Strength & Hope

Picture from http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/laurie-taylor.html

"Wherefore ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."  2 Nephi 31:20

Since October of 2010, I have been meeting up with a group of first time adoptive moms, women hoping to become adoptive moms and women who are now adoptive moms to their second baby. It has been the best thing ever for me, given me an outlet, a place to discuss fears, worries, joys and hope. HOPE. Hope for those who are still waiting to find their baby. Hope for those who have had a child placed in their home and want to add to their family again in the future. Hope that somehow the pain and sadness we have felt in the past because of infertility will be lessened as time goes on.

Hope is important, because it gives us purpose. I have learned so much about hope and why it is never naive to have hope for something greater than yourself. Adoption is a miracle. Literally, you will see miracles, things that just wouldn't make any sense without there being divine direction.
The point of this is to tell you I know that there is a purpose to everything we experience and that when we have hope for our future, we can have peace during the journey.

I am so grateful for the women that I meet with and the hope that they encourage in my heart. I hope that each of you have a network of people in your life that encourage and uplift you during the tumultuous journey that is adoption. But if you don't have someone, know that I am here, no matter where you are. Feel free to email me at joshandelise at hotmail dot com.

And I'm moving to Tucson this summer, which is scary to me, to be farther away from my group but exciting for our family, since my husband will be starting his medical school rotations. So if you live in or near Tucson and would like to meet up with me, let me know! -Elise

You could hear a pin drop...

Not sure if anyone is still out there, checking in on this site, but I have been looking in every once and awhile, feeling guilty that I haven't posted and then ducked back out. My life has been turned upside down and inside out all for the better since our son was placed in our home in September of last year.

 It has been a whirlwind and now that he is 5 months, rolling all around and we are getting into more of a routine, I feel almost ashamed to have not shared the miracle of his adoption and placement with all of you who can relate and those of you needing so desperately to hear a success story to keep pushing you forward in your journey to adopt.

 After having a failed placement last March, I was hesitant with my feelings and found it hard to believe that this baby we were waiting for in September would actually become a part of our family. Also, I think in a way, once we brought him home, I was afraid to jinx it because of how good everything was going. I didn't want to talk about it too much and have something fall through. So, I just tried to relax, enjoy the time with our new little one, count down the days until it was official both in the legal sense and eternally as well.

Our beautiful baby boy was born Sept. 9th and we finalized his adoption on November 19th and had him sealed on November 26th. It was so awesome to stand before a judge and be told that we are in all sense of the word, his "parents". Then, to be able to take him to the temple and see him dressed in white and have him sealed to us was just....amazing, wonderful, thrilling, not sure which word fits best but I think you get the point! It has been an adjustment being home with him after being an elementary teacher for the last four years but it has been one that I have welcomed after wanting to be a mom for so long. It has been an adjustment in every way that people usually adjust to being new parents.

Also, it has been an adjustment learning how to become an adoption advocate in a new way by sharing the story of how our son came into our family. I have been trying to do it in a way that helps others around us understand adoption and why we chose to do it.

However...I hope I can explain this right, without offending. In the beginning, all I wanted to do was tell the whole world how proud I was to have adopted our son (I really am) , how amazing his birthmom is (she totally is amazing, seriously!) and how we just loved every second. But then, slowly as time went on, I began to feel worn out telling strangers at Walmart or the cashier at Target about him being adopted because they would ask crazy questions that made me feel less excited to tell and more sensitive about my infertility. I realized that telling about the adoption, meant also confessing to being infertile because that is just what people assume is the reason we adopted and even though it is part of the reason, I didn't want to rehash all my fertility pain, I just wanted to share how awesome adoption is. So I am still trying to find the balance between being an adoption advocate and accepting compliments politely and taking credit for this little tiny guy as my son without feeling the need to have a deep discussion about adoption/my ovaries in the produce section with the old lady picking out bananas next to me.

I'm not going to quit trying to talk about it though. Because I know that adoption is an awesome thing, it has blessed my life more than I could have ever imagined and I want to educate people on the right language and questions to ask. But I have to learn the right way and the right people to tell and the more I practice in the right settings, the better advocate I will be.

Well, hope that this has helped someone, or at least entertained. And now I will leave you with a picture of my little guy because he always puts a smile on my face so hopefully he can do the same for you. :)
And if you want to read more about his birth and placement story, head over here 

Love, Elise

Wednesday Blogger

I just wanted you all to know that my friend Elise will be taking over the Wednesday posting slot!  It's so exciting and I know all of you know her since she guest posted for me a while back and I know her past post of "Finding Faith in the face of a failed placement" helped so many of you and so many more of you were strengthened by her courage to get back up.  I am so excited to read what she has to write on this blog!  Please be sure to welcome her.  If you want to learn a little bit more about her click here to read her blog!