Introducing.... Our Son: Michael Edward Buckley III

  Mary Jane and I have had a crazy few days. As with every story, there are 1,000 details and long explanations. However, none of that is important at the moment. On Aug. 5th we were contacted by our awesome friends, Brad Rains & Tosha Renee, who had seen our blog and knew of a women who wanted to make a birth plan for her baby. It all happened very quickly from that point. We met with the birth mother at TMC and spoke with her for awhile, and then after feeling comfortable with the situation and contacting our attorney we decided to make an adoption plan with her. Less than 24 hours later our son, Michael Edward Buckley III, was born on Aug. 6th at 11:00am. Weighing in at 7.2lbs and 20 inches long. He is a happy and healthy baby!

My wife(crying) doing skin-to-skin after birth

Michael E Buckley III

   


  We had three sleepless nights at TMC before we were able to bring him home. Our son is doing extremely well and my wife and I are still in shock over how quickly it happened. Normally with an agency you are matched with a family during the third trimester, so you have months to prepare your home and get all the legal formalities out of the way. We had a matter of hours. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. No more fundraising or long nights of waiting, just happiness. For the first time in a long time I've watched my wife move around with uninhibited joy, and seeing our son in his home makes me swell with pride. We love him. This is a nothing short of a blessing. 

Our first time with MBIII

KCPD Swag

  
  

  I'd like to take this time to apologize for the approaching storm. Now that we have announced, that means your Facebook is about to be bombarded with photos/videos of our son. So I'm truly sorry, but as you know, it has to happen. My wife has her finger on the upload button as I write, ready to fill your timelines. On a separate note. I have learned so much through this process. I knew NOTHING, about adopting or fundraising, but we were helped every step of the way by people who had some knowledge of it, even if they didn't really know us. People supported us in so many ways. So I just wanted to say that if you or anyone you know is thinking about adopting or wants to do fundraisers for any cause, feel free to reach out to us and we will try to do anything we can for you. We will pay every bit of knowledge forward to help anyone who wants it. If my wife or I can speak with anyone that really wants to know about adoption, legal aspects, event planning, birth plans, ect.... it would be our pleasure. Originally I had my doubts about this blog, but it was nothing short of a perfect decision. The more people who know about your cause the better. You'll find, just like we did, that people really do care about you and want to rally for you. To everyone who shared this blog or helped us in any way thank you. You helped our family grow by one, and we are eternally grateful.

Full head of blonde hair

Holding him after birth

Jackson & his new cousin

Adoption Information

To find out more about our agency contact Hillary Merryfield at, Adoption Option, Inc. (913-642-7900)

We are with Adoption Option KC - You can look at our online profile at: http://www.adoptionoptionkc.com/Waiting-Families/

To view our Adoption Profile Book - An online link listed below.
https://thebuckleyfamilyprofile.shutterfly.com/pictures/8

The Weight of Generosity

   To those who have given their support:

  So here we are... You would think that something as simple as making a blog post about how grateful you are for everyone's ongoing love and support would be simple. All you need to do is express your gratitude and then post it. Yet, here I am... I honestly couldn't describe how far short a "thank you" would fall from the truth of it. My wife and I knew that the road we chose would be rough, anyone who has ever been involved in the adoption process will tell you how taxing it can be mentally and physically. While it is a blessing, it doesn't come without its costs. We knew that if we wanted the family we were ready for, we would have to get serious and start working towards it now. Going into it we knew that most people did fundraisers and other things to help raise money towards their adoption, so we did the same. My wife and I picked up extra shifts/off-duty and picked out a fundraiser.

  I remember when Mary Jane and I got that first box of Haitian bracelets. We got sent 150 of them, and we were so nervous and excited. Could we sell that many? Do we honestly even know 150 people? Regardless of the answer, all we could do was try. Admittedly the idea of  fundraising made me a little uneasy. I had never been in a position before where I had to rely on others for so much support. We were about to ask people to help our cause, a cause that was immensely personal to us, but why would others really care? I thought that maybe a few family and friends would reach out and support us, but that would be about the extent. Maybe I was just blind or jaded, but I know now what I was. I was wrong. You, ALL of you. Family, friends, acquaintances, strangers... everyone. Showed me how wrong I was. We sold all 150 bracelets. Then we sold 150 more, and 150 more after that.

  I will tell you that I don't know 450 people. But I know that there are 450 people out there who care about my wife and I, and that it is impossible to express how much love that makes us feel. From buying bracelets, shirts, helping with garage sales, donations, help at work, ect... everyone has been awesome in every way you could imagine. The countless messages I have received from people I haven't seen in years, or barley even knew in passing, offering their support and prayers. In every fundraiser that we have done, we have had strangers come up to us and offer their support and beyond. What do you say to something like that? Thank you? No. It is so much more than that, it means so much more than that. I could sit here and grapple with the words forever trying to express how grateful we are to everyone, and what it all really means to us, and I have no doubt that I would fall short of my mark.

  Going into this process, the journey that comes with major decisions, I didn't know what it would be like or how it would change my wife and I. We have only been on this road for two short months. Yet even after a few steps on a much longer road, we are completely different than when we started. It is impossible to be the recipients of so much love and support and not be affected. Know that you all are appreciated in a way that goes beyond a simple thanks, it is in the wake of your support and by the weight of your generosity that we are able to move towards bringing a child into our family. We are grateful for you and everything that you have done for us and our future child. Thank you.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  I wanted to take the time to put that letter out there for those who have helped us thus far. Heaven knows that they have earned it. I also wanted to just let everyone know where we are at in our adoption process. Almost two weeks ago we finished the legal portion of our adoption, meaning that we are now simply waiting to be chosen as an adoptee family. I should really say that I am waiting, and my wife is impatiently waiting. Nevertheless we still grateful for the process. We finished our third adoption garage sale this week, 95% of everything in them was donated and they all went great. I would like to say thank you to my sister-in-law Erica and my mother Joycelyn for letting us use your garages/driveways for an entire weekend and sitting out with us while we were there. Another person who came to us and offered a helping hand was Amber Smith.

Fun Run Event

  Amber was kind enough to reach out to us and offer to host a fundraiser event for our adoption. She arranged and setup everything, all we had to do was show up. We just had the event last night at Fun Run, and it had a great turn out, we hope everyone had a good time and your kid(s) got extremely tired afterwords. Amber, thank you for taking your personal time and resources and setting up an event for us, it is more than we deserved. Our shirts have shipped! So if you ordered a shirt from our bonfire page then hopefully you will be getting it soon or have already received

Adoption Shirts

it. If there is anything to update you guys on adoption wise we will be sure to post about it. We don't have any plans for July in regards to fundraisers or adoption stuff, we are looking forward to taking the time to just relax and soak in some of the summer. We hope that you guys have an awesome 4th of July and if you're traveling, that you stay safe where ever the road takes you. If you happen to have read all the way to the end of the very long post, thank you. If you could find the time to share this post I'd appreciate it, every bit helps. Take care.

Every Heart Needs A Home

We are so excited to update everyone on our recent fundraising events and to introduce you to the official Buckley Adoption Shirt!  

Our first fundraiser and ongoing is the Apparent Project.  Which are the beautiful hand-made Haitian Bracelets, which support international children stay with their families and prevent child-abandonment, and the other portion of the proceeds goes towards our domestic adoption.  So far we have sold 300 bracelets!!! This means we have raised $1,800 towards our adoption and sent $1,200 to the Apparent Project in Haiti.  Thank you to those who purchased these bracelets and helped sell them!

We had our first fundraising garage sale and bake sale last weekend which was a huge success!  We were wonderfully overwhelmed with all of the donations from friends and family.  Thank you to those who helped us organize and run the garage sale, those who dropped off items and also those who came by and bought them.  We would also like to thank the women of KCPD who baked super yummy goodies for us to sell during the fundraiser.

Official Buckley Adoption Shirt

We are hoping to spread the word with this shirt about our adoption and of course the biggest message, "Every Heart Needs A Home!" For every t-shirt purchased it helps us get closer to bringing our little one home.  $10 from every adult and youth sized t-shirt goes directly to our adoption fund!  We designed this shirt with several things in mind.  We wanted a t-shirt that would be a billboard for God's love, adoption and missions all in one.  We believe that the 3 go together hand-in-hand.  The phrase "Every HEART needs a HOME" speaks very loudly to us.  From an adoption perspective, we will love our future children no matter where they come from and feel that every child deserves a loving home.  We put our home state of Missouri as the background because that will be where our child will be coming home!  In the bottom right corner it is personalized with "Buckley Adoption".  We hope that our shirts will open doors for people to share the love of adoption and providing homes for those who need one.  Thank you so much for your support; we can't wait to bring Baby Buckley Home!

 You can purchase these shirts at https://www.bonfirefunds.com/the-buckley-adoption-fund .

Haitian Bracelets and Garage Sales

  First and foremost, thank you. The amount of love and support that has came in for us has been uplifting, it is awesome to know that so many people are there to help us through it all. Most of you know that my wife and I have had to walk a hard road for the past year. Never in either of our lives have we had to go through so much hardship and loss. Then when it came time to really sit down and talk about our future and children, it was scary. Do we try again and hope for a miracle? Can we even handle another late term loss? Why.....? 

  As everything progressed and Mary Jane and I learned about the odds and challenges of us having children we started to realize that unconventional means might be our way to start a family. So then we asked ourselves, could we adopt? Then I remembered back to when my wife and I had first started dating. To that first time when people ask silly questions to each other to just try and feel each other out, 1,000 pointless questions about food, colors, animals, hobbies, the future, ect... Once we got to the point of talking about our own personal futures, we got on the subject of kids. How many each of us wanted, and what our goals as parents would be. Then after all that, she asked me: "If you couldn't have children for whatever reason, would you adopt?" I said yes. Only now my wife was looking at me and she wasn't joking. Would I adopt? 

  I knew that years later my answer hadn't changed. I would, without a doubt, adopt. So here we are. Walking down a new road, a better road. One with a light at the end of the tunnel and a chance of having a family of three. But it isn't without its struggles. As most of you are probably aware adoption can be vastly expensive. Mary Jane and I are working as much as we can to save towards our adoption. I wanted to make this post to let everyone know more about why we were adopting and some little fundraisers we are doing to help us be a family. The first fundraiser is awesome, it is called The Apparent Project. The Apparent Project is a humanitarian artisan's guild in Haiti that seeks to prevent child-abandonment and relinquishment by creating jobs for parents at risk. What they do is send you the bracelets that you see in both of the photos. Each bracelet has the photo of the worker that made them and a little bit about them and why they are part of the project. The bracelets are sent to us free of charge, but for each one we sell we have to give a percentage back to the project. The bracelets are $10. 

  Once all the bracelets are sold, we send money back to Haiti to help international children stay with their families and prevent child-abandonment, and the other portion of the proceeds goes towards our domestic adoption. So the money gets split between our adoption and international at-risk children, which is great. If you want to learn more about the project you can check them out at www.apparentproject.org, but regardless if you have time you should check out their promotional video: http://vimeo.com/70765636. Our other fundraiser is a garage sale that we will have some time in June during a neighborhood garage sale day. If you happen to have something in your house that you don't want, or that has been sitting in your attic for far too long, this is as good a chance as any to get rid of it. All the proceeds we can make from the garage sale will be going into our adoption fund. Nothing to buy here, just give us your reasonably sellable junk! Once we have a set date and time we will make another post about the garage sale, that way we can work something out to get any items that are being donated to us. Again, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to show love and support for our cause.

Join Us As We Walk Down The Road To Adoption

      Michael and I are excited to announce that we are adopting!  Our story, which some of you may or may not know, that has led us to this life changing decision was the losses of our daughter Aria Sophia Buckley and most recently our son Leonardo Beckham Buckley.  Both of our children suffered from Bilateral Renal Agenesis (no kidneys) or as most know it, Potter's Syndrome.
      Going through this together has really shown us how strong our marriage really is and how much love and support we not only have for each other, but from our family and friends as well.  So after struggling with our pursuit to have a healthy child, we are pursuing domestic infant adoption to build our forever family and fulfill our dream of being parents.
      This blog will be our way to share our journey through adoption with friends and family.  We will be having a few fun & exciting fundraisers to help us cover the financial costs that come with adopting. We hope that everyone can partake in our journey with us to becoming a family of 3!