Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Adoption Update

The totals are in, we raised $400 from the Pajama Fundraiser. Thank you so much to all those who ordered the comfy PJ's!!! :)

Well, if you saw the Waiting for Dallas facebook page a few days ago we shared a prayer request as well as a praise.

More info about our prayer request:

Over the past several months we have been in contact with a local birth mom. We have been hoping that if she did choose adoption that she would pick us to be that lucky couple to adopt her baby. Her due date is quickly approaching but as of right now she has not made any clear decisions which make is very hard to see things going any further. In this current situation as well as the others that we were hoping would work out Chris and I are ONLY praying for God's Will; even if that mean we are meant to just keep waiting. So for now we are going to focus on the agency and if she does come to us within the next few weeks we will see where is goes. Either way the birth mom and her sweet baby are always in our prayers.

More info about our PrAiSe:

The adoption agency that we have chosen is the St. Elizabeth Foundation. For the past few months the awesome ladies there have been extremely helpful. Since the agency is in Louisiana they have worked with us so that we were able to meet all the Texas as well as Louisiana's state requirements for adoption. The only thing we have left to do on our end is to complete our profile book (click on the link to learn more about a profile book). Chris and I have been working with one of very good friends Amy to put our book together and we plan on having it complete by the end of Dec.  Once they receive our profile book they will show it to prospective birth moms and dads so that they can be part of the process of choosing the couple that their child will call mom and dad.

Okay now to the exciting part ...
A few days ago I called the agency to let them know about the profile book and to make sure we had done everything else we needed to do and I was told that we are officially #11 on their waiting list.
When I heard that my heart hit the floor (in a bad way) because the previous agency that we were going to work with only did about 1 adoption a month and in my mind I thought that meant it was going to be another 11 months before we would be #1.

I was honestly holding back tears as I said, " What exactly does that mean?" 


She quickly replied, "Well there is really no way to know an exact time, it just depends on how many birth moms we have come to our agency....(my stomach was in knots as I was trying to calculate just how long that would be then she continues) ... it could honestly be as soon as a month or maybe 3 or 4 months, again it just depends." 

I then quickly asked, "Well what if we get to #1 and you don't have our profile book?"

She replied, "Just get it to us when you can. It will all work out in His timing." 

Those words still ring in my ears. That right there is one of the biggest reasons why we picked this agency. They are amazing, encouraging, honest, and are truly seeking God's will for each birth mom and dad, baby and adoptive parent that is a part of their agency. 

YAY! That's our new excited news! Thank you so much to all that have been praying for Chris, Dallas, and myself. We are hoping that 2015 will be a VERY exciting year for us!

Please take to time to share our story with all your friends and family and be sure to share our You Caring page
Dallas' adoption is going to cost about $30,000.00 and as of today we have raised $15,880.00 which means we only need to $14.120.00 in order to reach our goal. 
You can make a donation directly on our page or you can wait and keep an eye out for our upcoming fundraisers!

Again, thank you so much to all our friends, family, acquaintances and even complete strangers that have been praying for us! 
Keep it up!

Friday, October 24, 2014

Pajamas!

This is your chance to do some Christmas shopping and help us bring baby Dallas home at the same time! It's SO simple!!

2.  Pick ANY 3 items for $30.00

3.  Message or email me the pattern, size, and quantity you would like.

4.  Make the check out to Bethany Lopez 
*Add $3.50 for every $30 you spend to cover the tax
**If you are out of state or live far away PLEASE add an additional $5 to cover shipping!**
Orders and payments DUE by DECEMBER 1st!!

**40% of every $30 spent will help bring baby Dallas home!

Thank you all soooo much for the support!

Total raised: $14591.14
Amount still needed to adopt through our agency: $15,408.81

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Home Study

First I want to say THANK YOU SoOoOoOoO Much to all those who were praying for Chris and myself yesterday during our home study! It went GREAT! It will take a few weeks for the social worker to type up the official approval but once that is done we are cleared for all adoption opportunity that may come our way through our agency or private. :)
We are very happy it's over and excited about the future!

Monday, August 18, 2014

Summer and Adoption Update

It just hit me today that I have not blogged all summer! You would think that since school is out I would have so much more time on my hands but that was just not the case. I'm still learning how to say "no" to things when I already have so many other things going on. :)

Here is a little recap of my summer . . .
I love going to church camp with the kiddos every summer!

This summer I had to leave camp a little early for a very important interview and GOOD NEWS, I got the job!!! I am going to be a kindergarten teacher this coming school year!

Chris and I went to the Lopez Family Reunion this summer . . .

We also got a take a very fun trip to Kentucky with some of our very best friends for a week of relaxing, four wheeling and hanging out . . .

We had a little date night at the drive-in movie!

This was just a few of the fun things that made up this crazy fun summer. :)

Adoption Update:
At the beginning of June Chris and I got our finger prints done and finally got all the adoption agency paperwork filled out and put it in the mail ...
Not long after the paperwork was mailed we got the 
"All-Clear/Approval" from the agency!!!!! :)

The next step was the home study paperwork and in July we were able to put that in the mail ...
The social worker called and we have set the date for the home study! It's the end of September!!!

We have been very open about our adoption journey and as many of you know we are open to an adoption through the agency as well as a private adoption! I posted this past Saturday evening on the Waiting to Dallas page that we met with a birth mom and her family about a possible private adoption. We want to ask that you all continue to pray. We have not made a final decision yet and we can not give any more details than that but when I have more to tell I will! :) 
As much as we are HOPING and PRAYING that this is baby Dallas we want God's will to be done!

Newest Fundraiser Update:
Purchase a raffle ticket for only $11 and you are entered to win some super cute Thirty-One swag! 
Click here for all the details!!

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Babies Laughing

My best friend, Heather, recently posted an old video of her babies laughing on facebook and as I was watching I was reminded of the day these sweet babies were born. They we so small and fragile and they were fighting for their lives. There were times that even the doctors seemed like there was no hope left but thankful we service a MIGHTY God who was and is watching over the babies.
Now they are 5 years old and FULL of life! There is NEVER a dull moment and I am so thankful that Chris (aka Uncle Rufus) and Myself (aka Aunt Bethy) get to be a part of their lives on an almost daily basis! Below are just a few of the videos I found of these babies laughing . . .

Monday, May 19, 2014

7 Years

7 year ago today Chris and I said, "I Do!"
It was and still is one of the best decisions of my life!
This past weekend we booked a hotel and planned a weekend a relaxing of celebrating my graduation and our anniversary. We kicked off the weekend with a graduation party with some of our friends . . .
We were definitely missing a few people but thank you so much to those 
that came out and celebrated with us! :)

When we got to hotel that night they upgraded our room to a suite and 
when we walked in this is what we found ....
Saturday morning we got to sleep in and when we woke up we realized we really didn't have ANYTHING planned other than a concert that night ... It was an amazing feeling! :)
We went shopping, to the movies and just enjoyed each others company.

That evening we met up with Uncle Scott and went to Richardson for the annual Wildflower Festival. 
We saw Joan Jett from REALLY far away then we headed over to watch 
Here is a clip of them singing one of their hits: Three Marlenas

We were able to sleep in AGAIN Sunday morning! It was sooo nice not having to set an alarm for anything. 
Sunday afternoon, after another movie we went and had our yearly couples massage and then we headed home to get everything ready for another week of work and to love on our Georgie!

Here is a glimpse of the last 7 years . . .
7 Years
100's of Fights & Make-ups
3 Dogs, 4 Homes, 6 Cars
70 - The number of anniversaries I still want
to spend with You!

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Mother at Heart

Here we are again, it's almost Mother's Day and yet again I am not holding my baby in my arms. Yes, it is very frustrating and I'm going to apologize now if I randomly start crying through out the day but even through all this I still have hope!

Honestly though, even with hope some days just plain SUCK! Some days I just can't take it anymore, I stop trying to keep it together and I am sad. I'm sad because I know without a doubt that God would not have placed this overwhelming desire on my heart to be a mom if that was not going to happen one day and I am sad because that day isn't today. I am sad because I already have so much love for my baby/babies and I don't get to share that with them. I'm sad because there are parents that don't realize that their screaming baby is a gift from God and I would give anything to be tired because my baby kept me up all night.
Some days I am just plain sad!

My prayer is that God will continue give me comfort as we wait for Dallas (our adopted baby) & Jameson (if/when I conceive). I pray that God continues to lead us as we are making decisions about our future family and that He will be with Chris as he is dealing with my emotional  breakdowns.
I am thankful to know that I am not alone through this journey because God has blessed me with an amazing husband and supportive friends that have seen me at my worst and my best and love me the same.

One day I will be a mom
and one day I will get to hold and snuggle my baby on Mother's Day
but for now ...

God Bless
-Bethany