Kaycee turned 10 months and Zack turns 4 all in one week!!

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I love the world of adoption!

I just love the world of adoption and the connections you can make with people also connected to adoption. I have become part of a Tampa Bay Adoptive Parents group on Facebook in the past 6 weeks and have LOVED "meeting" people that live only 1-2 hours away that have a passion and love for adoption. It's neat to cheer on those awaiting placement or waiting to be "chosen." I decided to start a Central Florida Adoptive Families group on Facebook to connect with people even closer to where we live!
In July I had a baby play date at our house with 4 other moms and their babes all 1 year or less. We are all connected through our local adoption agency and had met each other at the picnic last November! I can't wait to do it again! I love watching the babies play and chatting with moms!!
I also had a wonderful opportunity to meet up with a bunch of people the end of July at a local park for a couple hours. Some of us have been blessed already with our adopted children and there were couples that met up with us who are currently "paper pregnant." I soooo loved getting together with everyone! We need to do that again soon too!
Last year I was contacted on Facebook by a couple who lived in North Carolina who were praying about adoption and trying to decide which agency to work with. They found a post I wrote on Bethany Christian Services FB page. I was so excited to talk with them! At that time we were only "paper pregnant" and we were so excited about the whole experience! We feel we are real "friends" with this couple and have followed their journey on their blog http://willandadrifindbabies.blogspot.com
We are so excited for them and hope to meet them in person in the near future!!
Just this week I received another message on FB from a woman in Virgina who saw the same post I put sharing this blog on the Bethany FB page. She sounds real neat and I hope to talk with her on the phone this week to share our wonderful, inspiring, stressful, fun, scary, nerve wracking, beautiful and God inspired journey of adoption!! I feel so incredibly blessed by the world of adoption!!

Help a friend

A fellow adoptive parent Facebook friend is in the process of adopting a girl from China. They are doing some great fundraising and need some help. They are giving away an IPad2 as a FUNdrasier. Check it out!!!! http://networkedblogs.com/llwYg

I'm back....

Well I said in my last post that it would be my last post until we started the process again and NO we are not starting YET! But I have become friends with several other adoptive moms through Facebook groups and felt inspired and encouraged to write about our Open Adoption experience and family life thus far. So here I am!!
Kaycee Update: Kaycee is 9 months old!! She is a happy, fun, easy-going baby that has spoiled us by sleeping through the night since she was 6 weeks old!! She loves her brothers and crawls all over to get to them or whatever they are playing with! She pulls to stand and has started cruising around the furniture. She makes it soooo easy to make me want just one more little girl!! My plan is to begin the process again next spring. We'll see if that is God's plan for us.
Open Adoption Update: Our relationship with Kaycee's BM is great! We have had some moments of miscommunication in the past 6 months but overall we are thrilled with how things are going. Our written arrangement is to see her every October, February & June. We have seen her more than that already. We communicated a TON in the beginning and it is starting to slow down a bit. We saw her in Feb. right after Kaycee's finalization and then KBM, Kaycee and I met up at SeaWorld in May for a day together. It was wonderful! We usually text weekly and I always send her pictures via text when I take them. We have talked about meeting up before Kaycee's birthday in October but I'm trying to let her tell me when or if she wants to do that. I know that she has a lot going on in her life and is trying to put it all together so I want to give her space. I recently created a digital scrapbook all about KBM with pictures she gave me and answers to a questionnaire I gave her (silly get to know you questions). It also has pictures of her in the hospital with Kaycee. I made a copy for her and one for Kaycee. I can't wait to give it to her the next time we meet!!
Family Update: Luke is 5 years old and starting kindergarten in 12 days! He is already talking about his new sister that will be coming home with us when he turns 6!! Sooo cute! Zack will be 4 next month and is our spirited ball of energy! We started a new diet in our house eliminating Artificial dyes, flavors and preservatives as well as natural some natural salicylates. It has helped his behavior tremendously!! We are over joyed about it and are getting used to eating even healthier than before!
We have recently made new friends with other adoptive families and hope to continue these friendships and watch our children group up together! It's so nice to have friends who have similar experiences!!
Well, that's it in a nutshell so far... Stay tuned for further posts! Thank you to my friends who encouraged me to write again! It feels good!!