Dear Friends and Family,

It's been a long journey, but we are so excited to finally announce that we brought our son, Seamus Alexander, home last month! He was born on July 1, 2018 at 7:05pm. He was 6lbs 11oz of pure cuteness and 19.75 inches long.

Seamus turned one month old this past Wednesday and time seems to have flown by! Our arms and our hearts are so full as we are settling in and learning what life looks like now with a wiggly newborn. 

As we process our adoption journey over the next several weeks and months we will be sharing some of the experience, our thoughts, what we've learned, etc. here on the blog. But for now, we just want to share some pictures of our precious boy and our family and sit back and enjoy this time while he so little.

So many of you have prayed for us throughout this process or supported us in many other ways, and we are just so incredibly grateful! Throughout all of this we have been overwhelmed by God's tender care as He provided for us in unexpectedly. Words aren't enough to say thank you.  <3

Seamus is the answer to five years of prayer together and we awed and amazed at God's perfect timing and His perfect will. The road getting here may have had its challenges, but now that he is here, we couldn't picture life without our little "Moose".  <3

Stay tuned for me more updates and adoption musings!

With "Fuller" hearts,

Ari, Casey, and Seamus "Moose"

*Shoutout to the amazing Kristina Holt for capturing these precious newborn photos of our little family. 

IT'S A MATCH!!

Dear friends and family,

We are SO EXCITED to announce that we have MATCHED with an incredibly sweet birth momma!

We have been walking down this adoption journey in prayer and God has directed every step, including matching us in a way that was totally unexpected. Initially, we planned to find a birth mom through Quiver Full, but instead we were privately connected with an expectant mom who was looking for an adoptive family. We met with her and her family several times and spent time apart in prayer and she eventually decided to place her baby with us. We are so humbled and honoured by her decision. That being said...

Our BABY BOY is due at the end of June!!! <3 <3 <3

The next couple of months will be a flurry of preparations and travel as we prepare to meet and bring baby boy home. We know you may have more specific questions about our boy and his birth mom, but for her privacy we are going to purposefully vague on the details. We will share what we can, when we can, and of course, you will shortly be overloaded with baby boy cuteness. ;)

Now that we've matched, we are actively working on the legal process and making sure all of our paperwork is in order before June. I will be traveling to our baby's home state in June and will be there until we come home with baby, somewhere around the first week or two of July. Casey will join me when he is born.

While we prep all of that, we are also working on Phase 2 of our fundraising campaign. We had a huge response to our first one and are so grateful for everyone who has prayed and donated over the last few months. THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts. Because of you we have nearly covered all of our attorney fees.

However, all of this traveling is going to be costly. From airfare, cars, and hotels, we're looking at another $2000-$3000. While we are actively working on options for lessening our costs, we are also hoping to raise a bit more to lessen the impact.

Here's how you can help:

1. We are finally launching our t-shirt fundraiser (along with other miscellaneous items). Stay tuned for that launch announcement this week!!!

*If you would like to check it out now before the launch, click here.

2. Our campaign is still up on YouCaring and can be accessed here.

3. We are registered online at babylist.com if you would like to check that out! (I'm pretty excited that I even have a BABY registry. What?!?)

In the meantime, please pray:

• For our expectant mother who has chosen us to raise her son. Pray for her heart as she comes to terms with her decision as well as her health these next two months. Pray that we continue to be an encouragement and source of comfort.
• For the birth dad as we build a relationship with him and he also deals with this decision.
• For our unborn child, that he would continue to be healthy as he grows.
• That paperwork would come together smoothly and that we would continue to have good relationships with our attorneys.
• For Casey and I, that we would remain united and lean on Christ together as the next few months become busy with preparations.

Thank you so much for being on this journey with us!! We can't wait to introduce our son to you!

Blessings in Christ,
Ari and Casey

Courage in Waiting

Wait for the Lord;

   be strong, and let your heart take courage;

   wait for the Lord!

Psalm 27:14

Encourage: verb - give support, confidence, or hope (to someone).

Over the years, Psalm 27 has been a source of encouragement to me as I have waited on God's perfect timing for a particular season of my life. He has reminded me time and again to not run ahead of Him, but trust in His plan. While I haven't always trusted right away as I should, His timing has always been better than my own.

It follows then that in this current season of waiting for baby, Psalm 27 once again speaks to my heart and encourages.  But it occurs to me this time, that the verse doesn't simply express that we should trust God's perfect timing, but that while we wait we should also let our hearts take 'courage'. Before now, I never really focused on the courage required to wait, but I'm learning just how necessary it is.

Casey and I have been walking down this road prayerfully (along with the many prayers of family and friends, which has been a major blessing) and we are very confident that we are exactly where God wants us to be.  In the five years we have been married there have been just a few times where He very clearly gave us a green light to run forward: getting married, joining the Army, and growing our family through adoption. But even in the midst of this absolute certainty that we are following and obeying, we have experienced...fear.

"What if we walk down this path and there is no baby?"

"What if we have to wait a REALLY LONG time?"

"What if we say the wrong thing that keeps a birth -momma from choosing us?"

"What if we do get matched with a first - momma quickly? Are we actually ready?"

"Will every pregnancy or adoption announcement fill us with joy for their blessings, but also sting with the reminder of our own empty arms?" 

Most of these fears are unfounded, but still they seek to fill my heart and mind with anxiety while we wait. Re-enter Psalm 27:14 - "Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord." 

I'm grateful for God's Word in this season and the reminder to wait on the Him. It encourages me to have hope that God won't leave us waiting forever, that He will use this season for His glory.  He compels me to wait with courage. When fear threatens to steal the joy I get from waiting in hope, I remind my fear that God's people have been trusting in His perfect timing for centuries over and that this faith and trust has never returned empty.
I'm still learning what waiting with courage looks like practically on a day to day basis, but here a few ways that I have turned my fear to courage:

• Every time a new match is announced on Quiver Full's facebook page, I offer a hearty and courageous congratulations to that family that is welcoming a wee-one home. Rejoicing in the joy of others is good for my anxious heart.
  
• We confess our fears to one another as well as to our friends and family. Refusing to wait in isolation combats fear and the prayers of those that support us gives us great courage.
  
• I've bought baby things! I've not gone overboard, but when I find something that I know I will want for our future baby for a good deal, I let myself buy it. Up until now, I have been afraid of baby items sitting unused in our house and the sadness that would bring. But I'm choosing to wait in hope and courage. So far I have a baby bouncer, a baby carrier, a car mirror that was given to us, a bottle drying rack, and a set of cloth diapers. Yay for baby things that bring hope. 

And now my favorite act of courageous waiting thus far: 

Last week I attended one of those Wine and Design (Sip and Paint) deals and bravely painted this cute little guy for our future nursery. For not generally considering myself artistic, I'm pretty proud of it. (For my Harry Potter peeps, we named him Pigwigeon).

If you are reading this, chances are you have been, are, or will be in a season of waiting on the Lord's timing. I pray this post and Psalm 27 encourage you to wait with courage, too.

Also, if you are interested in supporting us, here are some ways you can do that:

Prayer Requests:

• For our safety and health for our future baby and comfort and wisdom for their first momma
• Since our last post, we got approved to move into post housing. We move-in this Friday!! Please pray this goes smoothly and quickly. 
• For patience and courage as we continue to wait. Every week we move at least a spot or two up on the wait-list for Quiver Full. And in the mean time we are praying that God brings us the baby that is meant for our family at the right time, whether they come through Quiver Full or not. 

Financial Support:

• We are still working on raising funds  to cover adoption costs. We are halfway funded for our next fee, which is the agency fees  once we become active clients. 
•  If you would like to donate you can use the link to our YouCaring page here or we have other options such as PayPal and Venmo or personal check. Send me a message for more info. 

*Fayetteville/ Fort Bragg Friends - Stay tuned for information on our up-coming Yard Sale on March 10th!

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your support and prayers. 

Blessings, 

Ari 

The Journey Begins

Dear Friends and Family,

We're ADOPTING!!!!

Since we are so far away from most of you, we've started this blog as a way to record and share our journey and keep everyone up to date on the process as we go.

We are so excited to finally be able to share this news publicly. To those that have known for a little while - thank you for  your prayers and support. To those that are just finding out, we are thrilled to share this with you, too.

Why are we adopting in the first place? Some friends of ours who have their own adoption story shared with that, "God's family is diverse and we want our family to show the diversity of His church."

There are are many reasons that families choose to adopt, and while we certainly echo many of those, we also strongly believe that because God has adopted us into His family through Christ, we can show that same kind of unconditional love to a child who needs a family and a home. Families come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and backgrounds, but it is the love of God in our hearts that knits us together. Love is stronger than blood. Love is what makes a family. That is why we are adopting.

So, where are we at in the process?

We are happy to say that we completed our home study back in December were accepted as clients to our adoption agency this month (January). This means we are officially on their waiting list to become active clients, and the wait for that is around 4 months, more or less. Once we are on active status we can start waiting to be matched with a birth mom.

We are choosing adopt an infant by going the route of independent adoption through Quiver Full Adoptions, Inc. based out of Greenville, South Carolina. The agency was co-founded by two Christian women with their adoption stories, which has been inspiring and encouraging! Independent adoption means that we hire our own social worker, adoption attorneys, etc. and Quiver Full guides us through the process, helping us learn as much as we can before we bring baby home. They also help create our adoptive parent (can't believe we are using that word in conjunction with ourselves!) profile to share with birth mom's considering adoptive parents. Going this route will also help to keep costs down by eliminating "the middle man", as it were.

The adoption journey has not definitive time lines, but we know that it will arrive exactly when and where God intends it to, and we are trusting Him in this every step of the way.

Would you like to support us on our journey? There are several ways that your support would make a huge impact:

First, please consider praying for the following:

• That we would have patience as we wait with no specific deadlines.
• That we would be able to raise funds to cover our adoption fees.
• That we would have wisdom in deciding to move into on-post housing (we're currently in an apartment).
• And most importantly, for the birth-mom that will choose us and for our future baby.

Second, we are also working to raise money to help cover the costs of some of our fees. You can support us financially by:

• Heading over to our YouCaring fundraiser page and making a donation. You can find the link to our fundraiser here. (Please note that the company that processes donations does take 2.9% + .30).
• Our dear friend Mallory has designed an AMAZING logo for us to use to sell merchandise as a fundraiser. Stay tuned for more on that, but for now, here's the gorgeous design. 
• Sierra Vista friends, stay tuned for another fundraising opportunity in the coming months!
• Fayetteville friends, stay tuned for our yard-sale fundraising dates coming very soon!

If you would like to support us in a different way, whether financially or other, please feel free to contact us directly. (dildine21@gmail.com)

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and celebrate this exciting journey with us. We know the road will probably be long, but we are so excited for where God is leading.


Until the next update,

Ari and Casey 🖤