Steece and Julia's Adoption

New Agency

steeceandjulia — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:29:04 +0000

Well after a little over a year with Graceful Adoptions, Julia and I have moved on to a new agency. We have no hard feelings or bad thoughts about that agency at all. But a year into the process and no baby yet, we felt like a change was in order.

Our new Agency is Lifetime Adoption and our “starter” profile is available as well for birthmothers to see. We are having to start over to some degree and create a whole new profile for Lifetime to use when sharing us with birthmothers. We also realize how dreadfully low on cool pictures of the family we are, especially pictures of Steece as he is usually the one taking the pictures.

Fortunately Scott Huffer (Huffdaddy), was kind enough to volunteer some of his time to take some very good professional pictures of us that we will use in our new profile. Thanks Huffdaddy!

We will need letters from friends and families to the birthmother as part of this new profile, so don’t be shocked when we ask you to write a letter for us.

We are excited about this new opportunity and hope to have a baby before too long. The good news is we know that the Lord is in control and there is a baby out there that He wants us to have. That makes this process much easier to go through.

Steece & Julia

Update…

steeceandjulia — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:14:33 +0000

So after a week of phone calls and emails with our agency, the birth mother for this baby has decided to keep him. Needless to say Julia and I are heartbroken. We have been ready to go to PA for a week and have been on pins and needles but this morning we found out that all of that was for naught.

So, it’s back to waiting and praying for the baby God has in store for us. We will let you all know when we know more.

Go Steelers!!

steeceandjulia — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:59:44 +0000

OK, I’m not really a Steelers fan (NFL Team in Pittsburgh, for you sports-challenged people) but we did just receive some news. Without going into great detail, a baby boy was born yesterday in Pittsburgh, PA and his mother is deciding between Julia and I and one other couple. Since he is already born, if she chooses us, we will be leaving very quickly to go to PA. Keep us and this situation in your prayers!

Update

steeceandjulia — Tue, 24 May 2011 01:46:34 +0000

Well, it has been quite awhile since we updated the blog, so I thought it was time to let everyone in on what is going on. We have had several close calls with babies, but none so far. We are still waiting to find the baby God has for us. We have continued to work towards getting the baby’s room ready and I think we are nearly done.

Julia has been crocheting baby blankets for several other couples who are pregnant and I know she is dying to make one for ours. She is getting really good at making them though.

Well that’s all we have right now. We are still waiting and praying for a baby to share our home!

Happy New Year

steeceandjulia — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:49:14 +0000

Well, not a lot has happened since the last time we posted an update. We celebrated Christmas and New Years with friends and family. The funny thing is we both asked for things for the baby for Christmas, because after all that is what we are the most focused on at this point.

It’s funny how when you get started in this process or become pregnant how all of your priorities change. Instead of thinking about that new game or gadget or clothes or whatever, you think almost completely on how can we bring this baby boy home. The desire to bring him home takes precedence over any want we may have.

Of course, we are willing to sacrifice, but Kourtney doesn’t have to. I think if you asked her though she would sacrifice some gifts if we could get the baby faster. We made sure she had a good Christmas. I think she is warming to the idea of a brother, or at least she is resigned to the fact it won’t change. Either way, she does mention having a brother sometimes and asks about the baby.

We have not heard anything new since the last update and so we are still waiting and praying. Thank you for all of the thoughts, prayers and gifts we have received. It is appreciated more than you will ever know!!

Match Update…

steeceandjulia — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 18:28:49 +0000

Well it has been said that good things come to those who wait. It would appear we must wait a bit longer. The birth mother has not chosen us to be the adoptive parents of her unborn baby. We do not know if there was a specific reason, but it is our belief that God has a different plan for us.

While it was exciting to think about the prospects of this being the baby for us, it was not His will. It also made us make some decisions and get things better prepared for his eventual arrival, so all is not lost.

We will continue to pray and thank all of you for joining us in prayers.

Things are moving

steeceandjulia — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 18:25:15 +0000

Julia and I have some exciting news! Our agent called and said she is sharing our profile with a birth mother in West Virginia. If she accepts us, then we will receive a packet of information about her and the father for us to look over and decide if we will accept the match.

This is very exciting because it means we are getting closer to bringing home baby Steece Allen. His due date is January 21st. Wow! The news, while exciting and very much welcomed also brings with it some anxiety. We have to be ready to go to WV within 6 weeks.

The suddenness of this intensifies our urgency for everything. Julia is making a list of everything vital that we must have, plus I believe we are very close to critical mass on her nesting instinct for the baby’s room. We have not done a lot to the room yet, but I believe that could change in a blink of an eye at this point.

We have also recently been accepted by Lifesong for Orphans (www.lifesongfororphans.org) to have a fundraising account set-up that will allow for people to make tax-deductible donations to our adoption. 100% of all money donated will go towards paying the remaining $25,000 in adoption costs.

So we have two requests:

1) Please pray for us and the birth mother during this time. Pray that God will guide her in the decision she has to make. Pray for us that we will be able to accept God’s will, whatever it may be in this case. And pray that everything left to come together, will come together so that we can bring Steece Allen home.

2) I know some of you have already donated to us and we are VERY thankful. If you would like to donate (and hey, it’s tax deductible) please consider doing so. Below are instructions for doing it, if you are willing.

Please make checks payable to: Lifesong. You may preference how the donation might be used by writing “preference Hayes #1633 Adoption” in the memo section of your check.

(*Note: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to Lifesong which retains full discretion and control over its use.)

2. Mail checks to:

Lifesong for Orphans

Att: Hayes #1633 Adoption

PO Box 40

Gridley, IL 61744

We both want to say thank you to everyone who has supported us and prayed for us. Prayer is the most important thing right now. As soon as we have any more information or news, we will post it.

Thank you…

steeceandjulia — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 18:45:12 +0000

We have had two successful fundraisers over the last couple of weeks. We had a benefit concert November 6th in Rock Hill, that was fun and cool. We wanted to say thank you to everyone who came out and supported us and especially Jennifer Lewis for setting the whole thing up and James Dabbs with Heywire Acoustical for playing for us and promoting us from stage.

Saturday November 13th we had a ladies tea at West Hartsville Baptist Church. The event took a lot of work and a huge thank you goes to Lane and Sue Lewis, Amy Hardee, Eric and Kay Hayes, Mary Olinger, Jason Andrews, Kevin Walters and Renee Carraway for help in cooking, cleaning, serving and all around helping out. It was a lot of fun and I think everyone involved had a good time.

Julia is still working hard to make crafts for the Hartsville Marketplace which will be on December 4th. We will have a table there to sell some of her creations, so if you are in Hartsville the morning of December 4th, please stop by the Marketplace and say “hi”.

We’ve been quite busy lately. Since we’ve finished all of our paperwork and are waiting for the call, we have been focused on fundraising. Most of that is done now. We need a break and Christmas is fast approaching. Through all of the fundraising we have done, we have raised close to $2,000.

A HUGE thank you for all those who contributed!!

Waiting…

steeceandjulia — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:39:27 +0000

You’ve heard it said that waiting is the hardest part. Well it’s true. Our profile is out there being looked at by birth mothers as we speak. Not a lot we can do but pray and be patient. We have taken this opportunity to get some of the other things done that are necessary to bringing in a little bundle of joy. We have bought a few pieces of clothes, a crib, crib bedding, stroller and decoration for the room. All of which we found through Ebay, Craigslist or on sale. Julia is a very good shopper!

We are also excited about our benefit Concert this weekend at McHale’s Irish Pub in Rock Hill. Anyone who is in the neighborhood, or want to make the short trip up could see Heywire Acoustical perform live and have some good food, all in support of our adoption. The Concert will be from 2 PM until 5 PM.

Also for the ladies, we will be hosting a Ladies Tea November 13th from 10 AM until noon at West Hartsville Baptist Church. Tickets are $10 and we will be having a silent dessert auction as well, in an effort to raise money for the adoption. We are selling tickets now for this event, so let us know if you are interested in attending.

And the Winner is…

steeceandjulia — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 16:05:27 +0000

Julia and I would like to thank everyone who bought a ticket to our raffle. We were able to raise close to $600, which has been very helpful. We decided before we even started selling the tickets that the best way to handle the winners is to let the first winner pick a prize, then the next to pick and so on. We think this is the best way for the most number of winners to get something they want. So, here is the list of winners, in order:

Jill Williams, John George, Tom and Denise Panos, Kim Brunson, Art Wright, Tim Heustess, Margie Williamson, Pat Winburn, Jason Carroway, Doris Reynolds and Ed Ralph.

We will be contacting each winner to let them pick their prize. Congratulations to everyone and thank you again for your help and support!!