First Home Study Visit in the Books

First home study visit is done!

Our super sweet social worker came by the house for a few hours.  It was mostly a meet, greet, counseling and dropping off of… duh duh ddduuuuhhhh… even more paperwork.  Good gracious me at the paper work.

It really was painless. I mean I will admit... we did a little running around before she arrived and added a few more baby-proof things to outlet covers, cabinets, etc. but she was very complimentary and kind. She talked to us about why we wanted to adopt and the risks of adopting and how we should talk about adoption with our adopted child and the rest of our family.  Basically… open communication is key!  That was pretty much the take away.

So now we are up to our eyeballs in what the adoption community calls the paper chase.  We are chasing around tons of documentation and recommendations and surveys and biographies.

Not too exciting of an update but it's an update nonetheless!

Fingerprints and Toilet Lid Locks

This home study is moving right along.  I am slowly but surely getting all the paperwork together and we just got fingerprinted this week.  That was an interesting experience.  There was no ink involved at all. You simple pushed your hands in all sorts of ways on this glass screen.  Possibly the most awkward part was that you get fingerprinted right next to the people registering as sex offenders.  An odd arrangement if you ask me but I suppose it's convenient. Ha!

So now that we have all the beginning parts of our home study pretty much done involving paperwork, we have officially scheduled our first home visit!!!!  On Tuesday (yep the day before Christmas Eve) our social worker will come pay us a visit.  I don't really know what to expect.  A sweet friend who has adopted multiple times insists it's not that bad and that the social worker wants to be on your side.  But I'm not gonna lie… I'm resisting the urge to bolt down the Christmas tree, buy those toilet lid locks and sell my dogs.

But, we have managed to keep two kids alive in our loving, not-so-baby-proofed home.  So at least we have that on our sides!

Wish us luck!

Homestudy, Timing, and Laughing

We received our home study packet!!!

We are so excited to get this part started or really any part for that matter.  I am so excited to see what the Lord has planned for this next year.  This has been all Him from the get go.  I mean we have always known adoption would be part of our family but the timing of this is ALL Him.  He has made it so abundantly clear He wants us to do this now, so we are acting in obedience and super excited. We are excited… have I mentioned "excited"?  Yea we're excited. ;)

The Lord has always been in control of our lives but I think it's just now in my life where I'm to a place that I'm letting Him lead.  Not always willingly. But I am at least reluctantly letting Him lead.  This has been a huge lesson for me lately.  You see, we had planned to start all this next year.  We had decided that when Norah turned two on Sept. 5, 2015, we would turn in our application to an agency and get started.  But the Lord had different plans.

He started putting adoption all up in our business. It was everywhere we turned… every song on the radio mentioned it, every scripture I opened to read referenced it, the sermon on Sunday morning was about it, and the following sermon was about conviction and letting go of our reservations for higher callings.  The Lord all but plastered "START THE ADOPTION PROCESS NOW" on my bedroom ceiling.  We have heard him in nearly every nook and cranny of our lives speaking adoption to us over the past two months.  And as we have stepped out on faith, He has moved mountains and provided as He always does.

I have to be honest… when He kept bringing up adoption during my days, I laughed.  Just as Sarah laughed when the Lord told her at the ripe old age of 90 she would have a child… "So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, 'After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?'" (Genesis 18:12).  I mean come on… I have two very young children, one of which requires a bit more attention for her special medical needs.  I by no means feel overwhelmed in my life but this just seems too soon.  It seems laughable.

But, even as I laugh and question the timing of all this, I know in my heart this is what He wants us to do right now.  And because He has shown us time and time again that living in His will is the best place to be, that is where we are striving to be… humbly answering His call in obedience and excitedly starting this journey.



Now if anyone wants to come write down my home address and phone number 500 times let me know.  The paperwork is craziness!  Holy moly at the paper work and background checks and fingerprints and physicals and rabies shots (not us the dogs duh).  I mean if everyone had to do all this to have a baby… that right there would be effective birth control. Ha!  So if you need me, I'll just be sitting here writing my address, phone number and other personal information over and over and over and over and over…

We're ADOPTING!!!

That's right folks! We are beginning the domestic adoption process and are so excited!  

We are in the very beginning stages, signed our contract last week, and will begin our home study very soon.  We hope to post updates all along the way right here on this blog for anyone who wants to follow along and most importantly, pray with us along the way.

We have already gotten lots of questions from family and friends so I think we'll start by answering the most common question, "Why adoption?"  Here are a few reasons why we are pursuing adoption:

James 1:27 God’s word tells us in James 1:27 that: “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”  While we do not believe that the Lord calls everyone to adoption, we do believe that is the role we have been called to play in "caring for orphans."  

We are firmly "pro-life"  We both hold firm the belief that every life is important and worthy of love - whether born or unborn.  We believe that the Lord has specifically called us to live out our pro-life stance by welcoming into our family a child that was bravely given life by his/her/their birth mother.

Support Birth Mothers We want to honor the brave choice of adoption made by birth mothers.  We strongly believe that the decision made by birth mothers to choose life for their unborn child, despite their inability to care for that child, is possibly one of the most self-less and noble decisions.  These mothers should be honored, respected and supported. 

Adoption: Plan A  Even before we were engaged, we discussed adoption, how we both felt called to adopt, and how we knew that God wanted that to be a part of the story of our family.  We want to grow our family, and we believe adoption is the way in which the Lord would like us to do that.

We are all adopted.  The Lord has adopted each of us as his own and loves us unconditionally, no matter our background, actions, skin color, or birth situation.  And, we want to mirror the gospel of Jesus Christ in our family as best we can.
  



We are thrilled to start this journey.  If it is half as exciting as the last couple of years, it's surely to be an entertaining journey.  So hop on, buckle up, and get ready for a wild ride!  We covet your prayers and are open to any and all questions you may have.  Thanks so much for reading!

- Jerrod & Abby

Testing...

Hello anyone still out there?!

I'm attempting to blog from my phone since life clearly isn't slowing down anytime soon for me to sit at a computer and collect my thoughts. Ha!

Life with two kids is so much fun but at this stage in their lives and being close in age.... Life is WORK. I really am loving every moment. Well almost every moment... When both kids are crying and I'm home alone, yea, don't really love those moments. But I still try to savor them all. That and any moment I start to get frustrated that blasted Trace Adkins song plays in my head, "You're gonna miss this... You're gonna want this back..."  Really? Haha.

Here are a few glimpses into our lives lately. I hope to share more very soon!

Movie snuggles with Daddy. Zoey has become quite the Daddy's girl.

Got a great report from neuro! Praise The Lord!!! We love Nurse Treva!!! 

Too cool for school!

I asked her to play quietly for a few minutes while I tried to get Norah to nap. I should have known the silence came with a price. 😉

Dressed for Church!

It is so neat to me how the idea of church and God and Jesus are all starting to form in Zoey's adorable little mind.  This morning she came running in my room, jumped on the bed and said "I read my Bible Mommy."  The funny thing was that her "Bible" was actually a Berenstain Bear's book which made the event even more precious than it already was.  Then this evening she said she wanted to get dressed for church.  So I asked her what she wanted to wear.  This is what she picked...

Scripture tells us to bring your best to the Lord and according to Zoey dressing your best for Jesus means a sassy fox shirt, "wots uh pone-tails," silver sandals and of course some Hello Kitty panties.  ;)  Love this kid!!!

Introducing Norah Leigh - 1 Month Old!

So sorry for disappearing for a little while.  Life has been kind of cray!  A c-section, NICU stay, brain surgery, hospital stay and adjusting to life with two little girls or as J and I like to refer to it: man-on-man coverage. ;)

Here is our beautiful newest addition, Norah Leigh Dorminey.

Born at 11:20 a.m. on Sept. 5 weighing 6 lbs. 3 oz and measuring 18.5 in. long.  Birth story to come!

Norah had her brain surgery on Sept. 27 at 11 a.m. at Children's.  She is doing really well, and we will hopefully know if the surgery was successful at her followup appointment on Oct. 14.  More on that later too.

But, while both kids are napping at the same time (a miracle in and of itself) I'll post some one-month photos. I hope to do this like I did with Zoey.  I love looking back at those pictures of her.

So like I said Norah had brain surgery on Sept. 27 and this picture makes me laugh. I like to think of it as her reaction to finding out she is only a month and already had a brain surgery.  It's her "SAY WHAT?" face. ha!  So below this following pic is a picture of her incision.  If you have a squeamish stomach feel free to opt out of this post.  I wanted to post the pic here because I'm a nut for pictures and recording memories. I want to remember everything... the good, bad, ugly.  And that includes one heck of a battle scar.  I just think I would want to know what my incision looked like.  It's something to brag about right! So, yea... please exit this blog now if you don't want to see.  You have been warned! :)

One tough cookie! Love her to death.

Game Day!!!

And as if four blog posts were not enough today... I couldn't just go on with my day without the obligatory game day picture of my precious little Bama fan.

Roll Tide from Zoey!!!

Zoey actually says "Roll Tide Ole Man."  Which is funny considering my dad, the person she refers to as "Ole Man" is a huge Auburn fan.  I promise you all and even my dad (who knows I love nothing more than to pick on him) I did not teach her to say that. I think maybe my mom did. Haha.  Either way...

Roll Tide from our Crimson Tide family!!!

Pregnancy with Norah: Weeks 35-37

Maternity clothes? Oh yes and some are getting too small.  Goodness...

Movement? Norah doesn't move as much but when she does it almost takes my breath away b/c the movements are so big.

Sleep? Sleep stinks to be frank.  I can't get comfortable.  My side, hip, legs hurt. Or, I feel like I can't breath.  

Symptoms? Definitely out of breath and my feet are disgustingly swollen.  It's gross!

Food cravings? Everything.  That's all. ;)

Labor signs? I have had some real contractions... like real painful ones but nothing came of them.

Best moment of the past few weeks? All the food I've eaten... just kidding.  I would have to say my doctor's appointment yesterday was pretty exciting.  More on that in a few lines...

I had my last OB appointment on Friday, Aug. 30 (yesterday).  My awesome OB offered me an ultrasound so I took her up on it.  Norah is head down-ish.  Her head is kind of to the side but Dr. Logan said she would consider that head down b/c during labor she would become perfectly positioned. She is facing my back which is great for delivery.  They estimate that she is weighing about 6 lbs. 12 oz. which is incredible considering Zoey was 4 lbs. 3 oz at 37 weeks and 4 days when she was born.  They tried to take a look at her ventricles and it appears that the levels have gone up slightly but it's hard to tell b/c of her position and their machinery isn't as high tech as the ones at UAB.

Now we head to UAB on Wednesday, Sept. 4 for our possible last appointment before Norah's birth.  They will do a biophysical profile, measure her head to see if she is good to go for delivery, check her ventricles and finally do an amnio to test for lung maturity.  As long as everything looks good to go, we will schedule an induction time for the following day.  Early Thursday morning between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. we will get a call with the results of the amnio.  If her lungs are mature we will head on in for induction.  I am 1 cm dialated right now so I'm not sure if I'm progressed enough for induction by their standards.  Hopefully all those questions will be answered when we head up on Wednesday.  That means Norah will likely be born Sept. 5 or 6.  Sept. 6 is our 5 year wedding anniversary! What an awesome anniversary gift!  

As far as Norah's brain surgery... that will be decided after she arrives.  It will likely take place within 3 days after birth. I'm sure that will be a very very very long and nerve-racking day.  :)

We absolutely can't wait to meet you Norah!  

Here is are two 35.5 weeks belly shots!

Norah's Sprinkle

My sweet friends offered to throw a very generous baby "sprinkle" for me... sprinkle meaning it's not quite the size of a shower.  But let me tell you... it was a shower.  They out did themselves with delicious food and Norah is more than taken care of the gift department.  No typical second-child syndrome over here... I can honestly say between all the gifts we got, we haven't had to come a dime out of pocket to prepare for her arrival.  We are so blessed.  Here are a few pics from the day.  We love you so much Norah and are absolutely ecstatic to meet you!!!!

My helper and the big sister! I can't believe Zoey will be a big sister in a few short days!

Between the puzzles my mom brought and my cousin's Barbies, Zoey was thoroughly entertained.

Thank you so much to my sweet hostesses!!!!