Atkinson Family Addition

In this time of great wait, we are trying to get ourselves and our lives as prepared as we can. So that when “the call” comes, we are truly ready. Last week brought us our final major TO DO list item: finishing graduate school. After the past few years of spending many Saturdays in classes, nights and weekends doing homework, reading, studying, and generally being stressed out by working full time jobs AND pursuing our grad degrees, we ARE DONE. Walking into our home after we had both finished our “final finals” was like a giant fog had been lifted. We could see again. And it felt GOOD. We celebrated with a Saturday morning at one of our favorite coffee shops FREE of homework for the first time ever! It was glorious. Amidst this final stretch for both of us, we have also been on an intensely complex portion of our journey. Our profiles have been shared with an additional two agencies in different states. The past two weeks between all of our grad happenings, work happe...

The day has finally arrived. After receiving information about several situations, we took the plunge and said “yes” to showing our profile to an expectant couple. For the next three days, I checked my phone like a true millennial. I don’t think my emails have ever been read/responded to/deleted so promptly in my life. But then, time stopped. When on that third day, I checked my phone for the 287th time to find an email. An email that stated “I’m sorry to inform you that birth parents have chosen another family”. In a flash, it was a quick punch to the gut. But that punch was softened. My gut was protected with what a “no” for us means: it means that somewhere else, another family has found their baby. They are getting “the call”. The call that will forever change their lives. And that family will be the best family for that baby boy. Because his birth parents chose the family that best fit their hopes and dreams. And THAT knowledge saves me. It saves my...

Now that our profiles have been distributed to agencies throughout the nation, reality is a knocking! Remember all those feelings and worries when we were creating those profile books? Where we hoped to share our love for each other, for our families, friends and church, and for our future child all in the pages of that book? When I hoped and prayed that our personalities, souls, and love would seep into the pages of those books that will bring us our future child? Yeah, all those feelings have exploded. Now I can’t help but think about all the “what ifs”. What if they’re looking for a home that’s bigger than our little, old duplex? Or a doctor instead of a teacher? Or what if they’re looking for parents that have been married longer than we have? Or a family that has a cat instead of a dog? Or the million other thoughts circling my mind. But what if our little, old duplex; new-ishly married; dog-loving family is the absolute perfect fit for a baby that’s growing inside their mama?...

Bursting Seams As we continue to prepare to grow our family, we have also been preparing our home. We had been working on a basement remodel, painting, and touching up several projects around our house and planned to get them all finished before our family and friends held a baby shower for us. Which was ambitious. We spent many late nights hanging crown molding on 100 year old plaster walls (not easy), touching up with caulk, and painting. If I never have to fill in another nail hole, I won’t be disappointed. After some late nights, and long weekends, we got nearly every project complete and our house clean and free of drywall/plaster/etc. Dust! Finally. Major victory for my anxiety. The completion of projects also meant that we could finally get our basement space back! Travis has space for woodworking, I have space for painting and polying, and our very patient renters can get to their storage space again. The weight of these tasks on our to-do lists has been lifted! On Sund...

If you have spent some time with Travis and I, you have probably heard us talk about our church--we love it, we can’t help it. Recently, we joined in relationship and prayer with our partner congregation to match with another family/couple/individual to be prayer partners. We somehow managed to be paired with a fellow adoption journeying mama! She lives in our neighborhood and has recently begun the process of searching for agencies and programs and we are so grateful to have made another connection on our journey--especially one that includes daily prayers for each other! We’re excited to continue our journey with our new-found connection beyond the 5 weeks of prayer as we support her in her journey as well. We pray that she find clarity amidst the heaps of information when choosing an agency/program; that she find peace in her decision to choose adoption; and that she feels supported and encouraged by the people in her life as she embarks on this new journey. We have also begun t...

We Made It! Forgive us, it has been quite awhile since our last update….again. After several months of reading through paperwork, completing forms, then re-completing forms after Travis’ job change, we were finally able to COMPLETE our Master File! When we got the email saying that our file was complete it was a mix of relief but also excited anticipation to have reached another milestone on our journey. After completion, we scheduled our home visit with our wonderful Social Worker! We anxiously anticipated the visit and spent some time cleaning, organizing, and mentally preparing for the unknown….It was a BREEZE! We each had a 1:1 interview, followed by a house tour, and then we were done. Our puppy Cash could tell we were anxious so he curled up on our laps for each of our interviews. Home Study: Complete. As we reached this milestone, I found myself really struggling. Struggling with wanting to “nest” and prepare for our future child; yet at the same time wanting to guar...