Today, We Met Our Future

May 17, 2012 in Adoption with 0 Comments

We wanted to leave a quick adoption update before we collapsed into bed for the night.  From my last post, we said we would meet the birth mother, her family, and the baby this week.  Well, today was the big day!

Christie and I were both so nervous all week and today we could barely concentrate.  We were so excited and nervous about this meeting.  We arrived at the restaurant where we had reserved a private room and the birth family arrived shortly after.  When the family walked in, Christie and I saw the baby for the first time.  She is so incredibly beautiful.  We did our best to fight back the tears and introduce ourselves to the family.  We were able to hold the baby during the entire meeting.  It was such a sweet time getting to hold her while getting to know the birth mother and her family better.  We were so impressed with the birth mother and all that she had gone through with this courageous decision.  We feel a deep sense of gratitude and respect for her and the family, and are so thankful for the gift they are giving us.  The entire family was such a joy to talk to.  They are very supportive of the birth mother’s decision and supportive of Christie and I as the adoptive family.

Words can’t express how amazing it was to meet our future daughter today.  We are mentally and emotionally exhausted but we can’t wait to tackel tomorrow.  The joy in our heart is indescribable.  We took lots of pictures and I promise we will post pictures of the baby along with more specifics once the adoption is final.

More to come..

God is so good.

Matt & Christie

Worth The Wait

May 10, 2012 in Adoption with 2 Comments

I’m writing this blog post as our world is being rocked in real-time.  Our adoption has been on a steady path with a lot of activity over the last few months.  We are so excited and our hearts are full as we continue this faith process.  We would like to share the latest update, but in the interest of confidentiality, we can’t share to many specifics.  Here we go:

A few weeks ago a situation came to our attention about a baby that was already born and might be put up for adoption.  The baby is a sweet little girl and is now several months old.  We’ve been in contact with the family for the past several weeks, but have kept this quiet until things became more certain.  We are at a point now where we are working through some very important steps over the next few weeks and each one is a big milestone.  Today, in fact, some very important meetings took place and went very well.  We’ll be meeting the family and baby face-to-face next week.  If everything continues to go well, we could very possibly be bringing home a sweet baby girl in the next few weeks.

We ask for your continued prayers as each step is very critical.  We’re remaining cautiously optimistic because there are still critical decisions yet to be made.  We can’t deny that God has brought our two families together and that this baby is extremely loved by us all.

We’ve been blessed to have a lot of ongoing dialogue with the family and are excited to meet them and the baby next week.  Please continue to pray for our future meetings, clarity of decisions, for the birth family and of course the baby girl.

More updates to come..

With love,

Matt & Christie

Relentless Progress – 6 Lessons That Changed My Life

March 19, 2012 in Leadership with 1 Comment

This week is my annual evaluation at work so I decided to take a few minutes to document the lessons learned this past year.  As I started thinking about it, I was reminded of how much change I have experienced this year. 

Here is the short list: 

  • I took a new role at my company taking on a new innovative business
  • Started working with a new team that came with additional responsibilities
  • Started working with several new companies which came with large migrations of work
  • Launched several large digital platforms in the mobile space
  • And I was promoted to Director of Emerging Media
  • In my personal life I:

Sometimes it can feel a bit like a kayaker who is navigating the rapids and waves as they come, hoping to stay upright and pointed in the right direction.  As I think back on the lessons I learned this past year while navigating the rapids, here are a few of the key lessons that literally changed my life .

  1. Taking care of others is priority #1, always.  Generally, there are plenty of people around me each day who need others to take an interest in them and show that they care.  Taking a genuine interest in others is one of the difference makers between good and great leaders.  With one of my strengths being encouragement, I recently make it a practice to keep the names of 3 or 4 people at my desk that I know are either hurting or just need someone to ask how they are doing.  I randomly check up on them and ask how they or their family are doing.  I simply listen, give them a word of encouragement and commit to praying for them.  Use the gifts that God gave you and focus them toward building up others.
  2. Building an effective platform can’t be underestimated.  Whether it’s presenting in your small team meeting, speaking as a guest at another area’s meeting, having a one-on-one conversation or presenting in front of the entire organization, you simply can’t under estimate the power of effectively sharing your vision and story over and over.  The difference maker is involving others to be a part of that vision.  For me, this means meeting one-on-one with people, educating through “lunch and learn” sessions and taking every single opportunity I can to share our strategy and vision for our business.  Listening and soliciting feedback from others gives people ownership in the vision.  They become a builder in that vision and can share in the successes we have.  Building a strong platform has established my own personal authority, reputation and expertise in the businesses I am involved.
  3. Effective communication is the foundation of relentless progress.  With a compelling story, hearts and minds are moved.  Becoming a master storyteller is a lost art and can literally transform your ability to connect with people.  Create purpose-driven passion for yourself and you’ll find that it is infectious to everyone around you.  Meet your audience where they are at and keep things simple.
  4. True leaders know what it’s like to be in the trenches, and those they lead thrive on their energy and drive.  People are eager to “follow the leader,” because they know the leader is in it with them.  Be willing to put yourself out there, risk the possibility of failure and let your energy and drive shine through.  You’ll find that others will be close to follow.
  5. Building influence that matters is as simple as A, B, C:
    1. Make connections – It’s about relationship
    2. Make patrons – You need patrons — people who will believe in you and help you succeed.  Build your network of trusted advisors and listen to what they have to say.  Do something that matters with their feedback and above all, be consistent.
    3. Create great stuff – In this noisy world, we are all overwhelmed with too many messages.  Our inboxes are cluttered, and our eyes are trained to skim.  So how do you — someone with something to say — break through these barriers?  You have to do something truly interesting.
  6. The Virtue of Patience – I am not a patient person.  With that being said, I have many trusted advisors that tell me to be more patient.  I’ve learned that with patience, generally things seem to work out for the good.  If you are going to build a platform, you have to shift your focus.  You will have to give before you get. The best way to begin is by earning attention through being generous and consistently taking care of the people around you (see lesson #1).  As your influence grows, focus on building stuff that solves problems.  All of these things will build over time and good things will come.

Question:  What are the life changing lessons you learned this past 12 months?

Preparing The Way

March 2, 2012 in Adoption with 2 Comments

We are back with an adoption update and we are excited to share details from our last few weeks in the process.  The good news is that our home study was approved and we are officially a waiting adoptive family!

Now that we are on the wait list, what typically happens is after our agency is contacted by a birth mother about placing her baby for adoption, the agency will send an email to all waiting adoptive families with all details on the situation, any medical details about the mother and how far along in the pregnancy she is.  Each family then evaluates the specific situation outlined in the email and decides if they want to be considered for a match.  Finally, all of those families are presented to the birth mother using family profile books.  She’ll select which family she wants to meet and consider as a match for adopting her baby.  Shortly after we were approved, we received our first email about a pregnant birth mother.  It was an incredibly emotional process to evaluate the situation and decide if we wanted to be considered for a match for this birth mother.  We quickly learned that we have to lean on faith and prayer to make each of these tough decisions.

We also recently attended adoption training at Bethany Christian Services state headquarters in Little Rock.  The training was on a Saturday from 10:00 – 4:00 and at first, I was not excited to give up my weekend.  At the training session, we met all the other waiting adoptive families in Arkansas and enjoyed hearing each of their stories.  We spent the day learning more about the complexities that can come with adopting a child and adopting a child of another race.  We heard from several families who have adopted before and learned a lot about how they interact with the birth mother and how they’ve built a relationship with her over time.  We are praying that we’ll also have the opportunity to build a relationship with a birth mother and involve her in our child’s life.  After the training was over, I was very glad we attended as we learned a lot and enjoyed our time there.

Lastly, we have started setting up our nursery and we setup a baby registry!  Below is a picture of our nursery furniture that Christie found on Craig’s list.  We had Figgy Pudding refinish, paint and distress it all to give it a personal touch to match our style.  We basically outfitted our entire nursery for several hundred dollars (much cheaper than buying everything new)!  I love seeing all the amazing and creative work Christie has put into the nursery.  She designed and sewed all of the baby bedding that you see in the picture below.

 

God has really blessed us with so many of you out there praying for us and supporting us with your donations.  We recently had one person give us a bucket of change worth $275 for our “Change For A Child” program.  We can’t say enough how much we appreciate all of the support from each of you.  God continues to go above and beyond anything we ever imagined by providing for us during this journey.  One big example is that I was promoted this week at my job to Director of Emerging Media at Sam’s Club.  This was a completely unexpected blessing and an opportunity that I am grateful for and humbled by.  God is preparing the way for us and we can’t wait for our baby to come home (hopefully soon).

“He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”  Ephesians 1:5,6

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