WE HAVE BEEN BUSY

A few things we have been doing lately:

Owen played his last soccer game of the season!

He made his first goal and ran around the field with his arms out like a REAL Salt Lake player :)

He finally got the rules of soccer: no pushing, tackling, or touching the ball.

Jeremy and I made it to the temple twice last month!

Jeremy started a new schedule and got a new supervisor at work. There is a gym at his work and his new schedule allows him to go before work starts. He is loving starting his day out with a workout!

We got new cell phones, which i don't think has happened for about 2 years. They are a bit high tech for me but we are loving all the things that are available on the phones. The touch screen is not something I thought I would ever like, but I DO!

Owen thankfully has not lost any teeth this week, that's huge for us!

Owen's teacher told me that he is a wonderful example to the class and a fabulous student...

I teared up. Nice things said about a son will always make this mom tear up.

We have homework every night. Something new to us. It is going really well and Owen is starting to read to me some words at night. AWESOME! I really hope he continues his love of books and becomes obsessed with them just like me!

Oh

and

there

is

this

little

thing

ADOPTION!!

We have been thinking about it for a long time. Ever since they told us we shouldn't have any more kids. I never felt like it was fair to bring another child into our lives when I wasn't sure I would be here for Owen. There were a couple times when I thought I was doing better and we asked if they would write a letter for us that my health was good enough to raise another child to adulthood. The answer was always no.

But when I got the biopsy good news in June we both looked at each other and just knew that was what we were supposed to do.

We looked around at a few agency's but they went from moderately expensive to down right robbery. I don't know how people do it without a rich relative or a money tree in the backyard.

Our first and obvious choice was LDS Services.

They are I think what every LDS couple wanting to adopt looks at first.

The waiting list is what made us go looking for other options, we had heard from many of our friends that it could/would take years for us to have a adoption through them.

The social workers are only part time which makes it tough to get things done, but we really couldn't afford the other agency's.

We also met all of the requirements at LDS but one.

When the doctors told me that having another child would not only endanger my health but the baby's as well, we were told children were not recommended and we should do everything in our power to make sure that didn't happen. Doctor terms for have your tubes tied or get a vasectomy.

We had to get a letter from the specialist who told us that statement.

ENTER PROBLEMS!

One doctor told us to get it from the current specialist since it was three years ago, and would have more Merritt coming from them. That doctor of course said it would have to be the other one and round and round we went for about 3 weeks. It seemed impossible. The doctors were out of town, said we will call you back and then wont, or said No your not on our insurance anymore. My current specialist wrote a letter but it didn't have the wording they needed it to have.

It all came down to that letter. Without the specialist writing it LDS had no choice but to see Jeremy getting the vasectomy as voluntary sterilization and that is not allowed. They could not accept us as clients.We were at a crossroads.

I told Jeremy I was done fighting with Doctors about who said what and when. That if LDS didn't want to see our situation for what it truly was then there was nothing we could do.

It was a daily struggle for us to know what to do.

Were we just not taking the hint from upstairs that this is not the path I want for you, or was it our test to see how much we really wanted it. Every single night we sat up and talked about how we had confirmation in the Temple that this was what we were supposed to do, but why all the struggle?

The only glimmer of hope was the first specialist I saw in 2007. He had been out of town during the bulk of the letter incidents. We were waiting to hear back from him. But honestly I didn't really have much faith.

Silly Me.

If you ever have a moment where it seems your faith is gone. PRAY. It works, I assure you!

The next day I got a call from the above specialist and his nurse read me the letter he had wrote over the phone. I started crying. It was word for word what LDS was needing it to say. That was another confirmation that we are on the right path!

Our prayers have been answered and we are officially signed up to go forward with adoption!

Ever since then it has been so fast! We got a caseworker. We had our initial interviews.

This weekend we are going to a mandatory class for adoptive parents. One more thing we must complete before a birth mom can chose us. I didnt think we would get in since it was just a week before the class that we got officially approved to begin. If we had not gotten into this class we would have had to wait until January for the next one.

Not so bad you say but nothing moves forward until you have completed this class. We have completed so many of the forms in our packet in the last week. We still have to go through the adoption committee and have them approve us after our background checks come back but I hope all the bumps in the road are behind us.

What seemed impossible is now a very real possibility for us. Yes there is a long way to go and of course a girl has to pick us out of a million families out there.

We are so excited to continue with this new adventure in our lives and hopefully welcome another member into our House of Hams

xoxox