Holding pattern....

Thank you all so much for the calls, texts, emails, meals and most of all prayers.
K isn't having contractions right now and hasn't had them for more than 24 hours!!!
Baby A has a leak in her sack and so they have K on Antibiotics and they did give her steroids to help develop the babies lungs in the event they needed to deliver.
For now we are hoping and praying that she can keep the babies happy and healthy for a couple more weeks to deliver at 34 weeks.
I was off on my calculations and she will be 32 weeks tomorrow.
As she makes the smalls goals that we have set for keeping the babies in we will begin to know the plans for delivery.  As of right now the doctors are saying they will deliver when she reaches 34 weeks, I just don't know what day that week.
So for now she's in the best place she can be.....waiting....holding on!

I am still in FL. I'm super blessed today to get to eat lunch and spend time with a friend who I met while Clara and Cooper were in the NICU at Miami Children's.  Their son is a few weeks older than Clara and Cooper and it has been awesome to see how far our Threeangers have come since those very long, hard, and trying days in the NICU.  Conner is a super hero in my opinion.  (I think his mom and dad are super heros too)
Tonight I get to stay with some super dear friends from our AZ days who now live in FL.  What a blessing to have friends who love us so well!  I am thankful beyond measure to you guys and your parents for being so loving and kind to us all!

For now we wait, for now we pray, for now we give thanks to God.
Its been a super trying week but I'm grateful for a renewed spirit.

Thank you all for loving us!
We are blessed by all!!

Prayers needed...

Adopting is never done by accident nor is it for the faint of heart.
Having lived in 3 states in the last 5 years has proven to be a challenge with paperwork for our home study.  Not to mention that GA is one of the most difficult places to obtain a home study from because of all the extra items they require.

K is 30 week tomorrow and with Clara and Cooper being born at 33 weeks, I'm getting super anxious about our home study not being complete yet.
We are missing 1 clearance from NE, 2 clearances from AZ, and 1 report from OR.
Please pray that our paperwork would appear on the right person's desk and they would feel a sense of urgency to return the completed documents to us very soon.  With out these forms they can not complete our home study.....which is stressing me out!!!

Please pray for our fund raisers.
We have been super blessed that both Jeeah's Hope, a local adoption support group, has graciously awarded us a matching grant.  We are a little more than 1/2 way to our total for the match and could really use the total match to complete our agency fees.  These too have to be paid before the babies arrive.  https://www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate/
(Please select to direct your funds to adoption, and adoptive family, our family account number is 6817 and family name Morrow)

Clement Arts has been so kind and is putting on a Canvas and Coffee to help us raise money.  The event will be Friday, April 28th at Christ Community Church.  All money over and above the actual cost of the supplies will go to our family.  I can't thank them enough for the support of Clement Arts. Clement Arts is also hosting a site that all donations to our family will be tax deductible.  http://clement-arts.org/event/coffee-and-canvas/

Joe is also working on a 50/50 raffle.  For $10 you guess a date and time the babies are born and whoever is closest will win 1/2 the pot and the other 1/2 goes to our adoption.

Please pray for our paperwork and home study.  That God will guide the right people who will understand out urgency and complete it very soon.

Please prayerfully consider giving if you can.

Thanks!
Joe, Karen, Clara and Cooper

Paperwork, fund raising and ultrasounds...

When friends who have had babies said that they blocked out the pain, or don't remember how painful labor was I laughed.  Wondering if that was true.  I think I forgot how painful all the paperwork is to get home study ready.  Its crazy!  I've been home study approved in both AZ and NE and GA is by far the most complicated and most complex!  I know why we have to do this but I'm over the redundant information that needs to be provided!  It too shall pass but right now I'm swimming in deep end!  

Since this adoption came upon up so quickly we will be doing some super quick fund raising. 

We are teaming with some great partners and I will blog about all opportunities to help us over the next couple of days sharing how everyone can help.  We will have some online giving options for our friends and family members who live outside of Columbus as well as a super fun night of painting at Christ Community Church on April 28th for a Canvas and Coffee.  We will also be selling coffee and who knows what else we come up with to raise the money we need!!  

We did a whirlwind trip to Florida this past week to see some family and friends as well as the kids birth mom and to go to a doctors appt and ultrasound.  On Saturday we drove to Joe's dad's house and spent the night.  Clara and Cooper love their Pop Pop and got to go swimming and love visiting with the people in the village.  Sunday morning we left Pop Pop's house to go to Cooper City, FL to visit with some wonderful friends who we met when we lived in AZ.  Its always such a sweet time watching our kids playing together and enjoying time to catch up.  It truly renews my spirit when we get to spend time together.  Monday morning we drove north to the Boca Raton area so I could go to a doctor's appt with K.  It was so good to see her.  We haven't had much time to visit so it was good to see her and see how well she's doing and how the babies are doing.  We all went out to eat on Monday night and Clara and Cooper loved visiting and eating with K.  Tuesday morning was our chance to see the babies with a 3D/4D ultrasound.  We confirmed we had a girl and we are pretty sure we have a boy.  Its so funny because with Clara and Cooper we had confirmation that we had a boy and weren't sure we had a girl.  It was so great to see these 28 week old babies!  Strong heart beats and very active....makes my heart so full!  

We will be posting more as things move closer to her due date.  

Please pray for us and this journey.  Especially for K and these babies.  

Peace and blessings to you all!  

Karen and Joe 

And they came 2 x 2!

God has a GREAT sense of humor!  

About 5 days after we had been matched with Clara and Cooper I sat straight up in bed in the middle of the night, woke Joe up.....Joe....Joe....they could be identical!!!  Joe laughed and went back to sleep.  Little did we know God was laughing at me.  My worries and fears could not be further from the truth.  Not only did we get a boy and girl but they look nothing alike!  

Now, nearly 3.5 years later God put a stirring in my heart for what I thought was for us to become foster parents.  I've been praying for several months that God would reveal to us exactly what His plans were for our family.  During this season of prayer Joe's mom passed away which gave Joe and I a few days without Clara and Cooper at his dad's house.  I shared with Joe what I felt like God was leading me toward and asked that he would join me in praying.  Over the next several weeks we talked to some really great friends who foster and other friends who are leading the charge at our church to start foster care support teams.  We were going to start the process to see what it takes to foster in February.  During the week of the informational meeting I ended up having to go out of town for work.  Sadly we knew we'd have to push the class off for one more month.  

Little did we know that was all apart of God's plan......

On February 6th, I was training a client when I received a call from the agency through which we had adopted Clara and Cooper.  They had received a call from Clara and Cooper's birth mother telling them that she was pregnant.  We had always said that we'd think about adopting again is if she was pregnant.....well.....the agency called asking if we were interested.  When I was talking to the agency she shared that Clara and Cooper's birth mother was pregnant with twins again!!!  All I could think about was talking to Joe to find out his thoughts but I still had a few hours of training that I needed to do before I could take a break.  Joe is so amazing!  When I called him he never skipped a beat.  He was on board from the very beginning.  We both realized that this was the stirring that God had put on my heart.  

The next few days while I was traveling and training for work were a blur.  

I couldn't believe (and still can't) that we are adopting again.....let alone adopting twins again!  

After I had talked to Joe and called the agency back they met with the kids birth mother and told her that we wanted to adopt the babies.  She was so excited to know that the babies would be with us and their siblings.  The day after we said yes and the day that she said yes to us adopting she had an ultrasound.  The babies are on track and look wonderful!  We did find out that the twins will be another boy/girl pair!  

There are so many things that make me smile which I'm sure are all apart of God's plan.  

Clara and Cooper were due Dec. 16th, 

New babies are due June 16th.  

Girl/Boy twins.....Girl/Boy twins.  

Clara and Cooper were 7 weeks early so we are praying that the babies hold out a little while longer.  

Clara and Cooper spent 19 days in the NICU so we are praying that the babies are bigger and hopefully reduce or eliminate their NICU stay.  

Please pray along side of us for K, her pregnancy, and for the babies.   

In the blink of an eye!

Tomorrow marks a week that we were discharged from the hospital.
They did so good on our drive home and have settled in just perfectly at Joe's mom and dads.
We are learning so much about each other and learning how to work together as a team.
Team Morrow!  From 2 to 4 in the blink of an eye!

Cooper and Clara had their first doctors appt on Tuesday and have both gained weight.  Clara has gone from 4 lbs 4 oz to 4 lbs 9 oz and Cooper has gone from 3 lbs 10 oz to 4 lbs 6 1/2 oz.  They are both a little over 17 inches long and seem so tiny at times but so mighty at others.

They are eating 2 oz of formula every 3-4 hours.  Joe and I are learning how to divide and conquer with diapering and feeding.  We are sleeping when we can and napping when we can too.
Marie and Brent (Joe's mom and dad) have been a ton of help and we couldn't have gotten through the last week without them!  They have lent the helping hand, fed, diapered, burped, and just loved on the babies which has been a true blessing.

In the adoption process we have to wait for the state you adopt from to exchange paperwork with your home state to allow you to bring the babies home.  This is called Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC).  We knew the state of FL typically takes 7-10 days and we were told to be fully prepared to stay the entire 10 days because that is what it was taking these days.  Our adoption agency sent the paperwork to the state of FL on Monday, 11/18/13, they received it on Tuesday, 11/19/13 and we got the call today that said that FL had approved our paperwork and they were sending it tomorrow to Nebraska. (Isn't God amazing...2 days!) That means we can leave FL, we just can't go to NE yet.  FL is sending NE the paperwork today so hopefully by Monday, 11/25/13 we will have our clearance to go home.

What a reason to be thankful!  God has opened the right doors, smoothed the right paths, and shown us the love and kindness of others throughout this process.

Our plan is to have Thanksgiving here in FL with Joe's family on Saturday, 11/23, enjoy Sunday together and then leave Monday, 11/25/13 for my mom's.  We are so excited to get to see her and for her to meet her two new grand babies.  We will stay there and fly home on Thursday, 11/28 which is Thanksgiving.  Its such a much bigger day that just Thanksgiving.
The twins will be a month old, its Thanksgiving, and we are beyond blessed to be able to bring our bundles of joy home on such a great day!

Please continue to pray for their growth and their health as we travel.
Please continue to pray for Joe and I as we are adjusting to new schedules and taking care of new beings.
Please pray for the paperwork and that God would open the doors to make NE's side as smooth as FLs side.

Peace and Blessings to you all!
God is GOOD!

Everyday I'm more amazed....

Everyday I'm more amazed by how fast the twins are growing and how amazing God is!
 
Our lives have changed in what feels like a blink of an eye!  Its hard to believe that today is November 9th.
It seems like just yesterday we were packing up to move from AZ to Omaha (1 year on Oct. 13, 2013).
It seems like just yesterday we were planning a wedding (Feb. 14, 2013).
It seems like just yesterday we started with Christian Adoption Consultants (April 24, 2013).
It seems like just yesterday we were home study approved (June 21, 2013).
It seems like just yesterday we were applying to agencies (July 1, 2013).
It seems like just yesterday we were matched!  (Oct. 1, 2013).
It seems like just yesterday we were told the twins were born! (Oct. 28,2013).
What a truly amazing and awesome 2013 we are having!

God has put people in our life who have made tremendous impact on us.
When we signed up with Christian Adoption Consultants (http://www.christianadoptionconsultants.com/) we were contacted by a woman who has opened our hearts and our minds in ways we never knew possible.  She has educated us, cried with us/me, laughed with us, and loved and prayed for us, our journey and our children.  Karalee Alvey is such a dear, sweet woman who has changed our life in more ways than she will ever know.  Karalee has walked in my shoes of wanting to be a mom and has been the rock that has helped us to sift through the situations that were presented to us to help us open our hearts in preparation for being matched with the twins.

Adoption is a journey that is extremely difficult but so rewarding!
If you stand near me long enough, you will hear me talk about our journey.

When we were preparing for Christian Adoption Consultants to create our family profile, we needed some pictures to be taken so I started asking around work if anyone knew of someone who could help.  A great co-worker told us his niece was a photographer and she could help us.  Her name is Hannah and such a sweet soul and amazing photographer (http://www.perspectivechangesphoto.com/).  When Hannah came to take our photos we started talking about our journey and she shared with us that her brother and sister in law had adopted previously.  Hannah's sister in law, Meg and I had a lot of similarities and Hannah put us in touch with each other.

Meg and I began emailing, talking about my hysterectomy, our adoption journey, their previous adoption...it was a great start to a friendship that has continued to grow.  I'm a true believer that God puts people in our lives at the right time and Meg was put in my life for so many reasons but most of all to share the roller coaster ride with!  

As I said, if you are near me long enough, I will tell you how awesome Christian Adoption Consultants are and how they have changed our life.  Well, Meg and her husband wanted to adopt again and so I shared the information about CAC and our amazing adoption consultant, Karalee and so Meg called and they signed up with CAC.
They worked hard to get their home study updated and they were ready on Sept. 29th.  Soon after they started applying to agencies and today, they got the call....they are matched!  They are expecting a little girl around the first of December.

God's plan for our lives is a mystery.  We have to have faith and if we are walking with Him, he will open the doors that he has planned for us.

As I sit and watch the twins, who are 12 days old today, grow, and get ready to be able to come home, I'm simply amazed that God has entrusted these amazing little lives to us...

If you are interested in adoption and hear that call and pull to adopt.  Please think about contacting Christian Adoption Consultants.  They are all adopted parents who can answer your questions, give you guidance and they will open your hearts to what God has planned.  They work with a lot of smaller agencies and all those agencies focus on the birth families while your consultant will help and focus on you, the adoptive families.  They can also help you build an amazing family profile that tells the exact story you want the birth mothers to know about your life.  Its a great story and they know exactly how to show it with words and pictures.

Cooper and Clara are doing fantastic!  They are back up to birth weight, bottle feeding, and just waiting for -the ok to go home.  We will have to stay in FL for 7 to 10 days once we are discharged so FL and NE can exchange info. We are so blessed to be able to stay with Joe's parents so we can be surrounded by love and family while we wait for approval to leave.

Please pray with us as we pray for the twins to grow so we can go home.
Please pray with us as we pray for our friends, Meg and Chris and their match with their baby girl.
Please pray with us as we pray for all the children out there that need to find their forever families!
What an awesome National Adoption Awareness Month!
God is Awesome and Amazing....ALL THE TIME!

Our journey is just beginning!

November is National Adoption Awareness Month.
Yesterday was National Orphan Day, a day to bring awareness to all the children around the world who need loving homes.
This day and this month mean so much more now, than it ever has!

I have wanted to be a mom my entire life (just ask my older brother).
Now, even after only a week, its hard to think about them not being here.

On Monday, Oct. 28, 2013 at 7:20 PM ET, Clara Bailey Morrow entered this world and 2 minutes later, her brother, Cooper Brenton Morrow arrived.  Clara weighed 4 lbs 4 oz, and Cooper 3 lbs 10 oz.  They were just 33 weeks and doing amazingly well.
Joe and I flew down to Florida on Tuesday and finally were able to meet them late Tuesday night.
They were 24 hours old, so tiny, so small, and so beautiful!

Tonight, at 7:20 and 7:22 marks 1 week....7 days since they arrived on this earth.
I feel like my world has stopped.  They are my focus, they are my world and they are my heart and soul.

I have dreamed what this would feel like.  But my dreams can not come close to the feelings I am having. We have intentionally set out on this path to adopt.  It has been hard, and scary and just like a roller coaster ride but now...all of that seems like a distant memory.
They are here, they are healthy, they are growing and they are ours!

God has a plan.  His plan hasn't always been my plan.  He has opened our hearts in ways that we could not have imagined.  His plan hasn't always been reveled to us but He had a plan.  His plan has always been for Joe and I to parent these wonderful beings.  He heard our cries, he heard our prayers, and He delivered far greater gifts than we knew possible.

Our journey is just beginning.  We don't know how long our stay here at Miami Children's Hospital will be...but however long it takes to get them to where they should be, I will be with them.  Joe has gone back to Omaha today to prepare our home to welcome this amazing souls.

Miami Children's Hospital is a wonderful place.  They have apartments for parents to stay in to be close to the hospital.  They have a family center that does everything from our laundry, to classes, movies, etc.  They take care of the everything that is needed to make sure we can focus on our babies.
The staff is so wonderful.  They include us in everything they do, they are as nurturing to us as they are to the small wonders they take care of.

We are so blessed and thankful to all of you who love us.
Many of you have asked where we are registered.
We are registered at Top to Bottom Baby in Omaha, NE.  Target, and Babies R Us.
We will be adding to them once we know when they will be coming home this was just a first stab at what we might need.

Please know that if I don't respond quickly to an email or text, its not that I don't appreciate each and every one of them.  If I'm in the NICU with the babies, that is where I'm focused.

Please continue to pray for their strength and continued growth so we can come home soon!
Please pray for Joe as he is in Omaha and not with us in person but definitely here in spirit and via the web.

God is an AWESOME God!
Peace and Blessings to you all!