It’s officially official!! We are the Munoz family of 5!

Adoption day went as smoothly as could be! We had several friends and family members join us on our special day both in person and on Zoom. We were both nervous as all heck, but knew that with so much support and love, this hearing was more to legalize the process of adoption and grant the children their legal new names. My parents even made statements to the judge on our behalf. (Remind me to get copies of those!) It was such an emotional day filled with happy tears! I cannot thank everyone enough for all the love, support, paperwork, time, energy, faith, trust, etc. The list is endless.

The next day, again surrounded by friends and family members, these three were brought into the Catholic Church through the Sacrament of Baptism. Original Sin has been washed away, and they are made new through Christ. Lord, please guide these children and give them Your strength to follow in Your footsteps. Please also guide us as parents to set an example for them to follow and help us to lead them home to You. Amen.

Next up…. Moving day! With the quick expansion of our family, we have decided to purchase a home in Grand Forks and will be selling our home in Reynolds. There is a lot to be done in the next few weeks, but hoping we can relax soon. Please continue to keep our family in your prayers.

We finally have an adoption date!! Please keep us in your prayers on 7/19 and 7/20, as we will officially be welcoming these three children into our family and into the Catholic Church!

Thursday night was a rough one for us. It started with pain in my lower abdomen similar to that of menstrual cramps around 10pm. No big deal, I took some Tylenol and laid in bed. As I was waiting for the pain medicine to kick in, the pain was getting worse. Then was more concentrated on the lower right side of my abdomen. “I have a high pain tolerance, I can handle this,” I thought to myself, “Maybe it’s just gas.” I started getting chills and had the heat blanket blasting. Around midnight, the pain was so bad, I that I couldn’t take it anymore, and I was worried that there was something wrong with my appendix. So, I woke Frankie up and we went to the ER. They were also concerned about appendicitis, so they did a CT scan to see what could be causing the pain. The CT scan showed normal appendix, kidneys, and gallbladder. But it also showed that I had some uterine fibroids. I knew that there was a chance of them coming back after the surgery I had in 2016. In 2019, there was a small one in the wall of my uterus on the left side, only 3cm.

The doctor had ordered an ultrasound to get a better look at the fibroids and to get the measurements. It turns out that this one on the left side that used to be 3cm, had now grown to 7.5cm. Yikes!! It has grown so much in just a few years! They also found that there was another one in the wall of my uterus on the right side that was 3.2cm. Amongst other smaller ones throughout the uterine wall. We left the ER and arrived home around 5:30am. Talk about a long night!

What do to with this information? Does this mean another surgery to have them removed? What if they are too deep in the uterine wall? Would it be worth another surgery just to have them come back again? Or would this be the point to consider a hysterectomy?

I’ve prayed about it a lot, and after all that we have been through with my health, I wouldn’t be opposed to having a hysterectomy, but I also have heard that just having a hysterectomy doesn’t correct the hormone issue, and some women even have more issues after having a hysterectomy. But I have also heard that for some women, it is the best decision they have ever made for their health.

I followed up with my doctor on Friday and she thinks there might be a way to avoid surgery. We are going to try to increase my progesterone in hopes that this would be able to shrink the size of the fibroids and hopefully make it so that I wouldn’t need to have surgery. I feel that God has granted me (and Frankie) the peace to be able to handle whatever happens, even if that means having a hysterectomy.

I think back to 2016 when I was first having so much uterine pain and found out I had fibroids. At that time, I had 2 fibroids that were about 5cm each. Then to 2018 when I was in so much pain, I couldn’t even sit comfortably. Then in 2020 when I had endometriosis. This year, I feel that between my new chiropractor and my new doctor, and of course my own dedication, I have made great strides in my overall health, and hopefully will be able to continue to get better.

It has been a long road, and we have been through a lot. We will continue to pray and see where God takes us in this journey. Thank you for all of your prayers.

Our first home study is in the books!

We greatly appreciate all your prayers for this intention! All your words of encouragement really helped calm me for the visit and really helped me set my ‘Martha’ aside and just let God’s plan unfold. I cannot even begin to describe the excitement and joy that we have in being one step closer to have our home study approved! Next step will be to have a second home study with more in-depth interviews from the case workers. Note to self: start baby proofing! The number of home study visits is really determined on a case-by-case basis, but we are praying that they continue to go well. Then once the home study is completed, we will be able to continue with creating our profile book. This book will then be shown to expectant parents that are looking to place their child for adoption.

The case workers did advise us to prepare ourselves for the highs and lows of adoption. Similar to the highs and lows that we have had with each pregnancy. There will be times when our profile book is shown but not chosen. So, on the one hand, there is the excitement of being a potential match and having our book shown, but on the other hand, if we are not chosen from the selection, then we should be prepared for disappointment. And although this will be difficult, we know that putting our faith in God and trusting in His timing is necessary. We know that whatever child he has planned for us, will be the perfect addition to our family. Sometimes the hardest part is… waiting.

Our request from you (aside from continuous prayers) is to send us any resources you have on adoption. Maybe you read a great article or know of a great book. Or maybe you don’t know of any resources off hand, but you know someone who has adopted and maybe they have some great reads. Whatever the case, we ask that you send them our way! Any information would help, and we look forward to learning more on this journey!

P.S. If you would be so kind, we also ask for you to reply to this post or via email with a small blurb, sentence, paragraph, whatever you may choose, that best describes ‘Frankie and Jenn’.