I finished printing our profile books Sunday. After buying a new printer to do so, because the ink for it was so much cheaper than our other printer. Then I ran out of ink and had to go buy some more. Then I ran out again and had to go buy more. Then, I printed the very last page and ran out of ink on it. Soooo, I went to my sister's to print the very last page. Or so I thought. I came home and put allll of the pages in their separate books, only to realize that I needed 2 more pages printed. It's a good thing my sister only lives a few blocks away. You'll never guess what happened then. I ran out of ink about half way through the 2nd page! Shhh...I didn't tell her though. Soooo, I had to go buy another ink cartridge. And, finally, I had all of the pages printed.
We got our DCFS license in the mail yesterday! Such a sign that this is becoming a reality. Once we get our books turned into the agency, she will send them up North where they will actually be put into their "books". After that, we wait. Well, we wait now....but, the real wait begins. I'm so glad that the holidays are approaching so my mind will be a little busy. Do you have any good suggestions of things we should do while we wait? We of course will still be researching adoption....reading books, online, etc. I'd like to find a seminar to attend. Anything else? I'd love to hear from you.
We are almost there! Almost there to finish our "pre-adoption" stuff anyway. How exciting!!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Frustration!
Things with our homestudy are finishing up, other than a few questions that Beth had for us to include in our homestudy report. I really wish I knew why some of the stuff they need is so important, but it's never really been clear.
Let's back up for just a minute. If you're not sure what a homestudy is, it's basically a report on Bill and I and our lives. Every aspect of our lives. Down to the little last detail. No one will really see this report..we will have a copy, the agency will have a copy, and if we were ever to switch agencies, they would get a copy.
So, as we've been meeting Beth, she's learning about us. We've had to write reports on ourselves individually and on ourselves as a couple. We knew we had to include a lot for the report, but geesh! I can understand some of it, like how we met; talking about our relationship; even talking about our childhood. I can understand including parents and siblings names....but much more than that is needed.
Here's an example of a few things we've had to list: Where our parents were born, when they graduated high school, and what they did (employment) while we were growing up (and now). When and where our siblings were born, when they graduated high school, when and where they went to college, and their employment now. We had to list marrige and divorce dates for our parents and siblings....luckily, only a couple of siblings are married. Parents, on the other hand, proved to be a little more difficult. Neither of my parents knew dates of marriages or divorces. Gahhhhhh. I did my best by looking up court records online. I was able to get month and years, hoping that will suffice.
That just scratched the surface. I'm not complaining that we had to do this (does it sound like I am?!), I'm just frustrated at all that we have to do. And I'm not frustrated with our agency, I think this is pretty commonplace anywhere you go. In fact, I still couldn't be happier with them! But still, my frustration comes and goes. This week has been a rough one with my emotions running wild. I think I'm just so anxious because we're at the end of the pre-adoption process and will very shortly join the waiting list. I've got to settle down! :) And Bill, like a man, is just rolling along! :) I'm thankful he helps keep me grounded!
So, there's my frustration! I need to hear some adoption stories....got any you want to share? Feel free to drop us an email here or leaving a comment! I'm reeeeally planning on not waiting 2 weeks to blog again! It was my intentions to blog regularly and I've been lacking! I look forward to hearing from you....check back soon to check on our progress of hoping to build our family!
Let's back up for just a minute. If you're not sure what a homestudy is, it's basically a report on Bill and I and our lives. Every aspect of our lives. Down to the little last detail. No one will really see this report..we will have a copy, the agency will have a copy, and if we were ever to switch agencies, they would get a copy.
So, as we've been meeting Beth, she's learning about us. We've had to write reports on ourselves individually and on ourselves as a couple. We knew we had to include a lot for the report, but geesh! I can understand some of it, like how we met; talking about our relationship; even talking about our childhood. I can understand including parents and siblings names....but much more than that is needed.
Here's an example of a few things we've had to list: Where our parents were born, when they graduated high school, and what they did (employment) while we were growing up (and now). When and where our siblings were born, when they graduated high school, when and where they went to college, and their employment now. We had to list marrige and divorce dates for our parents and siblings....luckily, only a couple of siblings are married. Parents, on the other hand, proved to be a little more difficult. Neither of my parents knew dates of marriages or divorces. Gahhhhhh. I did my best by looking up court records online. I was able to get month and years, hoping that will suffice.
That just scratched the surface. I'm not complaining that we had to do this (does it sound like I am?!), I'm just frustrated at all that we have to do. And I'm not frustrated with our agency, I think this is pretty commonplace anywhere you go. In fact, I still couldn't be happier with them! But still, my frustration comes and goes. This week has been a rough one with my emotions running wild. I think I'm just so anxious because we're at the end of the pre-adoption process and will very shortly join the waiting list. I've got to settle down! :) And Bill, like a man, is just rolling along! :) I'm thankful he helps keep me grounded!
So, there's my frustration! I need to hear some adoption stories....got any you want to share? Feel free to drop us an email here or leaving a comment! I'm reeeeally planning on not waiting 2 weeks to blog again! It was my intentions to blog regularly and I've been lacking! I look forward to hearing from you....check back soon to check on our progress of hoping to build our family!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
New picture!!
We got great news from Beth last week. We've finished our training required by our agency and will get our adopt only license after she completes our walk through of our home next week! After that, we turn in our profiles and we're set to go!
I took some time last week and sat down to write our dear birthparent letter. I like to think that I wear the "writing pants" in our family, but Bill definitely has his input. Grace even had her own little say in it. I struggled to write it...not because I couldn't think of anything to say, but because I wanted to make sure what I wanted to say came across the right way, how I was actually feeling. I bawled my eyes out in the beginning. It was very tough. I tried to put myself into the shoes of the birthparent who would be reading it. The decisions that they would be making weighed heavy on my heart. I cannot imagine what they will feel while reading it, but I hope that my letter will help ease their mind, whether they choose us to parent their baby or not.
We sent the letter to Beth, who read it over and sent it back with no suggestions or corrections and said it was great. This was a huge relief to me! The only thing we have to do now is choose all of the photos that will go in our book. We've chosen most of them, waaaay too many of them, so we need to condense our life in photos to a mere six to eight 8.5x11 pages. Piece of cake. Hmph. I'm hoping to have a rough draft of the whole book done by next week when she comes. After it's reviewed, we'll make copies and they'll be shipped up North, ready to be sent out for viewing. I'm shooting for the end of October....exciting!!!
I had a rough time picking out the front page picture for our book, With the help of facebook friends, we chose the one below. What do you think?! *A big kudos goes to my sister for taking some pictures for us....though she is not the photographer in our family, she does a pretty good job!*
I took some time last week and sat down to write our dear birthparent letter. I like to think that I wear the "writing pants" in our family, but Bill definitely has his input. Grace even had her own little say in it. I struggled to write it...not because I couldn't think of anything to say, but because I wanted to make sure what I wanted to say came across the right way, how I was actually feeling. I bawled my eyes out in the beginning. It was very tough. I tried to put myself into the shoes of the birthparent who would be reading it. The decisions that they would be making weighed heavy on my heart. I cannot imagine what they will feel while reading it, but I hope that my letter will help ease their mind, whether they choose us to parent their baby or not.
We sent the letter to Beth, who read it over and sent it back with no suggestions or corrections and said it was great. This was a huge relief to me! The only thing we have to do now is choose all of the photos that will go in our book. We've chosen most of them, waaaay too many of them, so we need to condense our life in photos to a mere six to eight 8.5x11 pages. Piece of cake. Hmph. I'm hoping to have a rough draft of the whole book done by next week when she comes. After it's reviewed, we'll make copies and they'll be shipped up North, ready to be sent out for viewing. I'm shooting for the end of October....exciting!!!
I had a rough time picking out the front page picture for our book, With the help of facebook friends, we chose the one below. What do you think?! *A big kudos goes to my sister for taking some pictures for us....though she is not the photographer in our family, she does a pretty good job!*
Whoever and wherever you are, thanks for following our adoption story! We look forward to giving you a happy ending to read! As always, feel free to leave or email any comments and or questions you have....love hearing from you!!
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