Approved!!!

We are home study approved!!!! We did it! I'm so excited and thrilled to know that at any moment, our phone could ring! While I feel a huge sense of relief that that part is over, there is still plenty that we need to work on.

We are still collecting things for the garage sale happening next month. I'm excited at the items people have donated... we are well on our way to having a huge sale with lots of different things to choose from. I need to nail down if we are going to BBQ and sell hot dogs and pop, or just pop, maybe some candy. We also need to get some fliers made up to start hanging up to advertise. I need to figure out how the heck we are going to hang up all the clothes (we need lots of hangers and something figure out to hang them on... ideas are welcome!).

We need to start working on our adoption profile. We are going to go on the waiting list to get into "The Book" of waiting families. In the mean time we have to design four pages of pictures and information that will capture the attention of our future birth parents.

Our social worker also talked to us about making up some business cards to hand out as needed. We need to set up a separate email address and phone number so that potential birth moms can contact us directly if they are thinking about setting up an adoption plan for their child.

We also have outreach training in July. This is a one day work-shop to help us brainstorm way so to find a match on our own, not through the book of waiting families. Basically a day on how to market ourselves and find our own match outside of the agency.

So yes, we are approved, but I feel like our work is just getting started! Brian and I are also just starting to talk about getting the room ready. We don't have a single thing and want to be prepared for the best case scenario... which is a match right away! I'll continue to keep you all posted!