Rightful Mother

So I recently got a few nasty posts from bitter and angry people from the closed adoption world. I truly feel sorry for them, and anyone else that has been in an unpleasant adoption. Not all adoptions are unpleasant, In fact, I personally know of several that have been successful. I am going to repost a few of the comments, just to reflect on them. I am not changing any of the wording...

This was the first comment left by an anonymous person

Yes, I would be happy to donate, via paypal, whatever it costs to keep this baby with it's rightful mother. Those babies sure are sweet when they are babies, and they can't tell you how it hurts to be snatched from the woman they have lived and only known for 9 months. It's primal, it's natural, it's spiritual. Sad to say, those babies, do in fact, grow up. When they can voice their opinion, and they will, I promise you, they will tell you how wrong they think it is to be snatched away from their God-given right. Please think of the babies. Please read Primal Wound. Please don't delete this because it's not your view. Please be brave, and not a coward, and listen to the people who have been those babies snatched from their mommies. Please, I beg you. Reconsider. Your God will provide your womb as a safe place for your baby, IF HE deems you to be a mother one day.

So anyone that knows me at all, can probably point out why this one got under my skin a little. But for those of you who don't know me (as the poster obviously doesn't) I will make some points.

First and foremost we will not "snatch" a baby away from his/her mother. Mother will place her baby with us.

Babies grow up, duh, I'm not quite that unintelligent! It is difficult to raise any child, biological or adopted. I realize that an adopted child will have many questions, for this reason (among many others) we will have an open adoption. I do not believe in closed adoptions, and posts like this one reaffirms my feelings on closed adoptions.

I love to read, so I'm grateful for the recommendation on a new read! Thanks for that!

Now on to the God part. One, you don't know "who" my God is. I certainly do NOT believe that a woman can't be a mother because medically she isn't able to bear children. And since God was brought up, how about let us use the bible as a reference to adoption?

The book of Exodus tells the story of a Hebrew woman named Jochebed who bore a son during a time when Pharaoh had ordered all Hebrew male infants to be put to death (Exodus 1:15-22). Jochebed took a basket, waterproofed it, and sent the baby down the river in the basket. One of Pharaoh's daughters spotted the basket and retrieved the child. She eventually adopted him into the royal family and gave him the name Moses. He went on to become a faithful and blessed servant of God (Exodus 2:1-10)

Bringing a person into a family by means of adoption is done by choice and out of love. "His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure" (Ephesians 1:5). As God adopts those who receive Christ as Savior into His spiritual family, so should we all prayerfully consider adopting children into our own physical families.

CLEARLY, adoption - both in the physical and spiritual sense - is shown in a favorable light in Scripture.

Another point I'd like to make, according to the poster a "rightful mother" is a birth mother. I don't agree with this. What about the babies that are being abused (emotionally or physically) by their birth mother? Is birth mom still the rightful mother? Child should always stay with the woman who who gave birth to her? If you ask me, when BIRTH MOM is making the choice, she will choose what is right for her baby. If she chooses to parent, then that is a wonderful thing! But there is nothing wrong with a woman choosing to place her baby for adoption with loving parents.

Dear Birthmother Letter

First off, let me just say, I really don't like the phrase "Birthmother Letter."

Okay, now, I can continue on.... I just sent in my 1st draft of the DBL. Literallly, I just hit send, and I seriously just got heartburn. Haha, nervous much? Yeah, I am. I know it's going to be butchered and I'm going to have to write and rewrite again, but it's almost like the end is near. It's kind of a scary feeling, good, but scary.

Oh and I also called about our FBI fingerprinting and they are being processed, but not completed yet. Blah! I'm hopeful that they will be finished by the end of this month!

I love to see those figures!

So, I've been trying my hand at "couponing" the last several months. As in my last blog about it, we are putting all the money we are saving by my "couponing" into our adoption fund. I do know that we are saving money by doing this. Lately, though sales really haven't been that great, so I haven't been doing it as often. I just clipped all my coupons this week, I was pretty excited about the P&G coupons in this weeks paper :) I decided to jump onto the website that I use most often to see what sales are going on. To visit this site click here. I happened to notice the new commissary sales are posted, I clicked there and I found that you can sign up for P&G coupons to use at the commissary! The greatest part about using these coupons is they donate to the USO. To sign up for those coupons visit this site. Awesomeness! I'm super stoked. I definitely see a commissary trip in my very near future!

And so I decided since I talked about my savings I would add it up real quick and go ahead and post it here.

May through August I have saved $492.84.
I'm sure that we have saved much more, because my little one did get into my receipts a couple times, and I think a few were "misplaced." Even without those few receipts, I think it's some great savings! I might add too that the figure that I came up with is the amount of coupons added with the amount saved that prints out on receipts. As in the sale item. This number does not reflect shopping at the commissary which is usually less expensive than the grocery stores.

Breastfeeding Your Baby

I'm very curious about this. I think it is a wonderful thing and I know it's possible to breastfeed adopted babies. Are any of my "adoption" readers planning on doing this? Do you have a website about it that has been useful? How would I go about getting started?

My husband is not sure about it, only because when I tried to breastfeed our daughter, it didn't turn out well. She didn't latch well and we would both end up crying at each feeding. After 5 weeks I decided to start bottle feeding her. Needless to say, Nick had a very difficult time seeing his two girls so upset. Even though it was more difficult that I expected it to be, I'm still willing to try again. I just have no idea where to begin or what to do!

I'm not too worried about it after getting started, I have some amazing friends that I think would be willing to help me and I'm pretty sure there are classes in my area.

Any thoughts or advice is welcome!

Mail call

So... tomorrow I'm sending off a bunch of paperwork to the agency. I had my physical today and I go back in Thursday for my bloodwork. I just received a statement from the agency and I can ALMOST sigh... Give me a couple more months and I will take that sigh, and replace it with waiting. I often wonder, am I gonna be the one who contacts the agency constantly to see how things are "coming along" or am I just going to sit back and worry at home? I guess only time will tell. I'm excited, still! Every day is one day closer to our baby!

Adoption Cards

So today I went shopping for our soon to be niece. I actually had fun picking out little tiny baby clothes. I say that like I didn't think I would, because in all honesty, I didn't know how I would handle it. I've avoided the "baby" section for over a year now. It was too painful to see all those little tiny outfits, and even more painful to see the happy pregnant women going through all those cute little clothes. I admit, at times I still have difficulty being around pregnant women. Here lately it's been harder, because this is the month our little one would've been due....

Now back to the post... after picking out a few outfits, I decided to stop by Hallmark to pick out a card as well. Looking through all the "you're expecting" cards, and  "congratulations on your new baby" cards, I happened to glance down and notice adoption cards. I saw three, ONLY THREE, adoption cards. One was congratulations that you are adopting, and the other two were congratulating on adopting. I was a tad shocked and I guess a little disappointed. Shouldn't there be just as many adoption cards, I mean isn't that just as important as "having" your own baby? In my book it certainly is!

Like the Ocean

The day before my birthday we had a nice little get together at our house. We had some great friends and neighbors that came over to celebrate with us. Our good friend Brandon made my cake. (and now that I think of it, he's made a cake for the last few years) After they brought the cake over, K spots it sitting on the counter and asks "Mommy, what's that?"
I said "Well, what do you think it is?"
She exclaimed, "It's your birthday cake!"
I replied, "Yep, it is."
She asked, "Mommy, you getting older?"
I answered, "Yes, Mommy is getting older."
She said "Mommy, you older like the ocean."

Umm... thanks... .I think!

My favorite... cookies 'n cream!