In the Beginning...

Five months ago Todd and I were sitting in a little classroom in a Minneapolis office building taking our first itty bitty baby step in our adoption journey.  It was just an informational meeting - a high level overview of the services and programs that the adoption agency offered.  We'd done a lot of talking about adoption, a lot of reading, but we still didn't really know what we would be in for.  I remember the moment the presenter told us a popular way to do adoption outreach was through craigslist.  Todd and I looked at each other, our eyes wide with surprise.  Craigslist?  Really? 

We left that informational meeting with a good feeling.  We felt pretty confident that we'd found a good fit with the agency and we were ready to move forward.  We knew we would be entering into the infant adoption program - the only thing we had trouble wrapping our brains around was the outreach idea.

Craigslist? Really?

As we walked out the door of that Minneapolis office building, Todd turned to me and said "I know we got our dog off of Craigslist, but do you really think we could find a baby there?"  We were both skeptical.  At that time we resolved that we would just go into the waiting families book, outreach was too far outside of our comfort zone.

Over time, something has shifted in us.  We've gotten more comfortable with the idea.  Maybe it's that we've gotten more educated, but I also think that it's something we've become inspired to do through other people's stories and our own decision to fully embrace this experience.  We believe that adoption is something to get excited about - so we've decided to step far outside of our comfort zone and make the most of our resources. 

Last night we launched our Facebook page - I'd had it locked and loaded, ready for distribution just waiting for the green light from our adoption worker.  We've spent the last 24 hours watching people "like" it and "share" it.  We've seen friends of our friends, strangers to us, outreach on our behalf and suddenly this thing feels so much bigger than us.  We are humbled, inspired, and bolstered by the love of our friends and family and the kindness of strangers.  Thank you - is not a big enough sentiment to express our gratitude. 

We have some other outreach projects in the works.  I ordered business cards and we're considering putting magnets/decals on our cars.  And, oh yeah - it turns out that Craigslist idea wasn't so crazy after all.  We did this tonight:

The sky's the limit!