, squats, and at times lets go to see if she can stand by herself. We think she will be walking very soon. And I'm definitely not ready to have such an early walker! She is determined to keep up with her big sister!

6 Months In

I've neglected this blog, because life has been so busy. Last month, our family was made official when Lucie's adoption was finalized! It is hard to believe that 6 months ago, we welcomed baby Lucie into the world and into our family. We cannot imagine life without her. She continues to be a sweet natured, easy going baby. She is so close to crawling, although she has discovered other ways to be mobile through scooting on her back or on her bottom.
She is close to laughing out loud. Right now she laughs with an inward breathy noise as her eyes dance and she bounces up and down. She is growing like crazy. At her 6 month old check-up her height was off the charts (thanks to her tall birthfather.) Maggie continues to delight in her role as big sister. Her prayers at meal time often say, "Thank you God for sending us Lucie." And that about sums it up. We are so grateful for Lucie.

The Fresh Air Fund--Hosting Children who need Fresh Air

I received this e-mail regarding an opportunity for those interested to serve as host families. Please see below for details and direct any questions to Sara. Her contact information is below. Please also pass along to others that you may know who might be interested. Thanks!

Hi

I know that this isn't something that you typically post about, but I thought that you and the readers of Our Adoption Journey would care about this issue. Even though the Summer is in full swing, The Fresh Air Fund is still in need of 850 host families. Host families are volunteers who open their hearts and homes to children from the city to give them a Fresh Air experience that can change lives. If you could help to get the word out it would really help us place these wonderful children into a loving host family. It's only for up to two weeks, but it's an experience that can change their lives forever.

http://freshairfundhost.org

I was hoping you could help by posting a mention, tweet, or by putting up one of our banners on your site. Please let me know if you are able to help or if you have any questions.

Thank you so much,

Sara
--
Sara Wilson,
www.freshair.org
facebook.com/freshairfund
Twitter @freshairfund

Happy Memorial Day!

Going Mobile

Lucie loves to slide over her boppy. And she is really fast! She's discovered that her strong legs can get her places. And she is only 11 weeks old. I do believe she is going to crawl and walk early. I'm so not ready.

Sisters.

Lucie is our adoptive daughter. Maggie is our biological daughter. And ever since we brought Lucie home, the same comment keeps coming back to us, "They look like they belong together!" I agree with that. They look like sisters to me. Maggie loves her baby sister. She is so protective of her already, and she already is giving her advice. Just the other day, she whispered to Lucie, "You can be anything you want when you get older....a princess, a queen, but not an alligator." Okay, she is almost five years old, and that advice made sense to her!!! Lucie's eyes light up as soon as she sees Maggie. She smiles the most and starts cooing the loudest when Maggie is around.

I know that many people struggle with whether to adopt or not. One of the greatest issues when it comes to deciding to adopt is wanting the child that comes into your life to look like you. And I confess, as we decided to go the adoption route, I had to allow myself to grieve that our next child would not look like us, because he/she would not be our biological child. When I allowed myself to grieve that AND let it go, I knew that I was ready to adopt. And when I could let that go, it also opened up some new possibilities that we had not opened ourselves up to before---adopting a biracial baby. And when we opened ourselves to the possibility of adopting biracially, within just a few short months, we welcomed Lucie into our family.

Lucie is biracial, and she is beautiful. She has been embraced by her family, her church family, and all of our friends. And you know what, she fits perfectly into our family. I cannot imagine our lives without her.

Some Kind of Ride

A few years ago, John gave me a "Story People" print with the caption: "feels like some kind of ride but it's turning out just to be Life going absolutely perfectly." This picture is going to be hung in Lucie's nursery, because it definitely captures what the adoption ride has been like so far.

Lucie is two weeks old today. And as I look at her, I cannot help but think about her birthparents--how they made the most courageous, selfless, life-changing decision. They are so young--17 and 18 years old, yet they were able to make such an adult decision for their baby daughter. We will forever be grateful, and Lucie will always know just how courageous they were to allow her to be adopted and that they chose us to be her forever family.

I'm also so thankful that we got to meet both birthparents and spend time with them at the hospital. When I look at Lucie, I see her birthfather in her eyes, nose, and feet. The birthfather has size 14 feet, and when he saw little Lucie's long skinny feet, he went, "YES!, she's got my feet." I see Lucie's birthmother in her chin, and when she gives a gassy smile, there is the hint of that dimple that her birthmother wears on one side when she smiles. Lucie also has a sweet, quiet, calm nature, just like her birthmother.

All this is a great gift that we would not have had if we had wanted a closed adoption. So, I'm thankful as I reflect on these past two weeks with Lucie and for her history that we are now a part of.

Our Adoption Journey

I've often heard the cliche "adoption is not for the faint of heart." And as I look back at our own journey thus far, I have to agree with this statement. Adoption is not an easy journey, but it is worth the hard work and difficult experiences that accompany it.

We chose to go the adoption attorney route after trying to go through a local adoption agency for over a year. Our experience with the agency we worked with was frustrating. We were told at the front end that "most families" were placed with a baby in a year or less. We entered excited and hopeful that an adoption would occur quickly, because of our openness. When I did not hear back for over 6 months, I called the agency to inquire. "Well, we've had a really slow year, but we've showed your book to a couple of mothers." This response led us to move in a different direction. If they were moving that slow, it would be years before we adopted a baby.

I contacted a cousin who had successfully adopted two precious babies through her own independent efforts. She encouraged us to set up a blog. And so we set up this blog in July of 2010. She advised us to get the word out to as many people as possible. And we did! We printed up postcards (Vista print has some good deals) announcing that we wanted to adopt, included a picture of us and our contact information and passed them to as many people as possible. We left these postcards in community college bulletin boards, laundry mats, hair and nail salons, hospital waiting rooms, really anywhere we could think of we left the postcards. We networked with a couple of local adoption attorneys. We posted on Craigslist our desire to adopt and included our blog address. Yes, I said Craigslist. Before you laugh this off, my same cousin who has two beautiful boys had connected with a birthmother who was in crisis and looking for baby furniture on Craiglist when she saw my cousin's post. As a result, she now has adopted a beautiful baby because of her Craigslist posting.

And it was through these efforts that we connected with some amazing people. Folks that simply wrote to encourage us. Others who shared their own adoption journeys and even passed some helpful advice to us. Some who sent us adoption possibilities or agencies to look into. And quite a few who asked if we would consider surrogacy. And we did connect to some amazing birthmothers along this journey. In the end, those we connected with decided to keep their babies. But it was a great gift to get to know them and be a part of their pregnancy journey. And I do have to admit, we were contacted by a few shady folks too.

As we spent countless hours on e-mails, phone calls, networking, we soon found ourselves emotionally fatigued. It was exhausting, and we began to think that perhaps a baby was not out there for us to adopt. We decided to give ourselves six more months before closing the door on adopting a baby. We decided that we needed to give our efforts a rest and find someone else to do it for us. That is what led us to Shorstein and Kelly in Jacksonville, Florida. And I have to say, as soon as we made that decision, we were able to let our worries go. We truly felt like we had done everything we could to expand our family through adoption, and if it was going to happen, then it would happen.

And I'm so overjoyed to find that it finally did. Was it easy? No, but I find that not much in life is easy. Was it worth it? Yes, every bit of this journey has been worth the struggles, the challenges, the questions, the doubts, the frustrations. And really, this is just the beginning of our adoption journey. I look forward to seeing what comes next.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, want advice, or just need a boost of encouragement. We will pass on what we know and have learned thus far.

Blessings on your Journey.

Denise

Welcome Lucie Ann!

We have some catching up to do! In November, we connected with a Florida adoption law firm (Shorstein & Kelly) that had been recommended to us by a couple of families who had success with adoptions through this firm. In mid-December, Shorstein & Kelly contacted us to see if we would be interested in letting a birthmother see our profile. We said, yes, but still were unsure if this was really going to work out.

To make a long story short, on Monday night, January 17, we got a phone call from the birthmother letting us know she was on the way to the hospital. We threw our bags together, jumped in the car and drove all night to the hospital where she was to deliver. We arrived just in time to be there for the birth of our daughter. After a roller coaster ride this week, we left the hospital today with our new daughter. We feel so extremely blessed, over joyed, overwhelmed at what has happened. This has been a long journey filled with disappointments, heartbreak, and dead ends. But in the end, it was worth it. It brought us to baby Lucie.

As we look at our new baby girl with hearts filled with gratitude, I am mindful of those who long to be parents and are not, especially those who are waiting right now to adopt and are wondering if it will ever happen. Please hang in there. It will happen.

We are so grateful to all of you for your love, support, encouragement, and well wishes. We will continue to post about this journey in hopes that it helps other families who long to adopt.

Blessings,
Denise, John, Maggie & Lucie