Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Two Years and Counting

Well, time has passed and life has most certainly moved on.  Our blog and adoption journey is officially 2 years old.  Once Spring began, we started getting a lot more potential contacts and connections with expectant mothers.  Our agency said they had been rather busy as well.  Finally people are coming out of hibernation I guess.  Since being so open about our hopes to adopt, it seems we have become a sounding board for a lot of families and potential situations.  Often we are the first contact and information women and families are getting about adoption.  We are on the front lines with our phone number and social media, so we try to be as open as we can, knowing full well, that we may never hear from these women again.   We have talked to local families trying to find some answers for their daughters, granddaughters, neighbors, and sisters.  We have spoken to people across the country.  We have spoken to people who were already involved with CPS, so we were not eligible for those situations.  We have spent many hours on the phone, or email, or facebook messages with mothers looking into adoption.  While it can be exhausting to try and navigate the very personal intricacies, we are glad to at least be showing up on people's radar and be a couple that these women want to talk to.  As of right now, most of these situations have not been the right fit for us, hopefully we have pointed people in the right direction, or maybe they decided to parent.  We are still hopeful that something will work out soon!

As for us, life continues to move forward, as is always the case.  We came back from Christmas break and threw ourselves back into our work, partly to keep busy, partly because we are just busy by nature, and partly (for me, Adrienne) to prove to myself that I could come back from such a devastating loss and not let it ruin my life or my goals for myself.  And right now, I am starting to see the fruits of that planning and investment.  I have become much more busy with First Steps clients and photography clients, booking well into the summer now :)  Will has been investing a TON of time with the soccer club and his team.  He is also working with $3Bill to develop a full stage production of their previous Fringe shows "School House Wrong."  Not to mention is day job. We are certainly busy, and it is helping to pass the time and not let us dwell on this long wait!

We have definitely been changed by our adoption experience as a whole, even as it is still unfolding.  We will not let our story be defined by what happened last year.  It is a thing that happened and it has become part of the fabric of who we are and what our story will be, but it is not the only thing.  We like that we have become much more educated on the good, bad and ugly sides of adoption, and we know we will always have more to learn.  But we are glad that we are in a position to potentially help others and educate them on the adoption process, how it works, what the basic laws are (as we have been told by professionals), and what pitfalls to avoid, and just general advice.  We certainly needed it ourselves from others at one time.  We are by no means experts, and we only know our story, but it is an avenue of life that neither of us anticipated traveling down just a few short years ago, so we are happy to share what we can and be a support to others.    I wanted to share a post that we received on Facebook to show how sharing our story seems to have impacted others.
I hope it's OK that we share this since it was posted on social media :)
We received many beautiful posts, but this one has stayed with me all these many months.  If you know Lorie, tell her thanks from both of us!  After all, our greatest goal is to be a positive influence in the life of a child (or children).  For now, we continue to wait and continue to work toward building a relationship with the right person who could make us parents!  

**If you are just now finding our blog for the first time, or coming here because of the story on WTHR, we hope that you will take the time to get to know us.  We hope you will read our blog from the beginning and go to our Facebook or Instagram pages.  Most importantly, if you or someone you know are considering adoption, we would hope you would visit our full profile online directed at potential birthmothers.  (Adoptionisfamily.com) Even if you don't think we are the right fit, I can personally vouch for many other waiting families who would love to hear from you.**  

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  2. My new book called "Separated Lives" is a true story about the adoption of a baby boy and years later a friend taking him on a fascinating but uncertain journey to search for his birth parents. It is available from Dorrance Publishing (in Pittsburgh, PA) www.DorranceBookstore.com, Barnes & Noble barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com.
    Author: Lynn Assimacopoulos

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