Hope for a Handmade U Baby Update & Adoption IG Auction

Hi Friends!

For those of you that know us, or have been following the blog, you know we have been on a long journey to start a family. Years of infertility treatments and procedures, and now for the last 6 months or so we have focused solely on adoption as the way we are going to grow our family.

The last two months have been full of home study visits, video production on our little family profile which will be online soon, and writing stories of our lives, family, values, etc that will be combined with 100 or so photos to create a written family profile that will be shown to birth mothers as they set out to choose the family that will adopt their child.

The written profile should be completed in the next week or so, our agency is reviewing the home study we had done locally, and then we will be ready and just waiting for our baby! After we are active it could be a day, or a year + before we are matched!!   Of course we are hoping on the sooner end of things :)

In the meantime our good friend Jennifer Allred (our teacher for the Spring Semester of Handmade U) has generously donated her time and fundraising talents (she does great things for JDRF!) to host an incredible adoption auction on Instagram this week!!  Please head over there and follow @handmadeubaby_auction to see all the amazing items that this amazing maker and IG community has offered to our fund!

The world of makers, artists, family, and friends that I am honored to be a part of is incredible.  Jen sent out a request to see if anyone wanted to participate and the outpouring of help and excitement has been crazy good.  This baby of ours is going to have so many people rooting for him/her, what a lucky little one.

Just a few of the items:

There is still time if you'd like to offer something for the auction, otherwise just get ready to do a little shopping for yourself or for gifts, seriously if this was for someone else's adoption I would be so ready to shop, the items are amazing.

Handmade U will also be offering some fun items for auction, and a special Handmade U/ Handmade Q Collab will be available - get your spouse ready to enjoy this one with you!!!

***One couple with the highest bid will be join us for :
The 1st Handmade U/ Handmade Q Collaboration Weekend Couple Retreat!

On a mutually agreed upon weekend this summer or fall, one couple will arrive at the McGough Homestead on a Friday evening in time for dinner.  Saturday will allow the gals to work on crafts and possibly antiquing, customized for her interests, and the guys will work on smoking Ribs and Pulled Pork for our meals to share.  Jim will share his BBQ techniques he's acquired and perfected after 2 years of hands-on experience and a handful of BBQ retreats/classes he's taken from top BBQ National Champions.

Sunday morning will continue the art/crafts-making while waiting to enjoy the BBQ chicken for lunch the guys make before saying goodbye from a fun-filled weekend.

You'll stay on site in our Summer Kitchen Guest House with all meals Friday evening through Sunday at Lunch included.

Goodies will include Handmade Q and U official t-shirts and aprons and lots of fun crafting supplies.

Value is $1500

Can't wait to share this fun weekend with a great couple!


xoxo  Thanks to all those participating in making this a fun and exciting event!!

Rachel & Jim

More info coming soon!!

When One Door Closes...Our Infertility Journey

Hello Friends,

Today we hoped we would have something exciting to share, but we received the disappointing news that our last attempt at medical interventions to get pregnant was unsuccessful.  Jim and I expected we might have a some difficulty getting pregnant since I was 37 when we got married, but we never thought we wouldn't have our own children, or that I would never be pregnant, even with adopted embryos. I don't think that people expect to face infertility in the beginning of their family building journey. You see all sorts of people get pregnant and have children, those who don't want kids, those who are unfit to raise them, and you think WHY would these people be allowed to have this joy, when a loving couple so ready to have a family of their own struggles and ultimately can't conceive?

Those thoughts flash through our minds. However, that is all we can let them do, FLASH through, and then move the thoughts along to more positive, useful and hopeful considerations. Time has never really been on our side. For nearly 5 years we have focused on medical avenues, spending gobs of money on Doctors and travel (starting in Omaha, Denver, North Carolina, Milwaukee, Knoxville, and Chicago twice), emotions and tears. But we remain Faithful that our child(ren) are out there somewhere, the perfect child(ren) will be ours, although not in our timing. Much like our meeting and marriage, late in life, not on our preferred timeframe, but perfect none-the-less.

So now we open a new door, adoption is our new path, we are gearing up to do a ton of additional research on options available to see what will work best for our family. Our hearts are open to where we are lead and we keep the HOPE alive that we find those children soon to join us at the McGough Homestead. I would love some help feeding the chickens and Cora McGough would love a child to play with her all day.

I'll be loading up my etsy shop with goodies to help support our Adoption Fund. If you are in the area we'll be sending invites for an Adoption Fundraising Apple Picking and BBQ this Sunday be on the look-out, hope to have you join us on our first step towards our new direction.

We'd love to hear your successful adoption stories and tips as well. Feel free to message us or leave comments below. Prayers are always appreciated for us in our desire to be parents. Pray for our future children and for our hearts to have the patience and strength necessary for this path.



{In true Putting Yourself Out There form, we share}

Thanks,

Rachel & Jim