Does your agency allow you to adopt while pregnant?
Yes, and I feel so fortunate that they do! The country we are adopting from doesn't have any restrictions on being pregnant while adopting. We knew that going in, but many agencies have restrictions regardless of the country's restrictions. We feel very fortunate that our agency doesn't have those restrictions. So, the adoption can proceed as normal. And as far as I know, the original timing we were quoted won't change due to the pregnancy.
Will any adoption updates be needed due to the adoption?
I just heard from our agency today that we will need to update our homestudy, and send those papers to Custom and Immigration. This won't delay anything thankfully.
Will you still travel to the foreign country?
It is looking unlikely, and I'm very sad about it. :-( Unfortunately with adoption, we don't know when we'll get our referral, and then after that, we don't know when we'll travel. I'm due July 7th, so I wouldn't be able to travel much before that for obvious reasons. Besides the fact that I don't want to deliver a baby on a plane or in the foreign country, I also won't be able to receive the vaccinations needed to travel to that country. And if we are to travel right after my due date, there will be some healing necessary and things like that. Really, the only way I'll be able to travel is if the referral comes a few months after delivery. That way, I could leave the baby with the grandparents or something. We've already made alternate arrangements however, and if I can't travel, my Mom and T's Mom will travel with him to pick up our son. (goosebumps!)
Isn't there any way you could stop, or at least delay the adoption?
Sure, we could stop right now. If we wanted. Or we could delay it, although we would have paperwork that would expire that we would have to pay for all over again. Here's the thing. We don't want to delay this. This baby boy who we've never met, and who may not even be born yet is part of our family. We love him. . . to pieces. No differently than we love lil monkey in my belly. (yes, we are calling the belly baby lil monkey) I've mentioned this before here, but we've ALWAYS wanted to adopt. Sure, it wasn't our plan to do this all at once, but we were never in control of that plan anyway. Stopping the adoption was never an option for us. It didn't once run through our minds. Not once. Do you want to know just how much I love my husband? When I told him that I was pregnant, one of his first comments (after asking me if this was a sick joke of course) was that we were going to have two little babies. Not once did we think any differently. Not once have we seen adoption as second choice.
How close will the babies be in age?
We aren't really sure. T and I have been thinking that Monkey will be born sometime this winter. Of course, this is nothing but a guess. But based on the timing the agency quoted to us, we think monkey will be a winter baby. Because of that, we think monkey will be older than lil monkey. And with that being said, we are guessing I'll deliver lil monkey before we have monkey home with us Confused yet? So are we!!! I spent hours on Christmas trying to explain this to people, and the truth is, is that we really just don't know. What we do know is that we'll have two babies, very close in age. So close in age that they'll probably be in the same grade. If I had to venture a guess, I would say these babies will be 4-5 months apart. And yes, I'm overwhelmed with that thought! ;-)
How far along are you, and how long have you known?
I am 13 weeks today. I put a little ticker thingy at the bottom of this blog. I found out I was pregnant in October. To be honest, I'm not sure why I even tested. I guess I tested because I had one laying around. I got up for work, and thought. . . why not. I had been feeling really tired, and my blood sugar felt low if I waited too long to eat, but besides that, I had no symptoms what so ever. Imagine my shock when I saw a positive test! It's been hard for me to not say anything, but the last year has given me a huge vision of reality, and I know all that can go wrong. I know things can still go wrong, but my tummy is getting big, so I figured I had to tell sooner or later. ;-)
These events have just once again proven to me that I am SO not in control of any of this. I'm just along for the ride. :-D
Feel free to leave any questions you may have in the comment section. I'd love to answer anyone's elses questions if I haven't answered them already.
