::our growing family::

Hello world! We know this blog is way overdue... hats off to parents who are able to juggle their time with blogging and keeping up with their young children.. we barely could find the time to type this post up! We started this post months ago... and then kept on updating little by little whenever we have time. 

What's new? So many! Our little Mia is almost 17 months and she is a curious explorer these days! She has grown so much and learning a bunch of signs; it is endearing to watch Mia's tiny hands move to express words. She's such a sweetheart... Since you haven't seen any updated pictures of Mia-- here are a few of Mia's first birthday pictures (shot by Amelia Hamilton):

Parenthood has been going well and very busy, indeed... with another nice surprise on the way! Brooke is expecting a second child (already!?) and will be due in late March. She is now past halfway at 24 weeks.  What's the story with our second pregnancy? Actually, we always planned on expanding our family and our second baby decided to come much, much earlier and ahead of our schedule. We envisioned that we might struggle to conceive again and didn't expect this pregnancy to happen so quick and easy after when Brooke stopped breastfeeding Mia. The pregnancy test result came out positive. Wowwww! You could imagine how surprised and shocked we were! We are grateful, of course. Mia and baby #2 will be 20 months apart. Two under two....We will have our hands full really soon!

What does that mean for our adoption process? We still want to adopt; after a lengthy discussion about our future plans and such, there are still a lot of uncertainty in the future such as moving to a bigger house for our growing family (but when and where?), Brooke's future job (hopefully when our second baby is ready for pre-school), etc... We are not even sure what will happen after our second baby is born because any new changes in our lives, we would constantly be updating and paying a bunch of fees for our home study. Timing is a huge factor for us, too. When can we really go to China and adopt a child? Would we be able to on a short notice if that's the case? We have decided to adopt through a different route to give us more flexibility without stressing over deadlines and expenses to meet for international adoption. We have decided to pursue adoption via foster care in the state of Texas.

We went to TARE (Texas Adoption Resource Exchange)'s orientation last June to learn about becoming licensed foster parents in this state of Texas. We would like to start our case here in Texas to open doors for some potential foster (deaf) children and to give us the opportunity to help them and adopt them if that's an option; some foster children are eligible for adoption. We just want to increase our chances of adopting a child. We will be required to attend few orientations/workshops to complete our process of becoming foster parents-- there are a lot of criteria to meet for TARE; thus, we do not expect this process to go quick. We were forewarned by other foster parents that the process take a long time because it is under the state-- they do rigorous screening for qualified parents (a lot of red tape involved, too).  We are certain that we will get most of the work done after second baby's arrival. Right now until then, we will just do a little bit of the paperwork for TARE/DFPS (Texas Department of Family & Protective Services), but same time to prep for our second baby's arrival, too! We truly feel that the idea of adopting through foster care is the most ideal plan for us and our young family. It would buy us time to prepare and welcome another child in the house under our care and to hopefully adopt our third child by then.

We are excited to see what future will hold for us... :) 

With love, 

Brian, Brooke, Mia, and second little one baking in the oven :)

::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!)  

::T minus four weeks!::

Yes, we are still alive and... BUSY! 

In our defense, spring semester has always been the busiest time of the year for teachers so that was what kept us occupied! We both had a lot more on our plates and have been in this crazy nesting mode at home, too. Brian had to paint the nursery room and the guest room as well. New carpet installed in all three bedrooms upstairs. Everything in the nursery room is crisp and fresh! New crib. Awesome wall decors. Baby spit-proof rug. Adorable bedding. Artsy geometric baby mobile. Everything else cute and adorable! Here's a quick preview of our nursery room...

We are ready for our little one to arrive in four weeks! We are very excited....and nervous.

Brooke will be 36 weeks this Saturday (which is the size of a big coconut). Her bump is growing every week and Baby Sipek has been moving a lot in her stomach! It's fun to watch, especially when Brooke's belly is making waves! We think of the scene from a movie, Alien, when the creature explodes out of the guy's stomach! However, we are quite positive that little Peanut will be a million times cuter and adorable. :) 

We still do not know the sex of the baby and we will not know until birth. YAY, we made it this far with our patience and willpower not to find out sooner! (pats our back) Brooke has this strong vibe that baby Sipek will be a girl while Brian thinks otherwise. We ought to make bets. :) Here are a few pictures of The Majestic Sipek Bump below:

 

Baby Sipek is the size of a cauliflower at 25 weeks!

Pregnancy cravings? Naw, Brooke doesn't really have any wacky pregnancy cravings like pickles, banana sandwiches with mayonnaise, honey dipped Reese cups (that one actually sounded somewhat appealing), bananas dipped in ketchup... naw, none of these! A bowl of plain ol' Cheerios with sliced bananas or blueberries is sufficient! And pizza. Who doesn't like pizza, though? We suspect that Baby Sipek would prefer pizza over milk at birth. :) We heard some crazy things like some pregnant ladies seriously craved for dirt, dust, toothpaste, or chalk. We do not know who those people are. 

Brooke's first trimester was nearly a total bliss with snooze-fests! No ongoing morning sickness until when the second trimester first arrived- Brooke made good friends with the porcelain throne for a couple of weeks. Then they decided to end the friendship, thankfully. After that, Brooke was feeling much better! Energy level skyrocketed! Boom! :) Third trimester has been good to Brooke. Although, she has been suffering bad acid reflux/heart burn since day one. Some have suggested that it means we will have a baby born with head full of hair.... Old wives tale, probably. We will see!  Brooke is still active and doing a lot things around the house and during the summer program at school for toddlers. So far so good. We will have our hospital tour tomorrow to check out the labor/delivery room... oh my, things are starting to feel very real! Eeeeeee.

We will have our final sonogram next Monday to see our little Sipek once more before  D-Day arrives! EDD: 07.18.15.

We have been reading some pregnancy advices, stories, tips, and articles to "best" prepare us for parenthood. We know there will be some... maybe more than several unexpected surprises.  We are confident that we would make a good team to tackle 'em! Well, we have to. However, Brian is automatically assigned to change 'em diapers. 

All is good. 

We will keep you posted with anything new! 

P.S. We are still keeping our eyes on available orphans in China for adoption... right now, we cannot really do much until after our baby's delivery. We cannot wait. 

Much love, 

Brooke, Brian, & (Tiny Sipek in the making) 

::Hold the vision, Trust the process::

Wow, we have been going through a roller-coaster of changes for the past several weeks.  Many situations has popped up with some unexpected exciting and bad news.  

Let's get down to the nitty gritty.... we received a great news from our adoption agency that they found a deaf, ten-month old baby boy in Tianjin who would be a great match for us. We spoke with our adoption agency about him and everything. We received his file and everything looked good on paper. Our agency said that we could apply for pre-approval to get this boy. The pre-approval process is usually a lot quicker, which meant that we could possibly get him within six months. We filled out everything and sent our passport information. We were a minute away from submitting our final forms for pre-approval to China. 

Then something came up. In fact, two things did. Our home study agency claimed that we would not be able to adopt the boy. Our expected child needed to be 6 months old first before we could submit the forms. We could get him within seven months after submitting. Mathematically, our newborn child would be 6 months old next in January 2016. Add seven more months... which is approximately summer 2016.  Our adoption agency thinks there may be a loophole around this and could get the boy much earlier than we anticipate.

Second thing- we spoke with two adoptive families who adopted several deaf children from China and they strongly advised us to WAIT. To be realistic and practical, what's the rush? We are expecting our first child this summer and the first few months of parenthood is usually the hardest and we need to be thoroughly prepared for this before bringing another child in the picture. Adopting a child is different because most orphans usually come with potential additional emotional issues (i.e. attachment/attention issues or global development delays, etc). We need to be 100% prepared for the unexpected when it comes to adopting. The adoptive families shared their experiences with their adopted children and that they required a lot of time and attention to nurture and bond. They said if they were in my shoes, they would not be able to imagine raising a newborn baby while dealing with an adopted child in such a narrow time frame.  With lots of ongoing discussions between us, we decided that the best and most rational thing to do was wait until our child is closer to one year old before proceeding with the adoption.  Of course, we want everything to work out right away, but the timing of it all made a huge impact on our decision.  We felt that this was the most practical route for our growing family. 

How do we feel about holding off our adoption process until next year? Frankly, we have mixed feelings of disappointment and relief. We were truly "first-and-goal" away from getting this beautiful boy.  It's a strange feeling knowing that he will not be ours at this point.... unless he is still available next year, then it's meant to be! Who knows. There are a lot of available deaf orphans in China and we know we will eventually bring one home.  IT WILL HAPPEN.  Just like this quote: "It might take a year, it might take a day, but what's meant to be will always find its way."

What will we do until then? We will continue fundraising and reaching out for various adoption grants. We received some awesome support from other adoptive families and we are excited to work closely with them. With sufficient timing and support, the stress factor will be lower and be able to truly appreciate and enjoy our upcoming introduction to parenthood.. plus the adoption journey.

We will not leave you out with our pregnancy process-- we will post about it soon! :) 

Much love,

Brooke & Brian (and our little peanut in waiting)

::Surprise!::

Happy New Year!

Pigs are flying and worms are growing ears.  The unthinkable has happened. 

YES! After receiving an unexplained infertility diagnosis and "trying" to get pregnant for a long time, we received confirmation that we are expecting. Then a heartbeat.

This. Is. For. Real. 

It took us a while to digest and process this amazing news. We were kind of in denial for a while because it was..... seemingly impossible? The news didn't sink in after several blood tests to confirm completely... yes, we are expecting a little Sipek this July! Happy times in the Sipek household! 

Waiting for the entire three months was the longest and hardest for us to keep mum and to assure that were no pregnancy complications.  We are very excited and filled with joy about our little peanut scheduled to arrive this summer.  The first time we saw our little one through the sonogram, it didn’t hit us as much as the second sonogram where there was a very CLEAR image of our adorable baby waving his/her legs and arms. We even saw the umbilical cord. We heard the heartbeat. It was surreal. Naturally, we cried with joy. It finally sank in by then.

Are we still adopting? ABSOLUTELY! We have invested so much time and emotions throughout the whole adoption process and we are more than happy to expand our family with more children. The more, the merrier! We notified our adoption agency about our pregnancy news and they were very supportive and elated about the news.  We officially made the country switch from Colombia to China and got updated information about our process for China’s requirements. We did find a Deaf boy from China and we will need to wait until our home study is updated to meet the criteria for China such as broadening the child’s age range to give us more options for available orphans. There are some additional fees that we have to pay to renew the contract with the China program. Overall, we are still very excited and enthusiastic!

We have heard some amazing adoption stories where couples got pregnant during the process or after. In their stories, there were some subtle implications where people asked, “are you excited to have your own children?” as if adopted children would never be their own?  We will love our children equally and it doesn’t matter if they were adopted or biological.  They all will be our own. We just happen to be fortunate enough to go through both processes.  We are so thankful for this.  We do not want to discount the importance of adopting because we are pregnant, but rather to celebrate the idea of us becoming parents and giving our children-to-be our love and care. To us, an adopted child is no less special or wanted than a biological child. We cannot wait for our baby to be born and to bring another child home.  That’s the ultimate gift for us.

We hope that the year of 2015 will bring each of you peace, joy, and happiness.

Cheers!

The Sipeks

::outcome of our adoption auction::

We want to share with you all about the outcome of our adoption online auction via Facebook. We figured the auction would bring in about $900, but in our little dream world, we secretly hoped it would bring in closer to $1,500. :)

The grand total of the online auction was $1,697 including a few surprise donations! Far exceeding our expectation and our wildest dreams. We want to sincerely thank the bidders & winners for participating and supporting! The auction was fun and intense, especially in the final hour! We are fortunate to have incredibly generous people in our lives! It was an amazingly successful auction!

Of  course, we want to give SPECIAL THANKS for the donors' generous support and their willingness to be a part of our journey! 

Here is a list of awesome items that were auctioned off:

• Pop Chart Lab: The Very, Very Many Varieties of Beer poster
• Freshly Picked: a pair of moccasins 
• Puj: Puj Flyte compact infant tub 
• Sprinkles Cupcakes: A gift certificate for a dozen freshly baked Sprinkles cupcakes
  
• Heather Ruiz from Jamberry Nails: a stylebox
• The Sprouted Arrow: a toddler black sparkle infinity scarf
• The Posh Pea Boutique: a bib & burp cloth set
• Karina Pedersen from Stella & Dot: two necklaces and a pair of earrings
• A Beautiful Mess: a signed copy of their book, "Happy Handmade Home"
• Julie Hochgesang: Thousand Origami Cranes
• Fiksu Design: Custom Stenciled Art
• TrendyBubs: A custom pair of leggings
• Rantz & Danon Teeters: Distressed/Shabby Chic Wooden Candle Lantern
• Kerri Clark Designs, LLC.: A 25-photo session with Kerri Clark Designs
• Sora Designs: large hexagon hoop earrings
• Kassapanola Handmade: handmade pillow cover
• Hello Apparel: a tee shirt
• With Love Accessories1: aztec earrings set
• Haven Paperie: set of 5 beautiful cards
• Bumblesoaps: a gift basket
• OhSugarButtons: a necklace
• Rochella Jones: two jars of homemade strawberry jam
• CrochetGallery: chunky crochet slouchy beanie hat
• bink & boo: a pair of baby booties
• Megan Burgess (donated by Rachella Shepard): "Guard Your Heart" artwork
• HandmadeByJennn: a crocheted chunky wrap
• mimosa by m.e.: ASL sign language custom name bar necklace
• Housebroken: a tee shirt
• CakePop Envie: a dozen of cake pops
• The Fickle Felt Tree: a 5ft garland
• Dyan Sue Kovacs from Premier Designs: "It's a wrap" bracelet
• Lucy Darling Shop: a "Every Little Thing" art print
• Kelvin & Marlene Etkie: 8 lbs. of organic venison & pork meat
• Brooke's Bits and Pieces: a southwest burnout scarf & a clutch purse   
• Jessica Schmidt: three homemade bath salts with dōTERRA essential oils

Since this was a huge success, we are seriously considering about possibly hosting some kind of an auction dinner in the spring. Meanwhile, we still have our on-going fundraiser via Brooke's Etsy shop which will continue to fund our adoption process. Last week, we received a letter from USCIS with their approval for us to adopt in Colombia! However, we still have to go through some changes if we are still interested in switching countries.  So. Much. Red. Tape!

We will blog again soon to show you the breakdown of the prices and funds that we have raised so far... and where we are right now with all of our expenses. 

Again, thank you for your generosity! We are humbled. :)

Much love, 
Brooke & Brian

::World Adoption Day!::

Today is World Adoption Day.... the first ever worldwide celebration for adoption!

You can check it out at http://www.worldadoptionday.org/ for further information. 

Where? 

All over social media and anywhere else you choose to celebrate! Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Instagram, Pinteres, while shopping at the mall, or lounging on a lazy Sunday afternoon– anywhere you connect with people near or far. 

What can you do? 

Draw a smiley face on the palm of your hand, and share your love for adoption on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, or Instagram. Tell the world why you think adoption is awesome! When you post, invite people to join us in celebrating #WorldAdoptionDay by: 

1. Tagging someone who has adopted, is adopted, or is adopting in the photo or link 

2. Posting an open hand smiley face selfie on exactly 11/09/14 using the hashtag #WorldAdoptionDay 

3. Make a #WorldAdoptionDay donation to a family who is in the adoption process 

(find us via Instagram at BrookeATX)

oxox,

Brooke & Brian