Newspaper Ads

Dan found a service (NationwideClassifieds.com) that will assist you in placing ads in almost any newspaper. All we had to do was select the papers we wanted and give them our ad and they organize with the papers to get them placed. Fast, simple and easy (we like that!). We are starting with small weekly papers here in MN - Sun Publications, Free Press, ECM Publishers and City Pages (approx 542,000 circulations). We were going to run it the first two weeks of July but missed the deadline because since it is an ad for adoption they needed a letter from our agency stating we are qualified to adopt; I suppose somewhere somehow there was a lawsuit, someone who hadn't completed a homestudy tried to adopt. Anyway, so it will be the 2nd two weeks of July which is probably better since we are taking a trip up to Canada part of the first week and second week.

And we just ordered car magnets, you know the ones you see people advertising their businesses on, it's 12" x 24". This fabulous idea came from our friend Jill. Why not, can't hurt!

Today is my niece, Michelle's, 18th birthday. Happy Birthday!!!!! What in the world do you get for an 18 year old????? I have made plans with her to take her to lunch on Friday and to go shopping, that way she can pick out what she wants.

Happy Birthday!

Today is my Mom's birthday! It is a milestone year, not gonna say cause ladies do not disclose their age! It's nice that they are in town so we can celebrate with her. Unlike for my Dad's since they are always in Florida for his. It sounds like the whole family will be able to come to dinner so it should be a good time. Hopefully the weather will hold up, they are predicting thunder storms, yuck. Happy Birthday day Mom!

And yesterday was Roxie's birthday! Our little furbaby is 3 years old, wow did that time go fast. I feel bad cause she did not get her usual birthday surprise, the bone from a T-Bone. We forgot to buy one when we went grocery shopping on Sunday, oops. So instead I gave her a small amount of ice cream with fresh whipped topping (she loves whipped cream!). I know, not really the best thing for dogs but heck it was her birthday and Dan said it was okay ;-)

Thus starts our big birthday streak - so many more to come in the next few months for family and friends (I count 10 in the next 4 weeks!).

Not Alone

I'm so glad we went to the presentation the other night. It was a relief to know that what we are feeling is normal and okay. It is okay for us to be down/depressed and to have some anger during this adoption process. And to understand that we don't have control over the situation no matter how much we think we do, we don't. It was also comforting to know that there are others feeling the same way both in the domestic and international programs.

After the presentation we stayed for the support group that they have every month for waiting families. It's amazing how many share the same thoughts and experiences. It was funny to actually hear some people in the international program have been told by family/friends that maybe they should go with Domestic adoption (due to their wait time), cause we have heard the same thing that maybe we should try International. Both types of adoption has it pros and cons. And we found out that we were not alone with having almost had a match. One couple received a call that they had a match and then three days later the birthmom gave birth early and decided to parent. Another couple had found a birthmom outside of the agency but decided after a couple months (before birth) not to pursue the adoption due to alcohol/drug use by the birthmom. We all had similar feelings of hope, sadness and now hesitation at the next match possibility.

On a positive note, one of my friends from my on-line forum received their referral from Ethiopia yesterday. It is for a sibling group, a boy and girl. I'm just so happy for her and her family! When I read her news I couldn't stop crying I was so overwhelmed with joy for her. And am getting all teary eyed right now typing this. Congrats Angie!!!!!

Things are moving along

The letters went in the mail on Friday, mailed to 134 pregnancy crisis centers. We finished updating our profile (yay!), we will be turning it in tonight since we will be at the agency. We are attending a seminar "Coping with the Wait in Adoption", so we will drop off the new profile to go in the Waiting Families book. So it appears things are moving along.

The Plan

Sorry for the absence. Last week was kind of rough for us. It started out when I noticed there were about 10 new profiles out on our Agency's website. It just started me thinking that there are so many adoptive families and not enough birth families and how would we ever get picked. Usually Dan is my rock and when I'm down he will get me to feel better but he was feeling rather down as well. So for a couple days we kind of mopped around. Then this weekend we started to put a plan in place. Dan is working on ads (on-line and paper) and I will be doing another mass mailing. This time I have found all the pregnancy crisis centers in the MN and the surrounding states, so far I have addresses for about 100. My goal is to try to do at least one mass mailing every couple weeks. If anyone has ideas of places to mail to please post them! We aren't going to stop until our baby finds us!!!

I really should have posted on Friday to share the news that my niece Michelle graduated from high school. I'm just so proud of her! She was 29th in her class, out of about 300 students. I just can't believe she is out of high school. It seems like the other day that I was babysitting her and she decided to projectile vomit on me the bottle she had just finished off. Where did the time go?