Question and Answer

Question: 
How do you know someone is about to have a baby?

Answer: 
Their trunk looks like this!

Our Top Ten

TEN REASONS YOU MIGHT SEE A SMILE ON OUR FACES

1. Our birthmother has met with her attorney, reviewed her adoption plan, confirmed her hospital plan, discussed her rights, and learned about the legal timeline. After the meeting, attorney told our adoption agent that he feels she is "sincere in going through with this adoption." 
2. We are only 28 days away from the due date.
3. Vacation days are approved, my FMLA paperwork is turned in, and tomorrow night I tell
my classroom parents and students of the upcoming events. (Although, this whole thing just makes me nervous! There has really been mixed reactions from parents with my impending absence and although I realize I have every right to take a maternity leave, I still worry about their reactions to me about this.)
4. Changing table has been put together. Diapers and wipes are stocked up. Clothes are cleaned and sorted in bins.
5. We are only 28 days away from the due date! Did I already mention that?
6. The birthmother is continuing good communication with us and the agency.
7. When asked how she (the birthmother) feels about Carlie and I, she responded by saying "I like them. I know they will give the baby a better life than I can."
8.  We only have 20 more work days until the due date...IF she doesn't go into labor early!
9. Our friends and family are very excited for us and that makes us feel good. :) 
10. Looking at infant Halloween costumes has become one of my favorite pastimes. 

It's a boy!

I'm sure you read that title and thought....we already know that! But I can't tell you the number of times in one day that I think to myself "It's a boy!"  What in the world am I going to do with a boy?!?!?! I can honestly admit that I NEVER picture our RedFisch to be a boy!! Everyone tells me you'll figure it out! and boys are so much easier than girls!  But don't they understand that I AM a girl so I feel like I understood how to be a mom to a little girl.  I know how to fix a girl's hair, I know how to dress a little girl, I know about hurt feelings and fights between little girls, and let's face it....I know about ALL the important parts of a little girl....not a boy! I've never been into sports, I hate hunting, getting dirty and sweaty is not my cup of tea, and I can't help but wander towards the baby girl's clothes EVERY time I go shopping!

I have a good friend who has a son. He is her oldest and sounds like such a cool kid. She tells me stories of his fishing trips and sports games. She talks about how he does in school and uncomfortable stories of being a mother to a son...stories she wouldn't give up for the world. (If you are reading this, Friend, you know who you are!) This young man is a mama's boy and he is wrapped around his Mama's finger. You can see if on her face when she talks about him! I guess that as I think about sticky little hands, hunting trips with dad or grandpa, short hair and parts I'm not so familiar with I will think about my friend and her son. I will hope that someday my son and I will have that same kind of relationship. 

Our Growing "Belly"

The baby is due in 8 weeks and 4 days. Wow. The time is really just flying by. As I chase this puppy around, I have asked myself MORE than a few times, What am I going to do with a five month old puppy and an infant!?!?!?!  I guess I could have worse things to worry about! :)


This week I was able to talk to our adoption agent about the hospital plan that our birth mother has put together. The hospital plan is the plan she writes to let us, the agency, and the lawyers know how she would like things to be handled at the hospital before, during, and after the birth. (As far as we know our first birth mom never even filled this plan out, so this was exciting for us!) The highlights of the plan....birth mom wants us to be notified immediately when she goes into labor, she would like to be notified as soon as we get to the hospital and she wants us to have "unlimited" access to the baby once it is born although she does not want us in the room for the birth. Our adoption agent told us that more than likely we will have our own hospital room on the labor and delivery floor where they will bring him to us so we have a private space to spend time with him. We also now have the name of the hospital where she will give birth. The may not seem like much, but to us...it was an exciting piece of information. We now know exactly where our son will be born. We could look it up online, find hotels nearby, and figure out exactly how much time Google Maps says it will take us to get there. You, humble blog readers, must remember that I don't have a growing belly that reminds us daily of what is about to happen. We don't have showers to go to or a nursery to decorate that keeps the excitement bubbling up inside of us. These little bits of information we get from the adoption agency are the only things we have that spark that excitement and make us think about what is just around the corner. Our growing "belly" looks much, much different than most expecting families but its a journey just the same.

Tick...Tock....Tick...Tock....

I keep saying to Carlie, "I really need to blog something!" But there just isn't much to tell! Things are going fine for now. Communication with birth mom is "light" but consistent, more texting than phone calls but honestly, I think I prefer it that way. We are told she still wants us to come visit for a doctor's appointment but timeliness and scheduling aren't exactly turning out to be her strengths. Carlie and I are not pushing this trip. Of course, we'd LOVE to go and see an ultrasound, meet the doctor who will be delivering Max, and meet birth mom. But if it doesn't work out, that is ok too. We'd just like to know if we need to plan the trip! As we are learning...over and over and over again....we can't always plan everything!!


We are doing well. Our house went back on the market yesterday. We have the perfect little house picked out and I have all of these dreams for the nursery....but the likelihood is that our place is not going to sell. It is so frustrating! Later this year, when we are back with Max and if our townhome still hasn't sold, we plan to rent it out and hope for the best! God's timing has never been my timing and why I think it will coincide this time I don't know! But his time is also always better than mine, so who am I to question any of this!


We may not be able to decorate a nursery yet, but I have been unable to resist buying baby clothes!! I just can't help it! They are so tiny and adorable...and everything can be returned, right?? Right! And I'm not the only one guilty of this. It sounds to me like my mom and sister are just as guilty as I am....it sounds like they have a small closet started for Max already! So...we talk about his arrival, wonder what those first few days will be like, TRY not to buy too many things, and wait. His due date is 10 weeks away and I know it is just going to fly by. School starts soon and that will take up a lot of my time and give me something else to think about! :)

What's In a Name?

We find ourselves wanting to do things differently this time. Go figure. We have his name all picked out and we are ready to share it with the world!....Who's curious!!! We've had a list of on-going name possibilities since we started this lovely journey to parenthood. The girl's name came so easily for us and we agreed on it immediately. The boy's name however....not so much. There were a few names - Cooper, Max, Jackson - that we liked but agreeing on one or the other AND finding a middle name we liked and could agree on was a whole different story! I'm not sure when we agreed on this name or when exactly it became the "it" name. But this name stayed on the list when others didn't. Then...when we had been matched with our RedFisch and knew for certain it was a boy, this name popped up again. Searching through popular names, modern names, classic names, and celebrity names on the internet is a great way to pass the time. I wanted to peruse the many lists and talk, laugh, and make lists of our own names we might like for a boy. But that didn't last long! After reading out loud three or four lists, Carlie said to me, "I really like the name we have picked out." And that was it. The name had been decided. 
Drum roll please.......Max Xavier Fischer is due on September 27, 2011.

When a door closes...

"When God closes a door, somehow he opens a window." That's a quote from The Sound of Music...and very applicable if I do say so myself! WE HAVE BEEN MATCHED AGAIN! This second match beats the unbelievable timing of the first...if you can believe it! Two weeks, yes...I said TWO WEEKS, after the due date of our first match came and went without us getting a baby, we have been matched again. Our Redfisch is due on September 27, 2011 and it is a boy. Carlie and I are very excited, naturally apprehensive, and a bit shocked. What we do know for certain is that God is in control and answering our prayers. THAT...we know for sure.

Details, Details....like I said he is due in about three months. We will be traveling to Kentucky to pick him up. We are very excited that we can plan to drive ourselves this time AND take as much baby stuff and we want too! 

I don't want to sound cliche or lead you to believe that we are delusional about the
ever-present risk that still accompanies the journey of adopting. BUT....this one is very different than the last match. Let me list the differences for you:
1. The birth mother is ten years older than the last birth mother. There is a sense of maturity
    that we get from her that was noticably absent in Birth Mother #1.
2. Our match call with her lasted two hours. We talked about subjects ranging from discipline 
    to names, even details about HER adoption. She was adopted herself.
3. Within days of the match, the birth mother texted us a picture of the most recent
    ultrasound! We were in the car, headed to the farm, and it was SO exciting! The 
    picture was evidence to prove that it's a boy....the picture has been printed, framed
    (Thanks, Christy!) and affectionately nicknamed "His winkie."  

4. When I talk to her, she actually talks to us about the baby. The last phone call, she told me 
     that he moves around a lot when her male friends talk!
5. Due to circumstances that took more time than expected, Birth Mom was working with our                             
    adoption agency for more than three months BEFORE they contacted us. 
    We feel this has given them a good amount of time to get to know her!


   Being matched TWO WEEKS after the loss of our first match was just about as shocking as being matched three weeks after submitting our home study!  We did not expect it and feel so blessed. We stand by what we said in January after the first match. If this is the right baby for our family, then it will work out. God is in control. If it's not, then there is a reason why our names are off the "list" at this time. One day we will look at our little bundle, and feel so certain that EVERYTHING that has happened was just as it was meant to be. We're hoping that moment will be soon...