Baby Franklin's Baby Shower!!

Wait they had a baby shower?

Yes!

Where’s the baby?

 God has that part under control!

This past weekend we had a baby shower for Baby Franklin. While we do not know whether we are getting a boy or a girl we had a great gender-neutral baby shower with family and friends. Amy Franklin used her creativity to create a beautiful shower with the help of her husband Matt and Baby Franklin’s Grandparents Irene and John. We cannot thank them enough for their hard work, WE LOVE YOU GUYS! We would also like to thank all of you who took time out of your weekend to come share your love and gifts with us! THANK YOU!!

Here are some pictures!

Amazing Decorations!

Coolest Diaper Cake Ever!

Homemade cupcakes courtesy of Erin, Suha and Noreen

Cornhole fun!

Awesome friends both new and old!

Bottle Chugging Contest

New best friends

Never so excited to see so many diapers!

Hand Made Gifts for Baby Franklin!

Photo Booth Fun

Once again THANK YOU everyone, we love and appreciate you all!

The Nursery

The Franklin family has been busy preparing for our bundle of joy. As we wait for God to match us with the Birth Mother who will deliver God’s gift to us we have been preparing to become parents. Part of this preparation has been transforming our old office into a nursery. This past week Grandma and Grandpa Franklin came down from Colorado Springs to assist.  We panted and deep cleaned the nursery. Now that the nursery is cleaned and painted we can start filling it with the items Baby Franklin will need! Till next time keep us, the Birth Mother and Baby Franklin in your prayers.

Love,
The Franklin's

The future Dad getting it done!

The future Mom and Grandma did a great job!

It’s all about the details!

The finished Project!

Behind The Scene Action!!!

A lot of behind the scene stuff has happened since our last blog post and we would like to take a minute to update you all on our progress. First we would like to thank all of you for taking time out of your busy lives to pray for our family as we go through the adoption process it means the world to us and we could not do it with out you. With that being said here we go! We have switched agencies from AAA to All Ages Adoption Plus (don’t worry we are still going to adopt an infant they just handle all ages of children). We made the switch for a few reasons. They are guaranteed to be in business for at least 4 more years so that is a comforting fact. They also were able to get us right onto the waiting for a baby list. Right now there are 6 couples waiting including us so what that means is they are working with 6 total families to find them a child to adopt! The last reason we choose to go with the new agency was they were about $4,000 cheaper so that was huge too.

We have also finished our home study process. For those of you who have no idea what I mean when I say home study let me tell you what that means. A home study is basically an interview process where the State of New Mexico determines if we are suited to become parents. It was about a 16-hour interview process that included a home inspection and background checks. The good news is that we are approved to become parents! Praise God. It was an interesting process and we enjoyed talking with our caseworker she is amazing! Now that the home study is done we can begin to apply for grants to help pay for the adoption.

In addition to completing the home study and changing agencies Anntonette worked very hard to build a scrapbook to show our family to prospective birthmothers. Our scrapbook is perfect for the right birthmother with our perfect child to choose our family.  Anntonette did an amazing job and I wish we could show you all her wonderful work.

Well that’s it for now please continue to pray for us! We cannot wait to meet our baby and show them all the love you guys are showing us! Thank You!

Love

The Franklins

Choosing Adoption...

    We would like to share with you how we came to the decision to adopt our first child. After we got married in 2011 we decided to take a year for ourselves before we started trying to have a baby. Our first year of marriage was fun and exciting but we still could not wait to start a family of our own. One year into our life together we began to try and conceive a child. About 8 months into that second year of marriage frustration and disappointment began to build in our inability to get pregnant. We went to see a doctor who, through a series of awkward and embarrassing tests, found no problems with either of us. We decided to keep trying and trust in God's timing. The next four or so months were not bad we were trusting in God and life was good. However around our second anniversary we really started to feel like it just was not going to happen. We decided to go see a different doctor you told us the same thing, nothing is wrong. Each month became harder with the disappointment of not getting pregnant. Both of us knew that we wanted a child and that God would give us one in his timing and in his way. The doctor said if we continued to have problems there where different procedures he could to to help us out. We had talked before that if we did not want to go through procedures like invitro fertilization (IVF) in order to get pregnant. We decided to try clomid, which is a medicine that simply releases more eggs during ovulation in order to increase our odds at getting pregnant. In our second month of the medicine Chris was working at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert at Sagebrush. Steven has an organization call Show Hope during his concert he spoke about adoption and it was like God was speaking to Chris telling him that our first child was going to come through adoption. Chris called at intermission to tell Anntonette that he wanted to adopt. Needless to say Anntonette was 100% on board and excited. The next day we began our search for what the next steps were. It's amazing how God puts all the pieces together. We meet a couple at church that went through the adoption process and we were able to sit with them at dinner and find out more information about the adoption process.  They recommended Adoption Assistance Agency here in town. AAA is a non-profit organization helping unite families with babies in need of love. And love is what truly makes a family. We are still in the very beginning stages of the this very grueling but well worth it process.  This agency only takes ten couples at a time so we are still the 3rd couple on the waiting list.  After 3 babies get placed with families and we have passed our home study and background checks we get added to the list. The next step after that is to make a scrapbook.  This scrapbook will contain our story through pictures, for the birth mother to see us, our family, friends, and why we want to adopt.  This process can be as quick as a few months to as long as a couple years. We know that God already has the perfect baby picked out for us and we cannot wait to meet him or her!
    Chris' parents adopted him as an infant so we know how great the miracle of adoption is first hand.  We know that he and our new baby will have and share a special bond. Chris has always been open about being adopted and his parents loved him just as if they conceived him themselves.  Chris' mom and dad have been such beautiful examples of what adoption is. That they were willing and able to adopt a child that needed a home just as much as they wanted a baby. 
    Thanks for following our journey! Love the Franklin's

How it all began.......

Our story started with a little luck.  Chris moved to Albuquerque back in 2006 to and I am so glad he did or we would have never meet.  Since Chris grew up in Colorado Springs and I grew up here in Albuquerque we would have never of met. Chris and I met working at a construction company were we became great friends.  Plus, it didn't hurt that our good friends Halie and Gabe kept saying we should go on a date. And two years later we did and we haven't stopped dating since.  I couldn't resist his beautiful smile and huge heart. Thanks Guys, and if you ask us we will tell you Gabe is the one that hooked us up!

Halie and Gabe

  We are a happy couple who love each other like crazy. We both have very loving families and the best of friends.  April 23rd, 2011 we took a trip to Colorado Springs to spend Easter with Chris' family. It was a trip that changed our lives. Chris insisted we take a trip up Pikes Peak via the Cog Rail Road. For those of you that don't know Pikes Peak is 1 of the 53 14er's in the state of Colorado. Pikes Peak stands 14,115 feet tall. Needless to say there can still be snow on it in April. Chris would not let a little snow stop his plan for the day so we bought our tickets and started our journey up the mountain. It was beautiful!

Pikes Peak Cog Railway

The best part of the trip came on the way back down. We stopped at a picnic area and were allowed to walk around for a little bit. Chris asked someone if they could take a couple pictures of the two of us. I thought it was weird he said a couple.

The first picture...

The second picture...

The third picture! She said YES!!!

What an amazing trip it was such an amazing experience! Let the wedding planning begin! We did not waste anytime, we did not want a long engagement so we decided to get married a short 4 months later. August 19, 2011 we joined our two families and life's together in marriage!
 

So that's how our story began! We have be married for 2-1/2 years now and are ready to grow our family through the miracle of adoption! Thank you for joining us on this journey! We created this blog so that we can share our experience with our family and friends. We love you all! God bless!