Meaghan & David

2020 is over! Although the beginning of 2021 might still feel the same as 2020 with the pandemic, we are hoping this year brings blessings to everyone as we certainly feel like we were blessed during 2020. Buying a home during all this was an adventure, and the adventure continues now that the holidays are over and we are working to get settled into our first home!  There is still some painting left to do. And the loft space/game room isn't quite ready, but we are so happy to be starting 2021 in our first house. I can't wait to use all my Home Depot gift cards from Christmas to buy all the lawn equipment and tools I will need. I loved mowing the lawn growing up and am so happy they put in the same type of grass I grew up with and know how to take care of. We had a wonderful Christmas with my side of the family. We've been safe during the pandemic and kept a tight circle and felt comfortable to visit my family since we could drive there and avoid other people. Meaghan said it was a successful trip because she never left my mom's house and didn't have to wear a mask the whole week! It was lots of games, cards, eating and laughing! It was a different Christmas this year with some of our old traditions mixed in with new stuff Mom wanted to try for the first time. We made Krumkakes, like always. They're like a waffle cone but from Norway and have detailed designs in them. We made a double batch, so it took the whole family to do it this year. We opened presents via Zoom with my sister's family since they couldn't make the trip home. Unfortunately, we skipped the oyster stew on Christmas Eve and attending church. Instead we watched our church's Christmas Eve service online. We were happy to show my family what our church is like since Meaghan's family got to experience that last year. Mom wanted something different for Christmas dinner so Meaghan and I made a prime rib roast like we do with her family, and it was delicious. Our families are very ready to add another baby into the family to love on and make memories with.  Meaghan and I are ready for the next semester to begin at school. It has been a very strange school year, and hopefully we can finish the year without any more snags or hiccups and then next fall everything is back to normal. Teaching through a screen and holding "staff meetings" on Zoom have really been an adjustment. Time to get back to work on the house. Today we're putting away the Christmas tree so we can organize everything. We know that 2020 may not have turned out how any of us had planned. We pray that 2021 will be better for us all and that blessings may flow.

It has been a YEAR, for sure. David and I had always planned to update our blog here at least once a month, but it obviously didn't happen. Our goal going forward is weekly updates as we head into the new year.  Here's what we've been up to for the last few months: 1. Working. We have been more fortunate than many this year in that public education is a secure industry, and neither of us ever worried about losing our jobs. The workload for both of us has only grown as both of our districts in Texas shifted to online teaching (for me) and many Covid-related communications jobs (for David). It's taken a full semester, but we've found our groove in what is the current "new normal" at work. 2. WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! We are so excited to have had the opportunity to purchase a new house, newly built, right before Thanksgiving. Pictures are coming soon, and we could not be happier to think of raising our family in our new home. It's also been a blessing to have the time to get settled in and paint some of the house before Baby Wiechmann joins the family.  3. My (Meaghan's) parents visited in early December after each of us got a Covid test. We celebrated an early Christmas and looked at houses for my parents. They're planning to move to Texas from Florida in the next year or so. Again, this is another exciting development for our family. David and I are ready to have family in town with us, and I will be happy with my parents, in their late 60s and 70s now, close enough where I can easily help out as they get older. Plus, grandparents in town? Yes, please! One of the biggest factors in their moving to town is their desire to be nearby their grandchildren. We're one step closer!  4. We're loosely planning to get a dog in the fall. A friend of ours approached us with the opportunity to adopt a Cavapoo puppy when her mom breeds them next year. The plan is that the puppies will arrive in late summer/early fall. While we're not ready to commit yet - we want to get completely settled into the new house - we are hopeful to be able to bring a furry friend home at some point in 2021! 5. Travel, kind of. I took a work trip to Walt Disney World in November with a few of my fellow travel planners, and we had a blast. David and I will be returning to WDW at the end of January with my family for a week-long trip. All precautions will be taken for a safe trip, and I was truly impressed by Disney's health and safety protocols when I was there this fall. This will be our first full blown family vacation with my family since we got married almost six years ago. My family LOVES to travel together, especially to Disney, and there will no doubt be many stories that come from the trip; there always are! Whatever your 2020 looked like, know that David and I have been thinking of you and praying for you. This year has been a whole new level of challenging, and we are praying for a smoother season in 2021. We'd love to hear from you; drop us a line and say hi!  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from us to you!

Well, our big plans for Spring Break went down the drain. Meaghan mentioned in our last post that we are big sports fans and we love to watch the NCAA Tournament during Spring Break. Those plans changed, obviously, as COVID-19 changed everyone's plans. We did stay home and followed our local shelter in-place orders to stay safe and instead of watching basketball we binged a new series on Hulu and found some others on Netflix. So we've been at home for more than a month now and working from home. But before our city put a tighter grip on things, we did run down the street to Home Depot and got some supplies because we wanted to use this time at home to get the nursery ready! First we put together the crib some friends of ours gave us! Then, we sanded down a dresser/changing station Meaghan found online! Then, we painted the dresser! It's a beautiful mossy green color that will go nicely with Meaghan's Peter Pan theme she wants! I need to get a new hinge for the drawer and then it is good to go. This has been a challenging time for us to be at home. Meaghan teaches and so she can't see her students, and I have a role in another school district and I'm not getting to see students or go to their events anymore. Right now, I'm on a committee to figure out what we will do for graduation for our seniors.  We celebrated our anniversary this month. We weren't able to do our usual date night dinner and dessert, but thankfully we could order pick-up. So, we got dressed up and grabbed fajitas to-go. The greeters outside were so impressed that we dressed up even for to-go they threw in free dessert when we told them it was our anniversary!  While we are sad that the school year did not go as planned for our students, we are thankful for our health and that of our family members. We will keep checking off things to do as we continue getting the nursery ready and we will continue to pray you and wish you good health. David    

Hello, and welcome to our profile page! I'm Meaghan, my husband is David, and we are so glad that you've taken the time to peek at our profile. We hope that our photos make you smile (and it's totally ok if you laugh at some of what you see - we certainly do!) and that you leave here feeling like you've gotten to know a bit about us. As we've entered the adoption triad, we've found that one of greatest areas of uncertainty in the whole process is the relationships. If you're an expectant mom considering adoption, it must be overwhelming to look through photos of couples and families, not sure what to expect from any of them. Hopefully this profile page offers you a glimpse into who we are and that what you see erases some of the uncertainty. So far, 2020 has been a "typical" year for us. We both work for school districts, David in district communications and myself as a teacher (different school districts) so we're working our way through what I consider the long semester (few breaks, lots going on at the schools). In February, I took a sudden break from teaching to fly to Florida and visit my parents while my dad was briefly in the hospital, but other than that, we've been rolling through our routine. Now that it's March, we're closing in on Spring Break - David and I share the same week off - and a trip to visit David's family who live just a few hours away in another part of Texas. We're looking forward to catching up with them since we haven't seen them since Thanksgiving and to watching our nephew play baseball (he's a high school senior). Then we'll return home and watch the first couple rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament - we're both HUGE sports fans - before heading back to work towards the end of the month. We both love our jobs, but we're looking forward to a bit of a break!  As for what we have in mind for this space, like I said earlier, we want this to be a place where you can get to know us as you consider what I believe to be an incredibly difficult decision. We'll be posting photos from Spring Break and other events we have coming up and are aiming to post updates each month on what we're up to, giving you an honest look at each season of our life together. Know that as you mull over your options, we are praying for you and the decision you are making for yourself and the child you clearly love. 

As we end our time together, we can't help but express how much we care about you as a person, a mother/father, and someone we see as worthy of love! We believe in you and pray you feel confident in your decision, whatever that may be in the end. If you choose us to parent your child, we promise to love him/her unconditionally. We promise to raise him/her as our parents raised us: in a home grounded in faith and filled with love, laughter, and hope. We promise to guide them through the hard days, encourage them during the exciting times and offer a listening ear during those difficult conversations. We will read many books, travel as much as possible and snuggle together to watch a movie at the end of a long day. We promise to honor you in our words and actions, both big and small. We promise to share with your child the deep love you have for them and that you are an amazing person whom we admire. We will encourage them to explore their heritage and story so they feel confident in themselves and the life before them. We wish you all the best and hope we have an opportunity to get to know you more soon!

Meaghan - My family is small, but it never sounds like it! We fill a room with laughter, talk, and fun whenever we're together. We love to play games, but have standing rules for different games, which include: spouses cannot be partners when playing cards. My mom and I talk on the phone often, but it's only because we have grown into close friends as I have gotten older. My parents even talk about moving closer as our family expands to be more involved in our lives David - My family is big, loud and filled with love and laughter. My brother and sister have families, so gatherings for the holidays make for a crowded house. Once dinner is over, the cards and board games come out and we play for hours. My brother and I have grown even closer in the last year after our dad passed away. Our family is different now without him, but still full of love. My family is excited for us to begin this journey of parenthood and ready to love with their whole hearts. They are all just a few hours away and are excited to make our holidays and celebrations even bigger and more special.

Our neighborhood has many children of all ages and plenty of green space for playing outside. We live on the edge of the city and can enjoy its activities; including music festivals and restaurants, as well as the quiet of the suburbs. We live near a movie theater, several parks, and we also live within a great school district. We have other amenities around such as a pool and playground. Our home is cozy with plenty of room to grow as a family. We have an open living room and kitchen area where we are able to gather together and enjoy a good meal or play board games with family and friends. Some of our friends pictured, are good friends of ours who we get together with often. They all have young children.