Auden Update- 2.5 years old

Last week Auden had a half birthday, which gives me an excuse to update the blog with all the fun stuff he is doing lately!  He is such a little boy now, he will tell us what he thinks about everything and is definitely testing his boundaries like toddlers do.  He is eating great which is such a pleasure for Cody and I after all we have been through.  His favorite things right now include puzzles, jumping on our neighbor's trampoline and putting his head underwater at the pool, see pictures below:-)  We transitioned his crib to the "toddler bed" last month which went smoother than we could have ever imagined.  He doesn't seem to fully realize or care that he can get out of bed now when we are not in the room.  He will still lay in bed and play with his stuffed animals until we come into his room in the morning, which is quite funny.  We are having a great summer riding around in our new jeep, Auden loves wearing his shades with the top down.  He is at such a fun age right now, we love watching him explore and discover new things every day! 

                                                        Swimming under water at our swim club

                                                         Jumping on our neighbor's trampoline

Auden being chased by our adorable neighbor

 Our home made slip n' slide

                                                   New toddler bed

                                                  Cody refurbished his childhood rocking horse for Auden

                                                       Crusing in the new jeep

                                  Some professional pics we got done for our domestic adoption website 

                                 

Here We Go- Switching Gears!

I can’t help but to laugh as I write this.  Boy, how much has changed since I first started this blog in the beginning of 2011!  Let’s see, we chose Korea because it was a stable and predictable program over the last four decades.  But as soon as we got approved everything started to change and slow down drastically.  We said we didn’t want to pursue domestic because we didn’t want a newborn.  Lately, Cody and I find ourselves getting super excited at the thought of a little baby in the house.  We believed domestic adoption was not right for us because we weren’t comfortable with a birth mother in the picture.  Now I love the idea of our future child knowing where they came from and being able to ask their birth mom questions one day.  

We are now days away from starting to advertise for domestic adoption.  To contradict ourselves once more, we decided to completely go for it and advertise nationally with the website www.parentprofiles.com.  We feared we could be spinning our wheels advertising locally for months without any leads, whereas this site is extremely popular and will get tons of views every day.  This week, we have been working hard to write a good “Dear Birthmother Letter” that is seen on the site, as well as fun photographs that give a peak into our lives.  Today we got our “baby phone,” also known as a cheap cell without a contract that we can add minutes to whenever.  This is how any interested birth moms are going to reach us.  Of course we need to be prepared for scammers calling; we have been educating ourselves regarding how to identify a scam vs. regular birth mom. 

It’s funny, the unpredictable nature of domestic that once scared us has actually become exciting.  After we go "live" on the website, every day we wake up could be the day we speak to a birth mom that wants to make an adoption plan with us.  Of course, being in our new house makes timing so much less important now thankfully.  We could even be ready tomorrow if we need to be to bring home a baby!  Let’s hope we can give Auden a little more notice than that though, ha.

Who knows what is going to happen with this but for now it feels good to be doing something while waiting in the Korea line.  I’m thankful it has been so easy to get started with domestic with very little additional paperwork on our end.   I could have never ever predicted that this is where we would be right now but I love that our hearts and minds are completely open.  It’s amazing how life works, maybe we were meant to wait in the Korea line for the past year because it wasn’t time for us to meet our child yet?  We are looking forward to see what the next few months have in store for us! 

Adoption Update- Unexpected Good News!

July 1^st will mark one year from the day we got our home study approved and officially got on the wait list to be matched with a Korean baby girl.  Since we haven’t been matched yet, it means that we had to update many clearances and documents with the agency (you know, since we haven't been busy enough).  We also had to meet with our social worker again because she had to check out our new house.  I have to admit, doing the paperwork was not easy since Cody and I are losing hope with the program.  It is hard not to wonder if we are doing it all for nothing.  The current news in the program is that a bunch of referrals (children to be matched with) are suppose to come in late July and start coming regularly thereafter, but that is what they told us in May and nothing happened.  So we are definitely not holding our breathe any longer.  At this rate, I think it will be a miracle if we are matched by the end of the year. 

Our plan was to give the Korean program until the end of the year and then pull out so we could pursue domestic if the referrals still weren’t coming in.  At our meeting with the social worker this week, I planned on asking if we could at least have them write our domestic home study so we didn’t have to start all the paperwork over with another agency.  I wasn’t sure they could do this because our agency doesn’t have a domestic program on the East Coast, only in their Mid-West office.

Good news #1- it turns out they can write a domestic home study for us (for a fee of course) and it requires NO more additional paperwork/clearances because the requirements for international surpass domestic.  So, we’ve done everything already, it is just a matter of the social worker writing it up!  No more paperwork for Courtney = awesome news!

Good news #2- I was under the impression that we could not pursue domestic until we pulled out of the Korea program because we signed papers saying we would not actively try to get pregnant or actively try to adopt a baby through other means.  However, thanks to Cody’s prodding, that is not the case at all!  They just don’t want you to sign with another agency.  We are absolutely allowed to pursue private domestic adoption on our own (with the attorney we met with) while still waiting on the Korea girl list!  They only make you get off the Korea girl list after a child has been placed in your home and the birth parents rights have been terminated!  So, we can pursue both at the same time!

We were in shock.  Our social worker is writing up our domestic home study as we speak.  We can essentially begin looking for a birth mother as soon as we get our approval next week!  However, with domestic you have to be ready for a baby at any point.  Yes, it could take 2 years but it could also take 2 weeks.  So, it is in our best interest to not start advertising until we are ready for a baby.  I’m not sure we are quite there just yet as I am still on the mend from orthopedic surgery, we are still getting the new house in order and getting Auden adjusted to his new school.  So, we will spend the next few months working on a website for birth moms to view and figuring out our advertising tactics.  We are going to start local- advertise on bulletin boards at community centers, colleges, hospitals, doctor’s offices as well as run ads in newspapers.  We don’t want to expand to websites like www.parentprofiles.com yet (even though they have the best success rate) because it would be too hard for us to hop on a plane and go meet a birth mom across the country on a moment’s notice.  We may get to that point, but for now, since we are remaining on the Korea list, we just think it makes sense to advertise locally first. 

There is a big piece of me that still wants Korea to work out so badly.  But right now it feels right to have other options.  I trust that there is a plan for us and whatever is meant to be, will be.  

Home Sweet Home

We have been working hard getting settled in our new home!  Things are getting back to normal this week: Auden started his new school today, I start back at work tomorrow after being out on medical leave, and all three of us are living under one roof with no grandparents in sight, ha:-)  The house still needs a lot of furniture, as you can tell, but things are coming along.  We ordered new family room furniture since our sectional doesn't work with the space, so I will post more pictures later once that furniture comes in.  Cody and I made a deal that we will find our dining room table before Thanksgiving (we want to take our time looking), so for now Auden is one lucky boy and has half of the downstairs as his own personal gymnasium. 

Enjoy some more before and after pictures!

                                                         BEFORE: eat in kitchen area

                                                      AFTER: eat in kitchen area

BEFORE: family room

AFTER: family room

BEFORE: dining room and formal living room

AFTER: dining room and formal living room

(still needs lots of furniture and new light fixture)

BEFORE: formal living room

AFTER: formal living room

The formal living room will be Auden's play room until he is old enough to play down basement by himself:-)

AFTER: foyer

                                                                   BEFORE: Foyer

                                                                     AFTER: Foyer

BEFORE: foyer/upstairs hallway

AFTER: foyer/upstairs hallway

BEFORE: master bedroom

AFTER: master bedroom

BEFORE: master bedroom

AFTER: master bedroom

BEFORE: Auden's room

AFTER: Auden's room

                                                              BEFORE: guest room

AFTER: guest room

                                                              BEFORE: guest room

AFTER: guest room

                                                                  BEFORE: my office
      

AFTER: my office

                                                             BEFORE: Child #2 room

AFTER: Child #2 room

                                                              BEFORE: laundry room

AFTER: laundry room

And here are some deck pictures, future plan is get some comfy deck furniture to have something like a living room outside:-)                                                                                                                

Not pictured yet: kitchen and bathrooms which have only been painted and will be updated in next few years.  We also have an awesome finished updated basement with bar and bathroom, but currently still covered in boxes:-)  

The Big Reveal!

I am more than happy to report that the work is finished on our new house!  Since we are busy unpacking and getting settled, below are pictures of just the exterior.  It surpassed all of our expectations and we are in love with our new home!  All that is left for the outside is landscaping and that will be done shortly.  Enjoy the photos!

                                   BEFORE                                 

                                                                                                                                                      

AFTER

As you can see, nothing was left untouched.  New roof, windows, siding, shutters, gutters, trim, light fixtures, garage door and front door.  What makes the biggest impact are the new dormers on the second floor windows.  We were wavering on whether we should do them because of the cost but in the end it was more than worth it, we are thrilled with how they turned out!  Big shout out to Cody who worked tirelessly on getting the dormer design just perfect on top of everything else that he did! 

Here are some more BEFORE pictures:

                                                     

Here are some more AFTER pictures:

Stayed tuned for before and after pictures of the inside of the house!

Let There Be Light!

Here is a sneak preview of some work that was done on the house this week!  The one side of our house that makes up the outside walls for the formal living room and dining room was completely windowless.  Although Cody was skeptical about adding a window to the formal living room since he didn't think we would be spending a lot of time in the room anyway, I managed to convince him.  After it was done, Cody admitted that it was the best decision and we both are so excited about our new window!  It was actually completed in one day.  As of right now: roof finished, windows finished and the siding is being done as I write this!

Before Picture

New paint and here comes the new window!

Ta-dah!!  Our awesome new window!