First of all, November was National Adoption Month! As you know, adoption has become a very important part of our lives and it was so fun to see all the exciting things going on around us to put adoption out there and break some of the stigma. We read many lovely blogs from all over the adoption triad: adoptive parents, adoptees, birthmothers, and birthfathers. My favorite place to go is the LDS Adoption Connection website. It's a great place to go so you can read blogs from both sides of adoption. We haven't been placed with our baby yet, but adoption has such a special place in our hearts already. I think the biggest thing we've gained so far is a deep appreciation and love for birth families. They aren't selfish people who want to shove their child off to the side so they can continue to live their crazy lives. No, they are caring, selfless people who have a deep love for their child and break their own hearts so that they can give their child all that they can't at that time. It breaks my heart that our future birth parents (and all birth parents) have to go through this pain, but like the pain of our infertility we have come to know that great things come from "a broken heart and contrite spirit". Great things will come to these wonderful people. Great things indeed.
November 12th was Heath's 28th birthday! We celebrated by restaurant skipping to all of our favorite places that Heath got free Birthday meals to. I surprised him by upgrading his phone to the new iPhone 4S and gave him a copy of Steve Jobs biography-as you can tell Heath is the ultimate Apple fanboy.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we spent at my cousin Heather's house for a cookout. We celebrated my Grandma's Birthday and then took her home with us to stay the night with my parents who were also visiting for Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving Day Heath and I woke up early to get our jeans that were on sale at Old Navy. Then we packed everyone up and headed back to Heather's house for our feast. We had fun playing with Heather's sons and everyone had a great time catching up and hanging out. We are so grateful for our families and having most of them close by so we can make all these fun memories together.
The next day was Black Friday AND our 6th Wedding Anniversary. We celebrated by scoping out all the sales and eating at our traditional Joe's Crab Shack. Heath got us a new washer and dryer for our anniversary- our old one (which wasn't that old) never worked right and made our clothes smelly. The best part was that we sold our old pair the same night which paid for half of it and the rest was covered by work bonuses. I am one happy camper since we plan on doing cloth diapering and I really didn't want smelly laundry anymore! I am very lucky to have Heath in my life and look forward to what this next year has in store for us.
The weekend of December 10th my parents came into town to help us with our Adoption Garage Sale. Many people donated items for our sale and we were able to raise over $1700 for our adoption fund!!! We cannot express enough how grateful we are for so many people wanting to help us out and all the love that has been shown to us as we began our journey to adopt. We love you all!!
My parents got to stay all the way until my 28th Birthday on Tuesday, December 13th! We celebrated with a yummy breakfast and then said goodbye to my parents. Heath got me this beautiful necklace for my birthday. It is hand stamped with "Enjoy the Journey" which is my new favorite phrase for life! I loved it!
We went to DFW for Christmas, but not before I caught some yucky cold virus. Friday, December 23rd we went to our annual CASA Christmas play with Ben and Mer (and their kids). This year my family went too which was a special treat. We can't wait to have our own little one to include in these traditions. Christmas Eve was spent at our annual Breinholt Christmas Eve Bash. It includes Ben and Mer (and family), Jeremy (Heath's brother) and JaeLyn, and Mer's siblings Cody and Bandaid. I was still sick, but we had a blast! We make yummy breakfast food, open presents, do our Christmas devotional (we read the Christmas story from the Bible and act out the parts with our wooden Nativity set) with the Utah Breinholt's via Skype, and just have fun! Christmas Day morning was spent with my family opening presents and then later in the day my mom's family came for lunch and our annual (We have a lot of traditions :)) Chinese gift card exchange. We stayed the rest of the week and I spent it working and still trying to recover from my cold. On Friday I gave in and went to the doctor-2 days before the new year and our new deductible began :) I was diagnosed with an Upper Respiratory Infection, given a steroid shot in the bum, and sent home with two meds.
Saturday the 31st (New Year's Eve) we began what we thought would be a short project for my mom- replacing the kitchen faucet. The faucet was rusted on so bad that we had to replace the sink, and since we were already doing that we also replaced the garbage disposal too. And by we I totally mean Heath. He's my handy man! The project took much longer than we thought and we were oh, about 3 hours late meeting our friends Joey and Kira at our house in Austin. We still feel really bad about that- sorry guys!! Joey and Kira come every year for New Years and we have so much fun with them.
Last week we received the letter that we were approved a to adopt through LDS Family Services!! It was such an exciting day and we can't wait to see what the new year holds for us. We can't wait to meet our birth family and find our baby through the miracle of adoption. Our agency works a little differently. Our birth mom will find us either through our profile on the website www.itsaboutlove.org or through networking with friends, family, and even strangers. So if you feel impressed to share our story- do it! It could be the spirit speaking to you and it could turn out to be the connection to our future birth family. Thank you for your continued prayers, thoughts, and acts of love. We are so grateful for all the support we have been given on building our family. Much love and best wishes in the new year!
P.S. Feel free to grab our button on the right side of our blog. When posted on your blog and clicked it will take others straight to our adoption blog!
