Isaac + March Madness + Fund-raising = awesome

Why yes, I am adorable!

As all of you know, Isaac joined our family last October, and he has been a source of joy and laughter for Liz and I ever since.  If you want to see more pictures of him, click on this link: LE PhotographyLE Photography. His adoption story is one of unexpected speed and surprise, so we have been reeling in the aftershock for a while.  We had great plans for fundraisers and preparations so that when the time came, we would be ready to pay for it - but God had a different plan.

At this point, out of the $22,000 needed to fully pay for the adoption, we have been able to pay $9,000. God is great, and we are excited to see how He closes that gap.  Below is a way for you to play along!

As promised before we left for India, here are the details for our adoption fundraiser through YahooSports.  Please take a few minutes to read through the details, then let the March Madness begin!

The brackets tournament field is announced this weekend, March 17th...  

Which means it's game time!

Let the MADNESS begin.

  

Here are simple and easy instructions on how to participate:

1.  Join our Tournament on Yahoo Sports by following this link:  

http://y.ahoo.it/xXH84lhN 

• Click "Sign In" (If you don't have a Yahoo! account you can sign in using your Facebook or Google account)
• Create a new bracket
• Title your bracket
• Once your first bracket is saved there will be an option for you to create more brackets

2.  Donate to our Adoption via PayPal

• Go to www.paypal.com
• Click "Send Money"
• Enter the donation amount 
• Send donations to jaytaylor84@gmail.com
• (You will have to create a PayPal account if you don't already have one)

     Suggested donations are:

• $10 for 1 bracket
• $20 for 2 brackets
• $25 for 3 brackets
• $30 for 4 brackets
• $35 for 5 brackets

3.  Have Fun and Best of Luck

     We will send tournament email updates through Yahoo! Sports and post updates on our blog.
     wedontlivenormallives.blogspot.com 

All Brackets are due by Thursday, March 21st at 11:00am (EST)

Prize:

1st place will win 20% of the money raised (or up to $300).
2nd place will win 10% of the money raised (or up to $100).

The rest of the money from the tournament will go toward Isaac's adoption, which is finalized in April. Also, we would really appreciate it if you copied and pasted the information posted above to tell your friends, family and co-workers about the tournament.

If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to contact us at jaytaylor84@gmail.com.  I hope you have fun doing this, and thanks again for being a part of this exciting journey with us.  

Laughter is born (one of the best stories part 2)

(Note: Please read the previous post because this post will pick up where that one left off)

Friday morning, October 12, started very early. We were pulling stuff out for Garage Sale about 6:30 am (and no word on the baby).

At 1:30 in the afternoon, we were approved as a "waiting family" and at 1:50 in the afternoon, we got the call - the baby boy was born! Within minutes we had a place for Chango to go, people to finish up our garage sale for us, and a promise from my mom that she would go shopping so that we would have diapers and food when we got home.

We grabbed our bags and some snacks and we were off! We sent a couple of texts on our way to hospital. I was shaking from excitement and hunger (I hadn't been able to eat in over 24 hours).

At this point we had been told several times that the birth parents did not want to meet us. The agency chose us and that was all the birth parents wanted to know.

Dawn arrived about 10 minutes after we did with two surprises. The first surprise was that brought along Julie (our adoption specialist who had done all our home studies). The adoption specialists rarely get to come to the hospital, but because ours was such a unique situation and  the fact that she had pulled an all-nighter the night before to make sure we were were approved, she was allowed to come. The second surprise was that we were going to meet the birth father.

We were ushered to elevators and to a small conference room where we briefly met the birth father. We didn't really get to talk during the meeting, but he did. He told us about the birth and explained their reasons behind adoption. We got to shake his hand, see his face, and hear a story that we want Isaac to know.

Then it was time for us to meet our boy. They wheeled him into our room (we were allowed to stay at the hospital with him) and he was so tiny! He was only 2 hours old when we met him. He hadn't even had a bath yet. Dawn and Julie grabbed Jay's phone and started taking pictures for us and I am so glad they did. 

First look at my beautiful baby

and then the tears came, and came, and came. . . 

We got to witness his first bath and I got to give him his first bottle. Our sweet little boy screamed when he was bathed, but calmed immediately when he was warm and fed. We didn't see his eyes for the first couple of days. He had a habit of opening one eye to check out the world and immediately fall asleep again.

His stats were awesome as he aced one test after another. And after two days, we were ready to be discharged.

It is amazing how quickly we were attached to our "Little Man". Right before we were discharged, his birth mom asked to see him again. In, what could be described as the worst 40 minutes of my life, we waited. I was in tears, convinced that once she saw his face, she would decide to keep him. The name "Isaac" meant so much more at that point. We had to be willing to give him up, if that is what God asked of us.

Eventually, he came back to us and we were able to pack up and leave. Our itty-bitty baby in his oversized carseat came home with us to stay.

One of the best Stories (pt. 1)

I recently decided to sit down and finish writing down Isaac's birth story. It is the first chapter of his life as a Taylor.

So this is the first part of the story:

Thursday morning, October 11, began as any other Thursday would begin. Jay and I were both working from our home office aware that it was going to be a very busy day since we were planning on holding a GIANT fund-raising garage sale that weekend. We also were host Jay's uncle that night when he drove in from Canada for work.

In the middle of a phone meeting that Jay was a part of, we received a call from Julie, our Adoption Specialist. When I answered, she asked if I had a couple minutes to talk and if I had something to write with. As I scrambled to get a piece of paper and a pen, my mind was racing. No way. No way was this a phone call about a baby. We just had our final home-study three days earlier and we were told it would be about three weeks until that was complete and we were waiting family.

The notes we took while on the phone

 But it was that call. 

Julie proceeded to tell me about a baby boy that was going to be born that day or the next. She told me a little about the birth-parents and their circumstances. She told me how he was going to be a preemie (5 weeks early) and how his birth-mom had no prenatal care. She told me that two other families in the area had already turned him down because of how quickly they would have ended up with a baby. She told me how we were being called because the birth-parents wanted the adoptive parents at the hospital shortly after the baby was born to take over care.  She asked me if we would accept the placement of this baby boy into our family.

I could barely breathe as I told her the answer would most likely be yes, but I had to talk to Jay. I ran upstairs where Jay was still in his meeting  and I don't even remember saying anything, just dancing around next to his desk with what must have been the biggest smile on my face. Jay hung up from the meeting mid-sentence and I shared all the details with him.

The "Is this really happening" look we had most of the day

We took some deep breaths and prayed. We talked details and questions that we had, and prayed some more. We called a couple of friends who had made this decision before for counsel and prayed once more. We called Julie back with our questions and before we had even asked all the questions on our list, we had accepted placement.

On the phone with Julie

Once that phone call was complete, we decided we needed to activate our network. We had next to nothing to prepare our home for a baby. We had a garage over-flowing, ready for a sale. We needed help.

Within an hour we had people at our house with baby items. They organized garage sale items, prepped a car seat, ordered food, made signs, and put up a massive tent.

Meanwhile, Jay and I continued with our work day. After a particularly long equipment meeting I had that afternoon, one of my friends asked me how I could concentrate. I told her I didn't remember much of what was said in that meeting, but that I was glad I sounded focused.

Sometime in the afternoon we received the social/medical history of the birth family and we were told that we would receive a call when the baby was born.

We stayed up late that night, discussing names and contingency plans. We prayed for the birth mom, for the labor, and for the tiny soul about to enter the world. We laughed at our mock disappointment that he wasn't born that day - what an easy birthday it would have been to remember, 10/11/12!

One of the people we called when trying to make the decision asked if we were spiritually and emotionally ready for a baby. Not knowing how this whole situation was going to turn out, we went to bed that night with the Peace of God reigning in us. 

Laughter has come

The words "I'm in" have a quiet power

Bob Goff

Sometimes it is the power to change our lives forever.

                                                                                                                                                                      

If you know Jay and I, you know that we rarely say "No". We desire to live lives that are open to new people and new experiences. Life in Christ is life abundant. We also knew when it came to our adoption, we would need to deeply consider our "Yes" as it would be one that would alter the rest of our lives.

To our absolute shock, that moment to say "yes" or "no" came a lot sooner than we had expected.  On Thursday, October 11, we received a phone call from Bethany telling us about a "gift baby" that was to be born that day or the next. Our adoption worker told us about the family and the circumstances and a little about why we were being called as we hadn't even received our completed home study yet.

Jay and I talked, prayed, jumped around, called some friends who have had made this decision for counsel, prayed some more, called the adoption worker with more questions, and soon we both reached a very confident "YES - we're in"

In my previous post I mentioned that Bethany said we would have baby by the end of the year instead it ended up being by the end of the week!

World, meet Isaac!

Full Steam Ahead

"You will have a baby by Christmas" was the jaw-dropping statement made by our Adoption specialist yesterday afternoon.

Finally we were told why we were being rushed through the home study process. Bethany has too many birth-moms giving birth soon and not enough families who are open to bringing these babies home.

Needless to say, I couldn't sleep last night. My mind was churning with all of the preparations we need to make. We have nothing for a baby yet - well not nothing - we have a toy (singular), a crib sheet (no crib), a high chair (that I hear a baby can't use for a while), but that is it. We also have (had?) all sorts of plans for fundraising because we do not have the savings to cover the cost of the adoption.

(Oh my . . . )

Although, this is the timing I had hoped for, I never expected things would move this fast. Now, I am fully aware that there could be complications (legal and otherwise) that could slow this down, but for now we are functioning under the impression that we will have a newborn in the house within two months.

(Give me a moment while I catch my breath. . .)

Soon our little family will be growing and we don't know the baby that will be joining us. We don't know their family history, gender, face or name. But God knows what is going to happen. He knows the plans He has for us.

Whatever may come down this road to adoption, we are moving forward full steam ahead.

Decisions, decisions . . .

Jay and I are terrible at making decisions.

Perhaps I should correct that - I am terrible at making decisions and I pull Jay into my indecision.

We have had to make so many big decisions in less than 5 years of marriage, you would think I would be used to it by now, but I'm not.

The decision to adopt was an easy one for us. However, all of the other decisions were born from that single decision seemed crippling at times. Which agency will we use? Domestic or International? If international, which country? How open are we to special needs? Age ranges? Race?

And in the adoption process you have to have clear answers for all of these and more.

Jay and I decided to read the book Adopted for Life as part of the decision making/infertility grieving process.(I would highly recommend it anyone to read, especially if you are feeling apathetic about adoption) One thing the author mentioned in his chapter written specifically to couples who are infertile was to pray for clarity of vision moving forward in the adoption process.

So pray we did and we held off moving forward in making any of those decisions until we really felt clear about what direction was right for us.

Over the next several months I felt like we were given the answers.

On the questions of race, we knew from the beginning that didn't matter to us. We know there are and will be many obstacles to overcome by adopting a child of a different race, but God doesn't discriminate about which races He allows into His Family, we aren't going to either.

On the question of special needs or medical conditions, we will consider almost all. That was a hard answer to come to because we know that if we were pregnant, we wouldn't be able to discriminate.

One the question of age ranges, we have asked for 1 year or younger. We discussed older child foster/adoption, but this answer came as a tourniquet for my still-grieving heart. I would love to know my child since the day they are born or as close to it as God allows. Since that may never happen with biological children, I am praying that this happens in adoption.

Finally the big question of domestic or international. Both Jay and I felt like we are called to fill the gaps, to adopt children who might not otherwise be part of a forever family. Logically, that led us to attend an orientation on International Adoption. As we listened to the information presented, we were struck by how many countries in the world were closed to adoption simply because there were too many families waiting to adopt and not enough children to be adopted. Realistically I know that is a bureaucratic issue more than anything else, but when we talked to an adoption specialist after that orientation she mentioned a drastic lack of families in the US who were willing to adopt a child of any race.

And that did it.

We walked out of the office that night knowing we were going to adopt domestically.

We decided on Bethany Christian Services as our agency and within a week of turning in our paperwork packet, we received a call telling us that they were expediting our paperwork because of our open preferences.

We should be a waiting family by the first week in November and only God knows what will happen after that.

We would appreciate any and all prayers and encouragement moving forward with this process, and we are so grateful for everyone who has come along side us in the process, those who have grieved with us, and  those who have celebrated with us.

God is good - all the time.

Photo Friday

The not-so-glamorous side of traveling for work

my desk on the road