Update Overdue

We’re alive!  We are home with our baby girl who was in the NICU for a few months.  I think I’m consolidating blogs so check out heatherbrandt.com unless you hear otherwise from me…I’m hoping that it will be easier to keep up with just 1  blog that gives glimpses into our life and my photography 🙂  I’m not taking this blog down…I may have Colin-specific blog entries I feel I need to make…but at this time I can’t keep up with 3 blogs…

Heather

Update on Baby Girl

We are all three here visiting our sweet D. every day in the NICU.  WE are praying that our home state will quickly approve us to bring home D once she is released from the hospital….The state where she was born has already approved & our home state is insisting that we first submit the discharge paperwork…which we will not receive until D is discharged from the hospital (hopefully in November)….Our home state could add 7-10 days to our stay once D is discharged….Please pray that our home state will be compassionate and quickly grant us approval to bring home our baby girl once she is discharged.  Right now we are blessed to stay at a local Ronald McDonald House but they don’t usually allow families to stay once their child is discharged….We are stressed by the idea of having to find another place to stay for unknown time span & the likelihood of it being way more expensive than $15 nightly charged by Ronald McDonald House.  Please also pray for Colin because being away from home is stressful for him.

D is 1 month old now and weighs 3 lbs and 3 ounces.  Hopefully, she will start bottle feeding sometime within the next two weeks.

Thanks for stopping by,

Heather & Alan

We’ve Almost Met Goal!

https://brandtadoption.wordpress.com/make-tax-deductible-gifts/We lack only $1190.11 now for our agency fees due this month. Thanks to all who have given so far through our adoption fund Lifesong for Orphans! Click on link below to give(please follow their instructions there)…

To Make Tax-Deductible Gift

Thanks for your prayers & support!

Heather & Alan

Update on Bringing D Home!

We now only lack $1457.33 for the placing agency fees we still owe. You can still give this week by paypal or check to our adoption fund Lifesong for Orphans. We’re so thankful for all who have give gifts so far.  Any amount can help!  Click on the link for instructions on making tax-deductible gift :

https://brandtadoption.wordpress.com/make-tax-deductible-gifts/

It will still be about 2 weeks before the NICU introduces bottle feeding because, developmentally, that is when it is a skill that newborns or infants tend to have (about 32-24 weeks gestation).  She will need to be able to bottle feed before she is released from the hospital.

Please also pray for the 7-10 day wait to be waived when she is discharged by hospital.  This wait is typically given when children are adopted out this particular state and our agency is hoping a provisional will be granted so D can head for home rather than waiting that much longer!

Thanks for stopping by,

 

Heather & Alan

Clarification on Adoption Process

For those wondering, our D is really our baby! We are waiting on her to grow healthy & be discharged from the hospital and we are are waiting on ICPC clearance which allows us to cross state lines.
Our adoption will be finalized within 6-9 months once the post-placement requirements(visits) have been met.  Please keep praying for D’s health & that she will get to come home sometime in November.

Heather & Alan

Update on Fundraising!

We are receiving a $5000 no-interest loan from the ABBA Fund & have raised $1897.67 so far through Lifesong (includes $100 from the jewelry sale).

SO we only lack $1957.33 more for the placing agency fees owed this
month! Please consider making a gift to help us raise these fees that
will help us to complete D’s adoption…Your tax-deductible gift of any size can make a big difference in helping us with these final hurdles between us and our daughter’s adoption.

Click on the link below & please follow the instructions so we will receive your gift:

Make Tax-Deductible Gift to Help D Come Home!

Help Bring Baby D Home!

Friends & family have given $1897.67 so far through our adoption fund with Lifesong for Orphans! We only lack $6957.33 for the placing agency fees still due! Thanks to all who have given & remember you can still make a tax-deductible gift of any size…Click here to make a gift to help bring our preemie baby girl, D, home!

Make Tax Deductible Gift to Bring Home Baby D

Edited: Good News & More to Come!

Good news! We have been matched yesterday with a baby girl who was born premature on 9/28. Heather’s traveling to visit her @ hospital tonight through the weekend. We are still short $13,255 for placing agency fees which are due a.s.a.p. To give, check out our Lifesong link & make a tax-deductible gift of any size through paypal or check. Please pray for us and for the health of our baby girl!( Update: My brain is a little scattered from making last minute plans for travel…I had to change my figures I posted this morning. Please forgive my goof….I’ve got a baby on my brain 🙂

https://brandtadoption.wordpress.com/make-tax-deductible-gifts/

 

Update

We are weird by American standards… we don’t have cable or satellite television….our current TV is one of those regular heavy TVs not a LCD or flat screen model…Colin doesn’t know  most of the kids’ TV shows unless it is one he’s seen on PBS and most days we don’t pick up the signals for PBS…We make our own laundry detergent…We drive older model cars…We have date nights at home these days…We live pretty frugally so that we can save for our adoption and so that I can stay with Colin at home where we believe he needs me right now….

Our family  is more about memories of spending time together together playing outside, playing music together, reading books and acting silly.  Colin recently decided to start decorating his baby sister’s room with some of his drawings.  He got out tape and put up several pictures in her room.  Doesn’t he look proud of his work (in the photo)?

We feel led to adopt our daughter just as we felt led to adopt Colin a few years ago and we are excited at how God has called us to trust in His plans for our family and His perfect timing.  Would we like to have our little girl home before Christmas?  You betcha!  But if it doesn’t happen, we will still trust in God’s plan and we will not lose hope.

We haven’t had any more gifts given to our adoption fund with Lifesong so we are extending our deadline to the end of November.   You can click on the Lifesong or Tax-Deductible Link/tab to make a gift of any size.

Please pray that God will remove any obstacles between us and our future daughter and that He will give us wisdom to recognize her when she is revealed.

Thanks for stopping by,

Heather & Alan

Link Love….

Today, I’m sharing some links that I think are worth checking out!

Mary Ostyn, an adoptive mama who blogs at Owlhaven, recently blogged about her experience at the Together for Adoption Conference.  Karen Purvis, who is absolutely my favorite adoption parenting expert, spoke at the conference. 

Visit the blog postings to get a glimpse of what is being presented at the conference.  If you haven’t read  Purvis’ The Connected Child: Bring hope and healing to your adoptive family, please do check it out or buy a copy soon.  As a former school teacher, I think it even has relevance for those in the education field. 

Here are the posts from Ostyn’s blog which summarize some of the sessions she attended at the conference:

“Parents on a Healing Journey”

“Karen Purvis:  Real Hope for Help & Healing“

Adoption Support & Training in the Church

Another blog posting I’d like to share is one I read awhile back on transracial parenting and racial issues.  It is a reposting of an interview with Thabiti Anyabwile, pastor of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman.

Check out the inteview with Anyabwile :http://www.carolinahopeadoption.org/blog/archives/63/

Heather