Getting Ready…

The wait to be matched with our child(ren) is different this time(with Colin to cheer us and keep us busy) but it does have its tough moments.  We were recently considered by our first birth mom (that we know of).  We never were asked questions by her (like some adoptive families are).  It was just simply a situation we knew of and that we felt comfortable being submitted to.  It has taken a few weeks but we’ve found out we probably will not be matched with this birth mom and that she isn’t sure of her adoption plan.  We decided not to tell family or friends because…at least not until we knew if we’d been matched or not.

I have a friend who is expecting her baby boy next month and I kept wondering during this waiting time if this particular situation was the ONE…whether my friend and I would end up with newborns around the same time.  There is still a chance we could have a whirlwind adoption and be matched with a child whom we meet next month but we don’t know at this time of our profile being shown to any one else.  God has wonderfully and miraculously formed both our family and my friend’s family.

We seem to have both started trying to conceive around the same time but God just had different ideas in mind for how He was going to design our families.  Granny asked Colin this weekend, “Where did you get those beautiful eyes?” Colin said, “Jesus.”  He is right….Every child is wonderfully formed by Our Creator!  My friend’s baby is being formed wonderfully in her womb right now and my baby….well, we have to look with the eyes of faith to see little signs of her impending “birth” into our family.  She may already have been born or she may still be in her birth mother being “wonderfully formed.” 

Every child is a miracle and we look forward to seeing how God leads us to our sweet little girl!  Will it be next month or next year?  Only Our Creator knows and we trust Him to lead us to her when the time is right.

Today, Colin was blue because he’s missing family we visited over the weekend and Alan who’s not home yet.  I went through a list of different activity ideas, asking him what we

could do that would cheer him up.  What did he think would make him feel better?  He told me that it would be working on the TV room…I asked him why and he said, “I work hard…” I asked why he works hard in the TV room.  He said, “To get things ready for my baby sister.”  (our current TV room is the extra bedroom we plan to use as a nursery). We continue to pray for our future daughter and prepare our hearts and home for her arrival whenever that may be.

Hopefully, we’ll share good news from our matching grant challenge tomorrow!  You still have until August 24 to give.  Your gift of any amount would be appreciated so that we will receive the full grant to help with the adoption expenses.

Thanks for stopping by,

Heather

Interview with Ourselves…

“Will we post here when we are being considered by a birth mom?”

Our answer is, “No.”  We will only share once we are officially matched with a child/situation(see Update below). At that point, we will not give a lot of information because the adoption is not a sure thing…It will be kind of similar to our Russian adoption in that we will protect our child’s life story and be cautious about what we share with others.  We may or may not share the due date (if it hasn’t happened yet) but I’m not sure if we will share where we will be traveling until after we are there…

“When we are being considered by a birth mom, how long will it usually take until we find out if we are chosen?”

We have been told that it could take 1-3 days or it could take 7 or more days.  I suspect it usually falls somewhere in between.  If we don’t hear any news within a couple of weeks of knowing we were being considered, it probably means that we were not chosen.

“Do we have everything bought and packed in case we get quick notice of being matched with a child and have to travel the next day?” Uhhhhh…no…we do have some things we need and maybe have some of them packed but we still have a list of things that have been recommended for traveling to adopt a newborn baby…You can see our wish list at the right of this page.

Please continue to pray for any birth mom(s) that may consider us…that they would have wisdom and peace as they make their adoption plans and that God will give us peace during our wait for His will to be revealed.

Thanks for stopping by,

Heather

Update:  We are not sure that we will even share when we are matched with any one but close family and close friends.  It is recommended that we be cautious and consider waiting until after we have custody of the child.

On My Heart…

Please pray for our future child and for her birth mother–wherever they may be.  We know that we could meet them next month or next year.  In any adoption journey, you find that every thing is unpredictable.  We pray that God will be glorified in the adoption of our daughter.  We are so grateful for all who have given or are giving to our adoption fund to help us cover the expenses of bringing home our daughter.  Your kind words and prayers give us strength as we wait for God to reveal the little one He has planned for our family.

We haven’t read the book, The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family, but recently a speaker at church referenced this book when he asked us each to consider what the “rallying cry (top priority)” of our families is for the next 3-6 months.  Right now, our “rallying cry” is honoring and trusting God in our adoption process.  God taught us so much about trust during Colin’s adoption but I find myself starting to dwell on the “what-ifs” instead of trusting God….Seeing Colin is a perfect reminder to us on a daily basis that God is in the miracle working business and He will provide for what He has called us to do–bring home our daughter. 

Today, Colin was pretend playing with his little people and pretending that they were going to see his baby sister.  We are praying that his transition to being a big brother will go smoothly and that he will understand that our love for him will never change with the addition of another little one.   Colin gives us joy and keeps us busy as we wait for his sister!  We are so thankful that our home is filled with the chatter of our sweet boy because we remember how quiet it was around here when we were waiting to bring him home.

Thanks for stopping by,

heather

Exciting News!

MATCHING GRANT CHALLENGE OVER AS OF 8/24/10

Update/Clarification:

Any funds that are received from our friends and family  above $5000 dollars will go toward the Brandt Adoption Fund, but will not be matched by Hand in Hand.  (Must be in to Hand in Hand before August 24)

Today we found out that we have been given a matching funds grant to help with the expenses of our adoption through Hand in Hand Christian Adoption, Inc.  They will match any funds that are donated through our friends and family for the expenses of our adoption. All funds received through our friends and family will be matched dollar for dollar by Hand in Hand up to our awarded grant amount (up to $5000 will be matched so we have the potential of $10,000 total given through our grant). If donations exceed $5000 from our friends and family, we will receive that money; it won’t be matched by Hand in Hand Christian Adoption….

THERE IS A STRICT DEADLINE FOR THIS GRANT!  ALL DONATIONS MUST BE IN BEFORE AUGUST 24, 2010.

Please send all donations made payable to “Hand in Hand Christian Adoption” before August 24, 2010 to: (for tax purposes please include our name on the outside of the envelope only…do not put our name on the check itself)

Hand in Hand Christian Adoption, Inc.

Brandt Family

18524 Juniper Street Gardner, KS 66030-9147

You can find out more about Hand in Hand at their web site, handinhandadopt.org.

Thanks for your prayers and encouragement!

Heather and Alan

Butterflies in My Garden & Stomach

I remember when we were told with our Russian adoption that we would be registered some time in June…I remember being nervous, excited and emotionally vulnerable that month…We knew there was the possibility of receiving a referral in June but we didn’t know we’d find out simultaneously that we had been registered and received a referral.

No, we haven’t been matched with a child yet but we’ve got butterflies!  We know that we are now registered with at least 1-3 agencies/attorneys who may be helping birth mothers to find parents for their children…We know that we could be called today, tomorrow, or 9 months from now. 

Please pray for us to have peace, wisdom and discernment as we wait upon the Lord and for Him to lead us to our daughter. 

Surprised by Petunias…

A mystery has unfolded recently at the Brandt household…my planter on the front porch was planted this year with snapdragons and assylum from a local store….Recently, some other plants started sprouting at the front of the planter and they looked sort of like petunias so me so I decided to let them continue growing.  This month, the flowers opened up in splendid pink and purple.  I told Alan that I think they are from petunia seeds I planted in the container back in 2008…I remember choosing old fashioned fragrant petunia seeds which I tried to grow in the container…I remember at the time that they didn’t do very well due to an insect attack.  Why would seeds from that long ago re-surface in the container?  I guess there is the possibility that somehow the plants I bought at the store had petunia seeds in them?  The fragrance of the petunias has convinced me that they are in fact from those seeds back in 2008…

So why am I sharing my petunia story with you today?  I believe that my petunias are a little surprise from God…I believe that my God is a God who loves me and delights in giving me good things…I have had some bouts of doubt and worry lately as I think about the adoption expenses that will be entailed in bringing home our daughter.  The petunias reminded me of the young woman I was back in the summer of 2008 when I was gardening and hoping and praying for my future child…it reminds me of that day in June when we first laid eyes on Colin’s photos and were asked to consider meeting him….of the day in July 2 years ago today when we first saw this precious face to face and God confirmed in our hearts that he was our son….God made me a mama through the gift of sweet Colin and I have faith that even though I can’t see my daughter yet, my God is active.  One day, like those surprise petunias, I’m going to be delighted by love and will see our daughter face to face and know that God has led us together…I’m praying that God will cultivate in me a more faithful heart that doesn’t let the doubts and fears of this world beat her down but lives with my hope firmly placed in my God who has promised to sustain me in the good times and the bad times…

Please join us in praying for our daughter wherever she is…that God will take care of her and for the well-being of her birth mother as well.  Pray that God will be glorified as He brings us together with our child and as He removes the mountains still between us.

Thanks for stopping by,

heather

New Baby Carrier Fundraiser!

When we adopted Colin, we used our baby carriers a lot to help encourage attachment.  Since we may be matched with a newborn baby this time, we have researched baby carriers to find something safe and comfortable for newborns and infants.  Babies benefit from being carried and it can be very soothing for them.

The Sleepy Wrap came highly recommended by other mamas we know, and we are excited to use it with our future baby!   Now you can buy one as a gift or for  your own sweet baby and Sleepy Wrap will give $8 towards our adoption fund!  You must use our link in order for us to get credit for your purchase.  You can click on the Sleepy Wrap blog button to the right or (or any time Sleepy Wrap is mentioned in this post) or you can click on this link below:

Sleepy Wrap Adoption Fundraiser

What is Different….

What is different this adoption journey compared to the journey to Colin?  The major difference is financially.  Both of us were working full time during Colin’s adoption.  For the majority of the adoption process last time, I was working in a temporary position as a teacher.  Now, I’m at home and bringing home no pay. Financially, we’ve faced the increases in insurance cost and cost of living that most families in America have faced. During Colin’s adoption process, we were only supporting ourselves…now there are 3 of us in our family to support.

As I work on financial statements for grant applications, I’m really having to face up to the big financial differences between where we were back in 2008 when we adopted Colin and where we are today.  I admit that this is scary for me…With the possibility of a newborn daughter, there are so many things we don’t have (though we are not first-time parents this time) which newborns need….that comes from Colin being 20 months old when we brought him home from Russia.  We have a list of suggested items that our adoption consultant  gave us to use to help with preparation for the possibility of a whirlwind adoption placement (where we have little notice of travel to our daughter) and, man, it is hard working on this list right now because of financial restraints.  There are just some things that you can’t find used.  So we will be putting up our link for our wishlist of items that we still don’t have that have been recommended for us to get for bringing home our daughter from wherever in America she may be.  If you feel led to make a gift or if you have another suggestion of something that might work (that is gently used), you can email us or mail to our home address, 3079 Twilight CT NE, Lanesville, IN 47136.  One thing I’m not going to put on the list is a diaper genie.  Since I hope to cloth diaper our daughter (as I did with Colin), I am hoping that we can find a diaper genie used through Craig’s List or Freecycle or something because we only need it for 1 to 3 months max.

We are waiting to hear from a matching grant application we submitted a couple of weeks ago so please pray that we will hear good news from them soon and that we will be able to make the goal and deadline that is set for the matching grant.  We should hear something this week, I think.

We don’t have an update to our puzzle fundraiser.  It’s kind of at a standstill but we are still seeking sponsorship of puzzle pieces.  We welcome any amount of donation.   You can make the donation through Paypal button to the right or by mailing a check to our home address.

We appreciate your prayers and encouragement during the wait for our daughter!  Please pray that the financial hurdles between us and our daughter will be removed and to God’s glory.  There is a lot of room for a miracle!  I remember saying that sometimes during the wait for Colin and it is true this time too.  God is more than able to meet our monthly financial needs as a family and to help us with our adoption expenses, too.

Thanks for stopping by,

Heather and Alan