About Matt

My sweet, sweet husband.  Whatever baby we are blessed to adopt will be one lucky kid wtih Matt as his dad!

He is just such a good person.  I don't know if I tell him that enough.  He's the best!  Most people reading this already know that.  Here is some random info about Matt, for those that don't know him.

Quick stats:
Age: 28
Occupation: CAD technician
Education: Associate's Degree
Ethnicity: Caucasian (Czechoslovakian, German)
Religion: Catholic
Desired kids: 2-3

Matt and his mini-me, our nephew Jacob

Matt is a big kid at heart, which is why we get along so well.  He loves outdoorsy things like mountain biking, camping, hiking, mowing the lawn (to an extent!), motorcycling, and grilling anything and everything.  He has such a knack for making people laugh, and making people feel comfortable around him.  He truly wants to make sure everyone is having a good time when we are with family or friends.  And he loves technology (every new gadget that comes out, he knows about) and Legos :)



Just one of the kids

 Matt adores our nephew Jacob and neice Mia.  One of the cutest things I can think of is when Jacob came to visit us last summer (with Grandma and Pop), and Matt and Jacob had a sleepover in our living room, complete wtih sleeping bags, junk food, and staying up late.  Jacob was so happy, and Matt was too!

Matt is just as good with our friends' little girls too.  At Christmas, Ms. Lily (above) had Matt wrapped around her little finger.  She used those baby blues on him, and he was smitten.  Watch out if we have a daughter, she will be calling the shots!  And not dating til she's 30, Matt says.

Love!

He is my best friend, and will be a great daddy, I have no doubt!  He is an amazing provider already, and will be there for every accomplishment, skinned knee, broken heart and proud moment that our kids have.

Random underwater picture... why not?

About Jen

Quick stats:
Age: 29
Occupation: sales
Education: Bachelor's degree
Ethnicity: Caucasian (Irish, English, French)
Religion: Catholic
Desired number of kids: 2-4

Jen and sweet Karalina

Who am I? I like to think of myself as a caring wife, loving daughter, wacky sister, loyal friend and trustworthy employee. I am a glass-half-full kind of person, and try to find the positives in any situation. I have a lot to be thankful for!

I've wanted to be a mom for several years, and have been blessed with a lot of cute kids to get my "fix" for now.  My youngest sister Maddie was born when I was a senior in high school.  Our nephew Jacob and niece Mia are so cute, so smart, and we love visits home to play with them.  And our dear friends Jamie & Josh and Erin & Dave each had little girls this year, Lily and Karalina, who are little beauties.  Christmas 2011 was the best one yet, because it was so many visits with kids.... I think that was what made us realize that IT.WAS.TIME. 

Outside of the mommy-world and work, I enjoy travel, photography, hiking, baking/cooking (thanks Pinterest!), and volunteering for the Ronald McDonald House of Charlotte.

Jacob and I at an amusement park

Fellow volunteers as the Ronald McDonald House is being built

Hiking to the top of King's Pinnacle

Me with sisters Katie and Maddie

I look forward to being very active in my child's life.  I want them to experience life to the fullest (without being overbearing).  My parents have been great role models for me to learn from, and I can't wait until they get to be grandparents finally!

Lily and I...can't believe she's almost a year now!

Shopping

Oh.my.God.

We went to Babies R' Us Sunday, walked in the door... and stopped dead in our tracks in the doorway. Where to go? What to look at? Can anyone tell that we are first-timers?!

I think I saw Matt's face go white for awhile. haha

The moment reality set in :)

We wandered around like zombies for a bit. Carseats... hmmm... they look nice. Cribs? Man, how to decide? And wall-to-wall baby stuff. Yikes!

But then... Matt saw this shirt. And was suddenly more calm and excited:

A motorcycle shirt?  Ok, Baby K will be cool!

We didn't want to buy a TON since we don't even have the basics, but it was one day of fun little purchases. We went to Babies R Us, Children's Place, Target.... And wound up with a nice little bit of stuff for the baby.

So cute!

The loot

About us

A part of me hopes that we can form a connection through this website, with a woman who has made the decision to pursue adoption for her baby. (If you are that woman, thank you!) So it makes sense that we share who we are, what our lives are like, what we hope for our baby.

About us:

Our relationship: Matt and I met in middle school, and dated off and on in middle school, high school and college. Puppy love! We got together "for good" junior year of college, and Matt proposed the fall after graduation. We married each other a year later on September 6, 2006- the best day of our lives so far! Our favorite memory of that whole wedding weekend was just having everyone we had met and cared about together in one place celebrating. That doesn't happen often!



Our life: After growing up around the corner from each other in a small city in upstate New York, Matt and I decided to move south to North Carolina about 4 years ago. There is so much opportunity here for jobs, activities (3 hours from the beach, less than that to the mountains), and it is such a young, vibrant city that we live near. The toughest part about leaving NY was certainly moving away from our families, but we are lucky that they have visited often. We try to get home several times a year as well, and have already decided that in the next year or two, we'd like to move closer to home. But in the mean time, Skype has been a great thing!

Matt and I love to be active, as do our 2 pups (more on them later). We have been trying to get into a healthier lifestyle these last few years, in hopes that when we do have kids, we spend a lot of time outdoors playing, vs. TV or computer. We are both down-to-earth people, and have a good time just getting together at friends' houses, or heading to Uptown Charlotte for a night on the town. We love BBQs, and checking out the restaurants, museums, outdoor activities and southern charm that Charlotte offers.

Our neighborhood: We live on a quiet cul-de-sac in a pretty suburb of Charlotte. The neighborhood is filled with children and families, and features a pool, clubhouse and playground set for kids. They also host family gatherings throughout the year, such as Easter Egg Hunts, Trick or Treating, and more. And just a 10-minute drive away lives my aunt, uncle and 3 cousins (who have already said they want to be babysitting soon...we're working on it!).



(Note to self, it is hard to sum up your life in a blog!)

Hopes for baby: Too many to count! We are big kids ourselves, and Matt is already thinking of the lego sets he can buy. And we can't wait for first steps, riding a bike, going to Disney, helping with homework, feeling the pride that "that is our son/daughter". I'm sentimental, so I can't wait to photograph all the big milestones and day-to-day actvities. We just plan to love the baby and support them for the rest of their lives.

Well, I guess we don't have to give our entire life story in one post. Good start!



(**Blog note:  I just finally figured out the settings so that people can leave comments without having to sign in to anything.  Feel free to say hi!**)

What's in a name?

The conversation steered around to names today. Yes, already. Don't judge! :)

I am sure this is one of the first things that pregnant couples start talking about once they find out they are expecting. But with an adoption it could take months or years to be matched with a child (especially when you are hoping to adopt an infant domestically, which we and 3985989 other couples are hoping to do). So when is the 'right' time to start thinking of names?

Well, we've begun now. And it has been interesting. After knowing each other for so long, Matt and I aren't often surprised by the things the other one says or thinks. But as we talk about baby names, it has been funny to see how different some of our choices are. I like strong, traditional names and Matt likes more creative names. We'll just be hanging out watching TV, and it's "What about Daniel/Dan?" "No. What about Aiden?"

We are open to either gender for adoption, althogh Matt really wants to have a son. He wants to be able to have the family name carry on, and to be able to do all the boy things like sports, riding bikes, camping, and projects around the house with a son. Not that girls can't do those things to, because I do, and hopefully any daugthers will too! But he is so sweet when he talks about having a son, so that is where our minds have headed when thinking about names.

The response

Wednesday morning, we got a very exciting email. We're approved! It may be a small step, but it was a nice quick response back, so we'll take it!

The email gave us information about the social worker that we were matched with, along with a Welcome Packet of information they will need throughout the process. And after a week of researching online about all of the things that could be required, we were actually pleased to see the list is not too bad.

For those who may be interested, they need:

-Financials and tax information- Can we afford a baby? (and the adoption itself?... eek!)
-Medical Exams
-Criminal Check
-Child Abuse Clearance
-Birth certificates and marriage certificate
-Three letters of reference from non-family members, notarized

In addition to paperwork, we'll have to have our home ready for inspection (not sure what that will entail yet), and have 3 appointments with our social worker. The first two will be in her office, and last about an hour and a half each. Then we'll wrap up with the home-visit. No pressure!

Our social worker was very friendly over the phone. Our agency is pretty well-known in this area, so the first available chance for us to meet is Thursday, April 12th. Ahh, more waiting! But this will give us time to dive into some of the paperwork requirements, as well as talk further about some of the things she will ask us about, such as parenting philosophies.

And in a surprise to me, Matt suggested we go shopping this weekend, to start to look at baby stuff! I have wanted for years to have the chance to baby-shop, and I can't believe it is finally happening. I teared up a bit when he suggested it. Happy tears!

Application

First step in adoption process: the Home Study.

Most adoption agencies will not work with you until you have a completed home study, and you must have a home study before you can go to court to finalize the adoption. Seems like a good starting point!

Basically, a home study is a report written by a social worker that shows that we are fit for adoption. Because a child's life is at stake, this report is understandably thorough, and will cover our marriage, finances, health, parenting philosophies, safety of the home, etc. We'll meet with the social work 3 times throughout the study, and then 8-11 weeks from now, she will (hopefully) find us fit to be adoptive parents, and will give us a report as 'proof.'

I'll get into the study in further detail as we go through it, but first we had to fill out an application to do the home study. Home studies are not cheap, so they want to make sure there are no red flags that would doom us in the study.

Let the paperwork begin

The 'short' application still took awhile to fill out, because it started to dig into finances, background, health, etc. Practice for when we get to the more in-depth information needed throughout the home study!

We were so excited to put the application in the mail this past Monday, because now we were one step closer to the end goal! Now comes the wait to make sure we pass this first test. Wish us luck!

Mailing it off!

The story begins...

Adoption.

It's finally real.

Matt and I have wanted to have a family for some time now, but were not in a rush. We married at age 23, and were ahead of the pack in terms of friends and other people our age getting married, buying a house, etc. We weren't worried when it did not happen right away, and figured it will happen in God's good time.

Fast forward a few years and many doctors' visits later, and we realized the timing is right, and we are so ready and desiring to have kids. We just had to open our eyes to the many ways that families can come together.

We threw the word "adoption" around for a little while a few months back, getting used to the idea. We didn't rush that either, because at first we felt like we were giving up on the idea of having biological kids. But recently, we came to the conclusion that this was silly. Whether I phyiscally have the kids, or we have that perfect match through adoption, they will still be OUR kids, and we will love them as such for the rest of our lives.

Background on me, I'm a planner. I love to make lists, even if they don't get finished. I love to know what is happening next week, next month, next year. I've come to realize adoption will throw all that out the window. There is a lot that will happen in the next few months that I can't plan to a T. But it is time to just trust that something amazing is about to happen, and go for it. This blog will share the ups and downs, for our family and friends, and for others considering adoption (as an adoptive family, or as a birth mother who has made the selfless decision to give her child up for adoption).

Welcome, and please share any comments or thoughts with us!