Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving approaches I thought I would ponder the things I am thankful for this past year….

I have the most wonderful, amazing husband. He is my rock. I don’t know what I would do without him. I truly believe the saying that, “ happiness is being married to your best friend”.

I have the most loving caring family a girl could ask for.

I was blessed this year to finally get a brother. Steph, you did good. Your wedding was beautiful and you looked like a princess that day.

Sean and I have the best parents-they love and support us in any decisions we make. Thank you for your love and support throughout our foster classes and our decision to follow through with this.

I am so thankful for the bible study girls. I look forward to Wednesday nights with you gals. I love the tight bond and friendships that have been made from this. It is so good to know we can count on each other for anything. Oh, I also love those bible studies that give us a good cry.

I am thankful for my loving church family. We have truly been blessed with an amazing pastor. Eddie, you are doing a great job. There is so much good yet to come. I cannot wait to be a part of it.

I am thankful for my job. Now, I can honestly say I am not the happiest some days while I am at it but, all in all I am happy with it. At least I have a job.

There is so much more I am thankful for. It is just hard to list all of them. I do want to say thanks to all my friends and family for your love, prayers and support you have given Sean and I over the last few months. Your kind words, help finding toys & clothes and your prayers mean the world to us. We cannot wait for each of you to be a special part of what is left to come on our journey.

Hopefully 2010 the Farmer House will have some kids running around in it. Yes, I know…..Our lives are going to completely change and we should enjoy it now. I have heard this probably 100 times in the last 6 months. Trust me, we know this and we are ready for this change!!

Have a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving!!

Love,
Jessica

Update on our progress

Sorry it has been a while since my last blog.
This is where we stand on the process of our foster/adoption. Tomorrow night we will hit week 8 of class. After that we have one week left and we are done. Then once we are done with the classes we will get licensed and should be able to foster in about 3 weeks….exciting right???

We are very nervous and exited. We still have lots to do to get our house ready. Sean, Stephanie(my sister) and I went to Target yesterday to register for some items we know we are going to need. We have been blessed with such a great church family and many of them have been asking how they can help.

First and foremost we need prayers. Keep us and our future foster children in your prayers daily. These kids are coming from bad situations and need the love and support of our family and friends.

Second, if you have any extra clothes for children ages 0-6 years and want to get rid of them, we would gladly take them. The kids will be coming to us with just the clothes on their backs. We will take and use anything you are willing to give us.

Last, if you do want to help out with any supplies that we may need we have registered at Target. I know it is hard to understand why we did but once you see the list you will see why. There are many things we do not have and will need. God only knows the plan for our family. We may have 10 kids before he gives us the one that will be ours to adopt or we may only have foster children. Whatever the case we want to be ready for what he has planned for us.

**Sunday 11/08/09 is National Orphan Sunday**

Sean and I will be speaking at our church on our decision to become foster parents and adopt. This Sunday is to raise awareness of the foster child situation and promote a better understanding of the children in foster care.
I will leave you with some facts to think about:

More than 800,000 children pass through our country’s foster care system each year.

There are over 500,000 children in our foster care system right now. 129,000 of those children are waiting to be adopted from foster care right now. That’s how many peoplelive in the capitol of South Carolina.

Approximately, 25,000 children age out of thefoster care system each year; many with no support system and little to no life skills.

There are currently over 5,400 children in South Carolina’s foster care. Over 1,500 of them are waiting to be adopted. So far this year only a couple hundred of them have
been adopted.
This brings us to this question: How many children are adopted each year?

Between 118,000 and 127,000 children have been adopted every year since 1987. More than 50 percent of all adoptions are handled by public agencies or come from countries outside the United States.

More than one-third of Americans have seriously considered
adopting, but no more than 2 percent have actually adopted. Only 4 percent of families with children (1.7 million households) contain adopted children.

Today is a much better day...

Well after my little melt down yesterday I am feeling better. I realize I have the BEST husband in the world. How could I not be any happier? He is the best thing that has ever happened to me. He has a huge heart. I may not always want to listen to what he is telling me but I know 99.9% of the time he is right. I just have so many blessings in my life that I sometimes forget to step back and count them...and that is what I did yesterday.

So my goal for this journey is not to let myself get to upset or let the stupidity of others bother me. I am only responsible for myself and my actions. Here's to a new day and a busy weekend.

And So The Journey Begins

Sean and I have finally decided that after about 4 years fo trying to conceive on our own that it was now time to try a different route. Sean and I have prayed about this decision for quite a while now and we feel that we are ready to begin this new journey in our lives.

Last night we finished all of the paperwork to begin the adoption/foster parent process. I felt like the papers were never going to end. From gathering our references to getting copies of our birth certificates, drivers licenses, SS cards and marriage certificate, I though it was never going to end. Then came the task of choosing the perfect snapshot of us. I went for our picture from a birthday party we recently attended. Finally having everything in order the papers were put in the mail at 8am this morning....now the wait.

We have told all of our immediate family and close friends about our decision. We have gotten a world wind of resposes. Seems everyone has their opinion and they aren't afraid to tell us. I appreciate every concern and trust me we have talked about almost all of them. Sean and I are going to love a child whether it is black, yellow red or green,

I told Sean on the way to work this morning this is the best I have felt in 3-4 years. I feel like a weight has been lifted from me and now I can finally be excited about having a child. I am ready for my turn to be the one to talk about all of the excitement of becoming a new parent.

My hope is that everything goes smooth for us and we will become parents soon. Sean and I have a lot of love to give a child. We both have the best family and friends in the world. Thank you all who have given us so much love and support already. We look forward to sharing our journey with you.

All our Love,
Jessica