baby v has a sweet new ride
most baby gear seems a little overwhelming to us – but we certainly are excited about the stroller! And thanks to Grandma and Grandpa VerHage (Josh’s parents), Baby V now has a lovely method of transportation – I didn’t add the car seat attachment yet, but its exciting that the Chicco we got from Alison and Brian (via little Henry) will be a perfect fit!
Bex and Lucy were very interested in what I was working on today while I set it up and had to make sure to smell the whole thing!
a place for baby
the rocker/glider is set up now and we ordered a crib this past week. now we have a place for baby v to sleep whenever he or she arrives…check out a picture of the crib we picked out:
busy days
in the midst of several big events for work, church and family life – we’ve been plugging away at getting the nursery ready and pulling together the final pieces for our adoption profile.
We are currently still on the wait list to get into “the Book” which is a binder of 60 families that our agency shows to expectant parents considering an adoption plan. There are still quite a few folks ahead of us in the waiting line, but we continue to work on other outreach efforts and many of you have probably received our letter + contact cards as our first step towards getting the word out. If you haven’t received any or would like more, we have plenty! Just send an email to: theverhagefamily@gmail.com and leave us your mailing address and we’ll send you some.
We ordered a new chair for the nursery – having sat in so many chairs over the past month, we think we finally settled on one that was firm enough, within our budget, and was the right mix of clean lines and comfort. Its being delivered tomorrow and we’ll see if that fabric swatch we chose will look good on an entire chair! We’ve narrowed down the crib preferences to one pretty solid choice and 2 “maybes” – just a matter of finding a dealer that carries them.
We’ve started our baby registries and joined Amazon Mom to get some deals on diapers + other kiddo essentials. Some have asked us about baby showers, but for us (and given the unknown timeline we’re working in), we want to wait until after baby arrives. In the mean time we already have some great stuff that H has been sharing with his cousin-to-be and we are picking up a few items as we go. Ever the planners, its nice to already have some lists made and plans for the kind of things we would like and the kinds of things we’re skipping (it is, we have learned, an overwhelming business when confronted with the entirety of Babys-R-Us and a list of hundreds of things that “baby needs”!
We decided to go with relatively gender neutral colors for the nursery – partly because we love a lot of fun bright colors and they seem to work well with boys or girls…Kara tracked down some fun paper and fabric for inspiration and now we are making some final decisions on paint colors! Josh already got the downstairs changing table assembled (a new dresser from IKEA that was suggested by countless friends who have the exact same one + love its height for changing babies!). We’ll pick up the double version of that dresser in white for the nursery – but before that happens, Kara has to finish relocating her craft cupboards in the 4th bedroom. More items for the garage sale we think!
As we think about all the possible “baby gear” out there – what’s your favorite baby item? we love suggestions!
first coffee money!
the other day we got our first check in the mail from the coffee sale proceeds – thanks so much to those of you who have purchased already! That check not only helps towards the costs of adoption – but its also a great reminder of all the wonderful people we have supporting us on this journey! We served Just Love Coffee at the baby shower we hosted for Josh’s sister, Alicia this past weekend – it was mighty tasty!
We are planning on placing a group order for coffee (they also sell organic + fair trade hot cocoa for you non-coffee folks!) to save on shipping – and if you are interested in purchasing, email us either at theverhagefamily@gmail.com or at one of the other many email addresses that you might have for us. Remember, we get roughly $5 towards our adoption for every bag you purchase – and its a good product!
Check out their website to decide what you would like to order, let us know your specifics and we’ll place an order by March 1. We’ll deliver your items the next time we see you + you can pay us for it then.
Coffee + Babies
You might wonder what coffee and babies have in common? Well, a couple of months ago we learned about this great organization through friends of another couple adopting called Just Love Coffee – they roast and sell delightful fair trade coffee AND the proceeds from the sales help support adoptive families like us.
For every bag of coffee sold, they’ll donate $5 to our adoption costs if you go through our “storefront” here:
Just Love Coffee and the VerHages
Check it out if you get the chance + thanks for the many ways people are supporting our adoption plans – we are grateful for the prayers, emails, phone calls, shared adoption cards, stories of connections you have, etc. We are blessed to have such a great circle of people in our lives!
getting ready
this journey of expanding our family might take some time – frankly there’s no way to know if it’ll happen in 3 weeks, 3 months or 3 years…but we like to be prepared.
To that end, we actually went out and did some shopping today – Josh has been so cute about doing research on baby monitors (not to mention the best ways to introduce babies and small dogs) and has definite opinions on colors and furniture and the like. Much like when we got married, when I thought I would get to pick out towel colors and the patterns for our plates, he surprises me with how engaged he is in the process.
We didn’t buy anything, but we made some good headway in narrowing down strollers and rocking chairs/gliders. Its nice to have some people in our life who have helped us with information – simply by their own experiences with items like diaper pails, baby carriers and bottle warmers. And our little nephew “H” has been so generous in sharing many of his baby items that he grew out of so quickly – its kind of amazing how little some things get used, so we are thrilled to be getting some really great things for the nursery and being good about finances!
We are still narrowing down some color and theme options for the nursery. Thankful once again for Pinterest and my ability to save things I like in a neat and ordered way online! We’ll end up going pretty gender neutral – especially since neither of us are inclined towards all blues or all pinks anyway – even if we knew the baby’s gender. Our plan is to make time in the next month to continue to find new homes for some of the items in the nursery – the hope chest gets moved to our bedroom, the craft cabinets will be sold or repurposed. Eventually we paint, put in new curtains and get the baby-specific furniture in. I’m sure we’ll do some before and after pictures when we move on to that work!
So we continue to read and research and ask questions of people who know more than us and push display strollers around the store and sit in gliders when we need a break…not too bad of a way to spend the day!
friendly faces
a few weeks ago we celebrated with some of our friends at a baby shower honoring two dear people who are, as we speak, bringing home their daughter from Thailand. this little gathering of friends is comprised of seriously amazing people and it was such a special morning as we “showered” our friends with happiness, blessings + some really cute gifts!
we happen to love the silly picture of the group the best – so here you go.
celebrating!
bex and lucy
these super friendly and silly puppies of ours are ready for a new addition to the family.
Merry Christmas from Bex + Lucy
Family Faces
Josh and Kara with our niece "E"
Kara's grandma, sister, mom and nephew "H"
Josh and Kara with siblings and spouses
Josh and two of his siblings goofing around
Josh, brother-in-law and stepdad at the state fair
Sister, brother in law, mom, stepdad and josh
the beginning stages…
we are thrilled be able to extend Kara’s love of blogging into the realm of our adoption journey. This space will be a little unique as its a place for us to keep everyone updated about the process – but also a place for prospective birth parents to learn more about us in an informal way.
whether you find your way to this blog because you are already one of our family + friends or because you are considering an adoption plan for your infant, we welcome you! Check out more about us through the links on the right and feel free to contact us via our email address or our adoption worker, Cory.
Thank you for journeying with us!
