As you can see from the last post, Joel and I have been going through some big changes. I’m kind of amazed that we have survived the last several months. I always say, when we go through a rough patch in our life together, that we are simply making our marriage stronger. After all of this, our marriage is probably unbreakable (Not that we were really concerned about this. Right? 😉 ). Needless to say, after a lot of stress, and facing more to come, we still like each other an awful lot. And we’re still ready, probably more than ever, to open our hearts and home to a child. So, what, you may ask, are we going to do?

Joel and I, have decided to go domestic. As Joel stated earlier, it’s been a really difficult decision, as domestic wasn’t really on our radar when we started this process a year ago. But it has become our best option. We’ve decided to listen to the signs the cosmos has sent and move on. We’ve had to make a huge mental and emotional shift. It took us a long time, lots of grieving, talking, crying, and silent meditation to get here, but we are now ready to open our hearts and minds to someone new. And we’re excited!

We’re basically starting completely over again. All new issues to learn about, all new fee schedule, all new everything. A whole different kind of adventure I guess. There is potential for things to move very quickly and — all that is great and good willing — smoothly.

We have signed up with a great local agency. We sent in our application on Monday of Spring Break and had a meeting with our clinician (social worker) on Thursday of the same week. Our clinician is great, lots of knowledge and lots of heart. We felt very at ease. She also gave us the great news that they will be able to use most of our old home study towards our new one. Woo-Hoo! Time and money saved. So far it has been a good experience.

We are both feeling a bit gun-shy, understandably so. We’re trying not to get our hopes up too high too quickly. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this will be a better process than what we just left. We are still saddened by the loss we feel, but are heartened by the new possibilities. Hopefully this new path will lead us to what we are seeking, completing our family. We’ll blog more as we continue to learn about the new process, so check back.

Lastly, a huge thank you to everyone who has inquired, listened, prayed, and otherwise sent good ju-jus our way. We are so lucky to have such an amazing and supportive community. You have all earned significant baby time, although we get first dibbs 🙂