Another Milestone!

Quite a while ago I told Michael, that all I really wanted for Christmas was to have our adoption paperwork finished so we could be in the matchbook. I am soooooo incredibly excited and grateful that my Christmas wish came true. It's official we are in the matchbook of our adoption agency and our letter is also online at their website. We are Family 560 - Marion and Michael, although the number really doesn't mean anything. Matchletter Link - we are on the very bottom. :o)
God has blessed us so incredibly with all your support during these last few years and months. Thank you friends for your continued prayers.
As I was praying for our baby a few days ago, I decided that my new place of prayer will be our nursery. It does have the most comfy chair in the house in it ;o). And what better place to pray for our child than in it's home.
We received some wonderful Christmas presents that will help us get ready for our little one! I'm looking forward to going shopping with my step-mom-in-law and my step-sister-in-law. Long words but two ladies who are very dear to my heart!!!!!
And even though we are getting closer and closer, it still seems unreal to me that one day we will get the call that someone wants to meet us to maybe choose us as the parent for her child. What an honor!

Penny Drive Labels

So, Michael and I did our Christmas Letter and Cards this year. We were really excited to get both done for once. Until the day we found that the wonderful Penny Drive Labels we had made, were still laying on the printer :o(. In the crazy huzzle and buzzle of the holidays we forgot to put them in. For those of you who are interested to participate I'll mail them out separately.
Please leave a comment or e-mail me at   mnmbartlett@gmail.com if you'd like a label for a jar so you can participate.
Thanks to Martha and Katie for already starting!!!! You gals are awesome!!!!! :o)))

Marion's News

Aside from our wonderful adoption journey we've had all other kinds of exciting things going on in life.
One of them is that I (Marion) passed my U.S. Naturalization test! I should be able to take my oath to become a U.S. citizen early in the coming year. I am so excited!!!!! We're planning to celebrate and hope that some of you will be able to join us.

It's official - we're certified to adopt

Wow, what a journey it has been! We are excited to announce that since last Thursday we are officially ready to adopt. Our match letter should go online with our adoption agency some time this week. I'll post a copy of it on here. Now all we can do is pray, get ready, wait, and pray some more. Thank you for all your support friends and family! We would not be able to do this without you!
Only 6 more days until Christmas, as my kiddos remind me at least 10 times a day. :o)
As promised here is our match letter.
Love you all!!!!

Penny Drive

Hi all,
As those of you know that have experience with infant adoption, the fees are very high (20% of your annual family income before taxes). We've been saving for a while, but have still quite a large amount that we will need to come up with. Especially since we already spent a small fortune on our infertility treatments.
For those of you who are interested in helping out, we would love to participate in our penny drive. Please print the attached label and put it on an old jar that you fill with change. Please feel in no way obligated to participate! Your prayers are more important than anything!
Love you all and thank you for your help!!!!!

Major Milestone

Wow, time just flies when you are having fun! We have been working hard on finishing our adoption matchletter and getting ready for the holidays, while juggling all the school work that needs to get done.
I am so happy to report, that our matchletter is now truly done! I can't even believe that I am able to say this. What a major milestone. For those of you unfamiliar with the adoption world - a matchletter is a letter that birth mothers who want to place their child for adoption look at when they are trying to pick a family for their child. After looking at this letter they pick a family they would like to meet and hopefully like. Typically birth mothers are able to look at 4 or more letters, so you can imagine how important this document is on our way to parenthood. Our case worker took a look at it today and she said it was great just the way it is. So here we go!
I know I'm rambling - sorry guys.
I pray for our birth mother and her child every single day and I really appreciate your prayers for us, our baby, and his or her birth mother.
I'll post the letter in a little while, once it is online with our adoption agency.
Thank you guys for all your great support!

Life's too busy

My goodness, I can't believe it's been this long since my last post.
All I can say is that life's been way too busy!!! In some ways it's been good busy though.
We are still working along on all the murals in the nursery. I'll make sure I'll share some pictures on here in a few days. At the same time we've also been working hard on our match letter. It's not easy, let me tell you this much. It's so difficult to tell everything you want in just a few words and then find the perfect pictures to go with it. Please pray for us as we try to finish this letter during the coming week. I feel like we can only get this done with God's grace! I pray that he may put the words on these pages and he would bless them!
And of course the Bartlett house is getting ready for Christmas. This is by far my favorite time of the year!!!!! :o) I absolutely LOVE Christmas!!!!! I already can't wait to get home from school tomorrow to keep decorating and bake some cookies. ;o)
My goal is to leave school latest by 4:30 until Christmas break. We'll see how that goes. I'll pray, that's all I can say!
Happy Holidays everyone!

Another Step Closer

We had another meeting with our case worker today. Yay! We were going through the results of our Taylor Johnson Temperament Analysis. For this test I evaluated myself and then Michael and he did the same thing for me. According to our case worker "we did great"!
Not that I was worried, but it was a relief. She informed us that typically there are some topics up for discussion with the couple, because normally they disagree in some areas - but she had non for us. WOW! Apparently that has only happened to her twice before us. According to this test we know each other very well. My ratings for myself went right along with Michael's for me and the other way around. It was really interesting to go through the results. I love analyzing people, so I had a great time!!!!  :o) I guess quite a few of you are not surprised by this.
We're also ready to keep painting this weekend. We picked out book characters today and started drawing some outlines. I can't even really express in words how exciting this is!
Our case worker is still aiming for presenting us to the rest of the staff in December, which means we could go in the match book after that. I am so excited! Please, please pray with us that nothing in her schedule gets changed this time and she can keep her appointments with us!!!! Our combined prayers will make this work.
Going into the match book before Christmas would be the best present we could be given! We pray that God would grant us this gift!

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

Jeremiah 29:11

I am so thankful for all the blessings God has given us! Thank you for praying for and with us!

Productive Weekend

I am so excited! Michael and I had a very productive weekend. The nursery's base paint is done and we shopped for some furniture.
Thank you all for your prayers for the match letter - they were amazingly powerful. I finished all but Michael's part last night!!!! :o) Once I started to write it went well. I still expect a lot of editing, but I'm excited to take it to our case worker this week and see what she thinks.
Thank you also very much for the wonderful reader who pointed out to me that our donations button is not working, it should be fixed now.
This is going to be the hardest part during the next few months. Adoption is unfortunately very expensive, so we will start some major fundraising. Please share any ideas you have with me! Thank you so much for all your support! We are so excited for the day when we'll bring Baby Bartlett home. :o)

Powerful Video

I came across the following video when reading some blogs, and it is incredibly powerful! It did make me cry, but not because I'm hurting now. It was simply because this video speaks the complete truth. I would love for everyone to take a few minutes and watch it.
What I'd like to mention though is that I am just so thankful that the end of the video is already a little different for Michael and I. We know God walks with us every step of the way, he has a plan, and we trust him fully. Our path is leading us toward our adoption, and we are very excited!
We are especially thankful for all the friends and family who have supported us on our path so far and who are a daily encouragement and inspiration for us!!!!!
Empty Arms

Buckle down

Tonight I'm simply praying for energy!!!! I know all my teacher friends know what I mean. I need to get stuff done around the house, but by the time I get to it, I'm just too tired to get much done.
Yet I'm so excited to get started!!!! We came up with an idea to decorate the nursery. I'll post some of the pictures I found that inspired us. We won't use all the same characters, but the general idea is to paint story book character murals. Thank goodness Michael is so talented. Now we just need to have time to get started!!!!
I love all your comments, they've been so encouraging!!!! Thank you for all your thoughts, prayers, and inspirations.

Inspiration

Just now I found an amazing blog written by a new adoptive mother. What an inspiration! It's amazing how many people go through the same things we are going through. I know that we are not alone.
Reading through her blog was such an encouragement and at the same time it made me realize that it is time for me to buckle down and get some business done.
I have not read a single baby book, simply because I never got pregnant. Well, obviously I won't be, so I better start reading! I also have fundraising ideas nicely in my head, but it's time to get started. And while we emptied the future nursery out for the most part during fall break, today I took a nap instead of working some more on it.
We've been waiting so long that I feel that I've got so much time - but what if I don't?
In the blog I read the new parents got a hospital call. Translated into language that people who don't know anything about adoption this means that the baby is already born when the mother chooses the adoptive parents. They found out the day before they took their son home, that they'll be parents. Thank goodness they were prepared!
I'm asking for your prayerful support, to get me ready to be a mom. It still seems so unreal, even though our paperwork is done and we are down to only a few interviews.
I've also been struggling in writing our match letter. I want it to be absolutely perfect, which of course is a very unrealistic goal.
So thank you for all your thoughts, prayers, and encouragement. It means the world to us!!!!

Thank you all

I knew in my heart that writing this blog was the right thing to do. Yet, I cannot even describe in words the ways that your comments, thoughts, and responses have impacted me, as well as Michael. The different responses we received, made it crystal clear, that this was the right thing to do. Not only have so many of you impacted our lives, but it's been amazing to see how my words impact others. I feel so humbled and grateful. 
As I am listening to the rain pound on the window it reminds me of my childhood, when oftentimes I would sit in my room , listen to the rain, and write in my journal. I used to love writing my thoughts down! And then life got busy, and I stopped. This is another reason why I love this blog. It feels great to just let my thoughts flow. The only thing that changed is the language in which I am writing. When I was a teenager, I would have never dreamed that one day I would be able to write in English, without much effort.
Life is a complete mystery, and I am glad that God doesn't share his plan with me. Truthfully, I never thought I would say that either! Today I am simply grateful for every day that I get to spend with my wonderful husband and knowing God. 

Sometimes it's hard to be patient

Going through the adoption process is certainly working on me in regards on patience. I am so anxious about getting the home study process done, and it seems that God just isn't quite ready yet. 
Today we had another setback. Our case worker had to postpone our next meeting until November. I was ready to cry when I saw her e-mail. But then I tried to remind myself that there is a plan to all of this, and God knows what he is doing. (It's still hard though.) 
I guess we have more time to get prepared, right?
Thank you all for your wonderful comments to my blog. Please know we pray for all of you and your families and appreciate all your thoughts and prayers. 

The short version about our last 4 years

The last 4 years have been nothing like we ever thought having children would be like. 
Everything was planned out and then God taught us that we don't get to control our lives.

We'd been trying to have a baby for a year, when Michael's mom unexpectedly died from a heart attack. Shortly thereafter we had Dr. appointments that confirmed we were diagnosed with infertility. It wasn't a simple diagnosis and we figured out that both of us were part of the problem. In the mean time all our close friends either became pregnant or had kids already. It is so hard to be happy for your friends, when you are so incredibly sad and hurt. Not being able to have children is like loosing a basic right that one has earned simply by being human. As a young girl you pretend with pillows to be pregnant and then birth your baby dolls. Little did I know that this would be the closest I would ever be to giving birth. (quoted from: Secret thoughts of and adoptive mother.) But this quote couldn't be more true for me. 
Well after our diagnosis we obviously believed, we can FIX this. So being the kind of couple we are, we began to try everything we could think of to fix our situation. From Chinese herbs, to acupuncture, to tons of vitamins, relaxation techniques, surgeries, and infertility treatments. Talking about taking the fun out of having a baby!
Especially fertility treatments turn the most intimate experience of a couple into a semi-public science experiment. I really don't want to go into detail here, but I pray for all of you that you will never be in this spot. 
I also want to tell those of you who are in the same spot as we are that saying enough is enough is ok. God has a plan for all of us, and unfortunately that plan doesn't always align with ours. All you can do is to trust and pray. Believe me I know how hard that can be!
I am so thankful for all our friends and family who have walked this hard walk alongside with us those last few years. There was a lot of encouragement, a lot of tears, and mostly prayers. We are so thankful for all your prayers! 
Last fall we were determined to try 3 more IUIs and that would be it. I was amazed how I was able to handle all those failures. I expected to completely fall apart, but it didn't happen. Yes we were devastated, but we had been praying for so long that God would provide us with strength, wisdom and courage, and that is what he did. 
After our last IUI in March I prayed for a sign of where our journey to parenthood should go. We had been to information meetings about adoption before, but I had not been ready. On a wonderful Saturday afternoon in April at CCV (Christ Church of the Valley) I got the sign I had been praying for. And that was when our journey changed. 


I am so thankful for all of Michael's patience. He told me a long time ago, that he would be happy to adopt, but he understood my desire to carry our child. What an amazing man God gave me. I know you will get sick of hearing this, but that's just the way it is. 


Over the summer we picked out an adoption agency we felt would work well for us. In September we took our classes to be certified to adopt - yes you do have to take classes! At the same time we completed our homestudy paperwork. We had done paperwork before, but nothing like this! Our case worker knows pretty much everything there is to know about our family life, marriage, childhood, our parents, our siblings, our plans, dreams, fears, and worries. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that it took days to fill in all this paperwork. 
Now we were on to the waiting game. Refer to my introduction post about today's meeting. 
We are very anxious for our next one.
Our tasks now are to safe a very large amount of money, and write our match letter. 


There are many friends, family members, and others who have asked how they can support us in this journey. What we appreciate most are your prayers! Please pray for our child, that he or she may be protected from any harm and kept safe. We also ask you to pray for our birth mother, her courage to choose life for our child, her safety, and for wisdom in her decision making. 

Welcome to our Blog

Well in our family and home I'm more the writer than Michael, so while this is our blog, I guess I'll do most of the writing. I'm not even sure anyone will ever read this, but it's been on my mind a lot to write many of our ups and downs to parenthood down and maybe provide encouragement for others who are going through similar hard times. 
I've read several blogs during our journey, and many times they have encouraged or also challenged me. I pray that I could do the same for others. 
Today we had our first adoption home study interview meeting. We drew our genograms for our case worker and then got to talk about our families, relationships, childhood, and family traditions. It again became apparent to me that I'm the more dysfunctional one in your marriage. I am so thankful God picked such an amazing husband for me, who was raised by wonderful parents. 
I'm in no way saying that my parents are not wonderful, they are in their own ways. I love them so very much and miss them every day. Their relationship is very different and much more complicated though than Michael's parents ever was. 
Anyways, it was interesting to compare our families, our childhood, experiences, and weird at the same time to have a case worker write all of this down. 
I am so anxious for our next meeting and I pray every day for our birthmother and our child, which I know God has designed or is designing in his perfect image. I can't wait to be surprised by him or her. 
I am so thankful to be a Christian woman! Without my loving and gracious father in heaven I would not be where I am today.