Two weeks in...

We've been waiting for two weeks already!  Thank God the holidays came along when they did to help make this initial wait easier.  It was good to be busy.  We've had so much to do to prepare for this part of the process, and now, with nothing concrete to do, we're anticipating the wait becoming difficult quickly.  Let's hope that doesn't happen!  We still have things that need to be done... we need to get some basic baby stuff, primarily a car seat, so that we can be ready on a moment's notice, but really, how long does that take?  Not long.  We wanted to share with you the web address for our agency, in case you're interested.  We've recently been added to the "parent profiles", which means that our introduction letter and our picture is up and available for all to see.  I guess some prospective birth families do find adoptive families by searching the web.  The address is http://www.openarmsadoption.net/

Thanks for all of your support thus far!  We're doing great and it's in large part because of all of you!

The Wait Begins

Today (I think) will be the first official date of "The Wait".  Brian is delivering our profiles to the agency, as well as a few other pieces of paper that they need, this morning and that's our last step.  Now that the agency will have our profiles, they can "show" us to potential birthmothers.  So, just to give you an idea of what's transpired so far... we met people from the agency back in March for an informational meeting.  We then met with other agencies to determine if we wanted to work with this one.  We did... it's called "Open Arms Adoption Network", and we love them!  In August, we met with the director, Meredith, to get an application and begin the process.  The application was a large pile of papers that we needed to fill out with basically, every detail of our life spelled out.  We had to get background checks from our local police, the state police, and the FBI.  The FBI reports were done via fingerprinting, which we had to do twice because someone messed up and registered us wrong on the internet (ok, that someone was ME).  We had to get medical exams, submit references, and sign various forms saying we'd agree to this and that.  Then, once that whole thing was done, we started our homestudy.  We have a fabulous social worker, Stefani, who came to our home three times for 2 1/2 hours each time.  During those visits, we talked about all sorts of thing, including how we met, what our relationship is like, how we handle our finances, how we divide the housework up, how we plan to care for a baby and how we plan to discipline.  We talked about race and the responsibilities that go along with parenting a child of another race (we'll share that in a future blog!),  family, education, etc.  If you can think of it, we talked about it.  We then had to wait for Stefani to write up a report, submit it, and have it approved.  The last step in the process was creating an autobiography.  We each had to write a 2-4 page paper (just like in the good old college days) about ourselves.  They did give us a guideline to go by with questions to address.  We also had to put together a "Hello" letter, 6 pages of pictures that represent our life, and a "Thank You" letter.  This was all compiled and bound, making up our "profile" that will be shared with women who are making an adoption plan for their baby. We had to have several copies made, and this is what Brian is delivering to the agency today.  And, now... it's done.  With mixed emotions we put it all into someone elses hands... our work is done (well, you know what I mean... its' done for now).  That feels good but at the same time, it really was never in our hands to begin with, was it?  Having something concrete to do makes us feel like it's in our hands.  I'm ready to move on now, though, and just enjoy the wait as best we can. 

Getting there...

So, we want to create a family and we're doing it a little bit differently than most people do.  It's been a humbling experience, and we're really excited about it. We're honored to be buidling our family through this amazing experience that is adoption.  It's December 10, 2010 and our homestudy was approved today!  What that means to us is that we're almost done with the "work" to become parents.  And it has been work.  It will be so worth it!  A few more loose ends to take care of, and "the wait" will begin.  It may be long, and it may be hard, but for however long it takes, we'll wait.  We know that one day our baby will find us.

We decided to create this blog to keep you all up to date on how things are going, what we're learning, what we're doing, and how we're feeling. We also hope to educate you as we educate ourselves about all things adoption related.   We'd love for you to be a part of our story, if you should be so inclined.  This will become our child's story, and our family's story, and also, in a way, your story.  Thank you for supporting us and for loving us.