::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

::Adopting A Sipek Auction::

Our first adoption online auction begins tomorrow at www.Facebook.com/AdoptingASipekAuction! 

We are very excited with many awesome items for bidding! The holidays are coming up and this would be a great opportunity for you to grab some goodies! All proceeds will go towards our adoption. Please spread the word! :)

Check out some new additional items below. You can check for further information on our adoption auction page!

Adoption Auction rules: 

To place a bid in the comment box on Facebook under the specific item you want, put dollar amount (no cents). Bids will only go up in dollar increments. Feel free to bid in dollar increments of your choice ($1, $5, $10, and so on).  Please keep checking on your specific item to outbid if you wish.

Must pay invoice within 24 hours of receipt. We will contact you via Facebook message—this is IMPORTANT to check your message box. If you haven’t paid within 24 hours, the item will pass to next highest bidder.

Method of payment: PayPal to BrookeASipek@gmail.com. If you have any questions, please contact us. 

 The bidding will CLOSE on November 2^nd at 4pm CST.  The auction page’s privacy will be turned on to prevent any further bidding. We will contact the winners.  

Have FUN! This is for a great cause, which is to bring a child home with us! Let’s not tarnish its purpose by being upset at lost bids, by a sending harsh messages, etc.

 

Have fun bidding!! :) Good luck!

oxoxo

Brooke & Brian

::Auction Items Preview::

Auction Updates:

Check out some of the amazing items that we have so far for our upcoming auction via Facebook on November 1-2! We are still gathering more donated items; if you are interested in being a part of our adoption auction, you can contact us at SipekAdoption@gmail.com! 

Our adoption auction link is at www.Facebook.com/AdoptingASipekAuction

Here's a SPECIAL thank you for those who donated towards our adoption! 

Freshly Picked

A Beautiful Mess

Pop Lab Chart

Sprinkles Cupcakes

Sora Designs

Fiksu Design

TrendyBubs

The Sprouted Arrow

Kerri Clark Designs

Julie Hochgesang

Rantz/Danon Teeters

Heather from Jamberry Nails

The Posh Pea Boutique

Your generosity is very much appreciated!