The Beginning of a Great PB & J!!!!

Blake and I love a good pb and j sandwich. There is something about the way that the two separate parts come together to create something new with the combination of its tart and sweet flavors while still being two very different things. This love started shortly after we got married. Blake and I make our pb and j sandwiches very differently.  He likes to have peanut butter on both sides of the bread and jelly in the middle.  I however, like peanut butter on one side and jelly on the other.  But somehow we always meet in the middle when we make them for each other and we often find that it does not matter how we make them they still have that same great taste in the end. Our love for this sandwich can be translated into how we view big decisions in our lives.

And our story begins.........

After you graduate college and you have been dating someone for awhile the questions begin. When are you going to get engaged, then you do. Have you set a wedding date? When are you having a baby? And then you fast forward 4 years and here we are.

After our second year of marriage we decided that it was time to start trying to add an "Oakley" of our own to this family. And to be honest I thought to myself, "Ok it's just going to happen, wham bam I could be pregnant." But oh boy was I wrong!! After many attempts, temperature checks, fertility tests, ovulation tests, charts, doctor's visits, lab tests, fertility drugs, and now becoming part of the percentage of couples who fall into the "unknown infertility category"  we arrive at the end of two and a half years of trying and still no little Oakley. Frustrated to say the least!

We had scheduled an appointment with a fertility specialist to start IUI treatments in hopes that this would be our last resort and what would work best for us. The night before the appointment Blake and I took Bailey on our normal afternoon walk, or should I say she took us on her afternoon walk. We started talking about the procedure and something clicked in both of us,  this is not what God has planned for us. And so I called that night and canceled the appointment.

A week went by and one Sunday morning before I started my morning devotional I prayed that God would guide us and show us what his plan was for our family. I began my morning devotional and started reading Esther. And lets just say God showed me a pretty clear sign for what he wanted us to do!!!  If you know me at all you know that I am a BIG believer in signs and sure enough I knew that God was calling us to adopt.

Weeks and months went by of conversations of adoption. And throughout all those conversations we continued to see signs all around us that would become part of our families plan. Somethings that we knew....that we needed to start reading up on everything about adoption. We knew that we wanted to talk to our friends who had adopted so we could better understand this amazing journey. And that we needed to write a letter to all our close friends and family so that they could better understand why we were choosing this path.  Now comes the biggest decision and insert pb and j method.......international or domestic adoption.

Blake immediately thought international and I was leaning more towards domestic. I quickly thought to myself "how in the world are we ever going to make this decision". We knew right away that we needed to talk to friends who had adopted internationally. Blake scheduled a dinner with friends at their house and we got to know their families precious story. Which was AMAZING in every way!!!! We also have a close friend who knew a couple that had just adopted domestically and filled us in about their journey.  International and domestic adoption are two different processes but both with the same ending goal.....a baby!!! A child that we have prayed for, for so long.

Then next thing you know.......we had booked a trip to Utah to interview adoption agencies!!!!