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!

In just 9 more days...

We will be officially approved and waiting for our match.... I can't even describe how incredible that feels.

Our first meeting with our social worker went great today. We basically just sat around and talked for two ours about our lives and she answered a lot of questions we had. It was awesome. I feel so great about the path we are on and just can't wait for each step to be here.

At the end of it all, I tried to ask a question and it just didn't come out right. She knew exactly what I was getting at though. I wanted to know if she thought people would like us, if we would seemed appealing to a birth mom and how quickly she thought things would happen. She completely reassured me. Granted I know that we might still have a LONG road ahead of us, but I feel much better after her comments. She says we have a lot going for us (our ages, jobs, openness, etc.) and that if she had to guess our wait probably wouldn't be longer than a year, IF THAT! I'll update more after the next visit!

We have our first fundraiser tomorrow night - scrap booking! And then we are going to start focusing on our profile and getting the garage sale organized. Lots to do!

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers... they are working! I hope so badly that with the continued support from our friends and family that we will have a baby in our house by next summer :)

Dates!

We have some dates to share with you all!

Our friends have offered for us to have our garage sale at their house. Their neighborhood is much more established than our new one and they also have a nice neighborhood sale that we are going to join in on.   So, that means our garage sale will be Thursday, June 17th and Friday, June 18th (with Saturday being a possibility). We don't have times set up quite yet, but I'll be sure to keep you all posted.

We have had a lot of response from people wanting to donate some things to the sale. We are so thrilled that so many people are able to help us out. So far we have a fair amount of clothing. If you have any other things to help us bring variety to our sale, we'd really appreciate it. Let us know if you have something large that will need to be hauled with a truck. We'll have to make arrangements with some family or friends to help us out with that.

AND.... we have our home study dates set!!!!!

May 5th and May 14th, the social worker will be coming to the house to interview us and check things out. I'm so excited!!!!! After the first meeting we will know for sure if a third is necessary, so keep your fingers crossed that we won't need to set up another date. If all goes well, and we are approved, then we will officially be WAITING FOR THE CALL in 24 days!!!!!!!!!!

I'll let you know how things go, I'm not too worried about the house, more so if they will like us or not. But I'm a worry-wort... it's what I do best :)

Waiting for the call...

Well, the agency contacted us and they officially have ALL of the documents they need to open our case :) YAY!!!

We are going to send in our check for the home study this week so that we can get paired with our case worker and get this show on the road. I'm so excited, thrilled, nervous, scared, and excited all over again! They say all the time that the home study is not a white glove test.... but I just feel like the house has GOT to be perfect if they are going to approve us. We are going to be working our butts off these next couple of weeks to get everything just right. Touching up paint, hanging up photos, deep cleaning EVERYTHING!

We also have our Pre-Adoption Education Classes on the 15th-16th of this month. that's less than 10 days away!

I just can't help be feel like there *COULD* be someone out there pregnant with OUR child.... it just gives me chills!