In the beginning.....

Welcome! Its so weird to be writing a blog about our journey, non the less adoption. Many of you know our story, but for those who dont let me back up.... 9 years ago God blessed Mike and I in marriage it was a perfect day and we had always talked about how we wanted children. 6 years ago God blessed us with our perfect first daughter Caroline. We knew we wanted our children to be 2-3 years apart so we started trying once Caroline was 3.... to much frustration we were not successful in our attempts. Not completely unsuccessful as we have had two miscarriages, while those were devastating we do feel blessed that Mandy was able to carry those babies for even a short amount of time and know that someday we will meet those babies in heaven. We have tried chiropractic care to a specialist finding Mandy's body inner energy, natural family planning and finally fertility help. We are currently gearing up to try our 7th cycle of fertility help through IUI (4 just medicated, 2 IUI). 

Whats Next?
While we are hopeful that we will be blessed with a biological child we also know that God puts certain desires on our hearts... Through different doors that have opened for us and paths that have crossed we have been talking to a certain agency that we really wanted to work with, unfortunately we were told that they did not have anyone in Western ND that could help us. Feeling discouraged but knowing that God wasn't done with us yet we have also started to look at the Foster Care/Foster Adoption system. Mandy has been working on the foster care paperwork but kept feeling pulled in various directions so we kept praying... just a few days ago we got a call from the above agency that they are back in Western North Dakota and are able to work with us! So here we are, this is the beginning of a very real, scary, awesome, fun journey! The application is printed and waiting to be filled out (it is 27 pages!) We are not giving up hope that God will bless us with our own biological child/ren, but holding on to that hope and that maybe even at the same time we can adopt or foster!

This blog will chronicle our journey. It will shed light on our process as well as ask for help. Adoption is VERY expensive and we will not be able to do it without the support of those around us, stay tuned and read, read, read as we are VERY excited to see where this will go next!!!

~Mandy