Big News...

Big News.... ALL THE ENVELOPES ARE GONE and Hannah Ruth is schedule to be delivered via C-Section on September 8!!!

We cannot say thank you enough to everyone that has given, prayed, 'shared', 'liked', and been an encouragement with our adoption fundraising. As long as everyone that took an envelepe gets the money in and there are no last minute financial surprises our adoption fundraising is complete!!! THANK YOU!

The difference 2 letters make

If Christians are going to call for the end of Abortion, then we must also be ready to lead the way in Adoption. "It's amazing how much of a difference, two little letters make!" 

For a free book challenging towards this move, check this out: https://www.crossway.org/blog/2015/08/free-e-book-adoption-by-russell-moore/

One of Russell Moore's other books is Adopted for Life. It is the best book that I have read in the last 12 months. http://www.amazon.com/Adopted-Life-Priority-Adoption-Christian/dp/1581349114

Adopt an Envelope - Kear Adoption Fundraiser

Only 38 days until Hannah Ruth arrives! And that is assuming she doesn't embrace the Kear baby nature to show up a little early. Y'all have been amazingly supportive. We need your help in the last few weeks to finish up our fundraising and be ready to bring Hannah Ruth home. The total cost of this adoption is around $37,000. If you haven't read the story of our adoption and what God has been doing check it out here: http://www.thekears.com/2015/07/were-expecting-3.html.

We have numbered 180 virtual envelopes. Our hope is that all 180 envelopes will be "adopted" by you, a friend, group, church or business. Once you have selected an envelope you are committing to donate the corresponding dollar amount. Envelope #1=$1, #2=$2 and so on. The highest number is 180 so the most anyone would commit to is $180. If you just feel crazy generous and want to give more than $180, you are more than welcome to take multiple envelopes.

If the amount you want to donate is already taken, then use multiple envelopes to equal the amount. (i.e. If you would like to donate $140 and #140 is gone, then you could do #80 and #60.)  If all envelopes are adopted we will raise $16,290 to finish out our adoption expenses!

• Step 1: Pick your number(s) 
• Step 2: Go to www.AdoptTogether.org/Kear and make a corresponding donation which will be tax deductible, or you can just give directly to the Kear family and we'll put it in the jar. 
• Step 3: Comment on our blog or Facebook event to let us know which envelope(s) you or your group adopted so that we can mark them off of our chart and keep track of our progress.

We're almost there! Thanks of helping us spread the word and finish strong!!!

www.AdoptTogether.org/Kear

Garage Sale Thank You

THANK YOU to everyone who donated stuff, hauled stuff, organized, sold lemonade and bracelets, cleaned up, spread the word and told their friends and who prayed! The sale was a HUGE success. God is so good and he has given us some amazing community. 

We raised over $7,000 in the garage sale this week! That will cover 20% of the total cost of the adoption. That is amazing! 

Especially thanks to Marcee Watkins and her amazing boys Adlee and Sam, Jennifer and Brad Rusher and their sweet kiddos, Roslyn Kear, Tina Falkner, Colleen Joslin, Casey Thurow, Jared Joslin, Charles Summers, Rachael & Josh Kear, Jenna Warren, Blake Phillips, Rick Kear, Zion Kear, The Johnsons, The Hammers, The Goldbergs, Bailey Nobles Smith, Greg Nobles, Travis & Jordan Mays, Brian Roach, Scot Wanamaker.

Adoption Fundraiser Yard Sale

It's time for our first adoption fundraiser event, and we sure could use your help!

We are having a BIG indoor yard sale on Friday, July 24 (7am - 2pm), and Saturday, July 25th (7am - noon).

We are thrilled that it will be located in downtown Conway at The Venue (1069 Markham St., across from Larry's Pizza), so it will be indoors and COOL! Thank you so much to Greg Nobles for graciously offering us his facility for our sale! This will be the first yard sale that Chris and I have done (except for a little one when we were first married), but we know that for this to be successful, we need to have a ridiculous amount of stuff and some sweet friends and family to help us run it.

Here are the 4 main ways that we are needing help to pull this off:

1. We need stuff! Please let us know if you have anything you would like to donate to our sale. We are taking everything from clothes, to household goods, to furniture, to baby gear and toys. You can either drop stuff off at our house, or we would be happy to come pick it up from your house sometime before Thursday, July 23. We will have access to a moving truck all week leading up to the sale, so nothing is too big for us to come haul off for you! If you do not have our phone numbers, contact us via email: chris.kear@gmail.com or tarakear@gmail.com
2. We need help sorting and pricing before the sale, as well as a few people to help during the sale. 
3. Please stop by on the July 24th and 25th and shop! We'll make you a good deal and it would be so encouraging to see your smiling faces. 
4. Spread the word!!! Tell your family, friends, and co-workers about our indoor yard sale.

I will hopefully be posting pictures of a few of the fun items we will be selling as we get them in case anyone wants to pre-shop. We have been blown away by the amazing support and response we have gotten since making our adoption story "official" yesterday. I cannot express how much we love you guys and appreciate your prayers for our little family. 

Here's a picture of the madness that is currently Crosby's room 

as we are going through his toys and finding ones for the sale. 

Why Abba Adoptions

Since our first meeting with Kandi Cox (the owner and founder of Abba Adoptions) we have been really impressed with Abba's amazing pro-life ministry. It is so much more than an adoption agency, it is a pro-life ministry. We believe that in working with Abba for our adoption we are doing more than paying for the expense of an adoption, we are investing in and funding a pro-life ministry so that they will be there when the next girl walks in their doors scared and alone.

You cannot be pro-life and not be pro-adoption.

Here is a video of Kandi speaking on the sidewalk of the only abortion clinic in Arkansas (which happens to be located in West Little Rock right behind the Butcher Shop restaurant, ironically enough). Listen to Kandi's story and check out more about Abba Adoptions at http://www.abbaadoptionar.com.

We're Expecting #3!

We are so excited to share our news that we are going to become a family of five in September through the miracle of adoption! The old blog is getting dusted off so we can keep y'all in the loop during this journey. This has been the most amazing experience, watching the Lord unveil His plan for us over the past month, and I will do my best to include all of the neat details in this initial post.

We received a call on Wed, June 17th, from Kandi Cox at Abba Adoptions (a private Christian adoption agency in Benton) asking how close we were to finishing our application and asking if she could share a story with us. Kandi proceeded to tell us about a birth mother that has been with Abba since February and is due September 21 with a little girl that needed a family. It needed to be an Arkansas family because of some legal custody hoops that we'd have to jump through. Abba was out of Arkansas families, but knew that we were very close to applying with them.

After talking with Abba and praying we told them on Friday, the 19th, that we were interested in being the family for this baby girl. We submitted our application. Then we wrote a letter to the birth mom as well as sent some pictures of us and our family.

The Abba case worker met with the birth mom and birth dad at lunch on Tuesday, the 23rd, to share our letter and pictures with them and see if they felt good about us being the family to receive their baby girl. The birth mom got there before the birth father. The case worker showed her the pictures of us, and the birth mom started crying. She said that she knew us. The case worker was confused and inquired how she knew us. The birth mom told her that she had a dream right before she found out she was pregnant where she saw Chris and me in the dream. She said it was very vivid and stood out more than other dreams. She woke up crying and told the birth father about it. She just knew that we would be important in her life, but she had no clue what that meant.

Apparently the pictures and letter were more than enough confirmation for the birth mom to feel at peace that we were the right family. She liked the fact that I was a stay at home mom. The birth father likes to trout fish and got excited that one of the pics of Chris had a brown trout in it.

So, at 1:50pm that day we received a call that birth parents picked us to be the parents of their baby girl due on September 21... 90 days away! We are so excited and a little shell shocked. We waited to tell the kids until after we heard that they had picked us, and they could not have been more excited to get the news! :) We got to meet the birth parents and our caseworker, Amy, last Thursday for the first time. It went very well, and the birth mom even invited me to come to her OB appointments. She told me that she is so glad that we will be able to give her baby the life that she knows she can't give her, and that she just hopes that some day when she grows up, she will thank her for it. Wow, such a loving, selfless decision! I have so much respect for her.

One of the cool things is that we have been praying and looking forward to adopting kiddo #3 since we were in the hospital on bed rest for preterm labor with Emmaline. We knew we wanted to adopt in birth order (a child younger than Emmaline), but we really didn't have any preference about race, sex, or place of origin. We were praying, but waiting on God's leading in regards to the timing of when and where to take steps of obedience. Anticipating and preparing for growing our family through adoption was a big reason as to why we bought and renovated the foreclosure last summer allowing us to have more space and another bedroom.

Right around the start of January 2015, I told Chris that I was ready and thought we should attend the adoption informational meeting for The CALL. That was the start of us taking active steps of obedience to God's call to adopt. The long story made short was the last 6 months have been a crazy roller coaster of exploring avenues for adoption. We looked overseas, and God answered prayers through closed doors (I'm pretty sure he actually slammed those doors closed), we looked into various domestic options until we came across Abba Adoptions. Right away we were blown away by Abba's pro-life ministry and focus. It became clear that going through Abba was more than participating in adoption, but partnering in a pro-life ministry. 85% of the birth mothers that work with Abba walk in their doors abortion-minded. So back to my prompting by the Lord to begin taking steps in January that lead us on the winding road of where we are today... a baby due Sept. 21 would have been conceived right at around the first of January, in fact The Call meeting was January 18, the same day that the birth mom told us she found out she was pregnant! It's almost as if there was a sovereign God guiding us right to this little girl. :) The last cool thing is that since the beginning of us talking/praying about adoption, Crosby has wanted to adopt a 5 year old boy to share his bunk bed and toys with, and Emmaline (our little mama) has wanted to adopt a baby girl (at times it has been twin babies named Mary and Joseph). Well, a few weeks before we got the call from Abba, Crosby told me out of the blue that he changed his mind and thought we should adopt a baby girl! God was so gracious to even allow Crosby's heart to change and align with His plan for our family.

Here we are with Kandi Cox the day we signed the adoption papers at our house and made it official.

Please continue praying with us! Here are some specific things to pray for:

• That the birth parents would come to know the Lord if they don't already (we don't think they do, but the case worker is going to ask some more direct questions around this topic)
• Baby girl would grow healthy and strong.
• Financial provision... this is going to cost a huge sum of money... (around $37,000), so we will need to do some major fundraising. We fully believe that going through Abba is funding a pro life ministry, not just an adoption.
•  Completion of our home study
• All the stuff that logistically goes into getting a nursery and home ready for a baby in about 70 days
• Crosby and Emmaline's continued excitement.
• That the Lord would prepare our hearts for welcoming this sweet baby girl into our family.

Thank you so much for your prayers!!!

I will keep you posted!


P.S. If would like to donate you can give to our account through AdoptTogether.org and your donation will be tax deductible. You can donate at www.adopttogether.org/kear.

More pics from Emmaline's first 48 hours.

Baptist Hospital upgraded their newborn photo process

Baptist Hospital has definitely upgraded their newborn photo process. It used to be just a nurse with a digital camera that they would upload onto the Baptist website. Now they have a fancy service called Bella Baby. The photo shoot is free so we went ahead and did it. You can check out some pics of Emmaline on the Bella Baby website from the day after she was born.

• Go to: http://www.bellababyphotography.com/login
• The password is '0201emmalinekear'
• Only online until February 15th.

Emmaline is Here!

Emmaline Louise Kear
3:37am on 2-1-12
6 lbs 3 oz, 19.5 inches long

Mother and Baby are doing great!

Going to Labor and Delivery

We've moved to labor and delivery!!! Emmaline is coming. Tara is 4cm and 80%.

Revised Game Plan

Emmaline has not made her appearance yet. Tara was able to get some much needed sleep last night. She is much more rested today than she was yesterday. God knew what he was doing by not sending her into full blown labor yesterday. Silly us for thinking otherwise. We've recalibrated our expectations and our mindsets as of this morning and are just trusting that God knows what is best, even when we get impatient.

We just saw Dr. Wiedower and discussed our revised game plan since 2 days ago we all thought that we would have a baby in our arms by now. Tara is going to do a lot more activity today. Walk around, sit upright, squats, etc... ok maybe not squats. Since she has been on bed rest for a month even the walking around will be a big change. We'll see how that goes today. Tomorrow morning Dr. Wiedower will check her. Depending on how much progression she has had we might get go home. 

There is also a little bit of weather moving in this evening, so between that and increased activity we'll just see what happens.

Learning Patience

It is 1pm and still nothing major. Just waiting. Sometimes God has a funny sense of humor.

I just took Tara outside in the wheelchair for a Subway lunch date. It was nice to get her some sunshine. We'll see if sitting upright in the chair for a while does anything. 

In the meantime, we wait. 

Waiting

Tara had a hard time sleeping in this morning. She was up by 5am and is now showered, hair done, make-up done and 'ready to push' as she put it. Now we wait. She got the last anti-contraction medication at 11pm last night. As of 8:20am everything is fairly calm. We just assume that she'll start contracting soon and have a baby in the next day or two. We'll just have to wait and see and trust in the Lord's perfect timing.

As we get impatient we just need to remember that she is only 36 weeks. There is nothing wrong with Emmaline staying put a little longer, but we are ready to meet our little girl. Tara has been patient through 4 weeks of bed rest in the hospital now so a little eagerness to meet Emmaline is due. 

I think that if she isn't contracting before, then she will be by this afternoon. The afternoon is always when things flair up. But we'll just wait and see.

36 weeks, We made it!

36

36 Weeks!

Wow! We made it to 36 weeks. When we came into the hospital 26 days ago we were just hoping and praying to make 33 weeks, let alone 36. We are so thankful for the prayers and support. We are so blessed that our little girl has gotten to cook as long as she has.

The last 48 hours
The last few days has been OK. Friday night and Saturday morning were pretty quiet. Saturday afternoon things started to get going though. Tara had enough contractions that they had to give her an additional procadia to slow them down. It worked for a little bit. Then Saturday evening they got rolling again. The scary thing was that Emmaline's 'heartbeep' (as Crosby says) slowed when Tara would contract. Sometimes that happens as a fluke, maybe the baby rolled of the cord or something,  but it can be a serious problem it persists for very long at all. Our nurse Carol, got serious real quick as soon as she saw the deceleration. They were able to get it back to normal by changing Tara's position an additional procardia to help stop the contractions. They also gave Tara a percocet to take the edge off of the pain, because she was hurting with the strong, intense contractions. It wasn't a fun afternoon and evening for Tara, but eventually it all calmed down and she got some rest. Sunday has been OK so far. Some uterine irritability and a few strong contractions, but nothing too major.

Shifting gears

Nurse Nancy

Since we hit our goal of 36 weeks we are shifting gears. Dr. Weidower got back in town from her ski trip yesterday and we'll see her tomorrow morning. Tara will get her last dose of procardia at midnight tonight, which is preventing her from contracting (well, it is supposed to at least). It will wear off around 6am on Monday. We are pretty confident that Tara will start contracting very regularly tomorrow morning when it wears off. The question will be how long it takes before she starts to progress further and actually move next door to a labor and delivery room.

So we think we'll have a baby Monday or Tuesday, but we'll just have to wait and see what God has in store for us. Would you join me in praying on Monday morning?

35 weeks 5 days

Tara is getting ever so close to crossing that 36 week mark. She is still doing well. She is riding our daily roller coaster of what each day will bring. For the most part it has been a smooth couple of days. Still staying the course and planning to go off of the meds on Monday.

We've had the blessing of Crosby's visits two days in a row. It is good. I'm not sure if Tara or Crosby looks forward to them more.

Thanks for the prayers and support! Seriously, thank you. Here are a few pics.

35 weeks 3 days

The last few days have been good. Nothing crazy, but not calm either. Tara is certainly contracting daily and at times they have to give her extra meds to get it to slow down, but we've just conceded it is an annoying and sometimes painful part of life for her the next few days. Tara is stil being a great sport and doing what is best for her baby girl.

We are going to try our very best to make it to Monday for 2 reasons. The first being that it will put us past the 36 week mark. The second being that our OB left Tuesday to go skiing in Colorado and won't be back until this weekend. Yes, the other OB's in her clinic are very good docs, but we would really like to have her deliver Emmaline. 

We cannot say enough about the nurses and staff here at Baptist LR 2H. They are wonderful. They know their stuff when it comes to keeping babies cooking and they are just genuinely excellent caregivers. There are several of them that we don't just consider our nurses, but also our friends. We are very blessed. 

We'll keep you posted if anything changes. In the mean time remember, no news is good news.

My wife, the barometer

Tara had a fairly placid weekend, which was a nice break from the excitement of Thursday and Friday. That is it was placid until the storm front rolled through last night around 6pm. Then her barometer went off and she started contracting. Barometric changes are a powerful thing, especially on a uterus that is walking a fine line already.

Long story short she contracted at various intervals from 2 minutes to 9 minutes apart throughout the night...all night long. The poor girl got a little sleep thanks to ambien and additional procardia, but even then she was on the monitors and contracting. Needless to say she is tired and sore today. It has gotten to the point that Tara doesn't even request to get put on the contraction monitors unless she thinks that they are less than 3 minutes apart.

35 weeks!

We got to have another ultrasound today. It was great to get to see little Emmaline. Everything was good. We confirmed for the third time via ultrasound that she is indeed a girl. She measured 5 lbs 13oz. Of course they say that measurement is plus or minus 15 oz. So they are hedging their measurement by 16%. How would you like to have a 16% margin of error in your line of work. I can see it now. Sorry Elder Board, I know our budget was $923,000 but our expenses were $1,070,000 which is within the 16% allotted margin of error. So everything is cool right? What is $147,000 amongst friends?

Anyhow, I digress. We are getting pretty excited about meeting Emmaline soon. The question on our minds is will her hair be blonde or dark? What do you think?

35 weeks!

Today marks 35 weeks for Emmaline! We are so thankful to have made it this far. Next Monday, January 30, they will take Tara off of the medications preventing the contractions and let whatever happens happen. So we'll try to make it 8 more days.

34 weeks and 6 days

I'm going to try my best to not use the phrase 'still cooking' in this post since I think I've used it every post in the last 2 weeks. Tara had a good night last night, despite having had really strong contractions from 3:30-7:00pm early in the evening. They gave her an additional procardia and eventually the slowed down.    Her body just really wants to contract, but there was still no further dilation. Marion is up with Tara for the weekend and I'm home with my main man Crosby.

Thanks for all the prayers and support. Hard to believe that tomorrow will be 35 weeks!