Mel & Her Boys +1

I've been begging Jake to let me get another puppy. I want a girl. She will be little. I will call her Penelope. She will be mine. Then we'd have Petey, Pate & Penelope. Cute, right? Jake has refused to agree to this crazy puppy dream of mine now for years. I think I'm starting to break him down; with the help of a very cute little person. The last time my older sister and her family were here visiting there were white lab puppies for sale at Cabelas. Of course my little niece Amelia needed to see the puppies. They were so stinkin cute, I completely understand her desire to see them. My sister told me later that Amelia was convinced that we had gotten one of those puppies and named it Grassy Field. Jake was so close to agreeing to go get one after Amelia smothered him in her puppy-loving-sweetness and the expectation that we would have said new puppy with us next time we came to visit. Who could possibly disappoint such a sweet little niece? However, now probably isn't the best time for a new puppy. The boys are finally calming down, there is a lot less chewing of household items. Petey is all healed up and happy after his knee surgery. Pate has finally learned how to stop without running into something to stop him. The latter being a pretty monumental development (you should have seen the bruises this dog could inflict).

...And, we are going to have our hands full as we are expecting via adoption! That's right, a B*A*B*Y!!!! We are so ready to have a little "+1" and are blessed to be growing our family via adoption. We are excited, our families are excited, we are excited. Did I mention the excitement? For Jake and me, after being together for over 10 years, it is a pretty awesome thing to look at each other and make the intentional decision to become parents together. Jake is going to be a great dad. I can't wait to watch him.

We've started to share the news with friends and family, and then were quickly overwhelmed by how many people we ought to be calling. Enter the blog-o-world and its awesomeness. Responses have been mixed (I guess adopting at our age is a left-fielded-curve-ball of sorts), but once our news translates to the fact that we are becoming parents there is a lot of excitement and support. The most surprising reaction to date of our news was from my boss. Keep in mind I'm working for a small start up company and have only been there for 9 months...and on some level Boss scares the heck out of me. He's intense. I'll get you up to speed on Boss in another post, but his genuine excitement was awesome! It was such a relief to tell him, feel the energy of his reaction, and get to be outwardly excited myself.

Adoption is this amazing, awesome and humbling, yet quite foreign, thing to go through. Imagine becoming first time parents, but not really know how it all goes down. We are technically still fairly early in the process, have much more of the journey to travel and have much more to learn. To date the journey has been kind and gentle on us. I've chosen to be faithful, positive, and patient in my approach and mindset to this journey. It might get bumpy. In fact, I should probably expect it to.

This is not only an adoption story, this my journey into motherhood....Yay!!!

I hope to share information on the process, how we are handling it all, the funny awkward things that you have to talk about and figure out along the way, and most importantly the joy of growing a family!