Here we are just a few months later to provide an update to our adoption process. We reached out to our agency at the beginning of February and have been having some trouble with consistent communication with them. The same update as it has been the last few times: your book is being shown, all is well, time for your home study update. We have completed the paperwork for our upcoming home study update and are just waiting on our agency to contact us to tell us the next steps. Waiting is not easy.
If you are an educator, parent or just enjoy children’s books, you may know the Author Mo Willems. He is the author of the Elephant and Piggie books as well as the Pigeon books. One of his books is titled “Waiting is Not Easy!”. That is how both of us are feeling right now. Waiting is not easy.
These last few months since Tommy’s surgery have been beautiful, heart-breaking, and have helped us grow closer to God, even in our frustrations and sadness. Tommy’s surgery went very well! His instant relief of pain in his spine was incredible! Even through some struggles at the early stages of recovery, all was well, and he was able to take time off from work to recover. We got to spend so much time with each other, friends, and family. So many people showed us love and support as he was recovering and Ashley was doing most things around the house. He continues to do well and will have a follow-up appointment this summer to see what more has improved since Spinal Surgery does take time to heal.
In addition to this great relief and hope, we had some other news shared. Ashley’s brother and his wife shared the most wonderful news with us in early December- “We’re pregnant!”. Oh how much joy we had! Also, how much sadness it brought us! What a wonderful gift to become parents and give us the opportunity to be an aunt and uncle, but dear God why not us? The 3 days after they told us were so hard. They wanted to tell Ashley’s parents in person, but they were out of town so we had to wait to talk to them. We went over as soon as we could after they told them and we both cried. We cried so hard. We have learned how to navigate our friends, extended family, and coworkers announcing pregnancies, but this was new territory and we did not know how we would react until we heard the news. We are SO excited for them and with them! They have been so understanding and wonderful as we share with them that any tears they may see are a reflection of our own sadness in not being able to start a family and not a reaction to their happiness and joy. We are so excited to welcome Baby Slay in August!
We really do not know of God’s plan, but we are sure being tested if we are trusting Him.
Tommy returned to work at Amazon on January 5th. He was coming home tired, but not in as much pain as he was prior to surgery. On January 28th, he was let go. Unexpectedly. First thing in the morning. No Job Lined Up. We did not know what we were going to do. Our home study update was coming up. We needed to fill out a financial statement and Tommy had just lost his job. He went home immediately and began applying. He applied to easily more than 100 positions in a 2 day time-frame. We lost our health insurance on January 31st. Just 3 days after he was let go. Luckily he was able to go see his doctor last minute the 29th, but that was a huge, fast change. The 1st week of his unemployment, he finally got 1 lead from a former coworker. Pools of Fun- the company he had worked for before Amazon and was at for 10 years. He had an interview less than 2 weeks after he lost his job and was hired by the end of that week. He is enjoying his new position and even leaves for a work trip in the next few days! We really know nothing of God’s plan, but he sure is testing us.
In the middle of all of this, Ashley’s mom started to realize she was having a lot of symptoms that pointed to something more. This something more happened to also be Tethered Cord Syndrome. How in the world does that happen?! Ashley’s mom went to the EXACT SAME doctor as Tommy did and had the EXACT SAME surgery that he had just 3 months later (almost to the day). She is doing well and has found herself in much less pain, but my goodness! These last few months have been a rollercoaster.
As we head into the next couple of months, and are in the season of Lent, we are praying together. We are celebrating new life with family and friends. We are trying to spend less time with technology and doing things that suck our time rather than provide enrichment. We continue to pray for all of our village, our future child, and their birth families. We continue to hope, even if it is hard. We are hoping that God’s plan doesn’t have any more curveballs in the near future, but if it does- we will be trying to take them with patience and trust in his plan.