Indiegogo campaign and a small post

I've started a campaign on indiegogo to gather funds to promote the blog as well as funds for travel in May.
http://tinyurl.com/bhr758x

I also asked Jon and Liz to share their feelings of what happened before Jaden's birth and at the hospital. I'm working on my next post but it is taking a little while. >_>
Please enjoy what they had to say. I certainly did and will always appreciate them.

The hospital was an interesting combination of emotion, excitement, awkwardness, and anxiety. We were extremely excited to look forward to seeing Jaden born. However, we were conscious of the fact that Kinzie would be sifting through an array of complicated feelings from pregnancy, delivery, medications, and specifically from placing Jaden for adoption. The silver lining in all of this was that we had an open adoption which we hope offered some comfort to Kinzie.

Leading up to the adoption, we felt extremely fortunate to have been able to spend such significant time with Kinzie between birth group, pre-natal appointments, and dinners to get to know her. All this time really made us feel comfortable being at the bedside for Jaden’s birth. We appreciated how much Kinzie thought of Jaden and us throughout her pregnancy. She was extremely selfless in how much she incorporated us. After Jaden was born, we were excited to finally be parents but the amount of respect and appreciation we felt for Kinzie for placing Jaden with us was and still is impossible to articulate.

Through the rest of the hospital stay, we struggled with knowing how pro-active to be in taking care of Jaden and Kinzie as we didn’t want to encroach on her time with Jaden or her family’s time with her and Jaden. Kinzie comes from a very friendly family so having her there along with Dawn and Chris made this transition easier. It also helped Kinzie was so open about when she needed us to help out. Those three days in the hospital were an anxious time for us and it was tough to have confidence in being parents, tough to have confidence that Jaden would be placed with us. Additionally, it was tough to be 100% happy because we knew Kinzie was starting walking down the most difficult road she would face in her life. Although we had never been in her situation, we knew she would experience the frustration, depression, anxiety, and longing that we had been experiencing as we battled through infertility and adopting. It was also tough to fight this constant flood of stories we had heard from others about failed adoptions and all the other heart-breaking adoption stories you hear as a prospective adoptive couple. After years of infertility, it was extremely difficult to feel confident and comfortable that you may actually have an opportunity to be a parent. You’re constantly emotionally hovering with infertility induced emotional insecurity despite succeeding in several other aspects of your life.

We spent a total of almost three days in the hospital. On the last day we spent the morning setting up the car seat, packing bags, and saying goodbyes. The most difficult part of the entire hospital experience was watching Kinzie have to say good-bye to Jaden from the hospital. It’s the only part of the experience that made us feel guilty. Did we need to feel that way – no; was there any validity in feeling that way – no, but we did because we had grown close to Kinzie and although we knew she would be a part of Jaden’s life, it was tough not to feel responsible for her feelings, her loneliness, and the hole in heart. She possessed a super-human level of faith, fortitude, and foresight. For that, we will always be grateful for her and we will ensure that Jaden learns to understand what a lucky boy he was to have Kinzie as his birthmom.