So close...

Update: If you are joining us from Kelly's Korner, welcome! Here is a brief run-down of our adoption story: My husband and I have been married almost eight years. We started dating when he was 19 and I was 18 and were engaged by the following Christmas Eve. We were married in 2003, two days after I graduated from college! We actually decided we were probably ready to start a family about five years ago, after we bought our first house. Unfortunately, a couple weeks after moving in, my husband was in a serious motorcycle accident. He now has over 20 pieces of metal in his body, but is pretty much back to normal. However, even with insurance, we had to pay a TON in medical bills. Between the house and the medical bills, we were completely broke, so having a baby got put on the back burner.
Fast-forward three years later, and we were ready again. We had rebuilt our savings, all our friends were having kids, we were both healthy - now we just had to try and we'd get pregnant! A year went by, and nothing. I went to the Dr. and started testing to see if something was wrong. I was tested, Mike was tested, and the only thing they could ever find was that I had one tube blocked, but with the other functioning normally, they said we should still be able to conceive.
Another year went by. We tried multiple meds, IUI - nothing worked. Our next step was IVF, but we just didn't feel at peace about that. We had both always been open to adoption; in fact, I always wanted to adopt rather than have biological children! We began to pray that God would reveal to us the path he wanted us to take. Just a few weeks later, a friend asked if we were interested in adoption. An 18-year-old her daughter mentored in Utah was pregnant, and she wanted to adopt the baby out of state, preferably to a Christian couple from California! We were scared, but cautiously optimistic.
We talked to the birth mom on the phone, and she told us she thought we were the ones. We paid for her to take the train to California and got to meet her and hang out with her. Since she returned to Utah, we have been in almost daily contact. She has become so special to us - kind of a surrogate little sister or child! We now have less than six weeks until the due date and are preparing to leave for Utah int he next month! Praise God! We now know why we were not able to get pregnant - because our birth mother was! :)
I can't believe we are getting so close...less than six weeks to d-day! I have been bad about posting, but here is a little run-down of what's been going on:

• Finished our home study! We just had our interviews and home visit this week and our social worker was AMAZING!!! I had heard some horror stories, but we have had a great experience with our social worker...she helped us so much!
• Started preparing to breastfeed. Yes, it is possible to breastfeed without ever being pregnant...it involves a lot of herbs, a TON of pumping with a hospital-grade pump (I affectionately nicknamed mine the super-sucker ;) ), and possibly prescription meds. It is pretty funny when people ask me, "did you know someone put breastfeeding stuff on your registry?" Yes! I did!
• Got to go to Destination Maternity/Pea in the Pod to buy nursing bras. This may seem lame, but it was so exciting to walk out of that store with a bag of things for ME! I felt like I was finally part of the "mommy club."
• Finished the nursery (pics coming soon!). We are on a budget as the adoption is so expensive, so we bought used furniture off craigslist and painted it ourselves...I love the way it turn out!
• Started packing for Utah! For those of you who are new to the blog, we are from California and are adopting a newborn from Utah...this means we have to travel to Utah in the next few weeks and stay for anywhere from 1-3 weeks until we get clearance to return home. This process is very expensive, but soooooo worth it!

To close, here are some things you can be praying for-please!

• Pray Faith stays cozy in her birth mom for as long as possible...contractions had to be stopped once already, and we want to avoid our little girl having to stay in the NICU.
• Pray for us that all our travel expenses will be covered...we have had almost $2,000 in unexpected expenses in the past two weeks, which is VERY stressful to say the least!
• Pray that everything goes smoothly with our travel plans and the relinquishment. Our birth mother has never wavered in her decision, and she and I talk pretty much daily, and I have no doubt she will remain firm in her decision. I just want this to be a peaceful, wonderful time for us to share our love for Faith and rejoice in her birth!
• Pray that breastfeeding goes well...this seems like such as small thing, but it is the one thing I can do to really bond with Faith from the start and nourish her the way I could if I carried her in my tummy :)

That's it for now...pics of the room coming soon! The next Drs appt is February 2nd, so I'll update then with our travel plans!