A Little Detour?

Danny & I have to wait a little while until we finalize an adoption because we just found out that I am pregnant. We were so close to being in the final stages of adopting so we are naturally a little disappointed but at the same time are excited about having another child. We do plan on adopting in the near future after the health of the baby & I are stable (and let's be realistic, when we know finances are back to how they should be). I have to take a new medicine that is not harmful to the baby and it is surprisingly expensive (even the generic form that I was so excited to hear was available now)! I am nervous about having a "high risk" pregnancy but my trust is in the Lord. Whatever happens, we know that God works all things for our good and ultimately/more importantly for His glory.

Thank you for supporting us through the adoption process and we will update periodically to let you know when we are back on track to adopt :)

Final Home Study

Our final home study was completed today. I never received a letter regarding my finger prints so I am resubmitting my prints within the next week or so; they told me the second time around is faster, we'll see. Danny & I have to be tested for Tuberculosis, so I have to call the 18th century to see where we need to go (just kidding, apparently it's not too uncommon). I finished creating our profiles using SnapFish. Once those are received, they can be shown to birth families and then we just wait to be chosen (could be months or years). Oh, and then there's the little $13,000 that we have to come up with. I know that God will provide a way for this to happen if it is His plan for us, so I am trying to not worry.

Quilts for Sale

Our yard sale was successful. We raised a decent amount of money thanks to the help of my sister, my mother-in-law, and some friends.

Our last home study is next week (the final home study fee will be due then). Then, once our profiles are ordered and brought to the social worker, a fee will be due for those as well so every little bit of extra income is great. I am working on some quilts for family members but will resume making baby/toddler quilts to sale as soon as those are complete. 

My mother-in-law and her sisters are working on a beautiful king size quilt that will be for sale once it's completed. If you or someone you knows likes handmade quilts, let me know and hopefully we can sell it to bring in some extra money for the adoption.

King Size Handmade Quilt for Sale to Raise Money for Our Adoption

 

 

My mother-in-law and her sisters working on the quilt that they are donating for our adoption

This is the material for the Auburn baby/toddler quilt I will make

This is the material for the Alabama baby/toddler quilt I will make

Fundraising Yard Sale

We had our fundraising yard sale today. I didn't know what to expect but I think it went well. We had 1/2 a garage full of our own items and then a few friends/family members donated several things so it was a decent sale. We raised more than I expected and it's all going into our adoption savings account.

Our final home study is coming up next week and our profile will be ready as soon as I can get it completed, ok'd by the social worker, and then ordered. Danny still has to go to the doctor (why is it more difficult for men to go to the doctor's office? I guess it's due to work-who would want to go spend money at the dr. rather than making it at work?). My finger prints still have not been ok'd, just waiting on them to be verified or to receive a letter and chance to get them redone. These are the last steps as far as I know, I'm sure once we're finished with these last few things we'll receive a new list of hoops to jump through :) We will be patient and grateful through this whole process knowing that the outcome will be well worth the time, money, and effort. We know that God is control and all things will work out in His time (knowing this makes things a bit less stressful).

Checklist

We have one more home study to go. In the mean time, we have finished our questionnaires, have set up doctors appts, and are almost finished with our profile (waiting on  some pics to come in from S.Allums Photography-who by the way did a great job). I still haven't heard anything about my fingerprints...we're waiting on them to send a letter explaining what I should do next. I don't think we can be put on the "waiting list" until my prints have come back. Other than that, things are moving along with no problems.

I know that if this is God's will, He will provide a way. We are having a yard sale March 24th so hopefully we are able to bring in a little bit of extra money. I've sold a couple of hand-made quilts so I plan on making a few more of those [Alabama & Auburn-it will be interesting to see which one sells first :)].

(One of the quilts I sold)

Our 4th Home Study

We had our 4th home study with our social worker today. Today's meeting was all about our parenting skills. We talked about our children's personalities, our disciplining methods, and our views of our roles as parents. The meeting was fairly quick since we have children and are already "used" to parenting. 

We have one more home study to go. We thought we'd be able to get this one done with today's but we had some paperwork that needs to be turned in first. Since we are open to adopting a child of a different race, we have to do some biracial/trans-racial exercises and discussion questions. Some of the questions we have to answer seem a bit odd to me but I guess they just want to get us thinking and sure that we are ready for any questions or comments that come our way if we adopt someone outside of our race...We have to attend a gathering where we would be the minority and write down how we feel and if we were treated differently or felt differently, etc... We'll do whatever seemingly-silly things it takes to get on the waiting list. 

I started working on our profile tonight-this is a small book of pictures and information about our family that the birth-mothers will see and choose families from. Are 20 pages too much or not enough? I'm still waiting on my fingerprints to be processed for my background check. I hope it clears soon, our social worker can't move forward until it does. So, if my calculations are correct, we have one home study, a couple of doctor's visits and my background check to come back and then we are ready to WAIT. I have heard of adoptions being completed in 2 months and I have heard of some taking 5 years, so I don't know what to expect but either way we are excited to be able to add to our family by caring for an orphaned child.

Quilts for Sale

Next weekend, we are having our pictures taken by a photographer. We haven't had a family picture since before Cady was born (exept for the ones taken by Mr. Tripod, which always seem to be unlevel). Normally, I take all of our pictures but decided I'd let someone who knows what they are doing take a few of all of us [she and her husband are also adopting (for the second time), so it's a neat connection]. Hopefully, we'll get some good pictures to put in our profile.

As we wait for our next home study (which should be in the next week or two), I am trying to think of creative ways to make a little extra money. I've made quilts for my kids since they were born and every now & then make them for family/friends so I am going to make a few and see if I can sell them. I've set up an account on Etsy and if they sell, the money will go towards the adoption; if they don't, I'll find someone who can use them.

Individual Interviews: Part 1

Today was my interview with our social worker. She was wonderful as usual and is so easy to talk to, which is a good thing because they have to ask some very personal questions. She was able to meet the kids for the first time. Even with strep, Cady was her usual social self, coming downstairs every few minutes to get attention from our guest. Within the next few weeks (after Danny returns from Guatemala), we will have our 3rd home study which involves parenting/disciplining matters; this should be fairly simple since we already have children and actively discipline them :). We may even combine our 3rd and 4th home study into 1 and then will begin working on our profile (this is what the birth mothers look at while choosing the families they will place their child with). So, for now, things are going smoothly and we look forward to what God has planned for us.

*Last night and into the early morning, several parts of Alabama were hit by tornadoes/severe weather. At this time there are at least 2 known fatalities. Please pray for their families and for those who were injured or have lost their home.

Open Adoption

Danny & I attended our first adoption training today. It was a bit long (9-3) but we learned more about adoption and now have some decisions to pray and think about. The theme of this training was openness of today’s adoptions and what it means to us as potential adoptive parents. I’ll admit Danny & I were afraid of the aspect of open adoption when we first began this process. We assumed the worse could happen and had fears of the birth mother or father being a crazed maniac and kidnapping our child if she or he knew anything about us (maybe we watch too much TV).  We now feel a little more at ease with the idea of a somewhat open adoption after hearing an actual birth mother’s story and the assurance she feels when she receives updates periodically of her child growing and being loved by the family she chose for him. We also heard from 3 adoptive families and each one of them has a different degree of openness. While I don’t expect us to become BFF’s with our child’s birth parent, I am more at ease  with open adoption now that I’ve heard from real people who are living proof that it is doable and not so scary.

Not so side note: One of the adoptive families we heard from today began their adoption in Guatemala a few years ago. Their son was a few months old when they began and unfortunately Guatemala’s government changed its adoption policies leaving the US unable to adopt from Guatemala. While their case was grandfathered in, this couple (4 1/2 years later) has not been able to bring their son home due to the large number of court cases in the new, but flawed, system. This child has lived his whole life in an orphanage while his parents live here in the US anxiously waiting for the day they can bring him home. It broke our hearts to hear this, firstly because no child should be away from their family that long and secondly because Guatemalan’s hold a special place in my and Danny’s hearts (Danny and my parents have been on mission trips there and have formed relationships and a love for the people). They have since adopted another little boy from the US but are still holding hope for their first child to be reunited with them. Please pray for this family as they continue the long journey of bringing their precious boy home.

Monday is my next appointment with our social worker. This will be the first time I’ve had an individual interview with her (Danny’s is Tuesday). My interview will be at our house so she gets to meet the kids. Gage and Cady have wanted to meet her, so I’m sure this will be a good experience for them.