Our journey, as you may expect has taken some unexpected turns. This in no way means that we are not still on the journey. In fact, this time has made us even more excited to welcome another child into our home. Things have changed around us in literally about every way possible.
Back in March I was sent home from work in fears of growing cases with the COVID-19 virus. It happened to be spring break so Tyler was already out of school. A few days later Jason received news that he too would be working from home. We quickly adapted the house to have a place for the two of us to work and for Tyler to do his school work for a period of time. Little did we know at the time that this ‘period of time’ was going to be through the balance of the year.
Cases continued to grow and our lives continued to be turned upside down due to this virus. If you know me you know I don’t just sit still. I started the journey by making and donating over 300 masks. This was a great opportunity to teach Tyler to sew as well as a lesson in humanity. Both Jason and Tyler pitched in and it felt good to do something good.
I also decided to paint a mural on the fence, I would do a line a day until it was done… Again, we had no idea what this ‘period of time’ actually was nor did I think it would only take 7 days. Jason didn’t love the idea but I told him we can always paint over it!
These projects were coming to a close and I needed something going on to keep my mind and body satisfied with this stay at home, all the time, situation. Painting the house seemed like a no brainier. We were home and had time, we essentially weren’t able to go anywhere anyway so why not? Well who knew this would be a project that would take 14 days straight. Caulking windows, painting facia, painting soffits, stripping doors, replacing doors, scrubbing mold, sealing stains, this was no project for the weary! Now, of course it didn’t take all day every day, our bodies couldn’t handle that. But it was 14 days of work, but every minute of it was worth it when it was done!
We had all this great progress, but we also had a string of back luck. I was furloughed from my job. Jason needed an emergency eye procedure done. Our ac went out, we got it fixed, four weeks later it went out again (completely separate issue). We had a flood in our laundry room causing us to rip up our new(ish) floors. We discovered the flood was a result of an issue with the AC. The day after the AC was fixed the washer broke flooding the laundry room yet again. I stepped on a rusty nail requiring a tetanus shot, 3 weeks later shrined my foot and got a staph infection. All this being said we are all still smiling. We are now 10 weeks into this chaos, this thing that we saw as a short term problem has become a bit more of a long term change of life.
Every day we are faced with new challenges, nobody is sure what tomorrow will bring. In terms of the pandemic our lives are so different than they were. We have taken our health and stability for granted. We weren’t slowing down to appreciate each other, to appreciate our home, our friends and our family. There is a lesson here and we have received it all loud and clear. God is good.
These are incredibly uncertain times but the fear is gone, we know that God has a plan for us and he will provide. We are His servants and here to do good on this earth. We believe that our dream, the addition of a baby to our family will come. But it will come on His terms.
So, you may ask, where do we stand on adoption and in our journey? We stand in the exact same place as we did back in March. We are going to adopt a baby. We are proceeding with the process. There may be even more financial fears. The timeline may have been edited, but maybe it was edited for our benefit. Maybe we needed to experience this time together to grow, to gain excitement, to grow faith.
Laurin & Jason's Adoption Story 