Ohhh 2018. What a year of change for the Jones Family. New House. New City. New School. New Friends. New Spinal Disc. New Job. We were challenged, healed, overjoyed and beat down.  2018 was perhaps the toughest year of our lives together and I would be lying if I said I was not relieved to have a new year ahead of us and a clean slate. Smell you later 2018.

Reflecting on the past 12 months, it has been hard to be thankful instead of bitter. That said, Corey and I agree without a doubt that we are so grateful for our new home. Moving into our new house was the catalyst for a lot of other positive changes this year. We love being closer to the city. The commute to Corey's work has drastically decreased… Corey can finally see us before he leaves for work in the morning! We love the diversity our community has to offer.   Best of all, our new home came with some amazing neighbors who have become our new 'old' friends. You know who you are.

Before we were matched with Hallie, I was in a dark place. We had shown our profile to 9 different birth mothers and had not been selected. To cheer me up, and offer some peace, my new neighbor brought me to a small Tibetan store which was owned by a husband and wife. The wife offered astrology readings based on your unique birth day, birth time and birth place using Tibetan prayer beads called mala beads. My neighbor had visited this same woman after experiencing a miscarriage in her second trimester. During her reading, she was ensured that she would conceive again and was even given a time frame that turned out to be incredibly accurate. Coincidence? Maybe, but I was looking forward to my reading. The experience was meant to be fun and different. Besides, I grew up in Boulder… I have some hippie deep in my core.

During my reading, this woman told me that she could see an adopted child in my future, but that it may take longer than I was hoping. To be exact, she said that "If you ask me when you can have the adoptive baby, I would say January 7th, 2019… It may take a while, but after that it may be easier to have. It also shows there is a happiness there for you no matter what." CHILLS.

I wanted a baby so badly in 2018, but this reading was in the back of my mind when we received the option to show our profile for Hallie. She was due in November and so I was skeptical. I told Corey - this is not our baby… Our baby comes in January. Of course, we both knew that was crazy so we dove head first into our successful match with Hallie's birth mother. Looking back on our experience now, it is funny to think that maybe that Tibetan woman was right all along… Anyone believe in astrology?

Yesterday was January 7th and I had all the feels. I proudly wore my mala beads all day. We went on a family date after work and cheered to the beginning of the downhill side of this experience…. With that I would like to answer some outstanding questions.

Yes - Corey and I are still hoping to adopt, partially because we feel like we are in too deep, but mostly because it is genuinely how we want to grow our family. We believe in adoption and believe it is a part of our story. However, we have decided to only show our profiles to birth mothers who are (1) less than one month from their due date or (2) in the hospital directly after delivering the baby who they are placing for adoption - The latter is referred to as a 'drop-in' baby. Since Hallie, our profile has been shown twice, both to drop-in families. We were not selected (obviously), but already it has been exactly what our hearts need. The agencies (both Colorado and Oklahoma) have also placed us on what they refer to as a 'priority placement list' which means exactly what you would think. We are looking forward to a fresh year and a new chance.

In previous posts, I referred to 2018 as the year we would rock our new baby. Now I know that 2018 was the year of Hallie. She changed us and will always be my girl, but for now we are back on our search to find our next missing piece.

XO&