Adam & Beth
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Posts posted by Adam & Beth
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Hi, we sent in our inquiry form a few weeks ago and are waiting to hear back from them. I'm not sure how long it should it take, it's great to see everyone on the board participating. Thank you. Brandy
Best wishes to you Brandy. While I can't speak for the Abrazo team, I can tell you in my experience, I've see that their response times can vary depending many other things going on at the agency (Orientations, training, BABIES! being delivered, Intakes, etc....). It is an exciting time and I'm sure you are full of anticipation. My best advice is to be patient as it probably won't be long before you hear something and once on board, it's a wild ride!
I wish you all the best on your journey towards growing your family through adoption and hope that it is a good fit between you and Abrazo. Their program has made many happy families (us included)!
Peace be with you,
Adam
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I like this prayer. Thank you for sharing it Adam.
My pleasure. It's rather simple but seems to cover all the basics of living a life of Faith
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This is one of my favorite prayers that we would use to close every Mass. (other than "This Mass has ended, let us go forth and serve God")
It is simply called the Parish Prayer was written by our priest at the time, Father Michael Tracey (aka Father Mike) -gotta love the good ol' Irish priests
)Lord:
As a parish family we come to you;
We come from different walks of life;
Different countries, customs and experiences;
Yet we come in one Faith to worship You;
Form us into a loving, caring family;
Gift us with openness to You and each other;
May we never tire in our desire to serve You.
In our vision, give us hope;
In our struggles, assurance;
In our Prayers, perseverance;
In our plans, courage and inspiration;
May the stranger find a welcome among us;
The Searcher, guidance;
The Doubter, a strong faith;
The Newcomer, acceptance
And the Burdened, refreshment;
Renew us in Mind, Body, and Spirit
so we may renew others through Christ.
-Amen
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I must be living is a bubble... I have never heard of Prof. Pausch, but I am now planning to watch this video over the weekend. I am deeply saddened every time I see someone die so young.
Dan, it's not just you, I too had never heard of him. I saw the news article on Yahoo! at lunchtime.
I can't view YouTube from work, but perhaps will catch it this weekend.
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Congratulations on Nathan's baptism. It sounds like it was fun. The poem is also very neat. It is nice to have people so talented share in our joy.
Thanks for sharing it with us. Take Care.
Laural
Thanks Laural
He was a good sport and we are happy (and relieved) to have it done.
-A
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Yeah, I do tend to be long-winded!!
Never fear Susan! I've never found you to be long winded and I'd be willing to bet money that I'm much longer winded
As my coworkers can attest, I can write a novel just to say "YES"
I like to think of it as being "very thorough" in my responses
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Yes, infertility is definitely something that you need to come to terms with before you take your next step....
The adoption process can be just as hard and scary as the infertility treatments but for me the outcome was so much more wonderful. Everyday I thank God for that journey and His wisdom of what was best for us.
Monica,
First, what a beautiful avatar photo. What a precious little girl
Excellent post too. The tough journey we experienced with a failed placement followed a year later by a failed match was (for us) actually harder for us than the disappointments we faced with infertility. All of those events though were very tough and should not be taken lightly. My heart goes out to all those who hurt in their struggle to become a parent.
Coming to terms is indeed very important. The tough times may never be forgotten, but once you have been blessed with a child, it does make them diminish greatly (in my opinion).
I was just thinking (again) this morning about how special Nathan is to me and how I could not love a child more. This may sound silly, but I think I appreciate the gift that God has blessed & given us even more having become a parent through adoption than if I had been blessed with a biological child. I would love either unconditionally and could not put into words how special each is/would be, but I sometimes I just want to shout now "THANK YOU GOD FOR THIS AMAZING CHILD! Your Plan was SO GREAT!"
Peace be with you,
Adam
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Thanks for sharing in our joy Elizabeth and Susan
We're going to have the poem printed & laminated and it will go in Nathan's baby book. At this rate, I'm going to need a bigger baby book for him as we've documented so many special times and so many baby's Firsts!
It's hard to believe this little tyke of mine is almost 1 year old already
Peace be with you all,
Adam
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We had Nathan baptised this weekend and it went extremely well. Little Man was very well behaved and even "hammed it up" with the congregation as he yelled Da-Da-Da!, smiled, and then started clapping once the baptism had taken place. It was a hoot.
Today I received an email from a church friend who said he had written this poem Sunday based on "Nathan's baptism and our happiness". I thought it was very nice and quite special and wanted to share:
Poem by: Alan Sefton
This Child May He
Thanks be to God for this child...
May he be slow to anger with temperment mild
May he grow in both wisdom and years
May he turn to You with all his fears
May he experience Your love and Your grace
May he have a smile upon his face
May he care for and show others the way
May he always worship You and pray
May he see life as sacred and blessed
May he not be by material wealth impressed
Rather, in Your love and Your care
May he trust You more and fully dare
To live out his belief in word and deed
Helping improve this world in need
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Best wishes to all those families created through adoption, old and new.
Extra congrats to all the new first time parents.
God is Good, all the time!
-Adam
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Hold on everyone, I have found the solution. It came to me whilst typing a PM to Heidi, with whom I have been holding a lively discussion
How about this:
Dear Woman Who Chose Us To Match With But Will Not Be A Birth Mother Until She Gives Birth, And Will Not Be Our Son's Birth Mother Until We Take Placement
or DWWCUTMWBWNBABMUSGBAWNBOSBMUWTP for short.
(okay, I'll go put on my helmet now)
Linda
DWWCUTMWBWNBABMUSGBAWNBOSBMUWTP it is!
Thanks for that oh brave woman! Good laugh
-A
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....I personally believe that "parent" should be a title earned by those who do it, and to some extent, it is a confounding matter of semantics--......
Yet, as human beings, we make sense of our relationships by terms that identify who's who to us
Elizabeth, I appreciate the point of view you expressed on this topic and I agree with many of the points you have raised especially when looking at labels that are placed upon all persons involved in adoption ). Semantics do certainly come into play IMO.
For me, there is a difference when using the term Mom versus Mother. To others there may not be much difference.
I think it is great that people keep open minds when discussing these issues and that we continue to reflect as to how to best present our meanings while giving those we speak of, all the respect they deserve.
I appreciate Heidi lifting this particular topic as I know in many instances, my 'adoption language' has changed (for the better) in regards to our adoption journey and adoptions in general. It amazes me how a simple rephrasing of a sentence can have a big impact on how others interpret a statement. Thanks Heidi for keeping us thinking
-Adam
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Hey,
We just found out this morning that we are invited to attend the July orientation. YAY, HOORAY! We also sent our homestudy appication in today so we can get a head start on our homestudy.
Hope all is well with everybody,
Mark
Mark,
Congrats to you and Erin. It is a wild, wacky, fun, and super-informative weekend. ENJOY!
-Adam
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Welcome Danette and Chris -
You will really enjoy the forum and all the people. You can get so many questions answered to help you through the process.
Home Study - no you don't have to have completed. But, I will say, the sooner it is completed the better, you never know if you will get a call or tapped on the shoulder that same weekend as orientation. I have seen families come down for Camp Abrazo and go home 1 or 2 members larger and that weekend isn't even orientation.
Good info and please also accept another big forum WELCOME!
The only thing I might add is I don't believe you can receive a birthparent call until you have a completed homestudy on file with Abrazo, so the sooner you get the done, the faster you can start talking to birthfamilies
(provided all goes as planned with the application and orientation )Bottom line, get that homestudy started (and be sure your social worker is familiar with the Texas Homestudy requirements).
We had ours complete prior to orientation (due to a prior adoption attempt) and had our first call 3 days after we left orientation. It was a very exciting time!
But, don't let not having it done keep you from applying and getting to orientation. Most folks don't have it ready yet when they attend, but you'll see why you want to have it done ASAP after attending. There are wonderful stories of folks going to Orientation and coming home with babies!
Best wishes to you on your journey Danette & Chris.
Adam
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Needing some extra motivation to get through that stack of paperwork called the "application"?
CLICK HERE if you're a registered member of our Forum... it's sure to inspire!
Wow, time Flies!
Just 9 short months ago we were placed with Nathan and now, looking back on that August photo, it's hard to remember him ever being that small! Best wishes to all those applying and to all the PIWs who wait patiently to be watched with a special birthmother.
Peace be with you all,
-Adam
PS) GET THOSE APPLICATIONS IN!!!
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Is it a good idea to get started on our homestudy now? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again,
Mark
Mark, IMO (in my opinion) it's absolutely a good idea to get going with the homestudy now.
You will want to have that milestone behind you as soon as possible. Once you attend an orientation, you cannot receive birthmother calls until you have a completed homestudy on file with Abrazo. We were fortunate in that our homestudy was complete due to a prior private adoption attempt and thus we had our first birthparent call just 3 days after leaving orientation.
So, I would say, yes , if you can start it now, do it
-Adam
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I think once you educate yourself about open adoption it's hard to dispute the benefits to the child. Our inquiry is in, so we'll be patient and see if Abrazo will ultimately be where we form our family.
Jenny G.
Best wishes to you Jenny on your adoption journey.
-Adam
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This has probably been asked before, but how long does it usually take to hear whether or not a persons application has been accepted. We sent ours off about two and a half weeks ago and haven't heard much. Angela called us to make sure that July was the orientation we wanted to go to but haven't heard anything since. I guess I'm just getting antzy.
Mark
Mark,
Getting antzy is completely understandable. I think most if not all of us have been there in the adoptoin process at some point or another.
The date will be here before you know it. Heck, we even thought we had missed the last Orientation of the year and would have to wait a few months until the next one came forth. Then there was a suprise orientation date that popped up and with about 3 weeks notice, we were invited to Orientation and found ourselves on a plane to San Antonio! 9 months after that, we were parents!
Best wishes to you and Erin.
-Adam
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EVERYDAY is a good day! Some are just better than others
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Maybe that is why I said a total of 12 rosaries on the way to pick up our son Cooper ....prayer is a beautiful thing!
That is some serious rosary prayer....
And I agree, prayer is a beautiful thing, whether it be structured in the form of Hail Mary, Our Father & Glory Be or a less formal one-on-one with the Big Guy
The good news is, He always listens.
-A
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Congratulations to all the new Abrazo built families!
May Peace and Blessings be with you all,
Adam
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Our inquiry made it through and we recieved our application packet this last Thursday. We are now working on getting our application ready to send in. Hopefully we can get everything in order and get the application sent in later this week or early next week so we can hopeully get into the orientation in a few months.
Mark
Congratulations Mark (and Erin)! I understand the anticipation and excitement. That is natural and a great feeling. You are taking the next step towards creating the family you have dreamed about. So, Take your time filling it out (within reason
of course) as some of those questions can be thought provoking and may have you thinking just a bit deeper on a subject (or perhaps you've already addressed every possible option and you know exactly what you want to say in the application). I think I remember my hand cramping a few times to get it all down on paper
Ah, good times If you are accepted to an Abrazo Orientation group, it'll be a great way to find out if Abrazo is right for you and you right for their program and then you'll be on your way to being a larger family before you know it! Abrazo Orientation is a fantastic weekend which will have you forming lifelong friendships and will give you a great introduction into what Open adoption is and should be
There may be a few surprises that weekend too Whatever the outcome, may your journey to parenthood be blessed...
Best wishes to you both,
Adam
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P.S. Your social worker comes to our annual reunion every year, she is very sweet person!
Sorry, I just saw the P.S.
She is indeed. Beth commented the other day "When we are finalized, I'm really going to miss our meetings with Kay"
We'll probably run into her anyway as Trina, the Director of the agency she is working with, is a good friend of ours
We may even run into Kay next weekend at a baby shower we were mutually invited too.
Paper work
in Looking to Adopt
Posted
Ours was similar. You just never know. It took a few weeks to process our Inquiry and get an Application. We applied just after the last published 2006 Orientation date (Nov). We thought it would be Jan/Feb of the next year before we received an invitation for Orientation. Next thing ya know, we were Approved and invited to a new December Orientation only 3 weeks away!
Everything kicked into high gear, we went to Orientation, had our first birthmother call 5 days after leaving (Homestudy was already complete), 12 birthmother calls and a few months later had the "right" match come thru, and Wow!
a mere 9 months after Orientation, our newborn son was in our Arms! 
GOD IS GOOD! And Abrazo's process put us in touch with "Clara" who made our dreams of parenthood a reality! It's a good program. GOOD LUCK!
Peace,
Adam