Police investigate death of 2-year-old girl at Gaston motel | child, ramey, gaston - Gaston Gazette

Police investigate death of 2-year-old girl at Gaston motel child, ramey, gaston - Gaston Gazette


I know this isn't something that I would normally post on my "happy adoption blog"...but I feel very compelled to share this story. We need to unite together and do something to help put an end to the abuse.
I cannot get this off of my mind or my heart.

God Bless you Addison!

Profile

Here is a copy of our profile that is handed out by social workers to potential birth parents.  Natalie put this together for us back in March and I have to say - I love it!  She is so talented!  It may be hard to see on here but the top photo is the outside of it and the bottom photo is the inside.  When put together it is folded and opens like a pamphlet.

  We finally finished the video and now we are waiting on editing - which is much needed!  I had a panic attack when we were shooting and of course Dan did phenomenal as usual!  He is so relaxed unlike me!

  

This is the outside of our profile










































And here is the inside of the profile:

Wow its been a while....

     I cannot believe that I haven't posted something since March 31st!  Well yes I can - I have been totally and utterly consumed with work, school and this adoption process.  It has taken the life out of me ;)  So here is an update on the past month and a half.

     We finished our adoption profile that our wonderful, very talented, sister in law - Natalie Harris (nharrisphotography.com) put together for us.  It was sent in to the adoption agency where they will pass it out to prospective birth mothers.  I have to say it looks pretty awesome!  If I were computer savvy I would post it on the blog for all to see but unfortunately, I am not!  We are going to Greensboro this Thursday to make a video profile to put on the adoption agencies website for birth mothers to view.  This should be interesting to say the least!  Can you imagine Dan and I talking about ourselves for twenty minutes or so!  I am very interested to see how this turns out! 

     We also received an email last week from the Director of the Infant Networking Program that stated they had placed five infants at the first of the year -hence the hurry for us to get our paperwork finished and approved - they only have 8 - 10 couples waiting at one time so they needed approved people ASAP.  Unfortunately, there aren't any birth mothers at this time but she assured us that this is normal and they have busy times and slow times.  As of right now there are six of us in the "waiting pool".  They do not go in any type of order - for example, someone that has been waiting longer than us would not have a higher chance of getting a placement - it is all up to the birth mother and what she feels is best for her child.  Of course we are anxiously waiting for a phone call to tell us there is a baby waiting on us but we know that God is in control and it will happen when it is supposed to. 

     When they have our video edited and posted, I will post a link so you guys can check it out!

Home Inspection Complete!

Holy cow has it been a crazy week at the Harris house!  We have been doing lots of things to get the house ready for our home visit and I am seriously sleep deprived.  I had invisioned the worst of course but it actually was very pleasant and calming.  My biggest fear was our Great Dane, Diesel...I wasn't sure how our social worker would accept him and how would she feel about him being around babies.  We know he is really good with kids but you never know what a complete stranger may feel.  Fortunately, Julie is an animal lover and has two dogs and two cats at her home.  She instantly fell in love with Diesel and Belle (our chihuahua).  They were great ice breakers to say the least.

 Anyway, after she interviewed both of us - she inspected our home.  And no she didn't have on a white glove!  Thank goodness!  I was worried to death about every little detail.  I even went out and bought electric outlet covers and fire extinguishers =)  After that she sat down with me privately and interviewed me - she asked about my childhood, life experiences, goals, parenting styles, etc.  Julie was very "real" and easy to talk to.  I never felt nervous nor did I feel hesistant about my responses.  I think we hit it off pretty well.

When we were concluding the visit, she made the comment "you and Dan are going to be great parents".  This made me smile =D   We have our final visit with her on Saturday at 9am in her office in Charlotte.  Dan will have his personal interview then.  After that she has to type up a report on the home study. 

Our sister in law, Natalie, is working on getting our adoption profile printed -it looks amazing by the way!  Once it is finalized I will try to post it on here so you guys can see it too!  The profile will be handed out to birthmothers/fathers that contact our adoption agency looking for placement of their soon to be born baby. 

I cannot express enough gratitude at the overwhelming amount of support we have received from you guys.  It is humbling to know that we have such wonderful, loving people in our lives.  We are so lucky to have each and every one of you guys to share this with. 

Homestudy Received!

We received word yesterday from our agency that our homestudy packet was received on Monday and was "excellent"!  Yay!   I guess that means that we had everything in order.  The only thing that we need to do is get our marriage certificate from Mexico translated and notarized - which I intend on consulting with a friend of mine today at work that is a Spanish Interpreter to see if he will do it for us.  Also, our cousin, Andee has gladly agreed to notarize it for us!  Thanks Andee!  At first we were paranoid that we may not be "really" married but were reassured we indeed are.  We were ready to go to the courthouse and get "remarried" haha!  We were greatly relieved to know that that wasn't a problem - the problem was with the lawyer not being able to read it!

We worked yesterday all day trying to get our house ready for the social worker to come visit and most importantly getting ready for a baby!  Dan picked out the nursery color - "garden shed green".  It is absolutely gorgeous!  Our hallway is a whipped mocha and it looks yummy!  Our floors should be delivered tomorrow and the Harris gang will come over this weekend to start that process.  Our house looks like a tornado has hit it but we know it will be worth it in the end.  Is this what nesting feels like?  =)

Whew! Paperwork complete!

We FINALLY finished up all of the adoption homestudy paperwork and mailed it off today.  When I went to the post office this afternoon - I became a little tearful. I know we still have to see if we are "fit" to be parents in the eyes of social workers but it just felt so real...like this is really happening.  I can't explain it but it was an overwhelming feeling.  The old lady behind the counter at the post office asked me what was wrong and I explained to her the contents of the package and she became so excited!  Then two other women came up front from the back to hear the news.  hahahaha!  We were quite a spectacle I imagine but it was awesome having support in that little post office this afternoon.  The lady made me promise that I would come in there when we get our bundle of joy so that she can watch he or she grow up being that she played a part in the process of course ;)  How sweet is that?

Home study application almost complete

We are finally wrapping up the last few things left on our homestudy application.  Hopefully by tomorrow we will have everything completed and in the mail by the end of the week.  Oh my goodness it was a doozy to complete!  We both had to get physicals, fingerprinted, criminal background checks, write an autobiography, take photos...the list goes on forever!  But it will be well worth it in the end when we get to welcome a little bundle of joy into our lives.  Once the paperwork gets back to the agency, they will contact us to set up an appointment to have a home visit with a social worker.  We are not sure exactly what all that will entail but we are ready to get this started.

We have a ton of stuff to get done at the house to get ready for the visit - Diesel hasn't been so kind to our decor =).  Anyway, we ordered new flooring for our upstairs and we will start painting this coming week.  We have started looking at different decor ideas for the nursery...so far we know we want a tree with an owl or something like that.  Any ideas are certainly welcome! 

We will keep you guys posted on the progress and again we are so very thankful for all of the prayers and support!

A little background on us......

We met while we were both working in 2005; Dan at Gaston Life Saving Crew and Kelly at Gaston Memorial Hospital.  It wasn't long that we became close friends - "movie buddies" as we called it back then.  Soon that friendship blossomed into something amazing.  We both found what each other had been looking for - soul mates.

We were married in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico at Aventura Spa Palace on September 27, 2007.  It was the most amazing trip - we were able to spend an amazing two weeks there - and we certainly didn't want to come home!  Once we finally returned home, we began to settle in to a very happy comfortable life.  About three months or so after that, Kelly started feeling like something was wrong with her body.  After many tests, it was determined that she had premature ovarian failure and we would not be able to have biological children.  The day that we got the dreaded news was Valentines Day of 2008.  It was a hard time for her and it took a long time for her to heal from the devastating reality.

We had been told that basically our only option was to do in vitro fertilization with an egg donor.  We pondered the option, prayed about it, and discussed it with our immediate family.  After much thought- and emotional healing - we decided God had a different plan for us.  We feel that there is a child out there that God has chosen for us to parent.  We feel that we shouldn't put so much emphasis on giving birth to a child but yet giving life to a child.  So we decided to start our adoption journey!

In early 2010, we placed our name on a waiting list with the Children's Home Society of North Carolina.  It is an adoption agency (the oldest in NC) in Greensboro.  Finally in January 2011, we received our home study packet and attended our first adoption seminar workshop yesterday.  It was awesome and really opened up our views on what adoption holds for our family.

We are very excited to be on this journey and want to invite all of you to be passengers with us.   We would like to use this blog to keep our close family and friends involved in our process.  We appreciate all of your support and prayers!