the beginning

Hi, I'm Kristen, and I've always dreamt of adopting a baby.  

There, I've said it.  Some people might say that my addiction to children is similar to my addiction to animals.  Yup, I'm a sucker for them.  We currently have 3 boys, yes I said it, 3 boys.  Plus 4 dogs, and 1 horse.  What does this equal?  1 amazingly happy family!  I am truly beyond blessed.  I have 3 adorable children that are all healthy, a husband that still gives me butterflies, a job that I truly love, and a roof over my head.  >insert guilt, here<  I still feel like something is missing.  You might wonder what?  Well, my daughter.  

My entire life (as long as I can remember at least) I imagined all of the fun things I would do with my daughter.  You see, we would be best friends, we'd ride horses together, watch movies such as The Little Mermaid.  We would giggle together, she would come to me the first time her heart gets broken, she would come to me when she's found "the one", she would come to me with questions about her own children.  

So, here's part of my life: About two years ago my husband and I decided to add baby #3 to our carriage.  Unfortunately my body decided that it was done "making" babies.  We experienced some rounds of fertility treatments and I soon decided that this wasn't the path for me.  I reminded my husband of my desires to adopt, along with my desire for a daughter, and thought maybe we should count our blessings with the two boys that we already had and pursue adoption for our baby girl.  My husband wanted to go ahead and give it a couple more tries, agreeing that if we succeeded and had a boy that we would then adopt a girl. So I agreed, and a month later we had a positive test!  Fast forward 9 months, there we are waiting for the surprise of our lives (we chose not to find out the gender of this baby), drumroll please..... a baby BOY!  

That sweet baby boy is nearly 4 months old now.  Some might call it crazy but we have spent the last few weeks researching adoption.  We are trying to decide what route is best for our family; domestic, international, closed, open?  So many options that I just didn't realize existed!  It might seem crazy that we are looking into adoption already with our sweet babe being so young, however with the amount of time it takes to complete an adoption we feel like it's best for us to initiate the process as soon as we can.  

Tonight I start this blog because I feel that I need an outlet, some place to reach out to other people who may have advice or tips for us.  A place where when I need to speak about my stresses, there will be someone out there who understands them.  I look forward to making some new friendships, getting great advice, and hopefully soon meeting my daughter!