A friend recently told me that I need to work on opening up and let people get to know me.  It's true, I tend to be a private person, and am not the greatest at keeping in touch.  I prefer to think of it as being 'self sufficient', but in reality it probably is me being afraid to let people in.  But as Troy and I have begun to settle into our careers, our home and our family, I'm realizing more and more the importance and need of sharing my life and allowing others in.  Or maybe I'm just getting old.  :)

So, for those who haven't heard much from me for awhile, here's a quick overview of what's happened in our lives the past few years.  I graduated from the Ohio State University with my Bachelors degree in Linguistics, with the hope of going overseas to teach English.  Troy graduated shortly after that with his degree in English Pre-Ed, and started his Masters program days after finishing his undergrad studies.  

While Troy was in Grad school, we bought a house in the suburbs (complete with the white picket fence) and began trying to start a family before finding a teaching job overseas.  I had a job dealing with Unemployment Insurance and while it was a job, it wasn't really what I wanted to do long term.  However, it offered decent benefits and flexibility for our future family.

Our 'future family' didn't come.  After years of trying to conceive, tests, prayers, procedures and fertility treatments, we were finally told by the doctor that we will likely never have biological children.  The infertility is unexplained, which was perhaps the hardest part to accept.  I'm a rational person, and to me it seemed like I needed to find a solution to the problem.  In this case there was no solution, just a continual cycle of hope and disappointment.

In the midst of all of this, Troy got a teaching job at a local high school.  I applied and was hired for a new job as a Business Process Auditor which allowed me to better use my analytical skills.  Although we still have a desire to eventually move overseas, we feel content here.  We've not only accepted, but embraced the position that God has put us in, and I feel like I'm finally enjoying life instead of just going through the motions.

We had always talked about adopting a child down the road, but after we had a child or two of our own.  After we took some time to wrap our minds around what the doctor told us, we began looking into the adoption process.  After lots of paperwork, inspections and background checks, our home study has been completed and we're ready to adopt a baby!  Needless to say, we're excited for this next step in our lives, but having a bit of a hard time being patient in waiting for a birth mother to choose us.  If you know of anyone looking for a family to care for a baby, please point them in our direction!

Hope has been a huge part of my life the last few years.  There were days (even weeks) that I lost hope and struggled to get out of bed.  Other times I held on to hope with everything in me.  Through it all, I learned that hope is something to declare.  It's finding something to hold on to in the good times and the bad.  

Hope has brought me to this blog!  This is my attempt to open up and share my life with all of you.  I won't be offended if no one reads this, but I want to have a place to share my life with those who wish to know what's going on.  Especially with our journey toward adoption!  Stay tuned for pictures and videos when we get our bundle of joy...