TheEnglishes
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Posts posted by TheEnglishes
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Only if you can assure potential birthmoms who want their child raised Texan that you're moving back there!
(Nice try! LOL.) The issue, of course, is that for birthparents who are hoping for genuinely open adoption relationships that do allow for recurrent visits back and forth, out-of-state adoptors seem less likely to follow through... but I can think of some out-of-state families (Maury & Debra, Jim & Andrea, and Craig & Maralou, for example!) who have really "gone the extra mile" to ensure that their children and birthparents enjoy quality time together, despite the distance, and their birthfamilies have seen more of them than some Texas birthmoms who placed with Texas families, (sad to say)!
So, the moral of the story is: birthparents, don't count out-of-state couples OUT before discussing your hopes for contact with them, and adoptive parents, remember that planning for a genuine open adoption requires a commitment to creating ongoing opportunities for significant contact (and not just occasional phone calls or mail, way few and far between!)
It never hurts to try, right?
I totally agree with you about not counting out out-of-state couples. I think it really all depends on the individuals more than the geographical distance, although I do see the logic. I suppose because I have lived in so many different cities, we both have traveled extensively with our jobs and the fact that Bart and I LOVE to travel, distance really isn't an issue for us. I hope all of us beginning this journey, BPs & APs, can be open minded and really communicate our expectations ~~ it would be a shame to miss an incredible match because of assumptions!
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I USED to live in Houston....does that count?
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Hi Everyone,
We thank you so much for your warm welcome into your lives. It has made me smile all day
. We also received great news from Angela, we will be there in July for the orientation. Yahoo!!!! We cannot wait to meet everyone and learn from each other.
Thanks again for your love and compassion.
Jenn and Dave
YAY for getting into orientation!!!! That's awesome! We are waiting to hear from Angela if we got in...
we're praying we will be there! Congrats again and we hope to see you there!
Donna
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This is fun! My little brother is 5 yrs younger than me and I remember when he was a baby we would put him in his swing that you had to "crank"! He loved that swing and it would put him to sleep immediately BUT if it quit swinging he woke up crying to swing some more! So, I can remember every few minutes my mom saying "someone go crank Craig's swing!"
I LOVED to wind it up real good so it would swing real fast at first! What great memories!
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Welcome Jenn & Dave! We are new as well! Just sent in our application and waiting to hear if we got in the July orientation. This forum is amazing! I have learned so much from just reading through the history of posts! Good luck to you and I hope we get to meet in San Antonio in July!
Donna
PS We live in Memphis but I was raised in Lake Charles and moved here from New Orleans! Small world!
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Congratulations Linda & Tony! I know you must be over the moon right now! Little Andrew, your family and your birth family are in our prayers!
Donna
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Welcome Amanda! Baby Cliff sure is one lucky little guy! It is so incredible to hear how much love this little boy has in his life! Thank you for posting!
Donna
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I am ashamed to say that I didn't even know "open adoption" existed until Mel and Chris adopted Grace Ann. I have lots and lots of adopted cousins, but they were all adopted in the 60's and 70's. Every one of them had "closed adoptions".
Mickey and I strongly considered international adoption. It wasn't to avoid "open adoption" as some might think, because at the time we had never heard of "open adoption". We both felt international adoption more of a calling, plus we were under the impression that the wait for a baby in the U.S. could take years.
Thankfully, Mel never gave up talking to us about Abrazo. During Christmas Dinner 2004 she asked me one last time to check out Abrazo's website/forum. I told her I had in the past and she begged me to look just one more time. She said if I would she would never mention it again. I promised her I would look when I got home that evening. I did, something clicked, my eyes were opened, and my heart ached! All of the sudden I knew this was the path God wanted us to take. It took a little convincing (and crying)...got Mickey on board...and the rest is history!!!!
Thank goodness for happy endings (and beginnings)!
Elaine! I felt the same way! We had had no real knowledge of open adoption until we heard that Brooke & Claudia's adoption of Miles was open. We were a little afraid because we didn't understand. After hearing them being so positve about their experience and being such advocates we knew we had to educate ourselves! After I started reading this forum (and passing along all my new found knowledge
to Bart) and read a couple of really good books on open adoption there is no way we would do it any other way on our end. We hope that the BP we match with will feel the same way. But if she doesn't then we will honor her boundaries and hope that one day she is open to reuniting! The possibilites are so comforting to me. I know that this path id God's will!!!!Here's to happy beginnings!
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Welcome to the forum! We are new as well and just finishing up our application and homestudy! It is a very exciting place to be!
Donna
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OK, if this is what it takes we're booking a cruise TOMORROW!
Congrats to the blessed new family!!!!!!!!!
Donna & Bart
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Congratulations on your new little angel!
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Welcome, Donna & Bart!!!
To celebrate the fact that you've just wrapped up your first homestudy visit, let's make this "official" by launching your very own "Joyous Journey" towards parenthood... you'll look back at that entire journal someday and marvel at how your lives (and you!) were changed in this process...
Not if? but when!!
Best regards, Elizabeth & the Abrazochicks
P.S. (Feel free to rename your Journey as you like!)
Thanks again!
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We asked friends in our city who they had used and if they would recommend her. We got the same name from about three different people and found out that she does a great many of the Memphis area Abrazo homestudies. This gave us a sigh of relief as I know the guidelines are different from state to state.
As of this morning Bart and I have finished our entire packet of forms for our homestudy and we have our first meeting this afternoon with our social worker! We are soooo excited! We have our physicals scheduled for next week and then we will have completed all that she has asked for (so far)!
Now we are anxiously awaiting an application from Abrazo!
It feels so good to be working towards a goal with real HOPE! We have faith that we are on the right track and it's amazing how happy our lives are right now!
Have a great week!
Donna
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WELCOME DONNA AND BART,
YOU'VE PICKED A GREAT AGENCY TO WORK WITH. WE'VE ADOPTED 2X
THROUGH ABRAZO. NATE IS 3YRS AND CHEYENNE 3 MONTHS. MY FATHER EVEN
HAS THEIR NUMBER IN HIS WALLET. AS PART OF HIS GRANDPA'S BRAGGING SPEECH, IF ANYONE MENTIONS AN INTEREST IN THE ADOPTION PROCESS HE
GIVES IT TO THEM.
You can't get a much better recommendation than that of a proud grandpa! Good for him! And thanks for the warm welcome!
Donna
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Thank you so much Heather, Elaine & Stephanie!
I was very fortunate to find a forum for infertility and pregnancy loss when we were going through the journey of TTC and having multiple miscarriages and IVF and it was a life saver. As you all are well aware, sometimes you just don't have many local friends that have travelled that path and REALLY understand. So when we kept being lead in the direction of Abrazo I was so EXCITED to see that they actually have a FORUM!!!!!! This meant so much to us! Support means everything to us in this journey and I hope to be able to be of support to everyone else as well!
Happy Saturday!
Donna
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Well, it has been one week since we mailed the initial inquiry and I noticed on my online banking statement that the Abrazo processing fee cleared my account! WOO HOO!!!
I am taking this as a big positive sign that an application is on the way! (I know, it doesn't take much to excite me!) We have our first meeting with a therpist for the homestudy on Monday and two more scheduled for next week as well! One together, then two separate ones later that week. We have also finished two of the recommended open adoption books! This is such an exciting time in our lives and it is so wonderful to have a forum like this to learn from!We're on our way!
Have a great weekend!
Donna
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Donna and Bart,
Welcome to Abrazo and to the forum - and congrats on getting your inquiry in! You are so right to be excited - get ready for the ride of your life!
Thanks Stephanie! I am almost through reading nearly EVERY post on this forum! lol
It is amazing the education I have gotten from this forum alone! Bart and I are now reading "The Open Adoption Experience" and thoroughly enjoying it! I guess you could say we are very goal oriented and really want as much education about the journey as possible! Ok, and I'm also spending way too much time on ebay bidding on baby stuff! Thanks for the welcome!
Donna
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We mailed our inquiry in on Friday, June 2nd! We are so excited about his journey and hope to get an application VERY soon!
Donna & Bart English
Baby Announcements 2006
in New Arrivals
Posted