For Her!

For you...
Dear Birthmother,

You don't know me, and maybe you never will. I can tell you that I don't know exactly what you're going through because all our stories are different. But I can tell you a few things about what you are about to experience.

Please, love your baby. Connect with your baby before he or she is born. Bond with them after they are born. Your baby needs to feel that love from you, because a part of them will always remember that love. You don't ever want to regret not connecting with that baby. It is so worth it. The love you will share, for however short a time until placement, will stay with you forever. It will buoy you up when you start to ache. It is real, and it is unending. You will never stop loving your baby.

Placement will hurt. So much. You may be numb right after, and that's okay. But let yourself hurt. Open yourself up and just ache. You need to feel that pain, don't try to hide from it. There will be mornings you wake up and you will honestly think you can't live another moment. Sometimes the grief will make you want to just curl up and disappear. But I promise you, it will ease. Slowly, day by day, it will ease some. Pray often, and pray hard. No matter how you lived your life prior to placement, our Heavenly Father is there for you. He will hold you, and though you won't be able to see Him or feel Him, He will be there. Then, one day, you'll wake up and you won't immediately cry. One day, you'll be able to look at a picture of your baby with his or her new parents and you will smile. You will be able to recognize the love that is there, and you will be able to relate to that love. One day, you will do something normal. And you will remember how much it hurt before, and be grateful that you made it through the pain.

You will run into people who don't understand, and who will not want to understand why you decided to place. That's okay. You don't need to justify yourself to anyone. It was your decision and yours alone. Nobody else can possibly know what was best for your baby or for you.

And then... someone will come into your life. He will fall in love with you, and he will think you hung the moon. He will learn your story, and will love you BECAUSE you made the decision you did. He will recognize that you are a strong, amazing daughter of God. You made a selfless, incredible sacrifice on behalf of someone else, and because of that your spirit will radiate out to those around you. He will recognize that, and he will cherish you. He will treat you the way that you deserve to be treated.

Not all of this will happen fast, and not all of this will happen in that order. But I promise you this, birthmomma... You are loved. By me, and by thousands of other women who made this decision. You are in a sisterhood, and there will always be someone there to hold you. There are thousands of couples waiting to be chosen who love you because you give them hope by what you have endured, and by what you about to endure. Most important, there is a family out there and we hope that we are it or hope you find the family for your baby it is so hard to express our love and gratitude we will be forever grateful. The love we feel for you is overwhelming. You may never know how important you are to so many people. I pray for you every day, and I hope you can look back on this experience in the future and say "I did something so hard, and I survived. I am happy."

Love, Genesis 

Well a lot has changed, I created a new blog about our families journey and what we have gone through emotionally... As we try to build our Forever Family...

Go to http://praying-4-more-miracles.blogspot.com/2013/05/2012-2013.html

 

10/26/2012 I cannot believe today was the day we officially were approved and up on the website yay!!! 

I can check that off no more insanely long list staring at me...

Our caseworker is fantastic.
I think everyone says that.
But ours really is the bomb!!

One thing she stressed to me is how vital it is for us to actively search for our birth mom.
That's where you all come in.
we need your help.
Spread the word.

Post our website on facebook.
Send our info to anyone our info is https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/28215585/ourMessage.jsf

Write a blog post about us etc.

Do you know someone who is considering her options?
Pass along our info.

We are so incredibly grateful.
Our friends and family are the very best.

Seriously.
We love you
and are so grateful to you all
we appreciate your prayers,
not only for us.
But for her.

Help her find us.
Help us find her.

S Genesis  

Our Fundraiser sale! Thank you all :)

Our yard sale was a huge success!  We are beyond grateful to everyone who donated things, stopped by to shop, spread the word, and helped us with the set up and pack everything away! Jason and I want to thank everyone so much for all the support you have shown us in our Adoption journey. The yard sale wouldn’t have been possible without everyone’s help. From donating items, delivering stuff to our house, setting up, tearing down, baking, making signs, working the yard sale, and coming out to buy stuff, you made it work.  We would like to thank everyone who has donated money towards our adoption fund. Everyone’s generosity to our family has been more than we could have ever imagined. Words can’t express how you have blessed us. Thank You!

Alright, so do you want to see some pictures of our many blessings from Saturday the 25th?  Here they are.....in somewhat of a story format - Over the past months we have been collecting items from friends, family, new acquaintances, and strangers (yes, strangers) to sell at our adoption fundraiser.  We are so touched by so many willing to give their time to go through their items and donate to help our adoption.  We were storing it all throughout our house and in our garage and at family member’s homes and garage’s it was crazy!!! Anxiously waiting when we could get it all out of the house and sell it!!  So grateful to have my home put back together it sure was easy to lose stuff.

This was hard work sorting price's for everything it go to the point where we just gave up!

We made general prices for everything instead of pricing everything individually.

My dear Father brought his work truck that carried everything I am so grateful for his wonderful bosses they allowed him to borrow it for this huge event. On Friday night and we loaded everything that was all throughout our house and in the garage for the sale.  We felt like we were moving and it all barely fit.....more items were dropped off at the house we were doing the yard sale at. 

Kudos to my family for loading the truck the day before the big sale!

Friday night - the eve of the sale - after sorting, labeling, sweating and feeling so blessed for all the help from my Dad and Melissa and Jason, I said to the Husband as I collapsed into bed, "I have never felt so exhausted, stressed, and loved all at once."

Items Sold - after we closed shop on Sat, I was Shocked that we still had so much stuff ! I mean we had a ton of stuff …  Because we had so much we have decided to hold another one next year if we do not adopt by then we were blessed by good friend's to offer their residence to us they live in a prime location. We feel so blessed! Thursday night, our garage was stacked to shoulder height and living room were stacked to knee height) and Saturday when the sale was over I was thrilled that we were able to take stuff to my Dads and put the good stuff in his roomsJ  So grateful everything fit in both of his rooms. We took a lot of stuff that did not sell to the d.i . We finally got done loading everything and finally went to eat around 630 at night we were so tired and let me tell you. I swear I was seeing things lol.. I was exhausted. Thanks to my family who all stayed to help us clean up. when we were cleaning up we created a pile in the driveway a free for all shall we say and people were coming still to buy stuff it was crazy! When we loaded up the truck we were able to fit everything that we decided to keep in to two bedrooms at my pop's. THAT, my friends, is a miracle.  I thank the lord and give all of my thanks to him. Thank you for blessing us with all these angels that donated to our great cause. 

We had our yard sale

August 25, 2012 and our goal was $1,000.00 and we received $2,567!!!!! That took care of our first feeJ!! 

Wow and praise the love of the lord for helping our family in the first hour we made $120 we had a lot of fun, even in the hot weather and we even got lot donations. The most awesome part was there were people we didn't even know donating money towards our adoption. There was this guy he stands out in my mind and wanted to buy two pictures they were $2.00 and he came up to pay for it and said so these are $200.00 here you go and left. Our family kept donating to our adoption jar and friends.  Wow words cannot express our gratitude. I just cried and felt so blessed, so many families, and friends just kept donating to our cause. I tell you it was a very emotional day for us. It’s amazing how so many came out to support our family and did not even know us. Thanks to everyone for spreading the word. We still have a lot of stuff left so we are planning to do another sale in spring time so look for more info on that.

I want to end with this note.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,

to sing praises to the Most High.

It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning,

your faithfulness in the evening...

You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me!

I sing for joy because of what you have done.

o Lord, what great works you do!  - Psalm 92:15

We could not have done it without all of you! We love you thanks for helping our family grow through the love of adoption.

This Adoption fundraiser has turned out to be amazing!! More then 10 families have donating a ton of stuff and much more is coming! Our Garage is full and it is amazing to feel so loved! This is what life is all about is service and we feel richly blessed by everyone's generous donation's. I love that everyone has been so willing to serve and help our little family out. This new baby is going to be so loved and adored by all of us and our little boy can not wait to share his life with his new brother or sister or both he says... Thank you, so much to everyone we love you all and we are so grateful for all the helpful hands involved and the beautiful donations we have received! The Lord is amazing and we have met a lot of kind people and made new friends with everyone. Can not wait to do this Adoption Fundraiser 08/25/2012 8am-2pm at 3321 South Rose Hollow Lane WVC, UT 84119 3335 West We will have load's of clothes and baby items, toy's, shoes, purses, kitchen appliances, furniture, picture's, decor, much more... So grateful for everyone's helpful hands in baking items for us to sell.:) Yummy goodies cake's etc. Can not wait..  I have been trying to prepare everything and yes it has been crazy staying up until 1 am every night! I have been trying to organize and get everything ready. I know I know you probably wonder why I have been doing this to myself and I know it is  all just going to get laid out for everyone to see. But I have a OCD issue where I need everything to be organized in to categories or it drives me crazy....  I am trying my best to get over it and with Lovely friends and family stepping up to help me in a big way I so appreciate it. I love you all to piece's and we have raised $200.00 so far in donations that is amazing and we feel truly blessed~!

The adoption process is going fabulous yesterday we went to our first actual meeting :) We put down $1,000.00 towards our adoption. We got a lot of our paper work done. Now all we have to do is get our background check done, home study done, and go to the doctor's and get our medical reports done. Do our 150 questions each interview's. Create our profile on the website. :) Submit names for our reference letters then we will be done :) We cannot wait and so are excited to start this journey So there you have it:) Thanks for coming along this journey with us and your welcome to read our blog! 

We are doing the old fashion sell-all-of-your-junk-because-it-is-someone-else's-treasure thing fundraiser. But we need your help! 

Here are the ways you can help:

1. Could you look around your house and do purging? Would you be willing to donate unused furniture, toys, baby/kid stuff, old bikes, or any other items you aren't using to us? All of the items will be sold at the yard sale/5k run to add to our adoption fund. Whatever doesn't sell will be donated to a charity.

2. Would you be willing to help price and sort items? I am looking for a couple of people who would be willing to help us go through the donated items and price them the weeks leading up to the sale. Which would not be until Sept? No previous experience required (especially because I have NEVER held my own yard sale!)!

3. Are you available to help work the yard sale? We need people to help manage, what we hope, is a HUGE yard sale. Talk to the people coming, sell items, help put things in people's cars after they purchase, etc. Since we will have a lot going on that day we would love extra adults to help us on the day of the sale and help us run this fundraiser. We are seeking volunteers and will be in contact as we figure out the location and we get closer thank you all so much this would not be possible without all of you!

And when is this amazing yard sale taking place, you ask?

09/15/2012 More info to come... 

Contact me at elijahsmommy123@gmail.com and we can exchange info. 

                                  Thanks for all your support Love, Gen                                  

The Journey begins again!

The past long months have been really crazy for our family! We have wanted to expand our family for Elijah having someone to play with and we wanted to influence children in a good way. We decided to do foster care after much prayer. We got licensed for it and we’re good and complete with not adopting through foster care because we knew reunification was best for the children and we did not want to be disappointed or hurt in anyway. Setting the expectation for that was ahead of time was what we needed. Some time has gone by and still no placements, it has been 4 months now. Our son all of sudden started saying to us Mommy and Daddy, I want a baby brother or sister. Like Maddie and A.J because they are brother and sister (who are his cousins).

Hmm… made us start to think about trying again, honestly trying to add to our family for our little guy. So we decided for the month of July to start fasting every Sunday, prayed to receive a answer  on what to do to expand our family, and after attended the temple every week. This past week we finally received our answer.  On Thursday the 5th of July we received a phone call from Adoption Center of Choice, from Dave, or shall we say his fake name, he left a message on our answer machine. He said I wanted to see how you guys are doing and see if you have adopted yet or are still looking for your baby. Well at the time my hubby was sleeping and it woke him up he heard this msg. Then he feel back a sleep and he had a dream.  It started off completely different about a friend he found and was talking to them she ran off and he went to go find her.  Jason ran to our parking lot and  he was helping me find our baby,  there were lots of people adopting. It was so weird…. Then he woke up. My hubby shared his dream with me and I took it as revelation that we are suppose to adopt. I felt like that was an answer.   

 My hubby said to call the agency and  let’s see what there fee’s are. I did and my jaw dropped after calling him back I felt heartbroken after hearing the fee’s…  We begun by answering a few questions like what we are interested in, baby wise, then he said what is your budget your willing to work with.. We told him our budget, he said sorry you don’t qualify because our fee’s start off at $20,000-40.000 which does not include travel etc. I was heartbroken he said we have 8 birthmothers right now and if you could pay this you would not have to wait and you would get a baby… I thought well of course anyway one can get a baby if they pay that amount. Then my hubby suggested going through LDS Family services again. He said he actually was receiving the promptings a month in a half ago and actually did not want to tell me because he knew how giddy and excited I would be. Getting on the ball… He said he wanted to make sure this was something he really wanted to do before telling me. He said he actually has never been so baby hungry and when he see’s families with kids he wants that for us. He now understands how it feels to want a baby and is ready for it.

 I just cried and thought wow!!! Lord is wonderful to answer us. We thank our family and friends for praying for us and fasting we have received our answer and we are going to start the process and grow our family through LDS Family services. We are really excited and know that it is by God’s hand that we were led in this direction and this is something we need to do. We are just so excited and our baby boy is going to be able to have a brother or sister, or both. Whatever God sends us. Funny thing is a few nights ago our son prayed to heavenly father saying I want a brown brother and sister like Maddie, or a brother like A.J please heavenly father send them to us. Wow those are powerful words coming from a 4 yr old. His cousins, are brother and sister and they look alike so I guess my boy wants someone that looks like him. We are a rainbow family and we will gladly except whatever babies or baby the lord sends are way... We are so excited for this adventure. Let the paperwork begin here is to our baby or babies 2012 is going to be a great year!!!!

God is real and he knows us and he loves us so much he has plans for us and wants us all to be happy here on earth if we will just put are trust in him and have faith. He will bless us with all that we need and answer us  and we can not wait to begin this Journey. So travel along with us as we begin this process at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adoption-Genesis-and-Jason-hoping-to-add-another-one-to-our-family/242641369112443

Want to learn more about my Love for the lord and our struggles of daily life and what we go through. You can read praying-4-more-miracles.blogspot.com

Your friend, Gen

For you...

Dear Birthmother,

You don't know me, and maybe you never will. I can tell you that I don't know exactly what you're going through because all our stories are different. But I can tell you a few things about what you are about to experience.

Please, love your baby. Connect with your baby before he or she is born. Bond with them after they are born. Your baby needs to feel that love from you, because a part of them will always remember that love. You don't ever want to regret not connecting with that baby. It is so worth it. The love you will share, for however short a time until placement, will stay with you forever. It will buoy you up when you start to ache. It is real, and it is unending. You will never stop loving your baby.

Placement will hurt. So much. You may be numb right after, and that's okay. But let yourself hurt. Open yourself up and just ache. You need to feel that pain, don't try to hide from it. There will be mornings you wake up and you will honestly think you can't live another moment. Sometimes the grief will make you want to just curl up and disappear. But I promise you, it will ease. Slowly, day by day, it will ease some. Pray often, and pray hard. No matter how you lived your life prior to placement, our Heavenly Father is there for you. He will hold you, and though you won't be able to see Him or feel Him, He will be there. Then, one day, you'll wake up and you won't immediately cry. One day, you'll be able to look at a picture of your baby with his or her new parents and you will smile. You will be able to recognize the love that is there, and you will be able to relate to that love. One day, you will do something normal. And you will remember how much it hurt before, and be grateful that you made it through the pain.

You will run into people who don't understand, and who will not want to understand why you decided to place. That's okay. You don't need to justify yourself to anyone. It was your decision and yours alone. Nobody else can possibly know what was best for your baby or for you.

And then... someone will come into your life. He will fall in love with you, and he will think you hung the moon. He will learn your story, and will love you BECAUSE you made the decision you did. He will recognize that you are a strong, amazing daughter of God. You made a selfless, incredible sacrifice on behalf of someone else, and because of that your spirit will radiate out to those around you. He will recognize that, and he will cherish you. He will treat you the way that you deserve to be treated.

Not all of this will happen fast, and not all of this will happen in that order. But I promise you this, birthmomma... You are loved. By me, and by thousands of other women who made this decision. You are in a sisterhood, and there will always be someone there to hold you. There are thousands of couples waiting to be chosen who love you because you give them hope by what you have endured, and by what you about to endure. Most important, there is a family out there and we hope that we are it or hope you find the family for your baby it is so hard to express our love and gratitude we will be forever grateful. The love we feel for you is overwhelming. You may never know how important you are to so many people. I pray for you every day, and I hope you can look back on this experience in the future and say "I did something so hard, and I survived. I am happy."

Love, Genesis

Welcome!

Thank you for taking a minute to learn more about us. We were so grateful to adopt Elijah and hope to see our family continue to grow. When we first started discussing adoption, it just felt right it felt like our little miracle. There were several birthmothers who contacted us in the adoption process and it was amazing how fast we loved them. Whether or not our family was right for their baby, we wanted the best for them. When we met Elijah's birthmother, everything fell into place. We could not understand what she was going through, but we knew that she made an incredibly difficult choice and one that required great sacrifice. We knew how much she loved her son and we were in awe of her selflessness. Elijah is truly a gift and we love being a part of his life and watching him grow.

We pray for you during this difficult time and hope you have lots of love and support surrounding you. We hope we get the chance to know you!

Dear birth parents,
We are very grateful for your willingness to read a little about our lives and letting us give you a glimpse of what we are all about. We respect you for your courage in making such a difficult decision, and pray that you can do what is best for you and your child. We also want you to know of the love that we feel for you.
Jason: It is certainly hard to limit your life to a few paragraphs and get all of the meat and potatoes in, but I'd love to give it a try. Ever since I can remember I have been absolutely crazy about sports. I have many fond memories of attending sporting events with my family and more often than not with my Dad. I have always had a great desire to teach my children sports and would love to be their support as they learn the wonderful qualities of teamwork, fair play, discipline, and others. I want to instill confidence in my children that they can accomplish anything that they put their minds to.
Besides being physically active I love to play challenging board games and strategy games with my family. Learning has become ever more interesting the older that I've grown. I suppose the biggest learning experience as of yet would be my marriage with Genesis. She certainly is the most loving individual that I have ever met. There is hardly a day that will go by that she isn't doing something for me just to make my life a little easier. She absolutely loves animals and is constantly "hinting" or as she calls it, "planting seeds" to get me interested in some kind of pet. One of Genesis' greatest qualities is her love for children no matter who they are. Whenever a baby enters the room I get myself good and comfortable because I know that we won't be leaving for a long time and I won't be getting much attention for a while. That is just Genesis. Her smile definitely lights up a room!
Genesis: A little bit about myself: I love to try new things that usually involve crafts, scrap booking and decorating. I love spending time outdoors with my family as well.
I am ½ Thai and bring my culture into our home—we celebrate Thai New Year and I love to cook Thai spicy food!
I wanted to share with you how me and Jason met. I got Baptized in February 2002 ,and I was a new convert to the church; little did I know I would meet my prince charming there! I was asked as a new member to go and give a talk of my conversion. My mother in law enjoyed my talk so much so she wrote Jason a letter while he was on his mission and let him know that I was a new convert and my testimony was strong. When Jason came home he had to give his talk in sacrament meeting and it was his homecoming talk that really did the trick. I was going through a really hard time being the only member in my family and I needed some inspiration and happiness to get through this hard time. When Jason went up to give his talk I thought he's good looking I wonder if he would go on a date with me ? So when Jason gave his talk he said words that hit me hard when he talked about loving the Lord so much and putting God first in his life. I needed to hear that so bad It sure helped me so much.. I went up to thank Jason for his beautiful talk and how I appreciated it so much.
Through a little match making on his mothers side were finally able to go out on a date. When things started getting serious I had to make a choice between going on a mission or getting married. After time apart and a lot of prayers I knew we needed to be together.
We wanted to begin our family shortly after we married, but we were faced with infertility. We finally decided that adoption would be the right choice for us. We wanted to be parents in any way possible. We were thrilled when a birth mother in Louisiana chose us to be parents to their baby girl. Unfortunately, when we flew out to meet them , they changed their minds and we were empty-handed.
We were devastated but decided that we should make the most out of the situation . While sightseeing Louisiana we got a call that another birth mother would like to meet us in Georgia. We felt so blessed and knew we wouldn’t have had the opportunity if we had went home discouraged. We quickly went to Georgia and once again had the hopes that a new baby would soon be ours.
In May 2008, we were able to bring our new baby Elijah home. I feel so blessed to stay home with him and watch him grow. He is such a fun little boy and has brought so much happiness into our home. We feel so grateful to his birth parents who made this sacrifice. We are often in contact with them through letters, pictures and occasional phone calls. If they lived closer we would also be comfortable with visits.
Elijah just turned 5 May of this year. We would love to have another child and a playmate for him. We have done fertility treatments, adoption and we even were foster parents, hoping that we would be led in the right direction or it would lead us to a adoption. However that has not panned out yet...
We will be 100% honest with our future child about their adoption and what a miracle it is . He or she will know of the enormous love that you have for them and of the courage and sacrifice that you made on their behalf. We will forever be grateful to have this opportunity.

Elijah

Age: 5

Hair Color: Dark Brown

Eye Color: Brown

African American

Adopted/Open Adoption

FAVORITES:

Movie: Rio, Kung fu Panda, Cars

Color: Black

Book: If Dinosaurs went to school

Actor/Actress: KungFu Panda, Phineas & Ferb

Restaurant: Anything

Food: Pizza

TV Show: Cat in the Hat, Dinosaur Train

Song: I am a child of God

Treat: Chocolate

Sport: Baseball, Basketball, Football anything with balls.

Genesis

Age: 31

Height: 4'11"

Hair Color: Dark Brown

Eye Color: Brown

Wife, Stay at Home Mommy

Asian/ Caucasian

Favorites:

Movies: I'm all about chick flicks, Comedy, Action

Color: Red

Book: The Secret, Standing in holy places series.

Actor/Actress: Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts

Restaurant: Cafe Rio, Red Robin,

TV Show: Voice, Everybody loves Raymond , Extreme Makeover.

Song: ?? Depends On The Day

Food: Anything spicy...

Treat: Have to be craving a treat. Or shall I say I love chocolate!

Sport: College Football

I am the oldest of 1 (I have 1 younger brother). I grew up back and forth from Utah and moved back to Thailand.. In my free time (Ha!) I enjoy reading, crafting, scrap booking, and blogging and refinishing furniture of course photography it's my life.

Jason

Age: 32

Height: 5"10

Hair Color: Brown

Eye Color: Blue

Husband/Daddy

Mail processor

Caucasian

FAVORITES:

Movie: Any Comedy, School of Rock, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Action Movies

Color: Yellow

Book: The Secret

Actor/Actress: Denzell Washington, Sandra Bullock

Restaurant: Red Robin, Tucanos, Leatherby's

TV Show: Turning Point & Everybody loves Raymond

Song: Truly madly deeply

Food: Chicken Broccoli casserole

Treat: Ice cream and Brownies

Sport: Softball, Basketball, Football

Jason is the 2nd of 3 kids, and grew up in Taylorsville , Utah.. He served a mission to Vladivostok, Russia for our church. He enjoys playing with our boy, Going on walks with the family. Playing video games and playing softball and Basketball. :)

We keep our promises

Thank you.

Thank you for being willing to consider adoption. It has been a huge blessing in our lives, and we know without a doubt that our Father in Heaven is very much involved in adoption. We want you to know that we're willing to have an open adoption and open relationship with you.

We promise to love and cherish your baby. He/she will have 1 big brother that will always look out for and protect and love him/her. We promise that we will make education an important part of your child's life. We will do everything we can to help him/her with their education. It will be encouraged. We will set up a mission) fund as soon as its possible, so that when the time comes the financial part will be taken care of. We appreciate the time and expense it may take to develop your child's interests and talents, and we will make every effort to let them pursue their dreams.

We promise that your baby will always know about youand the great love that you have for him/her. He/she will always know of the sacrifices you made in order for your baby to have their needs met before your own. Adoption is not about giving up your baby. Its about giving them more. :)

We love this quote and hope that our family might be the answer to your prayers:

"There is something called prayer trading, and we're going to trade prayers with somebody. Somewhere out there is a girl praying for a good family for her baby. We are praying for a good tummy with a baby in it, and we're going to answer each others' prayers" -Troy Dunn

With Love,
Jason,Genesis,Elijah