::Hello again!::

Good grief, it's been a long while! 

We have been bombarded with so many questions.. so where do we start?? So, what is new in the Sipek household!? We've been embracing our new parenting journey for the last eight amazing, tiring, crazy, frustrating, yet awesome months! We could go on with more adjectives to describe on our experiences, but you get the idea..

(Photo credit: Tate Tullier Photography)

The saying, "the moment a  child is born, your life will be forever changed" is very true.  We have been growing daily as parents and it has been a great, exhilarating experience for us! Sleep deprivation was.....challenging. We don't know how the heck we managed to survive on 3 hrs of sleep a night during the first few weeks. Jeez. The first night home from the hospital, especially. It got bad enough through the night that we decided Mia was colicky; she cried and bawled the entire night....we just didn't know what to do! The second night eventually got better. Little by little, we developed a system and it evened out. As expected, the first three months were pretty tiring and crazy. We have been enjoying Mia's developmental milestones since her birth such as her first smile/laugh, roll over, sit up, tooth, etc. She is in the process of transitioning to a crawl... yes, we know.... this is when the REAL fun begins. HAHA!

Let's go back to the very beginning of our new journey:

Brooke's c-section surgery (baby was breech) was a smooth ride with no complications; we were blessed! Our sweet Mia Lorainne entered the world on July 13th at 7:53am. She managed to get ourselves all wrapped in her tiny fingers at first sight! Full of hair. BEAMING blue eyes. Such a doll! 

(Mia: 2 months old)

"It's a GIRL!" we will never forget the huge surprise after finding out the sex of our baby with tears of joy! It has been a mind blowing journey to watch Mia grow every day. Her face has been changing a lot since birth (still is!) and it has been so amazing to see! Who does Mia look like? Oh definitely her daddy! However, she is starting to have mama's cheeks and curly hair... we'll see when she gets a bit older! 

(Oh yes you were, darling!)

(This first family picture was taken in September 2015)

We are still very much interested in adopting and we just reached out to our adoption agency to review a few things: our current home study has expired (it's only good for a year), so our next step will be to renew our home study.  We're finding out whether or not we have to do everything from square 1 again (home-study) or can we just revisit/update, which would definitely be the cheaper option.

Turns out that we have to completely renew our home study for several reasons: other than the fact that it was expired, we have to switch the adoption country from Colombia to China (they were willing to update it the last time because we were in the process of being pre-approved to adopt, but since it expired, we have to officially change it this time), add our new family member (Mia) information, and job change. There are a lot of changes so it's just better off to renew the whole home study. Ugh. That goes another whooping $1400. Ching-ching! 

For the China adoption expenses, you can see how it's broken down below:

The expenses are quite overwhelming, huh? Can you imagine how many potential families turned down the idea of adopting once they see the true cost of adopting? Well, we can't blame them-- who really has that kind of money?! It just sucks knowing that there are many orphans out there waiting for families. This is the main reason why we are taking this SLOWLY. Everything costs money. "When will you adopt?" We wish we could say "SOON!" Truthfully, it may take a while for us... we have to remain positive, patient, and persistent.
 

Brooke left her teaching job last December to become a stay at home mom to focus on raising Mia and to do the adoption process as well; it was a difficult yet worthy decision. Before making the decision (you know that involves a big financial change in our household), we double-checked with out agency to assure that Brooke's job resignation does not affect our eligibility to adopt. Some countries require a specific minimum income/net worth to qualify for adopting. We are still eligible. Thankfully. On an even better note, when we adopt a child, Brooke would be able to give him/her plenty of attention at home to work on any potential issues that the child may have. It's a decision that would benefit everyone in our growing family. 

Right now, Mia is closing in on 8 months (this Sunday!) and we are very much open to the idea of potentially getting pregnant again (if it's in our cards this second time round) since we want to focus on expanding our family. WE WILL ADOPT no matter what happens, but the wait and child search may be extended. Our funds with HeartSent will not expire so our timeline for adopting is a little more flexible than if there was a deadline.  Brian and I wish for three children so we hope that would happen in the near future. :) We are excited to see what happens next.

(At Jo's Coffee shop- one of Austin's famous spots. Taken 2.28.16.)

Thank you for your ongoing love and support! 
Brian, Brooke, and... Mia! (it's wonderful adding her name this time!)