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Hi, followers. Several of you have told me recently that you're not getting e-mail notifications when I post. If you want to receive notification every time I post an update, please look to the right of this message.

Update

We spoke today to the social worker who is working with our beautiful birthmother, and things are going well. She is on bed rest, but we do expect her to deliver early. Although the official due date is October 12, it is likely that she will give birth in September. If the baby is premature, we will be the ones in the NICU bonding with him.

In two weeks, Stan and I will drive to meet the birthmother, her daughter, and her new husband. We are so excited about getting to know this family! It is our hope that our son will grow up knowing his sister.

A Turn

There are turns for the worse, turns for the better, and turns so that a sonographer can get a better look. It's a boy! The birthmother is doing well and may be on bed rest for the next three months.

Early Labor

Our birthmother, who is at 26 weeks, went into labor this morning. She went to a local hospital, and a doctor was able to stop her contractions pharmaceutically. She is no longer dilated.

October 12!!!!

A lovely young woman in North Carolina has seen our profile book and chosen us to be the parents of her daughter, who is due October 12. She said we were "cute" and EXACTLY what she wanted: older parents who were unable to have children of their own. Pray for health for the birthmother, health for the baby, and God's orchestration of all the details.

Baby, Maybe?

I'm afraid I'll have to be vague for now, but we are celebrating that a young couple has expressed interest in us as the potential adoptive parents of their daughter. Friends and family who check the blog regularly, please keep this news quiet for now. I'll post more details as I can. We ask for prayer for this family as they make some very hard decisions in the coming weeks.

Update

Several friends have asked about our status recently. After a strange series of events with DSS, it looks like we are not being considered for the little girl I've written of so many times. Last week, we received in the mail an envelope containing out profile book---no note, nothing, just the book.

Days before we received that package, we got a call from a close family friend who is also an English teacher. She knows a student who is due in October and is choosing life for her baby and wants her (yep, another girl!) to grow up being loved by a family that is unable to have biological children. Exciting!

I keep telling myself, "Don't get emotionally invested this time. If it doesn't work out, it's not your child." That's pretty easy to do up front, right? We've been through five our six of these not-gonna-happen adoptions, but we keep putting feelers out there.

This afternoon, I was sprawled out on my classroom floor organizing and filing while trying to wrap up the school year. One of my freshman girls was helping me, and out of the blue she said, "I really hope you get a baby, but if you don't, you can adopt me." So many parents ask me if I have children, and I've begun to say, "Yeah, I've had about 2000 of them." I'm ending my 20th year of teaching tomorrow, and nothing makes me cry faster than a teenager expressing love. Another girl texted me last night at about 10:30, "I passed my EOC! I love you."

Please continue to pray for God to show us our child . . . or children . . . or his will that we not be parents. Hands open, palms up.