Kacy Hamar Photography!

We needed some updated pictures of us to submit with the application. They didn't have to be professional pictures, but me being me, insisted that they were! =) Kacy Hamar took our pictures and she is AMAZING! We just LOVE her! We have already recruited her to help capture our journey, so its a good thing she likes us! If you are in the Oklahoma City/Edmond area give her an e-mail or call and you can see her work at  kacyhamarphotography.com Thanks Kacy!! Here are a few!

Lilly is SO precious!

How we got here

Okay, so this post will probably be one of the longest post because everyone knows I can't be short and sweet! =) I am writing it (Kayleigh) but I just wanted to be clear that this is how Matt and I both got to this point... I am just the typer! (is that even a word?!) Taking it way back... I (Kay) have always had a heart for adoption, maybe not just adoption, but children in general. I wish I could pin point the how, why, and time... but I cannot.. I just remember I always have... fast forward in life and while Matt and I were dating of course the subject of kids came up and we talked about how many we wanted and so on.. and that's when I asked him how he felt about adoption and I can remember to this day his response of "I haven't really thought about it" me being the...I like to say persistent... some may say nagging...person that I am didn't let it go... so after talking about it.. and just time going by, he brought it up one day we both agreed that adoption was God's heart and that we would adopt kids one day. Fast forward some more...

Shortly and I mean shortly after we were married I started to have some female issues and about 2 months of being married I had to have surgery (not a big deal)... well about a month after the surgery (Aug. 2008) I was pregnant!! Crazy I know... but I was. In Oct. I started having some problems and had a miscarriage. We both have always wanted to be parents we just both assumed that we would be married for a while then have kids.. after the 1st pregnancy we decided we wanted to try again.. so we tried, and tried, and tried some more.. I have never EVER counted days on a calender like I did during that time! I think I was a little crazy... anyways, that went on for a year. So in Oct. of 2009 we went back to my obgyn (who is AMAZING) and talked to her about everything and after alot of test were run we found out I had PCOS. My doctor then proceeded to explain the first line of fertility medication we could try and being the sweetie that she is, she also gave us some advice and said since we were still pursuing she recommends that we talk about it and have a plan before we start about how far we would go. So we talked about it and prayed and decided we were just going to do 6 rounds of this medicine and that would be it for now. So after 6 months of I really don't even know how to explain it.. it was such a roller coaster experience... we still had not conceived. Through all this we knew God had a plan and we found comfort in that. So at that point we were sent to a specialist and there were more test and procedures to be done and honestly I was all for it, lets keep going.. but then when we stepped back and looked at the situation and prayed we knew that we had drawn a line for a reason. This all ended in the spring of 2010. Which this all brings us to where we are now.

Even when we started the fertility treatment we knew that we ARE going to be parents, we knew that there were kids out there that needed parents and we could be those parents. So after that we just took time and prayed about adoption, talked about it everyday it seemed like and I must say, there were times when we would go back and fourth about timing. Like, we are to young, its going to be hard, its really expensive... maybe we should wait until we have more money. It could go on forever! The whole time though God kept tugging... and breaking our hearts for these precious kids.. and I will never forget this next moment.. we were in the car pulling out of our neighborhood and we turn on the radio and the first thing we hear is "What are you waiting for?" (Britt Nicole's song walk on water) and it was in that moment that we just knew, this is God's plan for us.. and what are we waiting for? He will be with us every step! Looking back I don't know why we went through some of the things we have and I may never know this side of heaven, but I DO know that we are exactly where God wants us. And we don't want anyone to feel like adoption is our plan B, it most certainly is not! We wanted to have kids and to adopt kids, we just thought it would be in that order and well, God said no, in my order. We know with God anything is possible if its in his plan, so maybe we will have kids, maybe we will adopt more, and maybe we won't.. but we would rather be in Gods will and scared to death, then comfortable out of God's will.

Almost finished! =) Why international? Why Ethiopia? This my friends will be short and sweet! We know there are children everywhere who needs parents, even here in the US.. but all we wanna say is that God has placed the children in Ethiopia on our hearts and we have prayed, prayed, prayed and this is where God has us, pursuing adoption from Ethiopia, Africa.

The post below is a video that God used to speak to us and touch our hearts! Please watch!! But have a box of kleenex ready!! Ps. you might wanna pause the music on our playlist at the bottom so you can hear the video! =)

Love!!

The video that inspired us! Lucy Lane's Gotcha Day

Why a blog?

SoOoOo....  We have decided to start a blog and I am not going lie, I am a little intimidated. Matt and I talked about it and we are doing so for TWO big reasons, #1 I am not a big scrapbooker (even though I love to if I have time, but I am running short on that as always) so we want to be able to have some form of journaling of our steps and our thoughts on the adoption process for our son to have and be able to read when he is older and #2 we have alot of friends and family that are SO excited for us and want to be "in the know" (:

We have not "officially" started the adoption process yet,(paper work wise) but Matt and I have been making changes in our life for a while now to prepare for this next step. We will share in another post soon "how we got here" but for now I am going to attempt to stay on topic (why a blog?) and anyone that knows me, knows this is going to be a little difficult! (:

Anywho, I guess I should include a little disclaimer now... *The blog is to share OUR heart, thoughts, and beliefs with family and friends about OUR journey of what God has been doing in our life, has called us to do, and how we are doing our best to follow him.*

Please keep us in your prayers, we know this is just the beginning of a loooong process but we are so excited God has chosen us to do this with him!
I also cannot post on this day and not mention to please continue to pray for the families who lost loved ones on 9/11 and for families that have loved ones serving our country.
MAY WE NEVER FORGET

LOVE!