Our First Fundraiser is...

Drum roll please!

We are selling shirts! We are so pumped by the design that fund the nations has created for us and we can't wait to sell these babies and wear them EVERYWHERE!

This is what the shirts look like:

We only have adult sizes, BUT if we have an extreme demand for kids' sizes we can add that later.  All you have to do to purchase your one of a kind, help us bring this baby home, we'll love you forever, t-shirt is click on the link below that will take you to our store.  I know, we're so cool, having a store (ha, yea right!).  BUT before you go order let me tell you a few things:

1. The store is only open for TWO WEEKS!!! Don't wait to get your shirt! 
2. Once we close the store, we send the order in to fund the nations (check them out if you need shirts for mission trips, fundraisers, etc. they're awesome!), and it will take 7 - 9 days for us to receive the shirts and then give us a few days to send out all of the shirts in the mail. 
3. These shirts are super soft, but can be a bit snugger than typical t-shirts, so if you like loose fitting or are between sizes, go up one.
4. Tell all your friends and family! Our goal is to sell 150 shirts and we need your help to do that! Please help us spread the word and get our little pleaboo home!  

So now without further ado, here is the shop link. HAPPY SHOPPING!

For Reals Selling Some Shirts

Pleaboo (what the heck is that??)

Okay, as some of you may have noticed I have been referring to our future baby as "pleaboo."  This is pronounced plea - boo, just like it's spelled.  And there is definitely a story behind it.

Corey has a knack for making up words.  I don't know when this started or how, but I have come to just accept these words as completely normal and forget that, in fact, they are not.  For instance, sometimes instead of please, Corey says "plox." and in turn I have now adopted that as well.  It's one of my favorite things (albeit very quirky things) about my husband and so naturally, Corey has made up words for what to call me and what to call our dogs, which is where the name pleaboo comes from.

Corey has taken to calling me a pleb.  Which is an actual real term, short for a plebeian, meaning commoner.  No, he does not think I'm a commoner, but yes, he likes to believe he's king of the castle sometimes.  He then decided that the dogs also had to have a name, but since they're not human and they're so small, he couldn't call them plebs.  So somehow the term weabooo (pronounced we-boo) was born.  This is the dog version of pleb, according to Corey.  Now, when discussing our future child, we were talking about what we call it before we actually have the child.  You know, people always call their babies something when they're in the womb (nugget, bean, frog, etc.), but we obviously couldn't be normal.  I figured the baby should fit in with the rest of us plebs and weaboos and so Corey started brain storming a name for the baby.  This is how pleaboo was created.  The baby couldn't be pleb because that's for grown humans and weaboos are dogs, BUT pleaboo was the perfect combo for a small, tiny, child.  

So, if you've stuck with the story this long, then congratulations, you made it through what Corey deems my long-winded, inability, to just tell a story without the extra million details. (I sometimes embellish stories extra now because of this :)  but you are now the wiser as to the origins of pleaboo and hopefully you won't think we're so weird anymore.  Or, you think we're way weirder now.  In any case, you can now share this with anyone else that makes the same, weird face you did when you heard the word pleaboo.         

Exciting things in the works...

With Christmas and New Years coming up we're taking the rest of this new year to enjoy each other's company and time with family and some good friends.  But we are super pumped for the new year to come for the start of our fundraising for something exciting in the works and we can't wait to share our first fundraiser with y'all!

Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The questions we know you have

Corey and I are so overwhelmed by the love and support we have gotten from all of our friends and family!  You guys have outdone yourselves with the sweet messages, kind words, and blessings.  We are even more excited to partake in this adventure with all of you behind us, supporting us.

We know that many of you have a lot of questions for us about who, what, when, where, why, and we are going to try to answer as many questions as we can think of.  If you have any other questions feel free to ask.  I will answer any that I can.  I will ask that you try to keep all adoption language positive and if you're unsure what I mean this website has a good reference point for you to use: http://www.parents.com/parenting/adoption/parenting/positive-adoption-language/

What kind of adoption are you doing?
Corey and I have chosen to do domestic infant adoption for this adoption.  This means that a birth mom will "match" with Corey and I while she is still pregnant or right after giving birth.  In other words we will be matched with a newborn.

Where are you adopting from?
We will be adopting from within the United States.  Our hope is to sign with a consulting firm in June.  This means that we could match with a birth mother anywhere (well almost anywhere) in the United States.  By signing with a firm we are given more opportunities to match with birth moms instead of being constrained to the specific area that an agency works with.

What does a consulting firm do?
A consulting firm provides you with someone to walk you through the adoption process as you go.  They help us organize our paperwork, our profile book, organize the home study, etc.  They provide us with the insight that we need since we've never been through this before.

How long will this process take?
This is an unknown.  Corey and I cannot be considered "active" until September 2016.  This is for a few reasons.  1) We want/need to save up a significant chunk of the cost for the adoption before we  are considered active 2) Corey will be leaving in March for a 6 month training in AZ.  When that ends in September we will be stationed somewhere besides Ft. Benning, GA.  Because adoption paperwork (like the home study) does not transfer state to state we cannot officially submit any of this paperwork until we are at our new duty station.  This first few months will mostly be us fundraising and raising the money we need to bring home the precious babe.  Once we know where Corey will be stationed in September we can get A LOT more done.  3) Once we are active it's just a waiting game. We could be matched with a birth mother instantly or it could take a few months.  God knows who our little babe is and the timing will be in his hands.


I know people have more questions and if I can answer any of them I will happily do so.  I will be doing a blog post in a few days regarding our infertility because I know some of you are curious.

Again, thank you all for being part of this with us and supporting us in this adventure!

Can you believe it?!

Welcome! I'm assuming if you've stumbled upon our blog here then you know we are starting the adoption journey in 2016! And we are so excited!

This definitely feels surreal and I'm still wrapping my head around this, but let me tell you how Corey and I arrived at this decision and this exciting new adventure.

Adoption has always been a topic of conversation for Corey and I, but it was always a very far, down the road, when we're in our 30s, and already had a few biological children, kind of thing.  But God has different plans (you'd think we would have learned that by now with the whole army thing being a constant game changer for us) and so here we are starting this process equal parts nervous and excited about what this will entail.

Corey and I have been married for 5.5 years and have wanted to start a family for the past 3 of them. Unfortunately we're not able to on our own which is what has opened us to adoption much earlier than we had ever thought we would be. We have decided that we will be pursuing domestic infant adoption. 

This is such an exciting journey for us, but it's full of uncertainties and mystery as we navigate through a process we've never gone through. We ask that as you follow us on this journey that you pray for us and the birth mama of the precious bundle. We know it will all be God's timing because as we've become fond of saying "it all happens for a reason" but we know we'll need your love and support as we tackle this adventure.

Keep checking back on here for adoption updates and more about our story.  We are so excited to share this with all of you!

Photos: Courtesy of my beautiful mother-in-law Tanya