Atkinson Family Addition

When we started this journey over a year ago, I had no idea how much I would learn; how many mamas would inspire me with their words weighing heavily on my heart or uplifting my mind; how many times my heart would be torn open a little further; how many prayers I would pray. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Though I still don’t, nor will I ever, have all the answers, I have gained exponentially more insight and knowledge from an incredible group of adoptive and birth mamas. Be that good, bad, incredible, hard, or beautiful...or more often than not: incredible, hard, AND beautiful. A Birth Mama that I recently discovered (thanks to Cari) posted a blog that I let sit on my heart for a bit. Her words echoed so much of what I have been feeling since being chosen. She writes about the importance of honoring the voice and right to choose of birth mamas in this process. Travis and I have tried to be intentional about our word choice and how we talk and think about the baby girl that...

With hearts ripped wide open, we are ready to share that we have been CHOSEN. During the week of all things graduate school: Travis finished his last final on Tuesday, I was defending my thesis on Friday, we were contacted with about 4 different situations. We spent a good 2+ hours on the phone Thursday night with social workers, case managers, and directors discussing these situations and what the next steps were to be. We were informed that Mama M had selected our profile and wanted to do a call with us in the coming days. (Good thing my presentation was pretty much finalized by that point!) I cried tears of joy. And I started to sweat. I was equal parts ecstatic and terrified. Ecstatic that an expectant parent felt comfortable and confident enough in our profile to take the next step; and terrified that I would say something ridiculous or freeze up on the call and squash that confidence and comfort. We scheduled the call for Sunday night. We made notes, came up with que...