HUGE update

For most of you reading this, you know that we were blessed to welcome a little girl into our family in January!  These first four months of her life have flown by, but have been tremendously busy.  We've been adjusting to being a family of three with our sweet girl!  As I type, she lays on her blanket, playing with her toys.  I just can't believe that we are privileged to be her parents.  

As far as the adoption process goes, we are almost to finalization!  We hope to finalize in July, but it may not be until August.  We have one more home visit, and then we wait for all of the paperwork to be finished up! 

Adoption is hard, but the rewards are unending! God has blessed us in bringing our sweet girl home, in giving us the resources we needed to make that happen, and in having a wonderful extended family who love our little girl to pieces. 

 

The words to the song, I Get to Be the One, by JJ Heller sum up how I think about my little girl. Enjoy! 

What's in the Works?

I want to start by saying, again, how thankful I am for all who have been praying for Derrick and I.  In the last couple of months, so many people, who I may never meet face to face, have told us they are praying for us.  We are eternally grateful for all of you, including those who have been praying for years for us!

We have begun working in a couple of different directions in the last couple of weeks, in hopes of being placed as soon as possible.  Many of you know that we are well over the average waiting time for both our local agency (5 years) and our larger east coast agency (1 1/2 years).  Most recently, we were referred to a local lawyer, who often works with expectant mothers who visit local crisis pregnancy centers.  In order to sign a retainer with this lawyer, we first needed to update our profile book.  A profile book is similar to a scrapbook that expectant mothers can look at when they are choosing a family.  We are almost done with the first draft of our profile book and hope to have it sent to the lawyer this week.  We are so thankful for those who helped us find a photographer for new photos and for a co-worker of Derrick's who lent us his computer so that we could use a specific software for the book!

This week we also started taking Foster Care classes through our state.  Taking these classes will enable us to either do foster care or do foster to adopt.  At this point, we are leaning towards foster to adopt.  These classes are three hours each and last nine weeks.  If you're looking for us on Monday nights...we'll be in class from now until Christmas.

Meanwhile, we both are working away.  I ended up fullfilling 49 essential oil cases during the second week on October!  Every case helps us raise money for our adoption.  Every hat I crochet or tote bag I sew...all, little by little, helps!  Thank you so much!

It's Been Awhile

I'd like to be able to say that the reason we haven't posted here is because we were placed sometime in the last year, unfortunately, that isn't the case.  We have had a a lot of changes to our life though! 

In the last year, Derrick went from just pastoring a small church plant to working three additional jobs.   He now pastors our church part-time, works at the local airport full-time,  is an insurance navigator full-time and then also works part-time for Market Day.  Needless the say, he is a very busy guy!  The good thing is that he really enjoys all of his work. We have definitely sensed God's hand in Derrick's work life.  No one had been promoted to full-time from part-time at the airport in years, and a position became available just 8 months after Derrick started working there!

My work life is also made up of a lot of little pieces!  I have the opportunity to aid in a preschool at the school I used to teach at.  Preschoolers keep you young, that's for sure!  Plus the staff at the school is a constant source of support, encouragement and prayer.  I also tutor a lovely little girl twice a week and I recently was given the opportunity to teach at the local community college.  I am so thrilled to be back in the classroom!  Last, but certainly not least, my sister and I have a small crafting business, Homemade is a Hoot. In the last several months, our Etsy shop has been very busy!  The item that is selling most is mine and it is keeping me very busy at home with my sewing machine.  

My Essential Oil Case has sold like mad!  My husband and I decided that we would pay for all of the supplies of each case and then put the amount we receive (minus the shipping, Etsy and Paypal fee) into an account for our adoption.  Since July, we have made about $3,000 towards our adoption!  Last week alone, after Derrick did some facebook advertising, I sold 45 cases!!!!!  We are in awe!

So, why this update on our worklife? Adoption is expensive, so we work like crazy because we still hope and pray for a child that will be placed in our home.  This month, we have been waiting for five years for a little one to be placed in our home.  Five years is a long time.  We recently have found hope in the complete strangers who tell us they are praying for us, who are buying my products, and in our initial contact with a new adoption attorney.  This story will have a happy ending.  We know that God has a plan for our family. 

Please, keep praying for us! To God be the Glory!

An update and a Big THANK YOU!

Last I wrote, my sister Rachel was working on organizing a spaghetti dinner and auction fundraiser for our adoption.  Things went very well at our fundraiser!  I was thrilled and so thankful to have many family and friends there to eat, bid and help cook food.  We are also so thankful for the those out of town family and friends who have also donated to our fund!  We feel so blessed and supported by so many.  We are confident that God will provide everything that we need to someday bring home our adopted son or daughter!


Until then, I am spending a lot of time reading Scripture and praying.  This is really all I can do...which sometimes feels like it isn't enough, but truthfully it is the best thing that I can do in order to prepare for the future.  

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a verse in Psalm 142:5 that says, "You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life."  This makes me pause to really think about whether or not God is really all I want in life.  If I am telling the truth, then most days this isn't the case.  When thoughts go through my mind like, "God, if you would just give us a child, then I would be happy," then He isn't really all I want in life. 

Everyday is a new day.  I can choose to grow bitter at my current circumstances, or choose to trust that God knows what's best for the Fords.  I continue to covet your prayers as we continue our wait.  

God bless!

Spaghetti Fundraiser Dinner

I can't believe that it has been almost a year since I've updated family and friends through this blog.  A lot has happened in our lives in the past year...we moved, started a new church, and have made many new friends!

My last post talks about how our agency, formally Catholic Charities, changed its name to The Center for Youth and Family Solutions. Since that time, we lost another social worker and have had to update our license and Home Study for the state of Illinois.  Still, with another new social worker, more fingerprints and home walk throughs, we still have no baby.  Sometime last fall, we decided that we wanted to add another agency, one that would have a wider reach to birthfamilies.  So in March, we finally signed with Adoptions From the Heart.  AFTH is located on the east coast and our social worker is in their Connecticut office.  

We have had a wonderful experience with our new agency!  They were very quick to get us through the steps of being approved.  We even had a conference call with our new social worker, from her home, the day blizzard hit Connecticut!  We have officially been in their system since the end of March and look forward to receiving some feedback from them after their May report is issued. 

Why add this agency? 

1. Last year, they placed 160 babies.
2. Derrick and Corey's family is from the east coast, making travel arrangements somewhat easier when the call comes!
3. They have offices in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
4. They are amazing communicators!  We email or call and hear back from our social worker right away. :)

With the addition of this new agency comes more expenses, so when my sister, Rachel, said that she would like to organize a fundraiser to help us raise some money, we were more than thrilled!  Now we just need everyone's help.  Will you come out with your family and eat some spaghetti?  Or will you donate an item for our silent auction?  Any small amount of help from your family and friends will make a huge difference to us and to our future child!  Thank you in advance for your willingness to participate AND thank you for your continued prayers as we continue to wait for our future Ford!

The Spaghetti Dinner is scheduled for Saturday, June 29th 5:30-7:30 at the Savoy Rec. Center (403 W. Graham).  Please email cormarie11@gmail.com for more information on tickets and donations.

A New Agency...Kind of

Well, it's official.   For those of you who have been hearing about Catholic Charities in the news...they are no longer an adoption agency.  Because of changes in the state laws, which effected CC's foster care work, we have all been moved over to a new agency.  We received a letter in the mail from "The Center for Youth and Family Services," today officially informing us of the change.  This is something we've known about since December.  We aren't expecting many changes at this point.  Our social worker remains the same, as does the adoption coordinator for the agency.  The new agency name is certainly a mouthful...hopefully it will also bring us a new little one in the near future. 


On another note, we continue to have our 'store' open at AdoptionBug.com.  Here we are selling adoption and family themed t-shirts in order to raise money towards our adoption.  If you want the proceeds to go to us, you have to order through this link!  Thanks in advance for your support and as always, we thank God everyday for those people who continue to pray for our family during our wait.

Vacation

Mini-golfing...we love it!

Derrick and I just returned from a nice trip to Orlando in order to relax and refresh! When you are awaiting an adoption placement, it's hard to make the plans to go on a trip.  Derrick has tried to book a vacation for us at this time of year for the last couple of years, and each time I would hesitate.  What if we get called with an emergency placement while we are gone? or...What if we are placed between booking the vacation and going on the vacation...that's a lot of money to loose. 

My goofy husband at Downtown Disney

Cinderella's Castle

Well, obviously, enough is enough.  We took the risk and decided we needed some planned time away...just the two of us.  The best part about the trip...I didn't think about the adoption or any of our other problems while we were gone!  It was a blessing to be away and to just think about the here and now for a couple of days. 


On a different note...we are starting a new fundraiser for our adoption through Adoption Bug.  If you are interested in helping us out, or are just passionate about adoption, follow this link to the website where you can purchase an adoption t-shirt (there is also a family and scripture themed t-shirt available).  Derrick and I will receive a percentage of every t-shirt sold through this link in order to help us out with adoption costs.