Holiday Happenings with the HoHoHogg's

Where do I start? (It's actually kind of funny - or maybe ridiculous - because I feel like I always start these blog posts with the same thought - "Geez, it's been a long time since I had a few minutes to sit and update everyone about what's going on with our story!") But, seriously guys - this past month has been an adventure. I suppose the best place to start is at the beginning.

Our last post left off right before the Thanksgiving holiday. (Probably one of our favorite holidays because, come on, food.) 👍 Anyways, my parents came to visit for the weekend and Seth made a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner! There was turkey, stuffing made from everything bagels and apples, sweet potatoes, and a ton of roasted veggies. Seth even was able to make a pumpkin pie that was Shana friendly (and DELICIOUS). 😋

Master bagel chopper!

Taste testing the turkey!

SMILE! 😎

We couldn't find the "Love" sculpture - so the "Amor" sculpture was even better! 💕

The Christmas Tree at the Art Museum (or at the top of the Rocky Steps) 💪

Seth got to experience Black Friday shopping with my mom while I went to the gym and burned off some of that turkey! 😂

The beginning of December was unseasonably warm, and because of that Seth and I took full advantage of that and brought Ms. Rosalind out for tons of walks and hiking adventures. 

Rosalind was unimpressed with how short this trail was. 

It was a beautiful day! 

Roz was pretty insistent that she get some swimmy time in - despite it being December. 

So, that was the fun and easy part of the last month. Everything else that happened this past month has been incredibly difficult and stressful. To be honest, if we didn't have each other and if our parents hadn't been so supportive and helpful, I'm not sure how we would have made it out of this past month.

I want to make sure that I start off with this - our agency, Haven Adoptions, is AMAZING! They are so caring, accepting, and thoughtful. The women behind this agency work hard every day and night to make sure that not only their adoptive families are doing well - but they work extremely hard for the birth mothers and birth families also. They make us incredibly proud and we are so lucky to have them on our side throughout this journey. 

However, since Haven is a small, local agency, a majority of the opportunities that were presented to us were limited in some way and truly were not matching with our family. Our case worker worked hard to comfort us and give us all of the information we needed to assess our situation, feelings, and desires. With that, after a lot of thought, prayer, and long lists of pro's and con's, we decided that our little family could be better benefited with the help of a larger national agency. Now, we haven't left Haven Adoptions completely. We will not be participating in their FITT Family placement opportunities, but, they will be helping us with our yearly home study updates, legal needs upon a placement, and other needs we may have once we are placed through the national agency. We are incredibly grateful that they have been so gracious to provide these services for us. We can't thank them enough for understanding the love in our hearts. 

Our new agency is Lifetime Adoptions. (You can check them out here: Lifetime Adoptions) They are based out of California and have another headquarters in Florida. As you can imagine, even though we were approved as an adoptive family through Haven Adoptions, we had a lot of work to do to show that we are a family that fits Lifetime's standards. This means that we've been creating a new profile book to give to birth mothers and birth families, as well as setting up a new website, and even getting a toll-free telephone number. Our new website is up and running live and if you can, please check it out and share it with all of your friends/family. 😍 (Here's our personal Lifetime website: Seth and Shana Adopt) 

We are currently working on sprucing up our profile book and it's been a ton of work to meet all of the new criteria. However, we are pretty excited to be finishing it up soon! Hopefully we can get it approved before the holiday! In order to fulfill all of the new requirements, Lifetime suggested that we get new professional photos taken to include in our very photo based profile book. Now, Seth and I are incredibly lucky to have met such great photographers both in TX and MA that not only are awesome at their craft - but are also like family. 

So, we need to tell you all about some AMAZING and thoughtful photographers in Massachusetts - Rick and Paula Labrecque, Cronin Hill Photography. (If anyone needs great photos taken - let me know, I can introduce you to them! 😉 Or, you can click here: Cronin Hill Photography. Despite contacting them at the last minute, Rick and Paula made some time for us on a beautiful wintry day at Chestnut Mountain Tree Farm in Hatfield, MA. There was just enough snow covering the ground and trees that I couldn't help but be excited! I mean, Rick and Paula have proven that they can make Seth's and my ugly mug look FANTASTIC! So, that coupled with the beautiful location, I was giddy - even though I was cold and couldn't feel my fingers or toes. 😆 It was so great to spend time with these two and get our photos taken! It was so great to joke around, drink coffee and cocoa, and update each other about the past 3 years! They make taking photos feel like hanging out with your best friends - so it was easy for Seth and I to relax and be our silly selves. To be honest, that afternoon was the most fun we've had in a while. Not to mention, we were able to finally relax for a few hours. I am forever grateful to Paula and Rick for being so caring, honest, and loving not only that afternoon, but pretty much since we met them. They are incredibly genuine and fun! So, after about 4 hours, a million smiles, and a ton of giggles because I don't follow instructions well sometimes, we had to get back to PA. (This was sad. But, we didn't leave without snapping a selfie or three!)

Rick, Paula, and us! 💗💜

Now, photographers are usually swamped at the holidays and we totally understood that. But, Rick and Paula are essentially our own personal super heroes/fairy godparents because they were able to edit a good deal of photos for us incredibly quickly so that we could upload into our profile book. AND THEY ARE FANTASTIC!! Seriously. Guys. The photos are amaze-balls. Here are a few of my favorites!

So, once we get our profile book finalized, we will need to make a ton of copies and send it off to California so that it can be forwarded to birth mothers and birth families. Then!! Then we get to finish work on our website video! Ha!! One of the requirements for our new Lifetime Adoption website is that we need a short 2 minute video where we talk to the birth mother and birth families. Let me tell you - Seth and I are ridiculous. 😆 I can't wait to finish it up and let you all in on the fun! We are pretty sure that we are flying through all of these new requirements for Lifetime. They probably think we are overly prepared/overachievers. (Which we are, to be honest). But, it makes us feel so accomplished to be a family that is already being shown to potential matches with this new agency even though we have only been with this agency for three weeks!

With Christmas only a few days away, we want to stop and thank all of you reading this. We couldn't have done any of this without your support and love. We know that the holidays are incredibly busy, and the fact that you've taken a few minutes to read our crazy updates makes us smile. 😁 We hope that you all have restful, peaceful, and love filled holidays. 

As always, if you are comfortable doing so, please share our story/blog with your friends and family. You never know just how small this world is and maybe Baby Hogg is closer than we all think! 

All of our love, 

Shana and Seth