reeseadoption-blog

[reeseadoption-blog]

Things just got REAL!!

We all have those dates that stick out in our minds – birthdays, anniversaries, etc. I am not good with dates, but there have been several lately that I doubt I will ever forget. October 31 will never just be Halloween, but it is now the date we found out that we were expecting triplets and December 11th, the day we met our birth mother and heard our daughter’s heartbeats for the very first time.

This past Monday we set before daylight to go visit our birth mother and accompany her to her next doctor appointment.  Our 5.5-hour drive went by pretty quickly with Adam working on a paper and me jamming along to all the Christmas music on the radio.  When we were about 10 minuets away and Adam closed his computer, I looked over and saw the excitement in his eyes.  I asked if he was nervous and he responded, “it’s about to get real”.  He was right, things got real; REALLY quick!!  I had been texting our birth mother for the last week and we had decided to meet at the doctor’s office at 12:30. When our birth mother hadn’t showed up or responded to my text by 12:45 my panic set in and so did the tears.  As excited and nervous as Adam was, he gently held my hand and told me that everything was going to be ok.  He reassured me of God’s plan in this adoption and immediately calmed my nerves with his words “Faith over fear, Becky”.  It wasn’t long before our birth mother came rushing into the parking lot and into the doctor’s office.  We joined her in the waiting room and made small talk until we were called back. Adam and I started to step away as the nurses took her weight and blood pressure, but she insisted that we join her and be involved in the appointment.  When we were finally taken to a room the three of us were really able to speak and get to know each other.  There were no awkward silences, it was if we had been lifelong friends. We laughed, we talked about family, we looked at pictures of family, and we of course talked about the babies!  The doctor came in and reviewed the notes from the specialist and spent nearly an hour with us.  This is actually his fourth set of triplets and he feels confident that we will go past 30 weeks (we are praying for 35).  Just when I thought the day couldn’t get any better he brought out the Doppler and let us listen to the heartbeats.  I didn’t know that moment could get any sweeter until I turned and looked at Adam.  The joy and amazement was written all over his face and eyes.  This was the moment Adam went from just being a husband to being a daddy too.  As he listened to the heartbeats of his three baby girls he didn’t have to say a word because his smile said it all.  I have been dreaming of this day for so many years, I didn’t know it was going to look like this but now I couldn’t imagine anything different. 

After the appointment, we went to eat with our birth mother and father and spent more time getting to know them. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye, but she was exhausted so we gave each other a big hug and made plans to see each other again for her next appointments in January.  Our adventures weren’t over though because our attorney’s amazing legal assistant invited us to her home to meet two other adoptive families and their new blessings. It was so wonderful to meet other families at the end of their journey and see their beautiful angels.  Adoption is beautiful and all of the adoption community is like a family; it is truly amazing.

We still have so far to go in this journey and I am sure that it will be full of ups and downs, but we are giving it all to God…the good, the bad, and everything between.  He has given us a lovely birthmother - she is beautiful, kind, and is giving us the most incredible gifts ever; she is selfless and loves these sweet girls so much.  Before we started this process, we decided that an open adoption was important to us and we couldn’t be more excited to call our birth mother family and to be connected not only during this adoption but throughout life.  

So if you have been looking for us or are looking for us in the coming days, you can find both of us gathered around our phones listening to the sweet sounds of our babies’ heartbeats!! We hope you enjoy these sweet sounds as much as we have.    

Thank you for sharing this journey with us and for the prayers.  Please be praying for our sweet birth mother and our daughters. Because things just got REAL!

[reeseadoption-blog]

Birthdays and Birth Moms

Adam and his sister Marisa celebrating their December 8th birthdays while we were home for Thanksgiving.  That cute little blonde is our precious nephew Levi.

Today I am preparing for two big events – Adam’s 37th birthday and a visit with our birth mother this weekend!  Adam has opted for a quiet dinner at home, so I will be preparing his favorite: filet mignon with bernaise sauce and a twice-baked potato.  He still hasn’t told me what kind of cake he wants, but my fingers are crossed he will not want the dreaded Aunt Jane’s Cake.  Ya’ll, that cake is another post for another day because that cake could possibly be the death of me!  

Looking back at Adam’s birthday last year, we had just returned from a ski trip to Vail, CO, and I was awaiting surgery to repair my ACL that I tore the first day on the slopes. We were both working like crazy preparing for big show seasons at work, he was taking me to physical therapy twice a week, we were preparing for our drive back to Birmingham for Christmas, and let’s be real; I was totally on him to get our social worker some additional information for our home study.  Can you say CHAOS?!? I truly thought that we would be home-study approved and would have a baby in 2016, so with the end of the year rolling around and me not having got my way, I wasn’t an easy person to live with.  I was becoming so impatient with the entire process that I often wondered if we were trying to put a square peg into a round hole?  But we will get more into the wanting and waiting through this entire process soon.  I promise that we are going to tell our adoption story from the very beginning.  Starting from before marriage, when Adam insisted on 6 kids, to not having kids, to being told no, to taking FOREVER, to now expecting triplets.  It’s been a long road guys, and it is hard on me to share because I am so private, but it is all coming.  

There aren’t any ski trips this year and probably won’t be any for a while, but that is perfectly fine with us.  This year’s trip is so much better, and is bigger than any trip we’ve ever taken. Even though it is only a short drive and a short trip, it is by far the most excited we’ve been in a long time. Sunday after church we will travel to meet our birth mother!! We will spend the day with her on Monday, go to her doctor’s appointment, and then go to lunch.  We actually started our conversation with her yesterday via text and it was so surreal.  We talked about the babies, we talked about family, and we even talked about ice cream. The conversation was easy, it was fun, and we are all genuinely excited about meeting each other.  

I promise loads of updates after the appointment on Monday.  We are both just so excited to hear the heartbeat, see the babies, and get to know our birth mother.  

Happy Birthday to the love of my life!!  If you thought a lot had changed, just wait until next year when you are surrounded by 3 precious angels as we celebrate #38!  

And Happy Birthday to Aunt “Moo” too!!  We love you so much and know our three baby girls will adore you too.

[reeseadoption-blog]

Good evening everyone!

As Becky James Reese and I count our blessings this Holiday Season we couldn't possibly be more appreciative of the roles that each of you have played in our lives. Whether they were fun experiences, learning experiences, or life experiences, in some way every one of you have made an impact on us. You mean more to us than you could ever imagine.

To help in our fundraising efforts I wanted to create a bit of fun for my guys (and any of our lady friends that want to participate!) - an ESPN College Football Bowl Pick 'Em! T-shirts and other items are always great avenues to help bring our babies home, but good, old-fashioned smack-talking' college football in the South can never grow old! So for anyone who wants to participate, I've created a Reese Triplets group on ESPN.com. For $25 per entry everyone can play - just pick your bowl winners straight up (not confidence points) and see how you fare against everyone else. The winner will get an automatic Date Night Bonus that will go over very well with the ladies - $100 to the winner and $50 to 2nd place that can be redeemed via cash, gift card, or a gift certificate to you or your wife's favorite restaurant - the option is yours!

Please just PayPal the $25 to amr42807@aol.com and I'll shoot over the password to join the Reese Triplets group!

Thanks guys!

p.s. Share on FB as much as you want and invite everyone you know!

Adam & Becky Reese

[reeseadoption-blog]

One scripture that has stood out to us through this process is Matthew 17:20 “He replied, 'Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain,�� Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible to you.”

Our journey has been such a lesson in faith. There is no denying God’s hand in everything from the beginning. From being told no, to the process dragging out for years. So many times it would have been easy to give up and there are so many times when we wanted to give up, but our faith kept us going. God knew our story from the beginning. The wanting and the waiting was all His handiwork. So many mountains have already been moved in our journey and now we begin to call on our village to help us move our financial mountains.

Our wonderful friend Stacie helped us design these shirts that we will be selling for the next two weeks. There are different size and color options available as well as youth sizes. I seriously cannot think of a better Christmas gift for your loved ones, right?! Order a shirt for everyone in the family and help us bring home our baby girls.

[reeseadoption-blog]

The Spirit of Thanksgiving

I love the holidays!!  Seriously, what's not to love... the cooler weather, Pumpkin Spice lattes, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the list goes on and on.  Not only do we get all of this goodness and more, but we find it as a time to reflect on the year,  This holiday season, Adam and I found ourselves especially thankful as we celebrated the news of triplets with our friends and families.  Yes, this year was much different and one that we will always remember but we have to ask ourselves, "Why are we using this one day to reflect and be thankful? Why are we not praising Him and celebrating His blessings this much daily?"   

I have imagined for years being able to tell people we are expecting.  Ladies, you know what I am talking about, right?  The super cute announcements on Facebook and Instagram.  Announcements are over the top and I am not sure about y'all, but I cannot get enough!! For years I loved these photos, celebrated with others while all along being a bit (at times, a lot) heartbroken.  You see, I wanted all of these things too and we have been trying to adopt for so many years.  Instead of being thankful for so many other blessings, I became laser focused on children. Often times, this laser focus and selfishness blinded me from seeing so many other blessings unfolding daily.  They say that hindsight is 20/20 and now that we look back we can see how God was or orchestrating His master plan.  The delays in our home study and the endless hoops we were jumping through; that wasn't God punishing us, that was Him saying wait.  Today I am so thankful for those days of waiting, for those nights spent in prayer with Adam, and for all the tears we cried.  All of those days and all of the waiting make these gifts even sweeter.   

So for all of you guys in a season of wanting and waiting, I personally know how hard it is.  We are still waiting on our sweet babies and there are still so many things that can happen between now and their birth, but I am choosing to be more thankful daily - Genuinely, over-the-top, crazy thankful.  We will all have those bad days, sick days, and times where we just want to give up, but I am challenging myself and you all to dig deep and praise Him for those days too.  I personally think that He uses those valleys to stretch us and help us grow, so that we make it to that mountain we can scream His goodness from the mountain top. 

Remember, you are so loved by your Father.  He is faithful and his goodness endures forever.  The current may be hard and there will be tough days ahead, but He has so many plans for you my friends.  So lets all go out and be thankful everyday.  Afterall thankfulness is contagious, it produces positivity, promotes generosity and is a true display of God's character. 

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; His love endures forever.”  - 1 Chronicles 16:34