We got a call!!

So yesterday after blogging and explaining how I am always answering the phone to strange numbers, well it finally paid off!  We were at a birthday party for a friend and my cell phone rang with a number I didn't recognize and shockingly I heard it.  I said to a friend "I don't know this number but I've got to answer because you never know" and BAM it was our agent Amanda on the other line.  I was in shock and then started rattling off to her how I always wonder when she will be on the other end of the phone and how I was just discussing this...blahblahblah, finally I shut up for her to talk.  I think I was full of nervous excitement and stalling what was about to come out of her mouth!  WE GOT PICKED....along with two other profiles to meet with a birth mom this Sunday.  Obviously she pointed out how not to get our hopes up but that is pretty hard not to do.  The flip side of that is that we are completely aware that we may not get chosen and that yes that will hurt us, but then it was not meant to be.  When you are adopting you have to be aware that you may have a failed adoption and you open your hearts up to that hurt and know that it will eventually work out for you.  So for now our hopes are running HIGH!  It's a baby girl due in August!  I got off the phone and was totally in shock, couldn't get a hold of Joe. I finally got a hold of him as he was driving to us and told him, he was so excited and at first didn't believe me.  When I met up with him, we hugged and never stopped talking about it for the rest of the night.    So Sunday it is at 1pm, our meeting with a potential birth mom...  What am I going to wear....hmmm???

lessons in parenting...

Since the yard sale things here got a little rocky.  We started noticing some strange behavior from Lola and decided to take her out of her last weeks of school to address what was going on.  We have determined that part of what was going on was the adoption.  She is a normal drama filled five year old girl who was starting to say some crazy stuff to us about not being her parents.  We totally expected something like this when she was a teenager but when our five year old daughter started arguing like a sixteen year old, we found ourselves in unfamiliar territory.  It is very clear that she is testing our love and our commitment to being her parents, mostly me, as I am the one with her all day.  That along with her normal testing of control and boundaries was some stuff to handle.  I realized that I've always been honest with her about my mother leaving me and I just would tell her that she left because she couldn't handle being a mom.  I never assured Lola that moms shouldn't leave their children and that was wrong of what my mom did.  How was I supposed to know what to tell her and what not to tell her?!  Also that along with explaining adoption to her probably resonated some kind of fear about abandonment...  Regardless, there were several other issues going on that we have started to address and hopefully this abandonment concern is going away.  We have prayed, we have sought help, and we are back in control and feel empowered to get through this one of many parental learning experiences.  In some way we are glad it is happening now.  

During all this drama in our home life, it has left  me so busy, not giving me much time to realize that we are just waiting to be chosen.  This has probably been a good thing.  Another good thing is we have been waiting over a month now and that just means we are one month closer.  They say 9-12 months most couples wait, some longer, some shorter.  All I can say is every time the phone rings and I notice it a different number I am quick to answer and wonder each time, "is this the call?", and soon realize that no it's a sales call for a new security system or something else.  These sales people are tricky because they are local callers and their names come up versus an 800 number with no name!  Not cool to a waiting family!

We received another donation in the mail last week from some of our friends' parents with a very sweet card and it was a nice surprise after all the bills I had just opened :)  Thank you Ralph and Alice for your support! 

Also, my friend gave me a necklace a few weeks ago that she ordered on Etsy for me to wear.  I haven't taken it off.  It has two charms, one of which says "waiting", the other says "chosen...to belong...to be loved".  Everyday throughout the day I find myself rubbing them and praying for that baby out there who is going to be ours!  Thank you Kathy for the necklace, it is very special to me!

Raise Money for Vesneski Family Adoption | YouCaring

Raise Money for Vesneski Family Adoption | YouCaring

Come check out how much money we've raised!  I put the earnings from the yard sale and the wonderful donation check's we've received!  Thank you EVERYONE for your continued support on this journey.  We have been so touched by the support of people and it is a great experience!  

Thank you!

With the yard sale over I wanted you all to know that we did awesome!  We raised more money than I would have thought possible and that was due to all of the many donations we received for items to sell!  I will say though that Lola & her friend had a hard time selling lemonade to the hard core yard sale folk.  I was getting discouraged for the girls because everyone they asked, they kept being told "no thank you".  These folks were concerned with having to go to the bathroom and don't drink while doing yard sales.  That's hard core if you ask me.  Anyhow, Thank you to Robin, Stephanie, Kathy, Samantha, Kristy, Patsy, Kelly Ann, Nettie, Ruhee, Kara, Gina, Twila, Christy, Tracy, Nicelle, David & Vikki, Dave & Sandy, Matt & Justy, My neighbors down the street, Louise, Sarah and to those who put a smile on Lola and her friends face when they did finally buy some lemonade!  My plan is to go to the bank today and deposit all of it and then transfer it over to our You Caring website (http://www.youcaring.com/fundraiser_details?fundraiser_id=2251&url=vesne)!  Putting together that size of a yard sale was definitely hard work but well worth it.  Again, thank you everyone!! 

Plees Kum Too Lemead Std (heart) Love

Saturday Morning was insane...  We rolled out of bed extremely exhausted and went right to putting everything back out in our driveway, sorted through items, added items, set Lola up with a cash register for her and a friend to sell lemonade....  Then these dark clouds came.  Joe, I, and our dear friend stood still just staring at the sky wondering what are we supposed to do?  We can't imagine packing up everything we just spent 45 minutes putting out, but that is what we started to do when we felt rain drops!  Thank goodness we reacted when we did because the second we got either items covered or back into the garage, the down poor came!  I just sat in my garage, drinking coffee, listening to Pandora, watching the rain.  It was actually quite nice...  So, we decided to have the remainder of our yard sale this upcoming Saturday, May 12th.  While the down poor came, Lola was upstairs making a sign for her lemonade stand.  I pictured a poster board or paper sign but this girl took some wood left over from our floors, got herself a Sharpie and wrote...."plees kum too lemeand std Love"!  I kinda want to use this piece of wood somewhere on our floors :)  I love this sign!  She is so neat! 

Also, I had no idea that our amazing friends back in DE were having a yard sale in honor of us last Saturday.  Since our yard sale was cancelled I finally had a moment to check my 11 messages on my phone from the previous week and found out.  Shout out to Cory & Chad....thank you so much!!!  That was just icing on the cake to how our Friday went and we are so grateful to you guys.  You Rock!!!  Sending you all big *HUGS*!

We received our confirmation today from Heart of Adoptions in FL and are officially waiting with them as well! 

1 day down, 1 to go!

HOORAY!!!

Day one...over...burnt to a crisp, except my face because no matter how dark and how tired I was this morning at 5am, I still remembered sunscreen for my face!  So Grateful... Everyone is extremely generous, thank you to my friends, thank you for coming over during the week to help me try and sort through everything, thanks for hanging clothes, thanks for being here in person to support me, thank you to all who gave us items as donations, thank you for promoting it, thank you for the ice'd skinny chia tea latte just when I had lost my momentum, thanks for the endless "front and facing", thank you for all the generous "gifting", and most of all, thank you for caring for us and being excited for us!  We made way much more than we could have only imagined and we still have one more day to go!  Wow!!!

Before..

The sale hasn't even begun and I'm already exhausted!  Thank you for everyone who has helped/continues to help and for all the items donated.  You all are AWESOME!!!  So this is what our garage looks like today!  As I was out shopping this morning for the posters and stakes both the sales women inquired what I was doing needing these items and I told them about the fundraiser yard sale and they were so supportive.  One started to tell me that her family is looking to adopt from the Ukraine and the other lady was wondering where I lived so she could come, turns out she lives in my neighborhood!  The support our family has received is wonderful.  We feel truly happy and blessed to be surrounded by wonderful support from friends, strangers, neighbors, and co-workers!  Thanks everyone!