Thank You!

This post (like all of my others) is long overdue.  We would like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who was involved in the fundraisers we have done recently for the adoption!  We had a garage sale and I also had a 31 party where the consultant donated all of her proceeds to the adoption.  We had a lot of friends and family come to both events, and also had a lot of stuff donated for the garage sale.  I can happily say that both events were incredibly successful!!  The grand total for both events came to $1,050!!  Again, thanks to everyone who donated, helped and purchased items to help us bring home Baby Gray!!

It Has Arrived!

Our approved home study came in the mail today!! We already knew we were approved and had read a rough draft, but it was so amazing to see the real thing.  I honestly felt a little nervous just holding it.  So now we are legally ready to adopt at any time!  It is going to be strange now without having something specific to focus on.  This entire journey we have been focusing on something that need to be completed, whether by us, our social worker, or someone with the adoption agency, and now there really isn't anything to fill our time (other than just waiting and praying of course).  Well I take that back, I guess now we can turn our focus to fundraising.  As I'm sure I've said before, adoption isn't cheap.  We are trying very hard to do as much as we can without creating any debt.  Some people have been saving their change for us, and you would be surprised at how quickly that adds up.  The change is actually the main reason we put the donate button on the blog.  I felt weird doing it, like I was begging for money, but please understand that is not our intention at all.  It just seemed to be the easiest way for people who don't live close to send the money they have collected.  We are working on several other ways to raise money.  In fact, a friend of a friend is a 31 consultant and has offered to do a party as a fundraiser for me!  It is going to be on July 14th, and if anyone is interested in attending, please just let me know.  Thanks again for all of your support!

Here it is!! The most beautiful paper I have ever seen!

A Lot of Exciting Waiting

I can't believe it has been an entire month since my last post, it feels like just a few days.  As you know I am a teacher, which for me means May is the craziest, busiest month of the year.  I read somewhere that the last week of school alone is enough to make a person appreciate summer break, and as all my teacher friends know, this is so true!  Anyway, on to the real reason I blog.  Even though we have been waiting the entire last month, it has  been incredibly fun, and there is a lot to update everyone on.  First off, we finished our scrapbook!! It took a lot of time and help from a friend, but we got it done.  It was a lot of fun to create it, and look back at all of our memories.  It was also emotional creating the letter to the birth family.  It's a lot to think about when trying to tell them about us and our lives, all while making sure they know we are thinking about them, their bravery, and how difficult this decision must be.  We also got the nursery painted! Mike did an excellent job and it looks awesome!  I'm adding pictures to the blog of everything we have done.  We went ahead and purchased some of the big items (crib, dresser, bookshelf, and car seat), because of an excellent deal that we couldn't pass up.  Next thing is we hired an attorney!  Mike's attorney with work recommended a guy to us, and he seems like a great guy.  He has done a lot of work with Harmony in the past, and we are really excited.  It feels really good already having a contract with someone. In case something happens quickly, that is one less thing for us to worry about.  Now, on to the most exciting part!  Even though our home study stuff was finished up a month ago, we knew it wasn't actually legally written out.  Our social worker had told us it would take her a while, but everything was there and together so if something were to come up and we needed immediately, she could have it to us within a day.  So, we were waiting patiently until Wednesday when we just couldn't handle it anymore (I mean seriously it had been a month, that was a long time to me), and so we emailed to see how it was going.  She said ours was the next one to be written, and she would have a draft for us within a week or so!  Well, skip to Thursday night, we were going to sleep when my phone beeped notifying me of an email.  As always, Mike started complaining about me having the phone upstairs when it should stay downstairs so it doesn't bother him.  I usually just ignore the beep, but for whatever reason this time I checked it.  It was an email from our social worker with a draft of our home study attached for us to read over and approve!!! I jumped up to download it and attempt to proofread it, but realized I was too sleepy to catch any mistakes.  So first thing Friday morning Mike and I both read it separately, and emailed her back the changes that needed to be made (a couple of dates were incorrect, but that was it).  Now she signs it, our agency representative signs it, and everything is completely official!! I'm sorry this post has been so incredibly long, but I have one more thing.  We wanted to say THANK YOU to all of our family and friends who have been saving change for us.  If anyone has been saving change for us, let us know when you are ready and we will be more than happy to come pick it up! Also, if you are saving but don't have a baby bottle to put it in and would like one, we will get you one.  It's a good way (for us anyway) to remember what we are saving for.  We are also going to put a paypal donate button on the blog so that the people who are helping, but don't live close can just send it that way.  Thanks again for all of your love and support!  Please continue to pray for us, baby Gray, and his or her birth family as we continue our journey!

Our Scrapbook

A burp cloth I made (yes, I'm attempting sewing!)

The quilt Mike's mom is making (not finished yet)

The bumper pads Betty made also!

Hurry Up and Wait

I'm a little behind on the blog, so I need to do some catching up.  If we had to sum up our lives recently into one line it would hurry up and wait.  Two weeks ago we had our individual interviews, something that completely terrified me.  In case you didn't know, I tend to stress about things that I shouldn't.  Anyway, the interviews were very easy and relaxed.  Our social worker is great!  Monday was our home inspection and a couples interview.  That went great as well, again I stressed over nothing.  We are working on our scrapbook that the agency shows to birth mothers to pick who they place their child with, and hope to have it finished this weekend.  Other than the scrapbook, there is nothing else for us to do!  Our social worker said it would take a little time for her to get everything typed up, but we have everything we need!  So we have spent all of our time rushing things like paperwork and interviews, and now all that is left to do is wait!!!  Even though we should be pros at waiting by now, it still isn't a strong point for either us so we are trying to do lots of things to stay busy.  We are working on getting the nursery painted and put together and have been picking out a lot of things for Baby Gray.  Most women get 9 months to plan and prepare, but I on the other hand have no idea how long I will have so we are trying to be ready.  Its crazy to think that we could be parents any day.  I know chances are it will take some time, but it could happen at any moment.  We were told a story about one young couple who got the call about a child ONE week after their home study was complete.  How crazy is that?  As crazy as it would be, it would be incredibly awesome for it to happen that quickly.  So for now we wait, and hopefully will be getting that very special phone call soon!

We Have Contact!

Our social worker finally contacted us! Ok, I'm sure it didn't take her as long to call us as it seems, but it felt like forever.  We have scheduled our individual interviews for a week from Monday, and will schedule the home visit from there.  It is crazy to think that in just a few short weeks, we could have an approved home study, and be ready to adopt at any time if a birth mother picked us! We are also starting to do a couple of fundraisers to help with the cost.  Please continue to pray for us as we continue on this journey, as well as Baby Gray and his or her birth family.  Thanks for all of your love and support!

Update

Just a quick update.  Mike called our agency today to ask if they needed anything from us (which is his way of saying "you haven't called us, so what in the world is going on").  Our contact said that the reason we haven't heard anything is because we actually had our paperwork in really good shape, and they didn't need anything from us.  She also said that they have done everything they need to do with it, and have passed on our packet to our social worker.  We should be hearing from our social worker within the next few days!!!  We are both very excited, now I am just starting to get nervous about our interviews and home visit.  On another note, I came across a blog over the weekend and read a quote that I just love.  A couple who was sharing their story about how it felt to finally focus on and begin the adoption process used this phrase:  Choosing adoption is how it feels to finally get a positive pregnancy test!

Application Complete!

I'm a few days behind on posting this, but there has been a lot going on lately.  In my last post, I said we had to complete a 55 page application. If only it ended up being that easy.  After we really started reading the application we realized it involved much more. We had to read 400 pages of curriculum and turn in 130 pages of paperwork including things like autobiographies, questionnaires, and letters from our doctors.  The whole process took us 12 days. Then finally it was finished and Mike submitted what felt like our entire life stories to the agency on March 15th.  We were both so excited that we forgot the part of having to pay them to begin our home study and had to go back the next day to deliver the check.  When Mike turned it in they said they would look over it and once they had everything they would call us about scheduling our interviews and that this could take 4-6 weeks or be sooner, depending on the social worker's schedule.  Did these people not understand that I am almost to my breaking point when it comes to waiting?  I knew they would be working on our home study and that our interviews were only a portion of what all happened during the process, but it killed me to think I wouldn't be doing anything.  I realized I had to let go and couldn't be in control of every step of this process.  I had to trust God, his plan, and the wonderful people working on our home study.  I was pleasantly surprised Sunday when I started receiving texts from our references saying that their instruction letter came on Saturday and they were beginning to write their letters, only 2 days after turning in the application!!  So now we wait until we get the call from the agency scheduling our interviews and home visit.

We Have an Agency!

Since my first post, Mike and I have spent a lot of time searching and praying for the right adoption agency to use.  I'm very happy to say that we've made the decision!  We met with harmony adoptions yesterday and everything just seemed right from the beginning, kind of like God was saying this is it.  We haven't had such a good feeling with any of the other agencies we have contacted.  In the middle of our meeting I looked up at a bulletin board covered with photos and cards of children they had placed with families and the first picture I saw was the sweet little girl of a friend.  It was very comforting to see this and hear how much the person we were meeting with remembered the family.  Now the next step is to complete the application packet.  I haven't looked at all of it, but I've never been this excited to complete about 55 pages of paper work! So excited I actually took a picture of it, I know that is pretty cheesy, but what can I say.  

So it begins...

As you may, or may not know Mike and I have been dealing with infertility for the past couple of years and have decided to begin a journey toward adoption.  We thought it would be a good idea to create a blog not only so that our family and friends can keep up with what is going on, but also as a great way to look back over this entire journey.  We made the decision over the summer that adoption was something God was leading us to do, regardless of whether or not we had a child on our own.  Around the same time we made this decision I was referred to a new RE (reproductive endocrinologist) who had a new plan for treatments.  We weren’t quite ready to give up on trying to conceive, but unfortunately could not afford to do the treatments and begin the adoption process at the same time.  We decided to temporarily put off beginning the adoption process.  The last several months have been the most difficult (and expensive) time in our lives.  We decided after our last treatment that we would not continue.  As difficult as it has been, I do want to say that I wouldn’t change it.  I feel as though we as individuals and our relationship have grown so much from this situation. 

We are more than excited for the next journey in our lives and beginning the adoption process.  We have decided to adopt domestically.  We plan on doing a lot of research to find different agencies that we might be interested in.  We have already met with one agency, and plan on meeting with others soon.  Please keep praying for us as we begin this amazing journey!