Introducing our son Shane Jaycen Wiedeman!!

It's official! Today papers were signed, and what a praise! We cannot thank everyone for all your prayers!  The birth mom contacted the social worker today in Michigan.  They made it to the hearing at 2:30 pm and it went well!  There is now a waiting period for ICPC (Interstate compact of the placement of Children) to clear between Michigan and Kansas, a process that can take anywhere from 5-10 business days.

We can now introduce to you our son Shane Jaycen Wiedeman born 9-30-2012.  Here are some pictures from our time taking care of him during temporary custody. 

Thank you all for the prayers and support!

Love, Shannon and Emily Wiedeman

Court hearing update!

Great news in response to the recent prayer request.  Over the last two days a process server was able to physically get in touch with the birth mom.  She is still wanting to continue with the adoption.  Our social worker here has enough information to submit to the court and is hoping to have a hearing next Tuesday!  Please continue to pray for that all to work out according to plan.  Praise God!

Trusting daily,
Shannon and Emily

Waiting on the court hearing

Family and friends.  It seems like just yesterday we got the call and packed up quickly to head out of Wichita.  We can't believe that it's already been over a week!  Emily's brother Jake and his wife Lauren have been the hosts with most.  It's been great spending time with them and the accommodations have been perfect to take care of the little guy.  Shannon has been working when he can remotely and using vacation when he cannot.  Emily has also been working remotely for Hope Christian Church when she can and taking care of our son full time when Shannon is working.  Together we've been learning to take shifts at night for feedings and diaper changes.  It has been a pure joy as we get to know our son better day and night!  :)  It was mentioned last time but we just want to reiterate the location of this adoption has been just another perfect provision from our heavenly Father.

Our son to be has been great!  He passed his doctor checkups and a visit from a nurse to our location with flying colors!  The doctor we spoke with at the children's clinic said he is definitely a miracle baby.  She has worked at the Detroit children's clinic for 5 years and has never seen an infant that has gone through that much respiratory trauma after birth and appear to be developing so well this quickly.   We've been warned he may have some learning disabilities but he also may very well develop fine neurologically.  All one month indicators are showing he is developing great.  The doctor said to get him enrolled in an early developmental program with a pediatrician back in Wichita as soon as we get back.  So huge praises for that miracle and we will be willing to deal with whatever is needed to take care of him.

So that brings us to our current update on the adoption.  We still only have temporary custody.  The court date for the birth mom to terminate parental rights has not happened yet.  The earliest the court date would have taken place is Monday, Nov. 5.  Social workers have touched based with the birth mom last week but that was before Thursday.  Since then the court contacted our social worker on the ground here in Michigan and wants more information than was provided on the birth father.  Until that is done a court date will not be set.  The birth mom is busy getting back into college classes and has not given any indication that she will be able to parent.  Nor has the birth mom given any indication that she will change her mind on the decision to place this baby boy up for adoption.

With that said this is a very tough time for us right now in that we are in a limbo state with this adoption.  It has some similarities to our last adoption attempt but yet at the same time very different.  We have the joy this time of actually being discharged with our little boy and taking care of him full time while waiting rather than visiting the NICU.  We were not here for all that happened while he was in NICU for 3 weeks.  That was very much God's protection as we could not have handled the stress while he was in NICU.  On the other hand taking care of him is also very tough in that we don't want to leave him here as we had to do with baby Hope.  As with baby Hope we fell in love with our son day one that night he was discharged to us and that parental love for him grows daily.  So still knowing that we only have temporary custody is difficult and we continue to hang on to God's promise to us that we will be parents.  That has been very evident the last 3 months since our last adoption attempt is that His promise will come true.  We promised and discussed before we got married that we wanted to adopt and we are so close to realizing that dream!

Please pray that the birth mother gets back in touch with the social workers soon and gets them the information they need to set the court hearing date.  We can't imagine what she is going through right now and would like to ask for prayers for her as well in peace for her decision in continuing this adoption.

Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see

Thanks for the continued prayers,
Shannon and Emily

Update and prayers requests

Family and friends,

We have been having some requests for information and want to let you know where we are at in our adoption journey.  Friday late afternoon around 6:30 we made it to Childrens Hospital of Detroit.   There we met the nurses and a baby boy that was born Sept. 30th and he has had a hard road in the NICU.  However after various procedures this baby boy is now breathing well on his own and feeding.   The birth mother selected us as the adoptive family and he needed to be discharged from the hospital soon.   So Friday night we were discharged with him after speaking with the attending doctor of his treatments the last few weeks.  The nurses were excited to see us and sad to see the little guy go but happy that he has made such a miraculous recovery.

We were arranged to stay in a Ronald McDonald house next to the hospital.  Saturday involved meeting with the attorney and social worker here on the ground in Michigan.  They are working with our social workers at American Adoptions.   All the paperwork has been filed and sent to the court house to arrive Monday morning.  So as of now we have temporary custody until the release of parental rights hearing with the birth mother.   We are excited and yet cautious. The earliest a court date would be set is sometime next week (November 5)  There will be work to do this week and we must stay in Oakland County Michigan until that hearing is complete.  God's provision is out of this entire country that just so happens to be where Emily's brother and wife live!   So we are staying with them as our journey continues.  We are grateful and thankful to them for this.

After the parental rights hearing we then have full custody and parental rights. Finalization will occur 6 months from placement (this is very common of all adoption). Once the court date happens and the birth mom signs over parental rights she cannot go back on that.  Right now that hearing is the next hurdle.   We are not going to be able to share much more information except with immediate family until then.   We ask just for prayers and understanding during the next week until we know more.   Thank you so much.

God bless,
Shannon and Emily

Next leg of the journey

Hello family and friends!

We apologize for not posting much since we have been home from Virginia.  The last 3 months have been tough with a roller coaster of emotions.  We have gone from being angry to extreme sadness.   We have also had good days in accepting where we are at and trusting that God is in control having the bigger plan in store for us.  It's definitely been tough not knowing what kind of day each of us will have.  Fortunately each of us is normally opposite the other so we can support and help each other through the tough days.  We have been praying and growing closer to each other during the grieving process of not bringing baby Hope home with us.  We are thankful for the family and friends that have been there for us.   Now the next leg of our adoption journey begins!

Since we got back, we have been approached to be shown to other birth families.  Nothing has moved forward until this week.  On Tuesday we got a call about being shown to a birth mother who had a baby boy Sept. 30th.  She did choose us and currently we are on our way to Michigan to explore this blessed opportunity!  We are asking for prayers as this next couple weeks comes with excitement and yet some guardedness since our last encounter.  We are leaving the details in God's hands and taking it a step at a time.  Stay tuned for more to come.

Love,
Shannon and Emily

Recovering and moving on

What a better day to post this than on Sunday.   Even though we are not worshiping today with our Hope Christian Church family, we know they are with us in spirit.  We truly have been encouraged and glad to have so many people praying for us and lifting us up.   I (Shannon) do understand now why over the last week or more there have been many promptings from God through devotions about forgiveness.  Little did I know that this first round of heading to adopt our first child would end in loss and that eventually forgiveness would be needed.  Are we instantly forgiving people and being completely understanding right now??  No that is not the case.   As has been pointed out to us by so many family and friends we are going to go through the stages of grief as in loosing someone physically.   We definitely fell in love with that baby girl and loved her instantly as any parent would.  Now we must pray she will be taken care of and loved.   We must accept that we will not parent her and that God had us there for another reason.   We will get back on the horse and God will guide us to the next opportunity for adoption and/or birth of a child to begin our family.  We are thankful for having a deepening faith to move on otherwise in these stages of grief we could ge stuck in a pit.  That WILL not happen and I ask for continued prayer in healing for Emily and I.

In Christ's love,
Shannon and Emily

Grieving loss

We were informed recently that the birth mother has decided to try and parent.  We are grieving this loss and determining next steps.  Will likely cancel our hotel and get back on the road tomorrow just not sure where yet.  Please keep us in your prayers as we are fighting back anger and a lot of other emotions.

Patiently waiting

We continue to wait...we spoke with our social workers today, the thing that now seems to be holding up the signing is something no one has control over. We have agreed that we will sign a visitation agreement, however it cannot be held up in a court of law. The birth mother didn't realize that and is struggling with the thought that we may leave with baby Hope and not keep our word. It boils down to trust. She has to trust that we will be the same people once we leave that we are right now. As frustrating as that is it's understandable. The only thing we can do is continue to reach out to her and show her we are the same people and that won't change once we leave. All  we can do right now is pray and wait. It will be extremely hard waiting again in limbo over the weekend. The social workers were encouraging in that never once in all this delaying has the birth mother expressed a desire to parent the baby. 

Adoption update 8-9

Update on adoption.   Thank you for the flow of prayers as every time we go to a feeding with baby Hope we experience the peace and calm of Jesus being with her, seeing her get better, and grow.

Where our struggle comes in is signing over rights from the birth parents to us for custody at discharge.  We are continually waiting and trying to communicate with the birth mother and adoption agency.   Prayers need to also be for the birth mother as she is struggling to sign consent and getting a hold of the birth father.   She did get some conversations in with the attorney and social workers today.   However, we keep going into the next day with empty promises, no consent signed, and patience wearing thin.  

Mountain moving prayer

We need moutain moving prayers today.   Last night was an extremely emotional night and for the first time we feel there is a chance we may not come home with baby Hope.  Pray that God will move mountains today and that we will have some peace and clarity.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

Shannon and Emily

A video of her first night in NICU

Here is a video of the first night after Hope's birth when she was in NICU.  She was hooked up to a CPAP breathing machine to help provide a little pressure for her oxygen levels.   She went from a CPAP to a smaller tube to just provide a little help.  She has been off both now and getting plenty of oxygen on her own. She has been eating from a bottle for over a day and doing really well.   Her CRP levels (C-Reactive Protein = indicator of possible infection) are lower than they were last night.  The levels are not at the 0.2 they need to be but moving in the right direction.  So she still has one IV for antibiotic.   I will add newer videos when time permits to show what awesome improvement she's been making and what a little fighter she is!

We are praying that adoption paperwork will be signed today by both parties but have not heard yet.  We are very much taking it day by day and loving every minute we get to spend with Hope feeding and caring for her.  The nurses in the NICU have been AWESOME in taking care of her and us for that matter.  Please continue to pray for the adoption paperwork and also for the birth mom and all parties involved.

Hospital and adoption paperwork

Hope is doing very well.  She has taken a bottle every time today and after some work took full bottles the rest of her feedings.   A couple of them she was falling asleep on us but eventually she ate it all.  We are going to a 4 hour schedule instead of 3 hours with her taking full bottles and she is off the nourishment IV now for electrolytes.   (So the gatorade IV.. ha ha ha..)  She is on an IV yet for an antibiotic as she shows levels yet of some protien that tells the doctors she might be fighting an infection and they are trying to prevent it.  We are hoping that will be better tomorrow to be taken off the antibiotic IV.   So other than the antibiotic she is getting full oxygenization and breathing well on her own.  Her color is very good and eating well.   She's even had some loud diaper fills while feeding her which have been hilarious... and no dad did not teach her that.  :)

Now for an update on us and the birth parents.   It has been a stressful and emotional day for all.  We ask for continued prayers in this area as we continue to praise Jesus for the wonderful physical improvement of baby Hope.  The adoption paper work has not been signed yet.  The hospital paperwork has been signed to discharge the baby with us but we really need things to move forward on the adoption paperwork.   We had some time together today with the birth mother.  It is understandable that it is taking some time with all the emotions and we have been building a good friendship with the birth mother.   After speaking with her and a friend tonight, she appears to be getting to a better place in the adoption process. 

Thank you so much for the continued prayers and support!
Shannon and Emily

She has arrived

Hope has arrived!!   Our baby girl was born yesterday evening August 4th at 8:22 pm Eastern time.  She was 6lbs 5oz and 19 1/2 inches long.   Birth mom, mom, and baby are all doing well.  Yesterday was a challenge for everyone involved.   She was induced starting Friday late evening and took most of the day Saturday to dialate and deliver.

Hope had the cord wrapped around her neck tight.  She was not getting enough oxygen on her own and so went into NICU right after delivery.  She also had some fluid on her lungs.  As of tonight though almost 24 hours later she is doing so much better!!  She is breathing on her own now at a normal rate and getting plenty of oxygen saturation.

We got to meet the birth mother's mom today.   Our relationship with Hope's birth mom is turning into a great friendship and we will be getting to know her more even when we leave the area.  We still do not have custody and it will likely be Tuesday before paperwork is signed.  Please continue to pray for the families involved and decisions that will be made after this and the legal paperwork involved. 

Love you all,
Shannon, Emily, and Hope

God's Amazing Provision

Sunday July 29th,
We enter the day feeling tired and emotionally drained. Shannon had looked up a church in the area and we both were needing some encouragement. Church was great! We were able to relax and enjoyed a nice lunch together afterward. Then we started trying to figure out what we were going to do next on our journey. We had our hotel room for Sunday night and were needing to decide if we'd stay there another 3 nights. We had already been there 9 nights and were getting a little tired of it and it was getting to be very expensive. I need to give a little backstory to show just how amazing this day ended!
Shannon has a couple people he has worked with over the years at Cargill that live in VA, only about 3 hours from where the birth mom lives. One night while they were out walking they ran into a family that has a summer home there. Come to find out they are less than 20 minutes from our hotel in Manassas. With only hearing our story they offer up their summer home to us to stay at. A nice quiet place in the mountains (which was sounding great with all the busyness of the city). The disadvantage was that it would be a three hour drive if the birth mom wanted to meet with us, and it would take us 3 hours to get to the hospital once we received the call. So here we are weighing out all our options, stay at the hotel 3 more nights or move to the mountains three hours away. Stay? Go? There were so many pro's and con's to both options. We decided we should talk to our social worker and get her opinion. So as we are about to call Shannon looks at his phone (which hadn't rung all day) and he has 2 voicemail messages. We listen to them and are completely floored. It's Andrea (the family with the summer home, and whom we met with on Saturday). At church she was looking for some way to help us out until the baby was born, she started sharing our situation and found a family who had a place for us to stay! Again only about 15 minutes from our hotel and closer to where the baby is going to be born! So once the shock of that call subsided we listened to the other voicemail, this one was from the woman Andrea had talked to at church. We made plans to meet her in a couple hours. She shared her story with us of how she was adopted! God is so good. So here we sit today, in complete amazement of God's great miracles and providing for us at just the right time! Thank you for your prayers we know none of this has happened by chance.

God is in control

Monday night we had another meeting with our birth mother and the birth father's mother.  We and the birth mom were very nervous about this one.   As usual though there were many people praying at home including our cohorts on the Hope Christian Church navigation team who were having a monthly meeting at the same time we were having dinner during our meeting.   Our social workers once again helped guide us through this and prayers were answered.   The birth father's mom had some questions for us and got right down to the point.  Fortunately many of the questions she had were things that we've been thinking about the last 7-8 months and the adoption agency has prepared us for.   The number one priority though for her was that we were a saved couple and believed in Jesus Christ.   She wanted to know that her grand child would be raised not just in religion but in Faith and will one day know Jesus herself.   That is most important to us also so you can see how relieved we were and happy to answer that question.

As our week continues our new normal for the next few weeks is anything but normal.   :)  We are adjusting to living out of a hotel currently and it has doubled as an office during the day for us.   We are both doing our day jobs from here remotely over the computer.   We are very blessed currently to have the ability to do that.   We have a huge thanks in that a Cargill co-worker, Randy, has been able to find us a place to stay and take care of our daughter once she is placed with us.   It just so happened that he ran into some neighbors while out walking with his wife this last weekend.   They have a summer home just down the road from him and are willing to let us stay there while they are away!!  We hope to meet up with them to find out there story of adoption in their family and to thank them for this huge blessing.  Now the timing of our daughter's birth is the main factor.  We know it is not by coinscidence that any of these things have taken place, but it is by God's divine plan.

We will make sure we know where the hospital is at and depending on traffic determine the best route to get there.   We will be getting together again with our birth mother this week to hang out more and get to know each other even better.   During her last Dr. appointment the baby was very low and she has been having some mild contractions.   We are getting very close to her due date of July 30th!  Please continue praying for everyone involved here.  We are seeing many miracles happen!

We're not in Kansas anymore

We are here! We left Friday morning from Kansas and drove to West Virginia! We talked with the birth mom while on the road Friday, and set up a time to meet her and her aunt. We are super excited and are praying continually about these next couple weeks. We are taking it a day at a time and enjoying all the blessings God is pouring out along the adventure he has started in our lives. Saturday we finished our long travel and got settled into our hotel just in time to leave and go meet our birth mom. The meeting went very well. We talked and laughed and are feeling very comfortable with each other. On Sunday we took some time to explore DC. We had a great time seeing the sites! Please continue to pray and we will keep you updated.

Love, 

Shannon and Emily 

We are matched!!

June 14th 2012  we got the call that has changed our lives!   We were presented a match that met our Adoption Planning Questionnaire (APQ) criteria 100%.   We were in disbelief that it happened so quickly.  The average wait time is 1 to 6 months through our agency and we figured we would be on the tail end of that.  And that friends is why our blog is titled Journey of Faith.  :)   God gave Emily a birthday gift she will never forget as the call was the day before her birthday, and we officially accepted the match on her birthday.  So since then we have been getting to know the birth mother through conference calls and emails.   Also the quickness of it all has brought a roller coaster of emotions, excitement, and holy cow we are going to be parents in a little over a month!!! So many prayers have been answered, and once we had heard the specific prayers that were said by our friends it was such a testimony to the power of prayer and our Awesome God!  As with all matches there is a chance that the birth mother could change her mind before signing over custody.   So your continued prayers are much needed right now.

If you have any questions please contact us and once again thank you!

James 1:17  Every good and perfect gift comes from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

The start of the nursery :)

Video Profile

We are officially done filming for our video profile!!  We had a month to get together short footage about us and to do interviews.   The video equipment was sent back to American Adoptions and we are in a queue for the media company to edit our video profile.    We have been active for about a month and are being shown to potential birth mothers.  Please continue to pray as we are in a waiting state, please pray also for God's protection of the baby He has planned for us. Now we will be working on our next step of fund raising for our match budget.   We truly do appreciate all the prayers and support up to this point!

Coming to you live!

We are active! Our profile is available for viewing and is being shown to birth parents. Thank you for your prayers! We still have lots to do, we received our equipment for the video profile, and have till around the end of the month to finish it. We've got another manual to read and then the waiting. But we couldn't be happier. God has been faithful through this portion of the journey and we know that He who started a good work in us will be faithful to complete it. 

If you would like to view our profile go to this link on the American Adoptions web site! http://www.americanadoptions.com/family_profile/index/fp_id/27615

Excitement as so much is moving forward!

Wow we are really seeing things move forward and all the hard work and prayers being answered.   Our profile information that was submitted was approved!   We got a proof of what our online profile will look like.   The next piece of the profile is the video portion.  All the legal paper work for that was read through, signed, and sent in.  The video profile is not required to go active but still must be completed. We have received the video equipment and have 30 days to capture what is needed for the video.   There is one last activation agreement form to digest, initial, notarize, and send in with the activation fee.

Then it is OFFICIAL!!  We will be shown to potential birth parents and our adoption agency will work to match us.   This is where the rubber meets the road so to speak.  :)  God already has our child matched for us and it's just a point of finding out who it is and when.   We are praying specifically for the birth parent(s) as this is going to be emotionally draining and difficult for them.   We have heard so many stories in the last few months and enjoy seeing and hearing about friends of ours who have adopted.  Every day we become more encouraged and thankful that we are on this journey. Until next time.

Sincerely,
Shannon and Emily

One step closer

We are one step closer to going active! Thank you for your continued prayers and support! This week we submitted our text and photos for our profile, and our home study was finalized! The profile challenged us  in many ways, it seemed like we would get attacked or have a ton going on to the point it seemed we might not get it done for a long time. We wrote around 2000 words on subjects from our families, how we met, what we will tell our children about their adoption, and a letter to the birth parents. We are now waiting to hear from our media specialist to make sure all that we have submitted is approved. Once all is approved we will start to be shown to birth mothers. We only have one more step then to complete; the video profile, which we will start after we have gone active. This is a very exciting time for us, please continue to pray as we continue on our journey to having a family.

Home Study Visit

Well the home study visit went very well! We know it's because we've had so many people praying for us. Thank you! On Sunday we met with Cathy (our social worker) for a little over two hours. She asked lots of questions about us and our marriage, then interviewed us separately to find out about each of our families.  We enjoyed sharing with her about our childhood memories, our parents, and our siblings. She looked around our house some and then asked more questions about how we planned on parenting, and how we would talk with our child about their adoption. Cathy hopes to have our home study completed by mid April. If we are able to get a little more written on our profile we would be able to go active at that point. Going active is when we will be shown to birth mothers. After that we could be matched anywhere from a few days to a year. This was very exciting to hear, we have been working hard to get everything done and now we are so close to being finished with all the paperwork and will soon be waiting excitedly for the little one God has planned for us.  Thank you again for all your prayers!

Home Study Prayers

We met with our adoptive family specialist Kathie on February 20th over phone conference.  She was very helpful and we got many questions answered.  One thing that she said during the conference that was very exciting for us is that adoption is a guarantee!!  At some point we will be the proud parents of a child and start forming our family.

Now for the "intimidating" home study!  Well it wasn't all that intimidating until we got phase 2 of the home study packet.  We have thankfully got all the paper work, fingerprinting, background checks, and a myriad of other information together and are ready for the social worker.  It was a little overwhelming at first but we took some time to just get organized and started completing it a piece at a time.  Now we got all the supporting documents done!  The social worker lives close to us and the home visit is scheduled for Sunday March 11th.  Please pray for the home study visit.   We have been preparing the house to show we have a safe home for our future child.   That has also included getting a space ready for the little tike.  The office has been moved down to the basement to start transforming what was the old office upstairs into the baby room.  It's been a lot of fun to get ready.  Next steps are continuing our online profile, start the video profile, and doing some fundraising.  Once the profiles are done we will go active and American Adoptions will start showing us to potential birth mothers. Thank you all for your support and prayers so far.  We've been seeing them answered and thankful to God for His provision.

Next Steps

We have finished filling out the Adoption Planning Questionnaire and will be speaking with an Adoption Specialist on the 20th. During our call we will talk about all of our answers, and responses, to see how they will effect our exposure to potential birth parents. We have also sent in our application for the home study. They say this is the process that can take the longest, anywhere from 1-2 months. We have also started working on our online profile, this is a lot of information to compile, and we are slowly working to chip away at. Again we are very excited to continue moving forward, but with each area there are unknowns, please continue to pray that God would give us the words to say, and that He continues to guide us along through it all.