Deep Breath, Big Leap of Faith

Deep breath, big leap of faith.  This is my mantra for the next big step in our lives: adoption!  Jeff and I have started the process for opening our hearts and home to an infant through domestic adoption.  We just found out today that our formal application has been approved!

Though we just began the official process of finding an agency and submitting our preliminary and formal applications back in February, I feel like my whole life has really been preparing me for this time.  Having been adopted myself from South Korea at 18 months, I've kind of just had it in my mind ever since I can remember that someday I would like to adopt a child myself.  Thankfully, in Jeff, God gave me my husband/best friend who shares in that dream.

So why did we choose domestic infant adoption?  I guess you could say that it choose us.  From the beginning of our marriage, we had discussed hopes for having a biological child and then adopting a child of the opposite gender from South Korea since there is an obvious connection there for us.  What is the saying?  If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.

Fast forward a few years and we found ourselves in the midst of a 3 year battle with infertility trying to conceive our daughter.  Knowing that we did not want to go down the path of assisted reproductive technology, we sought out a wonderful reproductive endocrinologist who performed a bunch of tests to see if he could determine the problem.  After a few months of vitamin supplements for both of us and a minor surgery to remove my uterine fibroids and polyps, we got pregnant naturally!  The joy was quickly overshadowed by a very bad bout of Hyperemesis Gravidarum that keep me hospitalized twice, bedridden for 3 months and sicker than I've ever been in my life.  You can read my post about that time here.  Against all odds, we welcomed our miracle baby, Shay, into the world on March 15, 2010.

Sometime last year, we began to revisit our original adoption plans and discovered, to our complete surprise and dismay, that the South Korean government will not adopt children to couples with more than a 10 year age gap.  Jeff and I are 11 1/2 years apart.  18 months separate us from being able to adopt from my own native country.  Ironically, the age I was when I was adopted to my forever family.

With our dreams of adopting from South Korea dashed, we were completely thrown for a loop and stepped back to weigh our options.  We even went back to see our doctor to undergo some fertility tests just to see if another biological child was an option (why yes, I was asking myself if I was completely crazy to even entertain the notion of going through H.G. again).  All the while, we were praying for clarity and direction.

Before we got our test results back, we found an adoption agency that we felt very good about and attended an informational session.  It is a long-standing, reputable, Christian based agency with offices all over the country.  The Nashville office only places infants for domestic adoption.  Armed with a new world of possibilities, we prayed once again for clarity.  It came back in the form of a meeting with our doctor who basically told us that there are some issues with both of us that would make our chances of conceiving naturally again next to zero.  I know that hearing "you're infertile" is probably a statement that most people who want kids would not find relief in hearing, but we felt that it was an definitive answer to our prayer.  This launched us fully into the adoption world and we haven't looked back.

Even domestic adoption is likely going to be a long, daunting process.  However, we're excited to start the journey and hopefully be able to bring our baby home one day.  There are a lot of steps to the process, but I'll try to keep this blog updated as we have more news (told you this blog would go in a bunch of different directions).  Please pray for us as you think of it. 

Deep breath.  Big leap of faith...

Shay's New Favorite Snack Recipe - No Bake Energy Bites

Jeff likes to always have Quaker Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bars on hand so you can imagine that it didn't take long for Shay to convert to mooch mode as soon as she heard the wrapper being opened.  I decided I wanted to try to find a recipe for homemade granola bars of sorts that would incorporate healthy, non-processed ingredients so I turned to my latest go-to, Pinterest!  What I found was the perfect recipe courtesy of Smashed Peas and Carrots, No Bake Energy Bites.  These were an instant hit and are now a staple in our house.  Nutritious recipe for my toddler and easy to make?  Yes, please!

1 cup whole grain oats
1/2 cup organic peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1/3 cup local honey (I've read that local honey helps build natural allergy immunities)
1 cup toasted coconut flakes, cooled
1/2 cup ground flaxseed (yay for omega-3's!)
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (okay so one not-so-healthy ingredient, you could probably substitute organic raisins)
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients together in large bowl until fully incorporated.  Chill in refrigerator for 1/2 hour.  Once chilled, roll into balls and enjoy!  Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to a week.

(Note: I just spread it into one even layer in a rectangular plastic container and cut pieces as needed instead of rolling into balls).  You could also cut into bar shapes.)

Things No One Tells You Before Becoming a Parent - Vaseline

Back in the day of setting up our baby gift registries, when we had no clue as to what we actually needed, we saw a big 'ol tub of Vaseline labeled for babies.  I'm sure it's just regular Vaseline, but the pink & blue baby label drew in these naive parents-to-be.  It just seemed at the time that it was something we should add to the registry.  It was in the baby section after all!

Fast forward two years and said big 'ol tub of Vaseline has hardly ever been used.  Until 3 days ago when Shay decided to take the lid off and scoop out gobs of it, smearing it all over her arms, legs, clothes, hair, our guest bedroom comforter and her daddy as he tried to grab her.  Bath #1 resulted in getting the goo off of her skin but did absolutely nothing for her hair.  Strike one.  A friend of mine Googled the How To's of how to get Vaseline out of hair.  We tried one of the suggestions of rubbing with baby oil (supposedly to get the Vaseline out) followed by a shampoo (supposedly to get the baby oil out).  Strike two.  We put Shay to bed and she looked like a grease monkey the next morning.  The third attempt involved Dawn dish soap followed by shampoo.  Success!  In fact, quite amazing success (thank you Google, Kristen & Jennifer)!

Moral of the story...don't keep Vaseline within a toddler's reach.  If this fails (which it or something like it will inevitably do), keep a bottle of Dawn handy.

Things No One Tells You Before Becoming a Parent - Toddlers Can Rupture Eardrums

I'm compiling a list of things that no one prepares you for when becoming a parent, the most recent being that loud, shrill screams from your baby can have the power to perforate an eardrum.  That's right folks, Shay literally shrieked a hole right into her Daddy's ear.  My sweet little Seraphina has turned into a banshee!

Goodnight Moon!

We're on our second hard copy of the book Goodnight Moon. The first one got worn out from so much use and ultimately met its demise in a toilet bowl (thanks to a precocious toddler who will remain nameless)!  The current copy has definitely seen better days.  Thanks to Grandma Pam for both copies.  Since Grandma should not be an eternal source of Goodnight Moon books, we found an alternative...YouTube to the rescue!  This animation brings the book to life and we all love it.  It's part of Shay's bedtime routine to watch this along with a few other favorite videos linked below.  Enjoy!

Goodnight Moon

Goodnight Gorilla

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (Shay's absolute favorite video. Ever!)



Shay's Favorite Snack Recipe - Nut Butter Balls

I've been meaning to post this for quite some time and just haven't gotten around to it.  I like to try to make new things in an effort to expand Shay's food list and she absolutely loves these nut butter balls.  The recipe is courtesy of one of my favorite baby books The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet.  This book is filled with a lot of great recipe ideas for babies and toddlers.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup unsalted or lightly salted cashews
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup dry milk powder
1 T. honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Pulse cashews in a food processor until they are fine crumbles, but not smooth cashew butter.  Add the remaining ingredients and process until combined.  Form into small, bite sized balls.  Store tightly covered in refrigerator.

Sorry, I don't have enough blogging foresight to take a photo.  You'll just have to make them yourselves and let me know if your little one likes them as much as Shay does!

Bad Blogger

Hi, my name is Jamie and I'm a bad blogger. 

It's been awhile since I've last posted anything on here.  I'm actually still debating the direction I want to go with this blog since I'm obviously really slow at updating what's been going on in the life of the Burton family. 

I've been getting a lot of questions from friends about all things baby.  While I'm very far from any sort of child rearing expert, I'm learning a lot...on a daily basis it seems!  So when I get the time and the motivation to start typing out some more thoughts, I'll probably start sharing more about some of the baby products, blogs, advice, etc. that I'm discovering works (or doesn't).  The recommendations from friends and advice I've discovered from other parenting resources has been so helpful so I'd like to pay it forward.

Stay tuned...