Monday, August 25, 2008
The Waiting Room
Court suggested some baby room pictures, so here they are! I call it the waiting room because I have a hard time imagining what it will be like when a baby lives here. Right now it's the most quiet and still room in the house. It's very small, it's hard to get a good picture of it...
Friday, August 15, 2008
Adopting
We’ve gotten so many emails and Facebook posts asking if we are pregnant, adopting, fostering—or what? Someone recently even asked me what part of China our baby was coming from. So, I thought I would allay any rumors by writing a little about the process we have been through since we anticipate introducing you to baby Pounds very soon.
The decision to adopt came long ago, even before Kevin and I knew each other. I must have been 13 or 14 when I told my parents that I was not going to have children “of my own” but that I was going to adopt a little girl from China and name her Emma (my favorite Jane Austen book). My mom will remember when I ardently urged her to consider adopting a baby herself!
The details have changed since then, but not the heart that God gave us to adopt a child. I think I had a conversation with Kevin early on in our dating relationship about my intention, and ever since then it has been in his heart as well.
Fast forward 7 years of marriage, and here we are very close to having a baby “of our own.” The journey has been almost a year in the making from our first research and inquiries at adoption agencies, to our decision to adopt from DYFS (NJ’s child welfare system).
Going through DYFS means that any child that we get will be coming from a potential or actual abusive/neglectful situation. It also means that we will be taking the baby on a fostering basis at first with the intent to adopt. DYFS created a program for these babies who will most likely need permanent adoptive homes, and so they place them with people like us who would like to adopt them if their mother is not able to rehabilitate.
Kevin and I believe that the best place for a child to be is with his or her biological parent, as long as it is a safe environment. With that in mind, we will be praying for the biological mother to change her life and make sacrifices so that she can get her baby back. However, we also know that this hardly ever happens and that the baby that we receive will most likely need a permanent home with us. The risk is still there, but we hope that we can bless and help the biological parent any way that we can.
So, that’s the condensed version. As of this past Friday our home study and inspection have been approved and we are officially in wait mode. It could literally be any day now, we are trying to be patient!
Now for the fun details: we don't know the gender, we don't know the race, we won't be able to change their name until the adoption is final, the adoption won't be finalized sooner than 12 months, we do know that it will be a baby under 3 months old.
Thank you so much for your prayers and inquiries, we hope to have a new story to tell very soon.
The decision to adopt came long ago, even before Kevin and I knew each other. I must have been 13 or 14 when I told my parents that I was not going to have children “of my own” but that I was going to adopt a little girl from China and name her Emma (my favorite Jane Austen book). My mom will remember when I ardently urged her to consider adopting a baby herself!
The details have changed since then, but not the heart that God gave us to adopt a child. I think I had a conversation with Kevin early on in our dating relationship about my intention, and ever since then it has been in his heart as well.
Fast forward 7 years of marriage, and here we are very close to having a baby “of our own.” The journey has been almost a year in the making from our first research and inquiries at adoption agencies, to our decision to adopt from DYFS (NJ’s child welfare system).
Going through DYFS means that any child that we get will be coming from a potential or actual abusive/neglectful situation. It also means that we will be taking the baby on a fostering basis at first with the intent to adopt. DYFS created a program for these babies who will most likely need permanent adoptive homes, and so they place them with people like us who would like to adopt them if their mother is not able to rehabilitate.
Kevin and I believe that the best place for a child to be is with his or her biological parent, as long as it is a safe environment. With that in mind, we will be praying for the biological mother to change her life and make sacrifices so that she can get her baby back. However, we also know that this hardly ever happens and that the baby that we receive will most likely need a permanent home with us. The risk is still there, but we hope that we can bless and help the biological parent any way that we can.
So, that’s the condensed version. As of this past Friday our home study and inspection have been approved and we are officially in wait mode. It could literally be any day now, we are trying to be patient!
Now for the fun details: we don't know the gender, we don't know the race, we won't be able to change their name until the adoption is final, the adoption won't be finalized sooner than 12 months, we do know that it will be a baby under 3 months old.
Thank you so much for your prayers and inquiries, we hope to have a new story to tell very soon.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The Original Pippin
We have a great dog. I had a dream last night that made me laugh at my lofty opinion of him.
In my dream, Kevin and I lived in an apartment community. One day I was walking around outside and I found a little lost puppy that looked like a baby Pippin. On his collar I found 2 tags: one said the puppy's name, and the other had this inscription:
"This dog is believed to be the direct descendant of the original Pippin."
After talking to some neighbors, I realized that while Pippin had been sowing his wild oats among the neighborhood, his offspring had been so widely approved of that a new breed was born.
I would like to introduce to you... the Original Pippin:
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Citified Foraging
After our home inspection on Monday, our social worker told us that if we had any travel or entertainment plans for the near future, we had better do it this weekend. I had been wanting to check out some local organic farms, so I broadened my search area a little so we could get further out of town for a night. We jumped in the car on Friday evening and headed North towards the Catskills in NY, Pippin in tow.
We were just so glad to be out of New Brunswick for a couple of days, we always comment how, the tension just melts away the further we drive. Saturday morning we first drove to a remote farm in some tiny town not on the map where they raised grass fed beef, pork and chickens. The farmer was British, married to a Southerner, formerly an investment banker who said he just wanted to do something a little more "labor intensive." He had a little farm stand in a red barn where he sold frozen cuts of meat, eggs, and honey.
He pointed us to a dairy farm just down the road and we headed there next. This was great, we thought they would have some kind of store or something, but it was basically just the farm with a small processing plant. We lucked out and met the owner's daughter and she agreed to give us a tour of the farm/plant. Did you know that homogenized milk could be the cause of a lot of people's lactose intolerance? She gave us some unhomoginized milk in a glass bottle--so good. We also learned that the milk that comes out of the cow is first separated into cream and skim milk, and then the cream is added back to the skim milk to create 1% and 2%. She loaded us up with ice cream, chocolate milk, butter, and their very popular label of drinkable yogurt. Moooo
We were just so glad to be out of New Brunswick for a couple of days, we always comment how, the tension just melts away the further we drive. Saturday morning we first drove to a remote farm in some tiny town not on the map where they raised grass fed beef, pork and chickens. The farmer was British, married to a Southerner, formerly an investment banker who said he just wanted to do something a little more "labor intensive." He had a little farm stand in a red barn where he sold frozen cuts of meat, eggs, and honey.
He pointed us to a dairy farm just down the road and we headed there next. This was great, we thought they would have some kind of store or something, but it was basically just the farm with a small processing plant. We lucked out and met the owner's daughter and she agreed to give us a tour of the farm/plant. Did you know that homogenized milk could be the cause of a lot of people's lactose intolerance? She gave us some unhomoginized milk in a glass bottle--so good. We also learned that the milk that comes out of the cow is first separated into cream and skim milk, and then the cream is added back to the skim milk to create 1% and 2%. She loaded us up with ice cream, chocolate milk, butter, and their very popular label of drinkable yogurt. Moooo
On our way to our next stop we passed a vineyard and took a detour. It was a small family owned winery and we walked around briefly and bought some of their table white wine. It was very scenic.
Our last destination was a creamery and farm that made their own cheeses. We watched some of the cheese making process behind a glass wall and sampled their 9 types of cheese. We bought a couple that resemble Parmesan and sharp cheddar and also some swiss chard from their garden. After Pippin was nearly attacked by the farm pheasants, we ran for the car.
It was such a great trip, we had a leisurely pace and came home laden with organic food. Check out this book, if you are interested The Omnivore's Dilemma, http://www.michaelpollan.com/omnivore.php. In it, he lists a great website where you can find organic farms near you: http://www.eatwild.com/.
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