oh yeah I have a blog...

Hi friends!
It's been a really long time since I've blogged and there have been a lot of really exciting things I wanted to share!  As you all know, we are matched with a birth mother and anxiously awaiting the arrival of Baby Pearson:)  Here's some of the highlights of the last few months....


We completed our Home Study back in April and it went great!  I love our social worker!  She made the whole thing very easy and stress free.  Well not completely stress free...I was a little neurotic leading up to the whole thing:)  She was running late and so I was literally pacing our living room and jumping every time a car drove by.  Tyler compared me to a dog waiting for it's owners to come home with the way I was watching the window.  But as soon as Pam got here I relaxed.  A few hours and some very personal questions later we were all done and officially in the 2nd trimester of adoption (that's what we like to call it)


The next step was to make our profile book.  Oh the profile book!  I thought I would enjoy making it but it sucked the life out of me.  It's a lot of pressure to "advertise" yourself as the right family to give your baby to.  Felt so weird.  And it took foreeeevvvvveeerrrr!!  I spent weeks with lots of late nights obsessing over every picture and paragraph.  Ugh I shudder just thinking about having to make it.  I was so relieved when I finally finished it.

Despite the stress of making the profile book, some great things happened in our 2nd trimester.  I got to go on a girls weekend with 5 of my best friends from college.  Seriously love these girls.  We do an annual girls trip and this year we stayed at a condo on New Smyrna beach.  It was a great weekend filled with lots of Glee karaoke, the beach and catching up.  One of the best parts for me was a very special gift they all made for the baby.  They each wrote a letter/prayer for the baby and put it together in a book for me and Tyler.  I was a hot crying mess when they gave it to me!  I couldn't even read it.  I had to wait until I was alone so I wouldn't be too embarrassed with my ugly crying and need to reread it 5 times because I loved it so much.  I think it meant so much to me because it showed me that even though I'm not pregnant, this baby feels just as real to them as it does to me.  The book is currently displayed in the nursery awaiting Baby Pearson.  Can't wait to show the baby how loved it is by all it's "Aunts"  (BTW feels really weird calling it an "it")

A very very happy occasion not related to to our adoption but still a huge highlight was my big brother's wedding!!  Kyle and Dara are married!  We've all been waiting for this to happen for a very long time:)  Before the wedding my mom and I flew out to Denver to pick up Dara and drive her down to Florida.  Not everyone can go on a road trip with their mom and sister-in-law and honestly say it was a great time!  I hope to post pics on Facebook soon.  The whole wedding weekend was a blast!  I loved watching my big brother get married and to top it off, he married one of my best friends:)  My favorite part was hearing Kyle's personal vows to Dara (he sure knows how to make a sister cry) and at the end of the reception when all the guests circled around Kyle and Dara singing and swaying to "Piano Man".  Perfect moment.


It was during the wedding weekend that I started getting emails from our social worker of a possible birth mother she wanted to show our profile to.  This birth mother was already matched with a family but the family was considering backing out.  I tried not to think about it or let it distract me from the weekend but it was definitely on my mind!  On Monday we get a call that the family officially backed out of the adoption so our social worker wanted to show our profile book to the birth mother.....the only problem was that our profile book hadn't come in yet!  I had literally just finished and ordered it the week before.  I quickly tracked the shipping and discovered that it'd be arriving to us on Tuesday.  After we get it (and take a moment to pray over it) we put it right back in the mail and overnight it to the birth mother Wednesday morning.  She receives it Thursday and on Friday we get the call that she loved us and we were officially matched!!  I seriously had whiplash!  I still can't believe how quickly it happened.  I will forever remember standing in the parking lot of Tyler's work hovering over the phone as we got to hear that we're getting a baby.  It was our version of staring at a little stick with pee on it.  


We waited to put it on facebook until after we met our birth mother a few weeks later but loved telling all our close friends and family the exciting news.  This baby is very blessed to have so many people excited about it's arrival.  We feel so blessed by the community we have around us.  I want to share more but this blog has gotten crazy long and it's crazy late.  I'll post more tomorrow:)  

Home Study

It's finally here!  Tyler and I are scheduled to have our home study tomorrow night.  I'm so excited to finally complete this step!  I'm really not that nervous....but I'm definitely anxious.  It helps that we know our social worker and she's been to our home before and already said our home is great for a baby:)  What I'm more anxious about are all the questions she has to ask us.  What if I say something wrong?  Or make a stupid joke that offends her (I tend to do that when I'm nervous:/)?  And Tyler keeps joking about playing a prank on her some how.  Someone please tell him what a dumb idea this is!  He thinks it will break the ice and calm nerves.  I think it will get him killed....because I will kill him:)  And what should I wear?  What says "I"m a good person to give a baby to"?  Should I have home made cookies baking in the oven to show my domestic side?  (I've never made anything from scratch in my life by the way)  I actually can't even cook.  I probably shouldn't mention that during the home study.  Ok I know I'm being silly but this is definitely a weird experience.  We went into adoption because we feel strongly about providing a loving home for a child who needs one.  We plan to adopt multiple times because I really am passionate about helping as many children as possible.  But this whole process of being approved and chosen is very humbling.  Why should our social worker approve us?  Why should a birth mother pick us?  Why would God pick us?  It makes the gift of this child feel that much more precious. 

Please say a little pray for us Wednesday night:)  And that I get some sleep tonight.  I have a feeling I'll be up late cleaning and re-cleaning my entire house.....


On a completely different note.  Walker has pink eye:/  Poor guy!!  I had to put drops in his eyes today before nap time and it was awful!!  I HATE eye stuff!!  I can't even handle it when I get an eye lash in my eye.  In college I went on a team retreat with my Young Life team and got something in my eye while riding 4-wheelers.  It took 5 people to hold me down and flush water in my eyes.  When I was little it took 6 nurses to put drops in my eyes.  I'm not even exaggerating which is really sad.  So when Paul told me he had to be on a conference call and I had to be the one to put the drops in Walker's eyes I tried not to let my panic show.  I'm not sure who it was worse for.  This is scary and painful for Walker and I was trying to comfort him but I really needed someone to comfort me too.  Gah!  I'm such a baby!  I swallowed my fears and pushed down my desire to run out of the room and held the poor boy down and pried his little eye open.  He handled the first drop pretty peacefully but then freaked out!!!  He was so upset and miserable my issues quickly vanished and all I cared about was helping him through this.  I tried praying together.  I tried singing together.  Both usually calm him down pretty well but he had reached the point of no return.  So I just cried with him and put the drops in the corner of his eyes and hoped the tears would help the medicine get in there.  He then begged me to never do that to him again.  Unfortunately for us both, I'll be doing this all over again in 4 hours.  At least I'm not worried about the eye part anymore.  Just the emotional damage I'm doing to this poor boy. 

13.1

My half-marathon was a few weeks ago but I wanted to share with everyone a few pictures and some of my favorite parts:)

 My little brother and I about to start

Had a beautiful view of the ocean for part of the run

Feelin good!

Yay I did it!! 2:04:51

 Huggin my mama:)

We did it!  Very proud of my bro!

My mom came out to cheer us on and walk the 5k

My crazy awesome husband crazy loves me

My awesome friends made the BEST poster!!

I was kinda surprised how much fun I had running the half!  The beginning was a little rough.  At mile 3 I was thinking there was no way I was gonna make it.  I was tired and questioning why I decided to do this in the first place.  And then I remembered this was all Keith's idea and I began cursing him in my head.  Then I felt bad because he was running too and probably needed me to pray for him, not hate him for making me do this:/  And lets talk about how annoying these speed demon runners are.  They were passing me like I was the slowest person to ever attempt to run.  I mean who are these people?!  Didn't they know they were messing with me head?  I kept thinking  "Apparently I'm barely moving.  But I'm tired and this hurts.  How am I gonna finish this damn thing....ugh damn Keith, this is all his fault!!....I mean God be with Keith and give him strength.....And I could really use some strength too...."

But somewhere around mile 6 I was having the time of my life!  I think it was a combination of working out all the kinks in my body, getting out on my own and finally starting to pass some people myself, and listening to some really good music on my ipod.  I had switched all the music on my ipod to worship songs and they worked great to pump me up and keep me moving and keep me praying.  I can't remember everything I was thinking while I was running.  There were miles that I must have mentally blacked out because I don't remember anything.  I sort of compare it to dance marathon.  32 hours of staying on your feet with no sleep.  I definitely forgot hours of my life there.  But what I do remember was surprisingly a lot of fun:) 

Here were some of my favorite parts of the half:

• Running with my little bro:)
• My crazy incredible awesome husband being the best cheerleader I could ask for
• My Mama coming to cheer us on and walk her own 5k too:)
• Alyssa (Keith's kick ass wife) and her brother, Alan being awesome cheerleaders and dealing with my craziness before the half-marathon
• Miles 6-10.5 were awesome.  I felt great and had a great pace!  
• Tyler, Alyssa and Alan moved around to cheer us on at different parts of the race.  It meant so much to see them cheering and holding posters for us!
• When I looped back I got to pass Keith and give him a high five.  It was great to see how well he was doing and it was just encouraging to know he was doing this with me.  (looking for him for almost a mile also gave me something to do to stay distracted from my sore toes:) 
• Mile 12 Tyler caught up to me on his skateboard.  At that point I couldn't tell if I was still moving so it was so great to have him next to me to talk to.  He stayed with me till mile 13 and then went up to the finish line to cheer me on there.  Man I'm crazy lucky to have him.
• Crossing that finish line!!
• The "Katie Potter" poster!!  Amazing!!  Thank you Elysa, Ryan, Dan, Melissa and Rene!!!  I laughed every time Tyler held it up for me:)
• Watching Keith cross the finish line.  I'm such a proud sister!
• Getting so many encouraging messages from friends and family
• Spending some much needed time focusing on God and not myself.  Switching to worship music on my ipod was the best thing I could have done.  
• Destroying  CiCi's pizza buffet after the race.  Ate a whole large pizza and then some:)  They never saw us coming....

The worst part you ask?   My bruised and bloody toe nails and blisters the size of Texas.  My feet may never be the same.  But it was worth it and I can't wait to do it again!! 

March

Oh hello!  Sorry I haven't blogged in so long!  Here's my attempt to catch everyone up:)

We're still waiting to have our home study:/  We have everything turned in that we need but our social worker has been very busy with some urgent/intense situations so we've had to wait.  Of course we understand and are more than willing to wait but man is it hard to be patient sometimes!  I was hoping to have our profiles ready to show birth mothers by the end of March but it's unlikely that's going to happen now.  We also need to apply to a lot of grants and can't do that until the home study is complete.  So right now we're just waiting.....and trying to wait patiently.  Adoption seems to require a lot of that. 

Is it weird to feel like I'm already in nesting mode?  I know we probably still have a while to wait.  We haven't even been matched yet.  But I can't help it!  My house has to be ready now.  The baby room has to be ready now.  We have to have the names picked out now.   Everything needs to be clean and organized and perfect.  If you know me well you know I NEVER feel the need to have anything clean or organized!!  I'm the messiest person I know (my mom use to have to pay my friends to clean my room) but now I can't stand it.  I want it perfect for a baby.  I keep telling myself it's because we won't have a full 9 months to prepare ourselves.  Who knows how long our birth mother will be a long when we are matched up.  I don't want to be stressed and crazy about getting the house ready.  I'm sure I'll be anxious enough already!  Tyler thinks I'm a little insane when I nag him to build our built in storage unit or carpet the bedrooms.  I mean his logic makes since, we don't have the extra money!  But still, it's driving me completely crazy to not have the house how I want it!  Again I'm working on the patience....

On a completely different note, I'm running a half-marathon this Sunday.  Gah!!  I'm sort of freaking out about it.  I really don't work well under pressure.  I'm mostly excited and really pretty confident that I'll be able to do it but I keep obsessing over all the other variables that could go wrong.  I've had nightmares about sleeping in and missing the race or forgetting my shoes or my music not working.  I've become a little obsessive compulsive about making my packing list and packing my bag.  This usually isn't how I operate.  Which is why usually I forget something very important!  One time I forget my dress to the wedding we were traveling for.  I have forgotten underwear multiple times and have had to make an emergency trip to Target.  I'm always surprised when I actually do remember to bring my toothbrush.  Usually I end up sharing Tyler's (sorry if you think that's gross:)  But not this time!  I have packed and checked my list a thousand times and will continue to do so until we get on the road.  My race is in St. Pete but we're staying with my brother and sister in law in Bradenton.  Very excited to spend some time with family (my mom's coming in town too) and to run the race with my little brother!  I plan on beating him and having bragging rights for the rest of our lives.  A little sibling rivalry is always a good thing:)

Please join us in praying!  I have been thinking about our birth mother A LOT lately!  I have 2 friends in my bible study who are pregnant and due in September.  We've always sort of aimed for the baby to come sometime in the fall.  So now I keep wondering if she's already pregnant!  She's in my thoughts and prayers constantly.  Is she okay?  Is she terrified?  Is she safe?  Is the baby safe?  Constantly praying for God to protect her and the baby and to give her peace and guidance.  Please lift her up in prayers too!  And our child!

And if you think about it, please say a prayer for me while I'm running on Sunday:)  It's only through God's strength that I'll be able to do it! 

Thanks everyone!  I promise I'll try to blog again sooner next time:)  

quick update

See I told you I'm a bad blogger....:)

I just wanted to send a quick adoption update.  We had a bunch of verifications to get together before we could have our home study:
-copies of birth certificates
-copy of marriage license
-Health report from MD saying we're healthy enough to adopt
-copy of most recent tax return and estimate of current assets, liabilities, and monthly expenses and income
-letter from employers stating position, salary and status of employment
-DCF clearance
-Florida Department of Law Enforcement Screening
-Local Sheriff's report
(yes that's 3 different kind of background checks) 
-and at least 3 non-family personal references (but you can send as many as you want). 
               This was kinda a weird thing to ask for...."Hey can you please write a letter about how awesome Tyler and I are?  And please put in how we'd be great parents and please list all our best qualities.  Thanks"  I don't even take compliments well so this was just weird to ask for but I am soooo thankful for all the friends in our lives who have wanted to be a part of this process so sent in a letter for us.  It really means a lot to have such a strong group of support around us!  It takes a village to bring a baby home!

Well we finally have everything together!  All our references should be in by early next week and then we get to schedule our home study.  I'm really excited/nervous for this part!  I'm excited to get it done so we can start applying to every adoption grant we can get our hands on but I'm also just a little nervous about the process.  I honestly don't know all the details of what it entails so that makes it even scarier.  What helps is that we really like our social worker and I know she's here to only help us and already feels that our home would be a good one for a baby. 

I also want to share how God's been putting some really awesome people in our lives who have been touched by adoption.  We keep being introduced to families who have adopted, where adopted themselves, or even gave a child for adoption.  It's been amazing to hear everyone's different stories and be encouraged through them.  I feel like everywhere I go I'm getting a little message from God telling me He's preparing us something really special:) 

Friends

 Last weekend was a big treat.  One of my favorite people in the world came to spend the weekend with me.  Tyler went off on a guys weekend in Orlando so my friend Laura came to Palm Beach to have a girls weekend with me:)  When you're married it's a lot harder to have that much needed girl time so I was very excited!  The weekend consisted of a lot of talking, laughing, and eating and of course plenty of wine, cosmos and margaritas. 

 

Laura and I walking on the beach

Lunch at Sailfish

Laura and I met back in college when we both joined Chi Omega.  We were one of the other's maid of honors in our weddings (yes we each had 2.  It's what the cool people are doing)  I've always loved our ability to be completely honest with one another and find humor in practically everything.  She's the first person I call when I have a funny story or need advice or need someone to pray for me.  She's a life-long friend and I'm so thankful for her!  So glad I got to spend some awesome quality time with her (if you know me well you know how I love quality time.  It's totally my love language.)  You should also know that my good friend is very talented.  Check out her website and see for yourself.  www.twigzdesign.com  

 

This weekend I also got to spend some girl time celebrating birthdays.  Happy Early Birthday Siiri and Jackie!:)  Both these lovely ladies are more friends that I'm so thankful for!  I'm very glad they were born and I get to call them my friends.  In fact I'm thankful for all the ladies that went out to celebrate!  It's kinda funny how when you leave college you can't imagine making new friends as good as the ones you already have.  But God's totally blessed me with some awesome ladies in my life.  There's no way to replace the old friends and those friendships still run strong but it's awesome to grow the new ones too.  It reminds me that God is all about relationships.  He blesses us through them time and time again and He desires to have one with us.  Do I spend as much time with God as I do my friends?  Do I invest in my relationship with Him like I  do with my family?  Not nearly enough but I'm working on it.  Thankfully, He loves me despite my failures. 

I'm a terrible blogger...

Hope no one expects me to blog everyday:)  I've never been the most disciplined person so making myself write everyday might be tricky.  I actually prefer to never do the same thing everyday anyway.  I hate schedules!  I get very bored if I feel like I do anything over and over again which probably isn't good.  A very wise man once told me, "boredom is a sign of low intelligence and lack of creativity".  well crap:/ 

There is an aspect of my life that's been requiring a lot of discipline lately.  I'm running a half-marathon in March!  Eeek!  What am I thinking?!  My awesome little brother wanted to run one before he turns 25 and I offered to run with him (I couldn't let him show me up:).  I am not a runner.  It hurts and and I've never understood why you would want to run if someone wasn't chasing you.  Even then I probably wouldn't run.  I'm a stay and fight back kind of girl:)  But I have some really awesome friends in my life who have run a lot of half-marathons and even a marathon (shout out to Jackie for being an awesome marathoner!)  They've really inspired me and so has my brother.  I can't leave him hanging so if he's running this thing so am I!  I've been "training" for a few weeks now and it's amazing how much I'm actually liking it!  At first I hated it and wanted to die every time I ran.  But sloooowly by body has come around and stopped punishing me for wanting to do this.  Now it feels great and I can't wait to run again!  Maybe I am a runner after all:)  And I have to say, I'm loving the time I spend with God while I run.   When it was awful and painful I was mostly just begging for God to give me strength to finish that mile or to even make my next step.  Now that I'm feeling pretty good with it I've really loved being able to just talk with God and listen.  Sometimes I catch myself singing along to the worship songs on my ipod while I run.  I'm sure I look insane but I don't care.

On an adoption note, we had a meeting with our lawyer on Sunday.  I love that our lawyer is also our good friend!  I'm sure it looked much different than most adoption lawyer meetings.  Our friends had us over for steaks, sweet potatoes and wine while we discussed some adoption details.  Our bill for the meeting was to bring the salad and dessert:)  It was a great night with friends praying over this process and working out some of the details.  We discussed costs of the legal stuff we have to do , how we'll handle the grant money and what our future steps will be once we are matched to a birth mother.  It's crazy how many steps we have to take to bring our baby home but it helps to have good friends helping us along the way!