Introducing...

Josiah Robert Ivy

Born December 28th, 2012 at 1132 AM

weighing 5lbs 15oz and 18 inches long

He was lovingly placed in our family for adoption December 29th,2012

We are so excited for all of you to meet our new little son Josiah.  He is doing well and was discharged from the hospital yesterday morning.  We had a bit of a scare when he was first born as he had trouble keeping his temp up and needed some IV fluids for some abnormal lab values.  We are thankful to say that he is living up to his name "The Lord Heals" and he was able to have the IV removed after 24 hours and was discharged right on time.  At this time the doctors have no concerns about his health they believe that perhaps he was just a bit dehydrated.  We are praising God for a healthy baby and a great time with both or our son's amazing birth mom.  I will write a more detailed post soon about how the past 3 days have gone but right now our time is limited for blogging but I wanted to make sure to let everyone meet our little man.  I will leave you with a few pictures from the past few days. Thank you for walking this road with us.  We are feeling a bit tired and we all have a bit of a cold but we are ecstatic about our new addition.  

Meeting Daddy for the first time!

Meeting big brother, Jeremiah

"Mom do we get to pick any one we want?"

Hanging with momma, waiting for discharge

"oh good he's packed up to be sent back"-Jeremiah :) 

And then there were 4. Heading home all together

Jeremiah-  "wait, he doesn't belong in here" 

Safe Travels

J playing in his first McDonald's Play place

After 25 hours in the car we made it to Salt Lake City.  It was a bit of daja vu as we drove over the mountain.  It is almost hard for us to believe that we are here.  Jeremiah did a great job on the road.  He probably slept for 20 of the 25 hours.  We are praising God for that.  Robert is a driving machine.  I kept telling him "we can stop at a hotel anytime" but he kept pushing through.  We did stop at a hotel parking lot for 1 hour when I wimped out on my driving shift because I couldn't keep my eyes open.  We are thankful that God kept us safe as we drove through the bitterly cold night on some very snowy roads.

After arriving in Salt Lake we ran a few errands and after that it was early to bed for all.  Jeremiah went down without a fight last night.  I'm hoping he got the memo that he is now a big brother and big brothers sleep through the night.

Driving over the mountain into Salt Lake

This afternoon we are anticipating that we will get to finally see Jeremiah's birth mom and meet the new little man.  We would appreciate your prayers for today as J's birth mom goes though labor.  Pray for a fast and safe delivery.  Pray for God to wrap his arms around her and comfort her as she thinks of giving another baby away.  Pray for Jeremiah to be a happy boy while we are together.  He is in his shy stage and sometimes cries around strangers and I know it would hurt her heart so much if he was upset when we were together.  And pray for words of love and grace to flow out of our mouths to her as we meet together this afternoon.  We know that in ourselves we have no comfort to give in such a hard time but we pray that we can be instruments of the true comforter, Jesus Christ to her.

Salt Lake City or Bust

Just a very quick update.  We made it through the holidays.  We got to see all of the family that we could and now we are putting the last things in the car to head out to Salt Lake City!  Praise the Lord for patience, for the nail in the tire before we pulled out, and for the snow being on the East side of the country and not the west.  We cannot wait to share a picture of our newest addition on Saturday.

Thank you so very much for all that have helped to make this possible.  It has been an amazing blessing to us.  Thank you for your prayers, words of encouragement and financial support.  We cannot wait to give a final update on all that has happened in the last 6 weeks to make this moment possible.  It's truly going to be an amazing story.

Please pray for safe travel and for peace for all 3 or us on the long drive.  We will keep the blog updated as we have things to share.

We love you ALL!

A quiver full

"Unless the Lord builds the house, 

those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city,

the watchman stays awake in vain.

It is in vain that you rise up early

and go late to rest,

eating the bread of anxious toil;

for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, 

the fruit of the womb a reward. 

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior 

are the children of one's youth.  

Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!

He shall not be put to shame when 

he speaks with his enemies in the gate."

Psalm 127 

I have been working hard this week to remind myself that "the fruit of the womb [is] a reward" This past week has been a bit overwhelming for me on many fronts.  We received word on Tuesday that there was a chance that our birth mom would be induced on December 28th.  This threw me for a big loop.  You would think that working with pregnant women all the time I would have it in my mind that a "due date" is more of a "due range" and truly our little man could come at anytime he decided to come but being faced with the reality that there would be a doctor choosing to deliver our son in just a week was a bit hard for me to swallow.  Oh and by the way, there is Christmas in there, a 5 hour trip to Wisconsin to see family for the holiday, your husband is in the midst of finals, you have an 11 month old who wants to hang on your leg or be held 24 hours a day and you do have a job that you are still expected to work... This was my reality this week.  To say that I was at melt down point was an understatement.  

But as I read this Psalm again it also says "HE will give his beloved rest" I am working hard to find my rest in Him.  In many ways I am so thankful that this is all happening at this Christmas season.  There are so many wonderful Christmas carols to be reminded of the Rest that God gives.  There is celebration of a baby and a reminder of the joy and excitement that a baby brings to the world.  And there are a lot of Christmas cookies to eat to deal with my stress. ;)  I am so thankful that God knows just what he is doing.  

With all of that being said our birth mom did go to the doctor yesterday and the induction is scheduled for December 28th.  It looks like we will be having two baby boys in 2012.  What a blessed family we are. We are thanking God that He is choosing to "fill our quiver" and we are SO incredibly thankful for the ways that He is providing to bring our newest little man home to us.  

We are praying and asking for wisdom as to travel plans.  We are praying for grace as we meet with our birth mom at the end of the week and Lord willing get to spend some time with her.  We are praying for patience with one another as we go though all of this exciting and crazy time together as a family. And most of all we are praying for rest and a chance to "rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing." 

God has been very good to us.  We are thankful for His faithfulness through these past months.  And we are thankful for his abundant blessings to us in so many ways, wonderful family and friends, a very steady job and soon to be two beautiful boys that bring much joy and laughter to our home.   

I know I say this in every post but we truly are SO thankful for each and everyone of our friends who has been encouraging us along this road. We truly feel that we are not in this alone and that brings much strength.   We pray that you too will have a time of rest and reflection on how God has blessed each of you this Christmas season. 

"O ye beneath life's crushing load, Whose forms are bending low, Who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow; Look now, for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing; Oh rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing." It came upon a midnight clear

Nesting

    Most pregnant women go through a phase that most people refer to as "nesting." It's a period of time at the end of your pregnancy when you have an increased energy level to get things done around your house and ready for your new baby.  I think I hit my nesting phase this week.  The nesting phase was prompted by a wave of anxiety over our family coming to see the new baby and having them see the house in it's current state.  I worked on getting laundry done, vacuumed the house, packed a box with all the things that we will need for baby and got my gifts ready to be wrapped for Christmas.  We are praying that the baby can wait until after Christmas to make his arrival but after my short nesting period I feel that we are ready whenever he decides to make his debut.

So is SO excited over the money that has
raised for his little brother so far! Thanks
Everyone!! 

 Just a quick update on the fundraising front.  Thank you to all who have SO generously given.  We got an update from the MICAH fund and we currently have raised almost enough to cover the remainder of our agency fees.  This is a HUGE blessing.  We still need about $8,000 to cover our medical bill and travel but we are trusting that as God has provided so far he will continue to provide.  Please pray with us for the final funds that are needed.  If you are feeling led to give I wanted to let you know that we did receive word from the agency yesterday that we may get to meet our new little bundle of joy sooner then we had expected (no official word yet so I will not get anyone's hopes up) but what I will say is that we may have the blessing of two babies in 2012. :)  So if you are still thinking and praying about giving now is the time to do so as we need the funds before we travel.  Thank you for your support.  We have been very blessed and encouraged by so many of you in the past few weeks.  God is Good! I am just blown away by the confirmation that he has given in the past 3 weeks that this little boy is a part of His plan for our family.
    As I go about my nesting I try to continue to remind myself of the joys of this advent season.  It's a time to remember and rejoice in the birth of our savor who came to earth as a baby to purchase for us adoption as children into His eternal family.  What a great reminder I have as I prepare and labor over the earthly adoption of my second son that adoption was God's plan all along.  He knows the pain of adoption and his work to adopt me as his forever daughter was much more painful and costly then any earthly adoption.  Praise the Lord for his willingness to come to earth as a helpless baby 2000 years ago.  Hallelujah for his willingness to endure the pain of death and separation from God for me so that I do not have to pay the penalty that I deserve for my sins. Glory to God that He planned for adoption to be the way for all of us to enter His forever family.  May each of us who put our trust in Jesus Christ rejoice this holiday season in our own adoptions as sons and daughters of The King.

35 weeks 5 days

   I guess most women when they are almost 36 weeks pregnant are feeling tired, run down, warn out, a bit nervous, excited, and anxious with anticipation.  I have to say that this mom is no different.  I may not be feeling the discomfort in my hips or my back and I may not be needing to use the bathroom every 5 minutes like most women my gestational age but let me tell you I'm feeling the pain of 36 weeks.  This week has been non-stop grant applications.  When I am not doing laundry, loading the dishwasher, trying to have a few minutes to myself to shower, or spending a few hours of needed time with friends, I have been working on paperwork.  My stack grows bigger with each day and my hand and brain become or exhausted.
  Many of you have asked for an update on our fundraising efforts so I wanted to give you one.  The MICAH fund will give us a financial update every other week.  Last week we were given word that as of last Friday we had raised $500.  That is one quarter of the way to having our grant completely matched.  This is huge!  I do know that we have raised at least $500 more and for that we are very grateful.  With the match this means that we now have $2000 more to add to our adoption fund and we are now down to $15,000 that we need in the next 4 weeks to bring our little man home.  Please remember that once we reach our maximum matched amount the money will still be able to be given to our adoption it just will not be doubled.
  I admit that this week I have had moments of anxiety.  I have wondered where the money is going to come from and how in the world we are going to function with two kids that don't sleep through the night.  When I hit those times I am reminded to pray.  A friend reminded me of the story of Abraham and Sarah.  Sarah was 90 years old when she became pregnant with Isaac.  To most people that would seem impossible but in Genesis 18, when Abraham and Sarah are both wondering themselves how this was going to happen in their old age God reminded them, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"  The answer is no.  We see just 3 chapters later that the Lord was true to his promise and Sarah gave birth to a son.  I have to trust that the God of the universe who can make a barren women fertile at the age of 90 and who cares even for the littlest sparrow can provide all that we need and more to bring our son home at his birth, for nothing is too hard for the Lord.
  Thank you to those who have given so far.  We are so blessed by you.  And thank you to those who continue to pray for and encourage us through this process.  I cannot wait to tell this baby the story of how loved he is even from before his birth.

I am going to be blunt

In an effort to make people aware of our financial need for this adoption I am going to use this post to be a bit blunt about our needs.  Fundraising is one of my least favorite things.  I always hate asking people for money however I also know that there is NO way that we will be able to complete our adoption without the help of others. In this post I'm going to be 100% honest about the financial piece of our adoption.

When we first heard about Baby Boy #2 our reaction was "of course we will adopt J's brother." The most daunting thing for us however was the tag line of the email which said "if you decide to proceed with this placement the cost will be $20,000 agency fees plus $6000 medical." With Jeremiah we had time to save money for his adoption.  We did need to take a small loan to pay his medical bill but we had planned to pay that back with our adoption tax return. We were blessed with gifts from friends and some adoption grants.  When we got the news about Baby #2 it was the furthest thing from our mind to be entering into another adoption.  I had just cut back to part time at work so that I could stay home with J. In order to accept the placement we needed to send $10,000 to the agency.  The problem was we didn't have that kind of money.   We dipped into our meager savings account and were able to send $5000.  Then we were able to get a loan from a family member for the rest. The next financial hurdle to cover was our home study update.  Yes, we had just completed one last year but we needed to redo our background checks, have another social worker visit, and renew our references.  This all totaled $3120. (thankfully our agency is letting us pay monthly until our bill is covered with them)

Adoption is not cheap.  We are trusting the Lord to provide the $17,000 +travel expenses  that we will need to complete our adoption of baby #2  We have applied to some grants and are in the process of a few more applications.  I put this information out there to inform you of the cost and ask if there are any that may be willing to shoulder this burden with us.  A gift to our adoption truly is a gift that changes lives.  Our lives have been so enriched since folding Jeremiah in our family.  He brings much joy and laugher to our family.  We know that his life has been changed for the better as well.  We ask that you consider how you may partner in bringing our family more joy this holiday season.

As an incentive to help you give we have received a MICAH fund matching grant.  This is a matching grant that will match up to $2000 worth of gifts dollar for dollar.  This means that your gift of $20 would become $40.  This is HUGE for us.  If we could max out this matching grant we would almost be 1/3 or the way toward covering the remaining cost.  The other bonus is that your gift is tax deductible when you give through the MICAH fund.*  Would you please consider giving today?  If you are are interested, checks can be mailed to the MICAH fund at 2112 Broadway St. NE, Suite 100, Minneapolis, MN 55413.  You can also give online through pay pal (www.micahfund.org) using your checking account or credit card (just note that credit card companies take 3% of your donation).  If you are mailing in a check just attach a small note stating that this gift is for the Ivy adoption.   They ask that for tax deductible purposes you not write our name on the check.

Thank you to everyone who has encouraged us during this crazy thing called adoption.  We know that the next few months are going to be crazy town here in the Ivy house and it's a comfort to know that we have so many around us praying for us, encouraging us and loving our boys.

Thank you also for putting up with my plea for donations.  We really do appreciate your consideration and your gifts!  It's a HUGE blessing to us.  We have a peace that God cares about adoption and most of all that He loves our new little son more then we ever could and therefore He will provide for all that is needed but we also are realistic that $17,000+ in 5 weeks is no small amount to raise.

-Christi


*According to IRS regulations, gifts are not eligible to be tax deductible if legally controlled by the donor. This means that once your gift has been received, you may not recall it or demand it be applied to the grant of your choice. The MICAH Fund makes every effort to honor the suggestions of these gifts, and would be happy to discuss these issues with you further if you wish. The MICAH Fund’s number is 651-636-5255.
 

Thank Heaven for...

Little Boys and a little more time!

Yesterday we received a phone call from our social worker in Utah that our baby's birthmother had another ultrasound.  I guess the last ultrasound was really just to confirm pregnancy and they didn't really do any measurements.  They were using her best guess to set her due date.  This time she had a more targeted ultrasound and they were able to set a more accurate due date.  Well it looks like we won't have a 2012 baby after all (unless it decides to make it's appearance naturally and a few days early) but we will have a 2013 baby this time!  Her new due date is January 5, 2013. I may or may not have let out a cheer when I found out we had a few more weeks to prepare.  These past few nights have been hard.  Jeremiah has not been sleeping well and the thought of adding a newborn in a month was a bit overwhelming.  The downside is that I will be out of work for the opening of our new hospital (as long as the projected opening date stands.)  I am disappointed to miss the excitement of that and I know that my managers are not going to be super excited about the change in plans...

The other exciting news from the ultrasound is that our little one decided to cooperate a bit better and we were able to see that Jeremiah is going to have a little brother!  Robert may have jumped up and down at this news.  I am really starting to get outnumbered in this house.  We better get some girl fish or something to even the score. :)  We are so excited though for the boys to have each other.  I can already picture them out on the basketball court together.  It's also a blessing because we already have a lot of the baby gear we will need from J.  

So that is the latest news in our adoption world.  Just when you think things are starting to come together there is a change in plans.  We are so excited though for this new blessing in our lives and are thankful for the extra time to raise funds, prepare our hearts and home, and grow Jeremiah just a bit bigger.  He will be almost a year old instead of 10 months! This sounds so much better to me. 

A picture if worth 1000 words

Adoption is a unique way to have a baby.  Your pregnancy is paperwork and your labor pain is fundraising but I am pretty sure that your joy is just as overwhelming when you see your sweet baby for the first time.
    With Jeremiah we only had 3 days notice that he was going to be our son.  We had prayed for him for many months. We wondered if he was conceived yet, what he would look like, if he would be a boy or girl.  We dreamed about all of the things we would do with him once he joined our family and we didn't get a glimpse of him until he was 24 hours old.  I will never forget our first look at him.  We had just stopped to get gas in the middle of snowy Wyoming.  I had been texting with our social worker in Utah all morning getting updates on when his birth mother would sign over her rights and we could finally see his face.  It was the best feeling in the world to finally get a picture.  Rob and I could not stop looking at him. (I'm pretty sure it is more dangerous to look at pictures of your newborn son on your cell phone while driving then it is to text. I tried to keep Rob focused and only allowed him short glances at the phone while driving. :)) We gushed about how cute he was and how big his eyes were.  He was the cutest little baby we had ever seen!  

Sweet Baby Ivy #2

  This time around we thought the experience would be the same, so what an unexpected and sweet blessing it was to open an email from our social worker last week and find a picture of our cute little peanut attached.  Rob was at the library studying and I was at home with J.  I called him to tell him to open his email.   Rob's first comment was "it looks kind of like a t-rex baby to me." :)  I assured him that it would not be a t-rex but a little human. I don't know if he was excited or a bit disappointed at that news. I have studied that little face over and over now.  What a blessing it is for an adoptive mom to get a peak at her newest little sweetheart before he/she is born.  It's a rare treat that I honestly never thought I would have so I want to share it with the world. :)  Here he/she is in full black and white glory.  Isn't that just the cutest little baby you have ever seen?  I thought so too. ;)

Update of the adoption process for #2:

• Had our one necessary home study visit last Wednesday to update Jeremiah in our home study.  We are now waiting on our background checks so that our home study can be cleared.
•  Working on filling out grant/loan applications so that they can be mailed off as soon as our home study is approved.
• A few of you have asked how you can give.  If you are interested in giving to our MICAH fund and would like to send a check now you could make out a check to MICAH Fund and mail it to our home address and we could get it to the office once we have final approval.  If you would like to give online I will give details of how to do that once we are approved by them. Any gifts given before we are officially approved would just go to the general fund not to us, so please wait a few more weeks to give online.  :) Thanks!

Why Blog?

I am going to attempt to start another blog.  This blog is designed mainly to keep our our family and friends (and whoever else is interested) up to date on our lives with little ones.  Yep we do mean little ones.  We are going to adopt Baby #2 in just a few short weeks (there is another post to explain that).  Thanks for checking in.  I'm going to try to be good about posting a few things every week.  Our lives are full and God is good.  We want to share that with all of you.

The Story of Our First Adoption

(photo taken by First Day Photo: Jessica Person)

For those of you that may have found our blog through a series of clicks, welcome. We are the Ivy family. Robert, Christi, and Jeremiah.

Robert is a seminary student in his 4th year at Bethlehem Seminary in Minneapolis.  Christi is a Labor and Delivery Nurse and Jeremiah is our almost 9 month old son.

We are both Army kids who grew up moving all around the country/world.  We were blessed to meet each other the first time in the 6th grade when we lived across the street from one another in Kansas. We weren't really friends at that time but our mom's were in a prayer group together and in that group they prayed for their children's spouses.  Little did they know that just 8 years later we would meet again in a mess hall at the United States Military Academy one summer evening on a Sunday School teachers retreat.  Robert was a cadet there and Christi was visiting.  This began a long email friendship that later turned into romance and ended in marriage.  (that is the short version of the story)  We were married in June of 2007.

Adoption was something that had been on Christi's heart for a long time.  After traveling to Romania two summers in high school she knew that her heart was being pulled to adoption as the way that God would build her family.  Thankfully Robert shared the same passion as he began to study the Bible more and began to love the plan that God had to bring us into his family.  Ephesians 3 says "in Love He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters"  What a beautiful way to have a living reminder of God's love for us at our dinner table every night.

In November 2010, after traveling to Ethiopia together on a short term mission trip, we began the process of adoption from Ethiopia.  All the while our prayer was "please close the door God if this is not what you have for us." We applied and were working with an agency locally who later ran into some troubles with the Ethiopian government. After 8 months of praying and waiting they were closed and we took that as God closing the door to Ethiopia for us.  We began our home study and started the process of domestic infant adoption.  How thankful we are in hind sight for God's leading in that direction.  In July 2011 we started our home study process.  In Oct 2011 we finished and in November 2011 we had our first match.  A little baby that was to be born in a few weeks in Mississippi.  We were able to talk with the birth mom on the phone a few times and we started to prepare our house and hearts for a new baby.  Sadly December 16th when that little girl was born God had another plan for her, the birth parents decided to parent her.  Our hearts were sad but we knew that it was God's doing.

Just a few short weeks later, one of the craziest weeks of our lives began.  Christi's sister-in-law, Meg had a skiing accident on New Years Eve day in New Mexico.  She had to have major surgery and was unable to do much for herself for a few weeks.  Christi traveled to New Mexico to help her.  While she was there God was unfolding His plan. On January 6th we were contacted by an adoption agency in Utah that a little boy was to be born January 10th and they would like to show our profile to his birthmother.  We enthusiastically asked them to please have his birthmother consider us. January 9th Christi flew back to Minnesota and turned her cell phone on as the plane taxed in to the terminal. As her phone turned on she received a text from Robert that "she chose us!" The baby was to be born the next morning and we were going to be his parents.  We were overjoyed!  Christi went to work that night and the next morning they packed their car to head to Salt Lake City, Utah.  On January 12th, Jeremiah Michael Ivy was lovingly placed into our home for adoption.  The last nine months have been such a joy. Everyone always tells you that you will never know how you had so much fun before you had children and it is so true.  J is such a sweet, joyful baby.  We are so thankful for him.  We are looking forward to the next chapter as well.

Hold on to your hats!

Ladies and Gentleman hold on to your hats..
Jeremiah is going to be a Big Brother!

Yes you did read that right.  Baby Ivy #2 is set to make his/her appearance November 18th.  In 6 weeks we will be a family of 4! (that blows my mind)  

All right so now that you have caught your breath let me share a bit of the back story.  Just before Labor Day we received word from our adoption agency (who we were not in the process of working with might I add) that Jeremiah's birth mother was pregnant again. She had contacted the agency to see if they could get in touch with us because she wanted us to adopt this baby too.  At first we were shocked.  Jeremiah was only 7 months old.  How could we have another baby.   As the emotions sunk in we knew what we had to do.  We had to keep siblings together and God must have a big plan in all of this so we would go ahead with this adoption.

This new bundle of joy comes with many mixed emotions.  Sadness that J's birth mother finds herself in this place again.  Exhaustion at the paperwork and fund raising that must go on in a few short weeks while also caring for a very busy now almost 9 month old.  We feel inadequate and needing to learn to rely on God more to care and train another little one.  The overall feeling though is joy at the thought of another little one in our home. 

Would you please pray for us as we work on paperwork, prepare our hearts to receive another baby, and seek God for His provision.  Would you pray for the birthmother as she travels to Utah in a few weeks and thinks of giving another baby away.  Pray most of all that she would know the love of God in a powerful way.  And pray for this new baby that he/she would grow healthy and be born strong.  Would you please also be praying about partnering with us financially.  Adoption is not cheap and because this is our second adoption in a year we have not been planning and saving for this adoption.  We trust that God will provide as He did with Jeremiah but we are going to need the help of others. In the next few weeks we will, Lord willing, have a matching grant available if people would like to give a tax deductible gift that will also be matched dollar for dollar.  So stay tuned...