Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The Home Study

It is a lovely thing when two people become one. When you love so deeply in a way that you never thought possible. Sometimes I think that this is how parents must love their kids... But in a way I think it is a different love as they are part of you. I will learn about parent love this year but for now I have "wife love" and "God love" that I know. 

"Husband" as I like to call my man is hard working, kind, fair, trust worthy and funny. He farms the land with his family and loves not only me but my family :). That is a huge plus. I lost both my Abue and my Daddi in the last year and a half and Daniel has held me more than one time while I cry. He extends such tender and honest love to me. I am so excited when I think of him being a dad. I am sure the adjustments will be there and what we think will be easy might throw us for a loop but I am proud to be married to the man that I am, because I know he will be an amazing father.

So, we got both parents on board, but what about our home? Thinking on the home study part of me wonders if our home will make it through the cut. All I know are movies which depict home studies scenes such as the one from "What to Expect When You are Expecting". Thankfully we won't have to say our wedding photos were burned in a fire :).

 

Ahhhhh.... It's is exciting, terrifying but the good type of terrifying and nerve wrecking all at once! Do I make breakfast, do I set up the nursery and take down my office, are we supposed to be friends with our case worker, or only friendly? If you know me you will know that I like most people and did I already mention that our case worker is awesome? After our first meeting Daniel looked over at me and said, "You probably want to be her friend". But again, is there etiquette rules on this? I don't know. The good news is is that the first home study is scheduled for May 9th and then the last home visit will be on the 19th! I am so excited and a tad bit nervous. Our lives are going to be completely rocked by a little baby. 

And so I must close this post as I am visiting my mom and want to make breakfast for her and my sisters. 

Ohhhh so happy, 
Liza

Monday, April 14, 2014

Oh so cute Tees and Onesies

Ahhhh.... Sometimes don't you just want to hide underneath the blankets, but then you remember you are an adult and have to face things head on? Today was one of those days. Some of you may know that my sister has not been well for quite some time. It makes some days have big dips in them and all the while life continues. There is no pause button to catch up on life. No pause to clean the house, make a meal, update the blog, or make the fundraiser run by itself :). I think God didn't give us pause buttons cause we would be stop and go all the time trying to figure out life without Him.

And here I am, wanting to climb into bed, but it's still not time. We officially started a fundraiser site: https://www.youcaring.com/ungerbaby and have also started the t-shirt/onesie sales. I hadn't been able to post them on the blog but tonight is the night... No more dilly-dallying about this.

Last fall my MIL had a t-shirt designed for the farmer's wives, then my sis-in-law had another one designed for the husbands and I came up with a couple for the babies. I'm so excited as they all have a farming theme and they are oh so cute indeed.

To order email your order with size, design, color, quantity, shipping address to: urourbaby@gmail.com

Adult tees are $29 plus S&H
Onesies are $25 plus S&H
Outdoor Pillows 18x18 are $45 plus S&H

If you live in the area I will most likely be able to deliver once the first run has gone through. Again I am taking orders the month of April for delivery early May. As for the outdoor pillow sets those will be done by May 1st and cost $45 a set plus S&H.

In case you haven't been able to see them here they are... well all except for the husbands one (I'll update that one later on):


Outdoor Porch Chicken Pillows - Handmade by Liza :)

Please help us spread the word about our adoption! We would be so grateful if you did!

With love & gratitude, 
Me (Liza)

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Need to Know

So today brought smiles and a couple tears as well. I worked at a "Pass it on Sale" in the morning and never have I seen soooo many pregnant ladies, soooo many babies and soooo many tears all in one place... Truly kudos to all the mom's that were there and the children with them! (Ohhh and by the way, it was the babies who were shedding the tears, not the ladies.)

I couldn't help myself but I wanted to ask sooo many questions to the ladies. I wanted to be immediate friends. I wanted to ask what the best baby carrier was, if it was harder than it looked, if they had any tips and so forth.... I truly have baby fever!

Every day we work on the adoption, whether it be filling out more paperwork, reading, working on taxes (not fun), working on fundraising ideas and logistics and so forth, but sometimes during the day I forget that we will be parents and that one day I'll be like those mom's with their babies... I get a little smile on my face and think that no one really knows what you are going through unless you let them in.

And so despite some sad news of my sister not being well today (prayer's definitely appreciated) I found this little video that made my eyes water and thought that it was too cute not to share. I think I even needed to hear this, so sit back and enjoy some cuteness:


So this you need to know: "laughing is good, there are plenty of reasons to dance - you just have to look for them, being a person is hard sometimes, treat everyone likes it's their birthday -even if they don't deserve it, and lastly - WE'RE REALLY GLAD YOU ARE HERE".

So there you have it, some things don't make sense, some things we'll never know. Then there are those which we definitely need to know such as this: Baby Boo I can't wait to hold you and tell you "I'm really glad you are here".

Love,
Me (Liza)

Monday, April 7, 2014

A Pretty Penny

Soooo... When I was little I always thought, dreamed, and imagined that I would grow up, get married, two years later start popping out babies :)... My dreams and reality sometimes don't match up and it's ten years past my #1 baby years and we have no baby in our arms :)... Granted, I did get married much later than I originally anticipated :)... Ohhh and in case you can't tell I really like smiley faces.

Throughout my life I have fundraised for different causes. Whether it would be blood drives, or fundraising for my sister's treatment, now we are on this amazing process of adopting and realize that it costs a pretty penny. A pretty penny which will allow us to be parents! So after praying and thinking and thinking some more I am so happy to announce that our babies fundraising has begun.

We have an instagram account (www.instagram.com/urourbaby) where I will be doing a pre-sale of t-shirts as well as custom-made "out door" pillow cases to begin with. The month of April I'll take in orders and have them ready to be shipped out by the 1st of May! We are sooo excited. Thank you for sharing our IG page and our story.

With Love,
Liza

Friday, April 4, 2014

Adopted

Sooo... we are in the "Home Study" portion of the adoption... What is that you might ask? Here is the definition from childwelfare.gov:

The laws of every State and the District of Columbia require all prospective adoptive parents (no matter how they intend to adopt) to participate in a home study. This process has three purposes:
  • Educate and prepare the adoptive family for adoption
  • Evaluate the fitness of the adoptive family
  • Gather information about the prospective parents that will help a social worker connect the family with a child whose needs they can meet
We first met with the adoption agency to gather information, then submitted a pre-application just because we are like that. Then we prayed some more and felt that God was going to speak to us directly about whether we should adopt or not.

We had a prophetic conference at our church... Again you might wonder what that is? It is a time where you are prayed for and God speaks through different individuals, in our case pastors, and gives you a word from God. WOW. I have had moments in my life where I have stepped back and truly said, God is real and this was one of them. There were 2 couples who prayed for us. They did not even know our name our what our story was and here they were praying for us and sharing words which only Daniel and I knew were specifically in regards to the adoption. We were searching, asking and wondering if we should submit our final application. That night we went out and had the most amazing dinner we had had all year. We celebrated that we were going to be parents.

So here we are, I am now more open about sharing and it is becoming more real to me. Though I am not pregnant, our baby could be growing right now. Right this very instant... Baby Boo... I'm thinking about you already. I have come to realize that things that used to matter matter very little, things that have always mattered such as family, health, relationships matter even more. Dreams readjust, emotions are fine tuned, expectations can be ground to smithereens with life, but I choose life. Every day we work on one more paper, one more letter, one more page in a book to read. This "baby" journey is taking us for a spin! Good thing I like adventure.

While reading up on adoption and such we watched three videos from The Austin Stone Church in Austin, Texas that were so on point. I want to share them with you as they were a blessing to us.

Adopted: Rescued by Love
Adopted: Rescued to Love
Adopted: The Cost of Love

Love,
Liza



Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Baby. Baby. Baby.

Baby. Baby. Baby. We have baby on our minds. The amazing part of it is that we are in the process of a domestic infant adoption. We prayed and prayed about this and truly received confirmation that yes we were to start the process. It is amazing to think that this year we will hopefully be holding our baby. Our baby created by two strangers, given to us in love, that love that we will provide, care, and love unconditionally as our own. We hope you join us on this adventure!

Love,
D&L ~ UR