carissaabc

What a story your family has to tell! Congratulations to all of you.

Absolutely, Ellen! I always look forward to reading your posts and responses here on the forum because I know you will be honest and I will gain insight into the BP point of view. And everyone on that BP panel that day had such amazing and widely varied stories and everyone shared such a part of their hearts with us that day that I felt like I knew you. (Whatever happened to Frank?) it's funny how we sometimes may not realize the impact we have on people. I'm glad you and Mari are still a part of the forum so that you can know how much of an impact you made simply by sharing your story with a

Thank you for your "two cents", Mari and Ellen! Hearing feedback from people who've been on the BP side of this type of information exchange is absolutely priceless! In fact, I think it was both of you (since I was incredibly lucky enough to meet both of you during our first orientation meeting--what an amazing BP panel that was!) who first instilled the "be yourSELF" motto in me and for that I'll be forever grateful. Our son's birthmother told us that she'd chosen us because we "looked nice...and a little bit goofy" which was such an apt description that I knew I'd done something right when

I’ve had very positive responses to the design of both of the adoption profiles I’ve created for our family, and I remember feeling so very lost when we first started trying to create a profile and never felt like I found really useful information online or anywhere that gave me good direction to follow. I already understood that I needed to include in-focus pictures with nice close-ups and use a cohesive design theme of some kind, but I still wanted MORE information. So here I am, paying it forward by passing along a few things I learned through the process to share with anyone working on d

Congratulations to everyone who loves this new baby boy!

Welcome, baby Eniah Jane! What lovely names your whole family have chosen for you! (also, thanks for the well-wishes to our family and for the very apt announcement from the Stork!)

Congratulations to all who love this little girl!

Wow! What a fantastic story! Congratulations to you and sending you prayers for patience, calm and a strong sense of humor to carry you through the diaper years (and beyond)!

woot woot! what an exciting little hint!

Suzi and Jocelyn-- very helpful feedback, thank you! We do have a strong church family here and your mention of a babysitter triggered another idea for a "tool for my tool belt." I think that my anxiety is a bit heightened by the accident that paralyzed my mom last summer and knowing that (much to her chagrin and frustration) she is not able to be on our on-call list, but luckily, Jay's parents were excited to be asked to be a part of this process. We also have relatives in san antonio who might be able to help out, but I learned during our orientation visit that I can't just assume that the

By the way.... I found this thread to be helpful, but most of the people posting there don't seem to be BOG placements or have relatives living close by (either in Texas or in their own hometown) to help with childcare. It also appears that there's not exactly "one right answer" so I'm really just looking for lots of different stories. Both of our parents live about an 11-hour drive away (granted, they can also fly, but just to give you context), so even if they drop everything and fly to Wisconsin or Texas, coordinating their travel plans with ours is bound to be... tricky. What I'm having

I'm curious to know what other againers have done for childcare during the placement days of a BOG situation. Especially out-of-state againers. It seems like having your child with you the whole time is not a good idea (too distracting) and switching parents all the time seems like it might be disruptive to the placement relationship-building process, but does that also mean that while you're dropping everything to hustle down to Texas that you're also calling on a friend or relative to join you in Texas as fast as they can? Do you hope you can hire a professional childcare provider for a f

I love it! You just never know what the sign will be, do you? Thank you for sharing that part of your story here. For some reason, that's always one of my favorite parts of "matching" stories--the 'how did you know they were the ones' part always warms my heart and puts a big smile on my face. I especially love stories like yours where it's some seemingly small detail that catches the eye. And you are absolutely right. Hearing those FP stories in our orientation DID open our hearts and give us deeper awareness and understanding. Any doubts we may have held about open adoption before orien

Yup, and your story also touched me and has stuck with me all these years too, Ellen! Now that I've been on the forum for awhile, I realize what a rockstar panel the Cootchie Cootchie Coo's got! I love following all of your continuing stories on the forum because I really feel such a connection to all of you after hearing your stories there. Thanks again to all of you who were brave enough and kind enough to speak with us that day. You changed our lives.

Mari, I just wanted to write a note here to say that I spent the last two evenings staying up waaaaay too late reading this entire thread of yours. I know others have said it already, but you definitely have a gift for writing and especially for the cliff-hangers! I was one of the lucky people who attended the orientation that you and your daughter spoke at in 2009, so I even knew your story and I still couldn't stop reading! Thank you for sharing. I felt like I traveled right next to you, feeling your emotions as you recounted them in such clear and thoughtful detail. I also remember a