the adoption contemplation

I have been very contemplative over the last few days, weeks, probably months.  Contemplative about our future goals as a family, about the best ways to work with my husband to provide for our family, about materialism and consumerism vs. simplicity.  I think I have even contemplated about contemplating too much. As a result, I think it is about time to actually come out and say the biggest thing weighing on our family these days... adoption.  It's something that I brought up to B. several years ago and we have s.l.o.w.l.y. been moving in the direction.  The program that we have chosen is the foster care program.  It means that our child will be 2 or older and coming from the foster care system.  It means that there will have been some trauma in our baby's little life before he/she comes to us.  I think in all of this contemplation, and prayer, we have both mostly worked through that.  We, obviously, will have more to deal with once our child comes home, but there isn't much we can do about it now (except start praying for our little one now and specifically pray that his/ her parents love them as much as possible and eventually love them enough to peacefully give him/her to us).

I think the main struggle is financially.  We have to think about how to fund the adoption, fund me being home for 12 weeks (no maternity leave when there is no pregnancy...), fund another kiddo in daycare.  Logistically, we are also thinking about another bedroom added which means finishing the basement.  Some days I say, it's all going to work out or we can live a lot simpler and make it happen.  But, then A. wants to do swim team, K. wants to play soccer, we want them to have a tree house, A. thankfully gets invited to another birthday party and needs a gift, and I really want new running shoes.  Again, all WANTS that we could do with out.  But, is that fair to our kids?

I would be awake at night thinking, "We both work, why can't we make this happen?"  This is what made me think about the stay at home mom.  The truth is, I know, maybe, 2 out of all of my young mom friends.  Everyone else is funding their status by 31, pampered chef, daycare, Etsy shops, art work, photography, and even placing au pairs.  Why is that?  Is it that we push our kids to be in more activities, that we want more toys or tree houses that we think they can't live with out, is it that we as women are more likely to come out of school with student loans?  Is it that we feel more pressure to be working and contributing because we are now allowed?  Again, contemplating everything...

Well, here are the answers that all of this contemplation has given me...
1) There has to be a healthy balance between wanting and receiving.  But, I've yet to curb my desires to "keep up with the Jones's"
2) My kids will be fine with 1 or max 2 activities.  However, that still puts us at 100-200 dollars per month with more coming as our family grows.
3) Logistics do matter to bring home this kiddo because we will then be more focused on providing the most loving and healing environment possible.
4) Neither one of us is getting raises any time soon so... I better join in with all of the other mom's...

Enter AdvoCare...
AdvoCare is a business that provides energy, health, wellness, nutrition, and sports performance products.  It is my choice for a number of reasons
1) It has worked for us.  B. and I both started with a 24 day challenge.  He lost 11.5 inches and I lost 5.5 inches. More than that, we both had more energy and ... I kicked my soda habit after years and years of craving a ice cold fountain soda every day.
2) It's evidenced based.  My science background made me read about the development and research on the products.  My biggest shout out is for the probiotics...research show that a good probiotic should have 4 strains of bacteria.  AdvoCare has 7.
3) It's founders are Christian; the first sentence in the mission statement is to help others honor God through faith, family, and friends.
4) I feel like if I'm going to be asking my friends and family to buy something from  me, it better be useful.  It better be more than pushing more and more materialism and consumerism.  It better be making their lives better in some way.  Healthy is better.
5) Working with the "medicare population" has me checking medications for all of my patients.  I'm sick of seeing everyone on cholesterol and blood pressure medications.  Let's get healthier!

So, there you have it... more insight into the Collin's family.  We are growing. Can you help us by letting us help you?
www.advocarecollins.com  Email me at dsty1213@gmail.com if you have any questions about products or if you want to hear more.  And... don't hate me when I want to share more with you about AdvoCare.  I truly believe in the products and in the way they can help our family!