4 Month Dedication to Angi
 

I'm there! Jennifer, this is a great idea!

Angi, I'm here to support you in any way I can! Together, we can do this :)

You can do this, Angi!!! :)

I am a rabid, fanatic (but the nice kind of rabid fanatic) Paul McCartney fan, and I belong to a internet group of like minded people. We do something on that list called SOUL. It stands for "sending our united love", and I have been both a sender and a recipient in the 7 yrs I've been on the list. I can testify that it works, so Angi, I'm SOULing for you and hope you get over the rough spot in the road. {{{{{ hugs }}}}

((Hugs)) to you Angie.

I've been down the adoption road. It's an exciting but stressful journey. I can only imagine that having the stress of weight loss added to it only makes it worse. (My agency didn't require me to lose weight).

My son arrived from Korea at 5 1/2 months in June of 97. He just turned 6. Beleive me the joy of having him in my life far outweighed the pain and stress of getting him home.

You can do it, I know you can and I'll gladly 'hold your hand' each step of the way. ((HUGS)).

PM me if you want to talk about adoption!!

Steph

Don't give up Angi. Your so close to getting there, I just know you can do it and make it in the next 4 months.

dedication to Angi
 

Hi Angi,

I am sending support and encouragement your way! I wish you best of luck. You can do it :)

Hugs,
Sherry

If there was ever a noble reason for losing weight, this is it.

Go Angi! :)

You Can Do This Angi! ! !

I'm right here beside you holding your hand with your fellow weight loss sisters! ! ! ! ! !

What a GREAT idea Jennifer!!

Angi sweetie - I am there for you ALL the way. I know you can do this!!! Just come here every day and feel the love and support!!

Goooooo ANNNNNGGGGGGIIIII!!!!! :)

Angi - you keep in mind your goal everywhere you go! You go girl!!!

We are here for you every step of the way cheering you on.

Don't even think to hide from us - you know we are capable of hunting you down - and then we will all sit on you :lol:

It's Mission: "Baby be Mine"
Angi boot camp begins today!

We love ya!

Dana

Here I am! I just sat down to weed through all the unread messages since I haven't been reading in a long time.

I started from the top and went on a mission for them to all show up as "read" so I could see the new ones the next time I came in.

Anyway, I've been sitting here, reading posts for about 45 minutes before I came across this sweet thread. I am really floored by your kindness and support.

I am renewed!

Thanks again. I will be checking in daily again and will let you guys know what is going on with our adoption in general. Here's where we are now: we have been struggling with the paperwork for our "formal application" with the agency that has pre-approved us. We are just one step away from having that done. I need to get pics of both of us, have it notarized, and make a copy of the whole giant thing. OK -that's THREE steps!

We are refinancing our house, and cashing out the equity to pay for this, and that isn't finalized yet.

So, that's the status.

Interestingly enough, we've already chosen a name - Elijah. There is a small chance we could get a girl, and in that case we will not subject her to that name. But, for now, my weightloss effort is calle "Project Elijah."

Thanks again for you encouragement. I'm going to give my DH my password so he can peek in here and read your kind words.

Angi

Thank you for your encouragement
 

Hello all! I am Angi's DH. (Dear husband? Dumb husband? Dork head?) I want to thank all of you for your kindness. It is very touching and helpful to have support like this.

What is so frustrating and ironic about this process is that Angi has been losing weight successfully 'til now, just slowly. Now the goal line has been moved. Not only does she have to lose weight, she has to do it at someone else's pace. Yuck.

Anyway, if you are the praying sort, please pray that I will encourage Angi as much as possible. We are on incompatible diets. (I'm low-carb and she's on 4 oz. of protein a day! :p ) Also, I am having trouble getting back "on the wagon." I have 16 pounds to lose to get to adoption weight, and around 60 to get to goal.

Also, I need to get back to cooking. I've had a pretty yucky week and haven't felt like doing anything.

May God bless you all. You're very sweet.

ooh, how fun! i think it's great that you posted, dan (just guessing that's your name). good luck... they're making you BOTH lose weight in order to adopt? wow.

you guys will make it. even if they're different diets, at least you're in it together!

(i occasionally get grouchy cuz my guy is super skinny -- he's on the "gaining weight" diet. argh.)

anyways, GOOD LUCK again.

Whew! I was looking for my luggage and trying to decide what attire would be best for walking the streets in Oklahoma in January, in case I needed to really make that road trip!

Angi..so glad you popped in. We've missed you, but more so...we want to be here rooting you on and going all the way with you.

I absolutly love the name Elijah. That was one of the few that I've always loved.

Dan..Looks like your not the only lucky one to have a wonderful wife...but she is lucky to have you too. You both seem like wonderful people who really do love eachother. I will be praying and thinking of you. I have faith that both of you can reach those goals.



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Just a quick note - We finished up our massive adoption paperwork and took it to FedEx tonight! That thing was huge.

That was a major milestone!

Angi

We found out yesterday that our application is approved! We are very excited.

They called again to make sure we understand we have to lose weight. Yeah! We get it!

Now. things are on hold while we finish the re-finance on the house to fund the adoption.

There always something to worry about!

Angi

I am so excited for you!!! I know you can do it!!!!

Angie,

I didn't realize that you had finished the paperwork. That's a major milestone! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Steph

Yay Angie! Woo-hoo! :dance:

Congratulations, Angi!!! :D

Ok I just stopped in and read project elijah what a nobel reason for this. I too do low carb dan so i can understand and what a conflict of diets!!!! wow good luck with that one!! DH (dear husband) some times SH for (shi** husband) tries to eat low carb with half a loaf of bread daily! :?: then dives into the cookies. (5 kids in my house ages 8 - 18) :rolleyes: i will willingly give you some of mine, i do not ever require any weight loss or paper work, just do not give them back!!!! ;)

way to go on the acceptance for the adoption.

can I please join this effort?? I am now getting back OP after a stint of gaining asfter i started work and really need to get back OP and need as manny reasons and challenges to do this as i can physically do!

I have been yo-yoing a little. Today is a new day, though.

We are having our adoption home-study on Thursday. That's when the social worker comes to our house for hours and decides if we will be good parents. I am doing major cleaning and a little painting.

Thanks for asking! I need to get on the ball.

Angi

Angi.. forgive me for being stupid... but does your weight have to do with being a good parent? Isn't that discrimanation?
I don't get it.

You are doing really well - don't forget to count the cleaning and painting as exercise! that can be a work out :)

By American standards, it would be considered discrimination and probably would be illegal. But the Korean agency has the final say on who gets their babies. One of their criteria is that the parents be healthy so they're around to parent these children.

I can't argue that I'll be much healthier when I am off the obesity chart. If we weren't willing to lose the weight, we could have chosen to adopt from another country. It's just this Korean agency that has this stipulation, not the agency we are working with here locally.

You aren't stupid! A lot of people ask us this. It sucks a little bit and is scary when I wonder if I can really really do it.

But, I had a TOTALLY PERFECT ON-PLAN day yesterday, so I have renewed hope!

Support from you guys has made all the difference in the world!

Angi

thanks for clearing that up! It kind of makes sense.. kind of. I can see where they are coming from.

All the best to you!!!

Think of yourself as lucky.. instead of gaining weight waiting for a baby you are losing :)

It's NOT against the law in the United States. I know you would think so, but it's sad to say discrimination still exists. You can read NAAFA's stance on it here: http://www.naafa.org/documents/policies/adoption.html

I think using weight as a guideline for adoption is a load of crap. I don't care what excuses they're using. Healthy? Do they give you a treadmill exam? Because I'm morbidly obese and I can outrun half the tiny girls in the world. If they want to make sure your child grows up healthy, try giving a body acceptance exam. Have them read the thread on mom's that warped their kids because of bad self-esteem. (Done soapboxing).

However, keep up the good work chica. We're all rooting for you!

We were supposed to have our Homestudy this afternoon, but our social worker rescheduled for next week. Of course, we didn't get the message she left until about an hour before she was to arrive, so we stayed up until 1:30 a.m. cleaning! Arghh!

This process is so "hurry up and wait." I need to get used to it.

Oh well, at least all that cleaning and painting was a lot of exercise, like Slimdown said.

It's still an emotional let-down. Every hurdle is a step closer to our baby and this one has been put off a little longer. I'm a little confused at my reaction to it - I cried for a long time. I guess I was just all emotionally prepared and now I have to do it all over again.

I won't be doing any more painting though. At least that will stay done!

Thanks for listening,

Angi