6 months!!!

Hannah Janay Hope is six months old! We have been on vacation for the past week, hence the lack of posting. But boy do we have pictures to share!
Hannah is growing, although more emotionally and mentally instead of physically. She is still about 13lbs, and fitting easily into her 3 month clothing. She has began gently reminding us when we leave the room that she would either like to join us, or would rather us stay in the room. I hope you can hear the sarcasm with the word "gently".
Matt's extended family on his dad's side has a newsletter that is sent out every few months. I wrote an article for it about our adoption. I think it's fitting to add it here to commemorate our six months with our precious girl......

When Matt and I got married, the big debate at the time was if we wanted two kids or three kids. I wanted three because I came from three and Matt wanted two because he came from two. Either way, we figured when the time came, we’d just have kids when we wanted kids. By the time we had been married three years, in July of 2005, we decided it was time to start a family.
This did not happen according to our plans. We tried to get pregnant for about a year before we figured we go through the battery of testing for both of us. We both were pronounced healthy and were encouraged to keep trying. After another year, we made an appointment with a local reproductive endocrinologist who put us through all the same tests again. And again, we were declared healthy. We decided to dabble in some of the cheapest infertility treatments, none of which worked. We were becoming discouraged, and I was beginning to question whether we would ever have children.
After three and a half years of trying to get pregnant, Matt and I prayerfully discussed the adoption option. We felt God leading us to Lutheran Social Services of Fort Wayne and we began the homestudy process in late October 2008. The homestudy is a series of interviews, questions, tests and background checks, which was all completed on January 28, 2009. We put a family book together for the birth moms to pick from. We felt led to accept whatever race or gender the Lord would have for us.
We were told with such a small agency in a small city, we should expect to wait about a year to 18 months for someone to pick us. In the meantime, we would enjoy our jobs, buying stuff for our new house and each other.
Super Bowl Sunday, February 1, 2009. Matt and I were standing in the kitchen getting our grocery list together for our party later that day. Matt received a call from an unrecognizable number and contemplated not answering it. He did and our lives were forever changed. He listened for a minute and then mouthed to me “a baby.” I for sure thought Matt was kidding me. I got mad thinking that this was not a funny joke. He put the lady on speaker phone and we learned that a baby had been born on January 30th and the birth mom had picked us from all the adoptive parents. It was a girl, a tiny 4lb 14oz African-American baby girl. We were stunned. It was about 2pm on Sunday afternoon and we asked for 30 minutes to pray about it. She said she could give us 15 minutes. Two minutes later we called her back. We were ready to head to the NICU to meet our daughter, even though neither of us would say that word at the time.
Hannah Janay Hope Brandenberger will be six months old on July 30th and we could not have picked a child who fits our personalities any better. She is a great combination of being laid back (like Matt) and being loud and demanding (like me).
Throughout our years of infertility, we questioned God’s goodness, we questioned God’s plan and we questioned our purpose in life. Had we gotten pregnant any time in those years, we both agree that we would probably (and unknowingly) have put the child at the center of our marriage, and not God. Those tough years brought God back into the center of our lives and our marriage.
We are so grateful that during our infertility I was able to go back to school to enter a career that fits perfectly into family life. Matt was able to get some great coaching experience at a local Christian high school. We were able to buy a bigger house to fit a (future) growing family and Matt was also able to start a Master’s in Education program.
As we look back over the first seven years of our marriage, we are grateful for those rough years as they forced us to be broken and cling to the Lord. This brought a love for God and each other as He designed, and have prepared us to be better parents.
We certainly do not take any aspect of parenting for granted. We joyfully woke up for the middle of the night feedings, we loved the fussy times that made us hold Hannah more then we thought we should, and we certainly love all the spitting up she does which is more then I think a 13lb human should produce.
So back to the big debate, two or three kids? We certainly don’t know and neither of us care. We are confident now that whatever the Lord has for us is good. If it is just Hannah, we joyfully accept it. If it is 10 more (yikes!), we accept that too. Hannah’s adoption will be finalized September 10, 2009. After that, we will begin the homestudy process again, although I do hope our wait is longer then 4 days the next time.