The Call

Today at 2:19, the call came in. We were sitting in my Dad and Martha's living room, having just finished a yummy turkey soup dinner. I can't quite seem to remember what we were talking about. Todd's phone rang and he hopped up to take the call. I watched him as his whole demeanor changed. I couldn't put my finger on it, but everything about his response to whomever was on the line made it so I couldn't take my eyes off him. His complexion changed, his voice softened, and his eyes dare I say had a watery glow to them. As soon as he said, "Can I put you on speaker phone?" I knew who it was. It was our adoption agency. We had been selected by a birth mom!!

Here is what we know...Our (I love saying that) birth mom is a young 17 0r 18 year old young lady. She lives in the Denver area. It sounds as though she has the support of her mother, who has attended all of the counseling sessions with her. After looking through a stack of profiles, she selected Todd and I as her number one choice. She is 6 months pregnant and will deliver a baby boy in late February. Our baby boy!

We hope to meet with her and her mother later this week. We will keep you posted on how that goes!

What a wonderful day!!

We are SO Thankful!

Aren't these Camo baby booties too cute!?! Thank you mom!

We hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! If we saw you...it was great! If we didn't...we missed you!

As always we have so much to be thankful for. We have a roof over our heads, food to eat, cars to drive, we live in the wonderful United States of America, we have family and friends we love, we are employed, we are healthy, and we are happy. And we are thankful that this is all true for you too! In the days leading up to Thanksgiving our email was inundated with very loving and excited emails regarding our plans to adopt. Each of these touched us deeply, most making my eyes water. We wanted to share a FEW of our favorites with you (although we loved them all!). This is as much for you as it is for us. We know that there will be hard days ahead of us. Days of waiting and longing and impatience. How wonderful for us to be able to pull up this blog and rest assured that YOU'VE got our backs, are praying for us, and are excited for what is ahead of us. Thank you!

OMG.....I am soooo excited for you two. First of all let me say that if they pick the parents by looks alone well then you guys win because you are the two prettiest people on the page. Second I love the story about both of you, it made me cry somebody in your family should be a writer, geez that was good!! I am so excited for you and will be sending extra special prayers your way. Enjoy this anxious time and remember it is all part of the process, it will all work out in God' s time. -From Aunt Jody

What exciting news! I'm sure you are glad to have the application process all over with and ready to get on with an adoption. Hopefully with the new year coming a little bundle of love will come too. I will keep you in my prayers and keep my fingers and toes crossed as well. With all of the negative news in the world these past few months, I am really thrilled to hear your news -From Aunt Lori

Dear Amber and "Officer Hopkins" :) Todd, I knew the first time we met that you are a special person. Thank you for sharing your website and your private lives with us. You will make beautiful parents - praying that God brings the perfect baby to you in His perfect time. blessings, Kaye -From one of Amber's friends

Oh my gosh, that is sooooooo exciting for you guys (and us). You guys will make awesome parents.Keep us up to date on the progress!! Hopefully we'll see you soon, Love, Syl

you guys are really something...I love you both. I love your "letter" to your birth mom...you truly will make phenomenal parents...I am sooooooo very proud of you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -From Amber's Dad

Congratulations on your decision to add to your family! I know you will make wonderful parents. We are so excited for you! Yes – I clapped with glee when I found out! Thank you for sharing this news with us, and we can’t wait to meet your very lucky addition to the family! -From Denise

Thank you again for all of your support and encouragement! We LOVE you!!

FAQ

We have been faced with many questions regarding adoption. We hope this will help answer some of those questions and give you a little insight to what we are doing.

Q.: Why adoption?
A.: We have always had a desire to become parents, and an even stronger desire to adopt a child. Adoption is a deep desire of our hearts. We feel that we are being faithful with the desire that God has placed in us.

Q.:What kind of adoption are you pursuing?
A.: The agency we are working with facilitates open adoptions. An open adoption has many different degrees of openness. In a nutshell, an open adoption allows the birth parents to have a voice in selecting an adoptive family. And allows the adoptive parents access to medical history, genetics, and other pertinent information.

Q.: What adoption agency are you using?
A.: Adoption Dreams Come True. Which is a small, local, non-profit agency. This agency accepts only 20 adoptive families at a time, works on a sliding scale fee, and has an excellent reputation. We have been very pleased with the process and the staff.

Q.: Are you unable to conceive a biological child?
A.: No, we are NOT unable to conceive a child and we are not doing this instead of having biological children. We hope to parent biological and adopted children.

Q.: How long will the adoption process take?
A.: We don't know. We have been told the process can take anywhere between two months and two years.

Q.: Are you preparing your home for a baby?
A.: No. Because we do not know how long it will be before we are selected, we are living our lives as usual. We are eager and ready to add a little one to our home, but will not start preparations until we get further along in the process. There is no reason to set up a nursery until we need one.

Q.: Are there any good resources (ie. books) regarding adoption?
A.: There are a ton of books available, most of which I think we own. Also there are a lot of websites that we have stumbled upon. A book that Amber has just started reading is titled, "Adoption is a Family Affair, What Relatives and Friends Must Know," by Patricia Johnston. It is written for the soon to be grandparents of an adopted child. If you are interested in borrowing any books that we have, just let us know!

Thank you for all of your loving questions! We would be happy to answer anymore that you might have along the way!

Adoption Dreams
Come True

We finished our last "Core" adoption class on Saturday. I honestly thought these classes would be a bit of a bore, but I thoroughly enjoyed them! It was so wonderful to sit in a room of waiting families who are all learning, just as we are. It was like we had an instant connection. The instructor of the class was a wonderful woman, who presented the information in a fun and loving way.

We have been so pleased with the agency and the process thus far. Every time I walk into the little house, my heart swells with anticipation and excitement. The staff are all a pleasure to speak/work with and incredibly knowledgeable about the open adoption process. This agency only takes on 20 adoptive families at a time which fosters a very familiar feel. I am confident that whenever one of us calls the office, they know just who we are.

We are sort of, for lack of a better term, in the holding pattern now. We are waiting to be selected by a birth mother (or parents). Then the real excitment begins!! There is no telling how long that could take, so please pray for patience! It feels great to have all the paper work, back ground checks and doctor visits behind us. I feel like we can get on with life as normal! Phew!

Welcome to our Blog!!

Welcome to our blog! I don't know if Todd or I ever thought we would have a blog...but here it is! We are looking forward to keeping all of our favorite people posted on what is going on in our lives. We know that life is busy and we may not communicate as often as we would like, so we hope that this will in a small way keep us connected!

We have had such a fabulous past 20 months! (That's how long we have been married now!!) We have thoroughly enjoyed being newlyweds, we have cherished our together time, and we have both grown personally as well as a committed couple. We are so excited to add to our family! As most of you know (or will know now!), Todd and I have started the adoption process, and are eagerly waiting to be a mommy and a daddy! We hope to use this blog to keep you posted on that process. We also hope to keep you posted on the progress of our lives.

We will do our best to keep our "posts" current, so please check back often!