As you probably know by some of my previous posts, Matt and I have had a lot of trouble starting a family.  We have been living with infertility and miscarriages for almost 6 years now.  Adoption has been in the back of our minds throughout most of this experience, and in the past year has come up more and more in our conversations.  I think both of us were a little afraid to talk about adoption with the other, because we didn’t want to make each other feel as though we were giving up hope for biological children.  We finally decided to go to an adoption information meeting at the Bethany Christian Services office in Indianapolis a couple months ago.  We left feeling really encouraged and ready to move ahead with the adoption process.  We are working on getting our initial application completed and submitted.  Hopefully they will accept our initial app and invite us to complete a formal application.

At this point (which is barely at the beginning) we are very worried about money.  I’m worried about passing the home visits and other interviews. I’m worried that no birth mother will choose us.  On one hand it’s encouraging to know that they take so much care and precaution into choosing their adoptive families.  On the other, it’s hard to know that there are millions of people who can just get pregnant without all this pre-approval!  It is what it is though…

In an attempt to raise some money for our adoption, we have started a ChipInwhere people can donate online.  I am also selling my photography at Etsy.  The photos I have posted are just a sampling of what I have available.  You can view my entire photostream on Flickr and e-mail me if there’s a photo you would like that isn’t listed on Etsy.  I can do many other sizes as well, so just let me know!

I’m collecting other ideas for fundraising as well.  If you can think of any, I’d love to hear them!  Leave me a comment to let me know.  We had a yard sale a few weeks ago, and the proceeds from that will be put towards our application fees.

On top of all this adoption excitement, we are still attempting to have a child biologically.  We have been meeting with a fertility specialist in Indianapolis, and he has tested us for about a thousand things.  After all these tests came back, it was determined that we’ve just had some bad luck.  It’s discouraging to not have a reason behind all these miscarriages, but it is good to know that there is nothing wrong.

Who knows?  Perhaps this time next year we’ll have been successful on both fronts, and we’ll need 2 cribs!