Brian and Cathy

Hmmm. . .good question I'm sure Elizabeth can fill us all in Cathy

34 as of now

I agree, Jada. I believe in to each his/her own For Brian and me (more me), domestic adoption is for us Cathy

Paula, I'm sure this is true--especially since closed adoption was pretty much the only option in the past. My dad has admitted he thinks part of it is because he has watched too many negative stories about adoption on TV. I told his girlfriend I will share many articles and books that we read so he can see why we chose open adoption Cathy

If it were up to my dad, he would want us to wait until our child turned 18 But, it's not up to him Cathy

I guess you could say I'm surprised to hear that, Elizabeth I guess I assumed that going through Abrazo, everyone realized this is an open adoption agency Cathy

Adam I've had a pretty rough day today and paused a couple of times and re-read this date to make sure I was seeing 2004 Glad to find out these children weren't still looking for a home Cathy

Hopefully these two little boys find their new families soon Cathy

I'm so happy for you, Grace Ann, and her birth grandmother. That's a big step and hopefully just one of many Cathy

Thinking of this little boy and his birthfamily and hoping they join an adoptive family soon Cathy

Just lit several to get it up to 43 Cathy

Welcome Andrea Hoping you'll be accepted by Abrazo soon I agree with you about this wonderful Forum Cathy

Bumping this up to keep the candles burning. Thanks, Melissa. I meant to light one last night. I just lit three Cathy

Me too, me either, and I agree Cathy P.S. I love your Avatar

I completely agree, Karen Cathy

That is one of the reasons we waiting until this point to inform our families. There are still a lot of uknown answers, but we felt that we needed to know we were at least en-route on our journey Cathy

I'd agree. As a matter of fact, Brian saw me click on my favorites just now and grabbed my hands (jokingly) and said "your not going to do it" as he let them go. Guess what--I did Cathy

Thanks, Saint. The first question Brian's dad asked was when were we going to get our baby. Brian's sister asked when and what were we going to name our son or daughter. Last night when my grandma called, she asked me if I had heard any news about when we would be getting a baby. I had to remind her were still working on the homestudy and all of that must be complete before birthparents could meet us Cathy

Mystery solved Congratulations to the newest family of four Cathy

Yes, I did purchase a few outfits; however, I bought them for Brian's new cousin. He was born July 28th and we just received word recently. His happy daddy is 55 But, his happy mommy is our age Baby's brothers are both in their 30's Cathy

When I mentioned this to my co-worker, she couldn't believe they really thought we were going to adopt a dog. She said they couldn't have been serious I assured her they were Cathy

Thank you all for your thoughts and comments. Well, I blew the "speak slowly" part with my dad, his girlfriend, and my sister. I don't even remember how I initially stated the first sentence, but Brian caught me and said "that's not what you meant to say." I paused and thought about it and then re-stated "we came up this short weekend for a reason. We have something to tell you." You could say total shock, surprise, excitement for that portion of my family. Brian's mom and dad asked if we were adopting a dog or a cat. We both laughed and repeated ourselves a couple of times and said a "child." Then, one of his sisters walked in the room and said "I thought you didn't want another dog." This time Brian's mom joined in with us in stating that we were "planning on adopting a child." It was actually pretty funny. Yesterday when we were at church, we told our preacher's wife and she was so excited. She assumed we were adopting a child. Then, some very close family friends came up and he overheard Texas and stated that we would enjoy the weather there. Brian immediately stopped him and said we are not moving. Brian went on to say that "we were planning on adopting a child." Well, he assumed a dog. It took up three or four times stating that we are planning on adopting a child before he believed us. Overall, we did not received the response we had expected. Yes, our parents were completely shocked and did not expect it. Brian asked his mom if she had written us off for having children and she admited she had. But, later Saturday night when we were at Koh's, she said we have to go to the baby section. She also was trying to convince me that green and yellow would look nice together in the nursery We did not hear anything about the things we thought they would bring up as concerns: $, age, retirement, open adoption. . .my dad did ask if we would get the medical history and Brian's mom asked us which bedroom would be the nursery. My sister said she wished we had told her sooner so she could have been saving money We thought everyone would have a lot more questions, but we think we might have answered a lot of them because we talked about so much of the process and what we have learned from orientation and the Forum. Brian and I are both still satisfied that we waited until this point, because we feel like we were prepared to handle the situation even though it ended up going much better than we could have imagined. I do remember that many of you told me I would probably be surprised and I was Cathy