Happy Holidays!

Heavens to Betsy!! I can’t believe that it’s December already.  That means it’s been 6 months since I’ve had an entry for our blog. FAIL! I’ll try to be better about updating it in the future!

There’s a few things I need to catch you up on! In my last entry I talked about our vacation to California that we were about to take. I mentioned that I would be writing my biography while we were down there. Although I did start writing it I didn’t get anywhere close to finishing it during the 6 days we were away. It actually took a second vacation for me to complete my biography.  Jeremiah and I, Jeremiah’s parents, (Phil & Deb) and Dave & Keri all went on a family vacation to Victoria Canada in September. I had put off finishing my biography long enough and I was determined to finish it while we were there. So I did! Writing my life story proved to be harder than I thought it would be. There were a lot of issues that had to be addressed and they weren’t pleasant for me to think or write about.  However I feel like the timing couldn’t have been better for me. I was ready to face these things. I have spent so many years convincing myself that my childhood was wonderful and my family was perfect. To come to the conclusion that neither of those things are true was very hard for me. If someone had tried to tell me otherwise a year ago I would have become very defensive and argumentative.  Jeremiah has been very patient and helpful in working through this with me. Being on the outside and looking into my family he was able to see the dysfunction very clearly but I was blind to it.

I wonder sometimes what my life would look like if any of the crazy events from my past had never happened or if I had realized any sooner how dysfunctional things really were. I find it hard to believe I would have ended up where I am today. So is there anything I would change if I could? Absolutely not.  All of the things I’ve been through have brought me here to this very moment in my life and I can’t fathom my life without Jeremiah, my incredible sisters or the community of family and friends that surround me right now. I am so grateful for what I’ve been through because it’s made me a stronger person and it’s brought me closer to the people who mean the most to me.

We met with our Adoption Attorney, Mark Iverson, on Tuesday this week. It was a short and sweet meeting but we know what our next steps are at this point.

1.     We need to write a “Birthmother Letter”.

It is basically what it sounds like. A letter from us to the potential birthmother of the baby we would be adopting. We’ll post it on here when we’re finished with it. Hopefully in the next week!

2.     We need to spread the word to everyone we know that we are looking to adopt!

We have been recommended as adoptive parents by Ruth Moe and have been given the green light to advertise!  So if you know of anyone or have a friend who knows of someone who is considering adoption as an option for them please let us know. They can either contact us or Mark Iverson.

Here’s some contact information for him.

Email: mriverson@earthlink.net  Phone: (509)462-3678

Thank you all for thinking of us! We are so excited to open our home to a baby that needs one!

In other news… After we came back from our vacation to California in June I became a full time photographer.  This was very exciting for me! I have had a very busy and successful first year with my photography business. I now have a facebook page and update it quite often with photos from my most recent photo shoots.  You can check it out at http://www.facebook.com/danielledupeyphotography. 

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!!

And now, to advertise...

So, good news!  It turns out that neither Danielle or I are wanted by the FBI or any police force in Washington State!  I’m sure everyone is completely surprised by this fact.

            Last night, we met with our social worker.  She had a few final questions for us, and, with the information provided by our references, she will be sending her report, recommending us as adoptive parents to the lawyer we have chosen to hire.  What a process it’s been so far!  The FBI and state background checks were just the start.  We both filled out very extensive biographies, had physicals, disclosed all our financial information, and had questionnaires filled out by four references (1 relative, 3 non-related).  Now on to the next steps…

            So, what’s next?  To put it slightly roughly, we get to start advertising.  We’ll be compiling a portfolio, which we can distribute through any means possible, which will be used to introduce our family to birthparents.  We can advertise in newspapers (like in Juno), through some doctor’s offices and medical clinics, and different routes like that.  Our lawyer will keep a copy of the portfolio to give to any birthmothers he is in contact with.  My mother, who works for a school district, will bring a copy to the high school councilors.  And, as it turns out, one of our most important resources is you, all of our friends and family.  If anyone out there knows a girl who is pregnant, and who is considering giving their child up for adoption, please feel free to contact us.  We realize, of course, that this is not a decision that is to be taken lightly for the mother, and we definitely don’t want anyone to pressure a girl to give a child up for adoption if that girl isn’t absolutely sure it is the right decision.

            We have been so blessed by all of you, and we thank you for your continued support.  I don’t think I can truly express the emotions - joy, excitement, even a slight bit of fear - at taking this next step.  I am happy to have so many to share this journey with.  Hopefully, as things start to become more of a reality, I will be a little better at keeping you all updated.

little stories

            I’ve been listening to a radio program lately called The Moth.  It’s an hour long program of storytellers, some comedians or other stage professionals, some just random people off the street, but everyone has to tell a true story about their life.  Basically, the premise is that a good storyteller draws listeners like moths to a porch light.  It’s actually very interesting.  There are stories that run the entire emotional gamut.  Some are hilarious, some inspiring, some sad.  One story is from a journalist who is an ex-cocaine addict.  His story is about how he took his twin girls, when they were infants, to a drug house in the middle of winter, and because it wasn’t cool to bring babies with him to buy his drugs; he left them in the car while he went in.  He, of course, gets high inside and loses track of time.  The story revolves around his walk back to the car, realizing how long his girls have been out there in the cold, and the likelihood that he’s allowed them to freeze to death.  Fortunately, the story has a happy ending.  If I hadn’t been sitting at my desk at work when I listened to this one, I may have teared up.  Other stories include a somnambulist (someone who walks in his sleep) who actually jumped out of a second story hotel window (which was closed) in his sleep, and an undercover cop with a hilarious arrest story with too many coincidences involved to try to describe here.  The point is, everyone has a story to tell.  Everyone has something to say that is worth listening to.

            A couple of weeks ago, I finished my biographical information for our adoption home study.  Danielle included one of the questions (out of 15) from this in a previous post.  If you read that, you can understand how in depth this biography was.    Writing my biography was kind of tough.  It’s hard to know what to put in there.  This isn’t like writing a story for The Moth.  There’s no point, really, in talking about my bachelor party, where a group of us went backpacking, and spent a large portion of our time trying to ward off a bull moose that was unhappy with the fact that we were camping in his territory.  There isn’t a place in this biography to tell stories about me and my friends in high school discovering why it is a bad idea to poke a dead, bloated skunk with a sharp stick, sneaking into the woods on the campus of the mental hospital to track mule deer, or the time a late night game of tag ended with a police chase (it’s a long story, but let me just say, we didn’t do anything wrong).  It’s weird to see your life summarized and distilled down to a couple of pages.  If I didn’t know any better, it would make me think I’d had a boring life.  But, I do know better.  I’ve had a great life, and I’ve enjoyed it immensely.  It’s these little stories that make life so great.

I ♥ sunshine!

Well since my last post May has come and gone. I can’t believe it. My.. how time flies!

I’ll start by letting you know how our first visit with Ruth Moe went. Ruth is that woman who is conducting our home study. She was very nice and we found it very easy to talk with her. She has adopted in the past herself and was very encouraging to Jeremiah and I and had wonderful things to say about her experience.  Basically the first meeting was what I had expected it to be. Ruth went over all the paper work with us and explained the different things we’d need to do before she can approve us for adopting. We both had to get our finger prints taken and sent to the FBI for a background check. May was a VERY busy month for the two of us so we weren’t able to get down to the Court house until this past Thursday to get that step done. I’m gonna be honest… getting my finger prints taken WAS everything I thought it would be. SO exciting! ;) I felt like I was in a movie!

From what we heard from Ruth it sounds like the results of our background check from the FBI may be back as fast as 3 weeks… or as long as 14 weeks. Apparently they don’t keep that very consistent.  But that’s fine. We have quite a bit more to get done in the mean time. Jeremiah and I both have to have physicals and we need to complete our biographical information. There are a lot of questions and I have a feeling it will take me a while to finish it. There are 16 “questions” (more like categories) in all that we need to answer in depth.  Here’s an example of one.

# 4: Give a history of yourself from birth to present. Include information about your parents – their occupations, nature of their marriage, quality of your childhood relationships with them, present relationship with them, and present locations of them. Discuss your siblings, their birthdates, how you relate to them and where they currently are. What was your childhood like – school and social activities, activities with family and friends etc. what was your school experience and what has been the nature of your work experience? What was your religious upbringing?

That is just ONE of the categories. When I’m done writing about all of that… I’ll have a small book. And there are 15 more sections almost as long as this one. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. I’m actually excited about doing this. I think it’ll be a great challenge. And I don’t mean a challenge in a bad way. I think everyone should sit down and write a small biography about themselves at some point in their lives. It’s a good exercise and it makes you look back at your life with a different perspective. Jeremiah and I are going to be taking a Vacation in a week from tomorrow to go down to California for a week. It’s been a long winter and we’re both excited to be somewhere warm to recover from the cold. I think the plane ride down there and back will be the perfect time to work on our biographies. We’ll be stuck in small uncomfortable seats for several hours with nothing better to do than look at the airplane’s magazines repeatedly or try unsuccessfully to get some shut eye. So why not do something useful? We can be writing our biographies and dreaming about the day when we’ll finally have a little family all the while our heads will literally be in the clouds thousands of miles above the ground. Brilliant! ;)

I just mentioned our vacation above. I am very excited about it! We’re going to Disney Land! Seriously… getting my fingerprints taken AND going to Disney Land all in the same month! I must be in heaven! For our vacation this summer we decided we definitely needed to go somewhere warm. This past winter (and spring so far) was way too cold and miserable. Can I get an “Amen”?! We’ve really been enjoying taking trips over to the Oregon coast for our vacations but we both felt like that just wouldn’t cut it this time. We need to get sunburns… and FAST! (Just kidding Jeremiah) I promised Jeremiah that I would wear sunscreen everyday we’re down there and I intend to keep that promise. Skin cancer isn’t too appealing anymore. When I was younger… sure. I mean who didn’t want skin cancer? But Jeremiah has shown me the light. SPF 50 here I come! ;)

My Birthday was May 8^th. I’m still 22… however my body is now 26. My sister Lacey is an amazing photographer and for my birthday present she said she’d take some fun pictures of me. My very own photo shoot! I’m very excited. Lacey is a genius in her work and I know she’ll take some amazing pictures. I’ll be leaving my house in about an hour and a half to go on this adventure. I had better go and pretty myself up. Maybe I’ll share a few when I have them. ;) I can’t wait until she can take our family pictures!!

Thanks for following our blog!

Love you all!

Home study time!

I’m starting to think Jeremiah is a better blogger than I am! I didn’t see that coming. ;) Just kidding! I love you, Jeremiah. I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. You’re a fabulous husband and you’re going to be an amazing Dad one of these days! J

So since our meeting with the adoption attorney, Mark Iverson, I was able to contact the home study lady that he recommended and I schedule our first meeting with her. Her name is Ruth and from the few times I’ve been able to speak with her on the phone I've found her to be very helpful and she seems to be a great woman. We’re going to be meeting with her on Saturday morning at 10:30. I’m not really sure what to expect from this first meeting. I’m assuming most of it will be going over paper work and forms and her explaining to us what they are and how to fill them out. From what she’s told me… there is a LOT to fill out. Basically Jeremiah and I will have to write a lot about our lives. The way we were raised, disciplined, what our childhood was like, how our marriage is and etc… And then the flip side… how we intend to raise and discipline our children and so on and so forth.  It’s definitely a lot to think about.  I’m sure Jeremiah and I both have ideas in our heads of how we’d like to do this but it hasn’t been a common conversation for us yet so it’ll be good for us to sit down and figure it all out.

I had asked Ruth if there was anything she expected or that needed to be done before we have our first meeting with her... like does the baby’s room need to be finished or anything like that. To my great relief she said, no. She said that there’s going to be plenty of time to get all the little details done while all of our paperwork is getting processed. We both have to have criminal and background checks, as well as our fingerprints ran. (uh oh!! j/k) Another thing she mentioned was we both have to have physicals done unless we’ve had one in the past year.  That surprised me at first but after thinking about it for a while it made sense. Of course they would want the potential adopters to be both mentally and physically stable.

I’m very excited about Saturday. We’ll have lots to tell you I’m sure! Please be praying for us! As exciting as this is… it’s still a little nerve racking. So thank you! We do appreciate your prayers and support very much!

It's a family thing...

So, a week ago yesterday, Dave and Keri were married.  For those of you that don’t know, Dave is my brother, and Keri is Danielle’s sister – Yes, my brother married my wife’s sister.  I love them both dearly, and I think they will have a wonderful life together, and I couldn’t be happier for them.  The wedding was beautiful, and, if you know the two of them, it fit them perfectly.  They have been in London for the past week, and I’m really looking forward to seeing them when they get home (they’ll be home late tonight, but after a wedding and a trip to London, I’m sure they’ll need some time to decompress, so it’ll be a couple of days before I get to see them most likely).

With all of the excitement of the past couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about families and family dynamics.  We had family in town for the wedding from as far away as Texas and Washington D.C.  It’s interesting to see my parents with their brothers and sisters.  It seems odd, but I have aunts and uncles living maybe 2 miles from us that we see once or twice a year at most.  I really do love my family, but there is a certain amount of awkwardness there.  I’m sure anyone reading this understands, but I’m going to explain anyway…

You have no choice on what situation you are born into.  Your family is your family, no matter what.  There is somehow a certain connection that you share, simply because a certain percentage of your genetic material is the same.  This can put you in some strange situations.  You take a group of people who see each other once or twice a year, if that, they are invariably heading down several different paths in life.  They think differently, have different goals, hopes and desires, they have completely different, and sometimes opposing, paradigms of the world.  Now, you put all of those people in a room together, and expect that, since they are family, they have wonderful relationships with each other.  Often they don’t.  It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s just that they don’t have a basis for that. 

Let me give an example.  Take my relationship with my Aunt Deloris.  Now, I love Deloris.  She is a wonderfully kind, generous, and loving person.  I know that there are things that Deloris and I disagree about, but that isn’t something that bothers me.  She is the kind of person where (and I know this from experience) you can have an open, honest discussion with her, and at the end not come to the same conclusions, and leave feeling like you were heard and understood, and not just disregarded, and that that is really what mattered.  Sadly, I rarely see Deloris.  She lives just a few miles away, but we don’t ever just drop in to see one another or anything.  So, when I do see Deloris, I really don’t know what is going on in her life, and she doesn’t know what’s going on in mine.  This means that just about any conversation I will have with her is going to be fairly superficial.  We both know this, but there is still something inside me at least (I can’t really talk for others here, but I assume I’m not the only one) that says “Hey, we’re family, we should automatically have a relationship that moves beyond the superficial.”  Of course, that’s not the way it is.  I don’t blame anyone, that’s just part of life.  We busy ourselves with our daily lives.  I’m sure we’ll see each other in a few months, we’ll give each other little sound bite updates on how our lives are going, and we’ll be content with that. 

This is what I’m saying is awkward.  It’s a kind of dichotomy – We’re family, we should know each other well, I hardly ever see you, so I hardly know who you are.  As I said, this is life, oh well.

I do have family that I am extremely close to.  Dave and Keri, for instance.  Their apartment is about 3 blocks from our house.  Before they were married, they were pretty much Danielle and my best friends.  I’m sure that bond will just strengthen.  Danielle has 3 more sisters, two of which live within easy walking distance of our house.  Candy lives just up the hill from us, and we generally get to see her a couple times a week.  Dana lives the opposite direction, with her husband Ryan and their two beautiful children, Lilly and Ben.  Lacey, and her husband Jared and their adorable daughter Zoey live on the other side of town, but we still get to spend time with them fairly frequently.  Then there is my cousin James, his wife Tanya, and their gorgeous little girl Aletheia.  James has, for a long time, been almost as much a brother to me as Dave has.  There is a certain bond I have with all of these people that, when I think of family, this is who I think of.  They interact with me on a daily basis, and truly affect my life. 

Now, I don’t know what the future has in store for all of us.  However, when I imagine my children growing up, I can’t help but picture them growing up around all of this family.  I see my children being excited to go play with their cousins.  I picture them following Lilly around, thinking she’s the coolest person to ever walk the earth (she’s the oldest by a couple of years – she’s going to have a whole tribe of cousins she gets to boss around).  I see them trying to wrestle Uncle Jared, learning to fish with Uncle Ryan, or being read to by Uncle Dave.  I see them coming up with little plays to perform in front of their aunts, and asking their aunts to sing to them.

My family may not be perfect, but then, no one’s is.  Just like any relationship, there are ups and downs.  But, I guess, there’s one thing I’m really trying to say through all of this.   I love my family, and I thank God for blessing me so richly with these relationships.  I look forward to the day when my children get to be blessed by these same people.

Oh, and Deloris, if you are reading this…   I hope you don’t mind me using you as an example.  I do love you.

I haven't posted in a while, so here's a long overdue update...

            Danielle and I visited a lawyer yesterday afternoon.  This, for me, was a very exciting step.  Allow me to digress for a moment.  I talked in my first post mainly about Danielle, who she is, and how great of a mother I think she’ll be.  I didn’t say anything about my desire to be a father.  I’ve looked forward to being a dad for a long time.  I look at the relationship I have with my dad, and I’m excited to have that with a child of my own.  I see fatherhood as being one of the most incredible, and most humbling, relationships that I could hope to have in my life.  I look forward to watching my child grow up, and especially watching (him or her – I’m not particularly partial) grow to have a relationship with the Creator.  I look forward to taking my child fishing, teaching my child to catch a baseball, play the guitar, or anything he or she may enjoy.  It’s actually a hard thing for me to put to words, how I look forward to, even long for, the experience of fatherhood.

            So, back to the visit to the lawyer.  In researching Spokane attorneys, I’ve only found one actually listed as an adoption attorney.  There are several that specialize in family law and divorce that will take on adoption cases, but this guy not only specializes in adoption law, it’s all he does.  He and his wife were unable to have kids, and have adopted three, and he took it on himself to take on this role so he could help others through the process.  And in talking to him, it really seems that is really what he is in it for.  To help.  He doesn’t take cases pro bono, he still has to support his family, but his rates are reasonable.  It looks like, including all state fees (court costs, home study, etc.) this process will end up costing less than $10,000.

            This lawyer was a great source of information, too.  He referred us to someone to do our home study (we’d actually been referred to this lady before, so this just strengthened that referral), and outlined the steps we need to take.  He will also work to help match us with a birthmother.  This is huge.  This is a large part of what ends up costing many people $20,000 to $40,000 for an adoption.  He won’t be the only outlet we use for this; we will be working with various other local sources.  But his help here will be important to us. 

            So, we’re off to a good start.  This will most likely still be a long process, and I wouldn’t expect to have a child in less than a year, at the very least.  But, that’s where we are, and I, for one, am very excited to be here.

           

            P.S. – Just as an update.  We’ve decided against the foster care system, at least for our first child.  With the foster system, it is actually very unlikely for a couple to have a child under the age of 18 months placed with them, unless that child has an older sibling already with that couple.  We would really like an infant.  Also, and this was the biggest deciding factor, once a child is placed with you in the foster system, the ultimate goal is still for that child to be back with its family.  That means that, even if an infant was placed with us, it could be with us as long as a year, and then a family member (such as an aunt) can decide to adopt, and the child goes to them automatically.  I don’t think this is necessarily a bad idea, it’s good to work towards keeping the children in the family if possible, but that’s not where we want to be at this time.  I can’t imagine how hard it would be to have a child for a year, and have that kid taken away.  However, this doesn’t mean we won’t foster in the future.  It’s just not the option we are choosing to take at this time.

Update!

A week ago I went to the Foster Family Orientation. I learned a lot about the foster system and how it works. They explained all the different branches involved in foster care and what parts they played in the foster and placement processes.

Their main goal is to improve the health and safety of the children and that’s why in most cases the children have been taken out of their homes. But the end goal is to reunite these children with their families either with their parents who have proven to have improved their situation or to an extended family member.

There are several ways to go about fostering…  Jeremiah and I would have chosen “Foster to Adopt”. To my knowledge they will try to place the children who will most likely need to be adopted because their family situation is not likely to get better. However even if this child was placed in our home and we’re working towards adopting them… there’s a chance that an aunt or some other relative of the child will decide to take the child. I believe at that point the family member must go through the foster application process and have their home approved to foster and if approved the child would be placed in their home. They want the child to be with family if that is a possibility. The non-relative foster family is basically a last resort.  This is actually happening to a family I know through church. It’s heartbreaking.

The lady who was leading the orientation made a special mention that the families who are looking to foster to adopt a baby (which we are) should be prepared for the worst. That was pretty discouraging. However I feel confident that if this is what God wants for us He will also give us the strength we need to get through it. With that said… we don’t know if this is God’s will for us yet.

Our church family at Northside Church of Christ has started an adoption fund for us without Jeremiah or I asking for help. This was out of the goodness of their hearts and the Holy Spirit moving them to do so. This has made me feel that God has something else planned for our adoption journey. I don’t know what that is... and maybe that door hasn’t been opened yet but I do know that I need to have Faith that God will show us the right way.  We would appreciate your prayers. We know there are decisions that we need to make and we need God’s direction to make them.

Thank you again for following our story. It means so much to us. We appreciate your support very much!

Danielle

My Turn...

            First of all, I should say thank you to anyone who is reading this.  It has been amazing, and very humbling, to me to see how many people actually have a vested interest in Danielle’s and my life.  So much of life is contingent on factors beyond our control, and this has shown me how God can use his people in these situations to show how much he really loves us.

            Danielle started this blog off by telling a little about our past.  I think it is only fair, and very necessary, that I talk a bit about who Danielle is.  Especially for those of you who have not had the chance to meet her.

            Danielle is a morning person.  I am not.  I think she is really the first person I have ever known to actually wake up happy.  While I wake up slow, and spend the first 45 minutes I’m up stumbling around in a haze, Danielle pops out of bed, and within moments, she can be dancing and singing around the house.  This, to me, is a great insight to her personality.  Especially the singing.  I used to mock musicals because “people don’t just randomly burst into choreographed song and dance.”  Well, it may not always be choreographed, but sometimes I feel like I went to bed one night, and through some weird twilight zone accident, woke up in the middle of a musical.  Thankfully, she has a beautiful voice.

            For some time before I met Danielle, and for most of the time I’ve known her, Danielle has been a nanny.  I think she’s an incredible photographer, and really, there is very little that she tries that she’s not good at.  However, there is something special about her working as a nanny.  This is actually one of the first things that attracted me to her.  Any of you who have spent much time around her have probably noticed that children seem to flock to her, almost in pied piper fashion.  I have yet to see a child that didn’t completely adore Danielle.

            Danielle and I have talked several times about why God would allow her to have MRKH.  In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul writes about temptation.  He says that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle.  I believe that this is true not just for temptations, but for trials in general.  We all have trials in life, but God would not allow us to go through a trial and not also give us the means to handle that trial.  That is how I first viewed Danielle’s MRKH.  As a trial.  However, in many ways, I can now see it as a means through which God has, and will, bring blessings into our lives.  As I mentioned earlier, Danielle has a special way with kids.  This has shown me that she, probably more than about any one I know, has the ability to love a child unconditionally, whether that child was her own natural born child or not.

            I guess I can also tell you a little about where we are so far in the whole adoption process.  As Danielle said, we have begun to look into the Foster-Adopt program.  I, too, was originally very wary of the Foster program in general.  However, the more we look into it, the more I feel that this is the direction we should be headed.  So, this next week, Danielle will be attending an orientation program through the DSHS.  This is really the first step.  In the mean time, we will be talking to several people who have adopted through the foster system, just trying to get as much information and insight as we can.  From there, there are a few classes that we must both attend, followed by a home study.  At that point, we will officially be foster parents.  It can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a year for a child to be placed with us.  I would expect it to be on the longer end, because, at least with the first child, we are hoping for an infant.  Some time after the child is placed with us (I don’t know how long this usually is) we will be able to begin adoption proceedings.

            This is a very exciting time in our lives.  I again want to thank you all for sharing it with us, for the prayers that I know are being said on our behalf, and for your support.  I thank God for all the family and friends he has blessed us with.

Let's start at the very beginning...

First off, please let me thank you for taking the time to view our site and read our story. Jeremiah and I appreciate all the love and support we’ve received and are continually receiving from our friends and family. You all mean so much to us!

I was diagnosed with MRKH syndrome when I was 19. I have known since then that I would not be able to have biological children unless I wanted to use a surrogate mother. As much as we would love to see what our children would look like God has definitely laid it on our hearts to pursue adopting.  We know that there are thousands of children out there who need a home and though we may not be able to offer a child the biggest and most beautiful one… we will certainly give them the most loving, caring and supportive one we can.

Jeremiah and I met at a small group in August of 2006. We are opposites in almost every way so I guess the saying “opposites attract” holds true in our relationship. We were definitely attracted to each other in that first month that we met.  I had a very outgoing personality and Jeremiah had cute eyebrows.  What can I say? A match made in heaven. ;) It wasn’t until November of that same year that our friend Jarrod Pitts connivingly got us to admit that we liked each other.

I told Jeremiah about my condition on one of our first dates. I found a hair in my food and I figured things couldn’t get any worse so why not tell him? I felt like it would probably be one of the most awkward conversations I would ever have in my life but it wasn’t. Jeremiah was very compassionate and encouraging.  I always knew that God would bring the right person into my life that would be able to support and love me the way I am. I am very thankful that Jeremiah was that person.  It might have taken him breaking up with me once and me breaking up with him a second time to realize this… but that's neither here nor there. ;) Needless to say we were happily married on September 19^th of 2009.

Jeremiah is currently a document writer at Hollister Stier Laboratories. He is taking classes online through Kaplan University to finish his degree in health sciences. He would like to eventually work in the lab at Hollister Stier.
I am in the process of starting a photography business. It's been a hobby of mine for a long time and just recently I've decided to make it more than that. You can see some of my work on my photography blog. I am also a part time nanny and I teach a music class at Westgate Christian school one day a week. And because that doesn't keep me busy enough... I also teach a step aerobics class at Spokane fitness center.

Until recently I’ve been thinking it would be 4-5 years before we started the adoption process. I knew it was going to be expensive and Jeremiah and I have been planning on saving up the amount beforehand.  I attend Northside Church of Christ here in Spokane Washington. Several months ago I was going to a ladies class on Sunday mornings led by my friend Laura Beth on motherhood. We were going through a book called Mothers of the Bible. I’m not a mother but I thought it would be a good way for me to get to know some of the other ladies in the church… and there’s no better way to get to know a woman than listening to them talk about their kids. ;) The very first class each lady was supposed to tell everyone a little bit about themselves and tell their greatest blessing of being a mother and their greatest trial. Now obviously I didn’t have anything to share about the blessings and trials of motherhood… but I felt compelled to open up to the ladies and tell them about my situation. There was so much love and support in that class and I don’t think any of those ladies will ever know how much that encouraged me. Several of the ladies approached me in the next couple weeks expressing their desire to get a fund started to help with our adoption. I was so humbled and just in awe of how God was working and is still working in our lives to make this a reality.

Jeremiah and I started doing research on adoption agencies and tried to get as much information we could. So far I had dismissed fostering. When I thought of fostering I automatically pictured having a child I was attached to taken away from me… And just thinking about that happening breaks my heart. I know I wouldn’t be able to handle that. After reading on the DSHS site it has changed the way I think about it. At this point Jeremiah and I are pretty sure we are going to pursue being foster parents in hopes of being able to adopt the child(ren) when that opportunity becomes available. I still have questions about fostering though and I am going to get together with a family friend this Saturday who has adopted several children through foster system. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot and that’s what I’m hoping for. J

Jeremiah picked up a pamphlet from DSHS on Friday which had some good information in it. I am going to try to attend their foster family orientation on March 1^st. I will definitely blog about that and let you know how that goes.

We hope that by this blog you’re able to follow along with our story and become part of our family. We are very excited to see what God is going to do in our lives and would love for you all to be a part of it. J If you have any questions for Jeremiah and I please feel free to ask in the comments or email us at mopeds4ever@yahoo.com.

We appreciate your thoughts and prayers!

God Bless,

The DuPey Family