Special Delivery!

 

Found a nice thick envelope in my mailbox from Bethany Christian Services yesterday. I guess they like us enough to let us fill out the rest of the formal application :) Thank goodness I sent off for our birth certificates and marriage license last week. Here is a list of things we need to fill out now:

1. We have to sign the “Notice of Privacy Practices”
2. We each have to complete a “Self-Study Form” (a detailed personal history from childhood to present)
3. We must get medical examinations and have our physician fill out our report forms
4. We both have to fill out “Sworn Disclosure Statements” (any past crime convictions)
5. We have to complete our “Financial Statement” (income and expenses)
6. Provide our 1040
7. Complete both our family histories
8. We have to sign a “Parental Discipline Policy”
9. We have to sign to our understanding of the  ”Corporal Punishment Prohibition”
10. We have to sign to our “Statement of Faith”
11. Fill out and sign our “Statement of Intent” (basically our Last Will & Testament)

Oh and included was an invoice for $450.00.

…piece of cake right?! ;)

Testing fate…or faith?

It’s been over a year since I’ve allowed myself to roam aisles full of baby things. There was once a time when I walked through the sea of pink and blue with lots of hope and promise…I wasn’t pregnant…but in my mind I could have been. I could have been like every other mother roaming there with me. I just knew that one day I’d be receiving and buying all those things. Not even once thinking things could be different.

I mentioned to my DH the other day that I don’t want to jinx anything by looking at baby things. A part of me wants to figure some stuff out now…you know the important stuff like picking out nursery themes ;) I don’t want to wait till the last second to pull it all together. I want to be prepared. He point blank said me, “God doesn’t believe in jinx…,” and I believe him…or at least I’m trying to. I walked around a baby store today during my lunch break. It was bitter-sweet. Everything seems so off limits. But that hasn’t stopped us from picking out bedding…bottles…crib…baby carrier, etc.  Now we’re just waiting for the call so we can bring it all home :) and baby of course too!

I.U.D Side Effects…

So I haven’t really talked about the I.U.D. in a while. I think my body is finally getting used to it. They say it takes up to 6 months and it took me 5. A very LONG 5 months! I no longer spot every. single. day. Thank God! But I do have what I guess you would consider a period every 2-3 months. I can always tell its going to happen when my breasts get incredibly tender…mostly the nipples. This is something I never experienced normally. It lasts about a week to 2 weeks before things start happening. Everything else feels just like normal though…the back pain…fatigue…minor cramping. Just wanted to let anyone else out there know that the breast tenderness is most definitely a side effect but as soon as your period starts it goes away…like magic :)

It’s gone!

Sent out the application yesterday evening! DH called with the finishing info…I typed it in and hit SEND. Ball is in their court now. So the constant E-mail checking and waiting begins…again ;) I guess I’d better get used to that!

Chopped all my hair off yesterday. Not sure how brilliant that was. My neck is freezing…and I forgot a scarf! Guess I’ll just have to wrap up in my Snuggie to stay warm. I still like the cut though :) not to mention I’m blonde again!

It rained last night and the snow is slowly melting away :( here are some pictures from Saturday :)

So close I can almost taste it…

So this has been a crazy week in my home town. We just got 6-8 inches of snow over the weekend…the first big snow since 1989 (which I fondly remember!) So beautiful. Not loving the icy roads or black ice…but I’m definitely loving the view.

Our formal application is just waiting on one last thing to be filled out! One. Last. Thing. I’ve only had it for a week but it feels more like months. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve proofread it and changed things. Crossing my fingers that it will be sent TONIGHT! Then we wait I guess.

I have only three more PT appts. Can’t believe I’m almost done with that. I’m not completely cured yet but I’m making progress. When I started my muscles were at 16 microvolts…now its down to 9-10mv. I need to be at a 3. My therapist is looking into getting me the TENS machine for home use. I think it’s expensive though and I doubt my insurance will pay anything towards it. In the meantime, I’ll just keep up with what I know to do and one day I will be normal. Hopefully.

One blog, two blog…

So the DH wanted to start his own blog about our adoption process. He loves to make videos (it’s actually his job!) and wanted to chronicle the journey. So after trying to find what blog he wanted to go with and waiting on me to design a background he has it up and running. Although you’ll hear first hand about everything here feel free to visit him/us there too ;)

http://achildforus.tumblr.com/

It Has Officially Begun!

Sitting in my office this morning finally focusing enough to get some work done and I hear my cell phone voicemail notification. I look at the caller I.D. and read “Bethany Christian Services!” My heart stops. I listen. They want to work with us!!! I am so excited…again! So it has officially begun… how on earth will I get anything done today?! ;)

Preliminary Application Submitted!

We have turned in our application…now we just wait until they send an email (could take 1-2 weeks) with the formal application attached. You see the look on our faces?! Yeah that’s sheer JOY!! :)

The Best fit?

As I’m filling out my Preliminary Application I come across a question that I find very difficult to answer.

Describe the characteristics of the child you believe would best fit into your family…

How do you answer this?! Yes, there are traits I would love our child to have. But I want to be realistic about expectations. God blesses each child with a unique personality and I know He will find the right child that meshes with us. Of course I’m introverted and my DH is extroverted so we cover a wide spectrum of personalities ;)

Tonight I’ll finish the six important questions about my faith and it will all be ready for drop-off! I’m going to call the office to see if they are open on Saturday. I REALLY want to drop it off on the 23rd…exactly 1 year to the date since I had my surgery. The surgery that confirmed my infertility. I’m so loving the timing :D

The process has begun…

So if I could just bottle a little bit of the excitement I experienced last night I would (as I’m sure I’ll need it for the rough patches ahead). The meeting went far better than I expected. It was a packed room full of people who I imagine share similar stories to ours. Some had done this before but many were hearing things for the first time just like us. We have timelines, pricing guides, checklists and most importantly our preliminary application. Going in we were not sure where God was leading us. But now we know. And that is a wonderful feeling. We have chosen domestic infant adoption. We heard about the pool of families that are on the list for caucasian infants…which can only be 15 at a time. First come first serve sort of thing. But african-american or bi-racial babies never have enough families willing to adopt them. At this time there is only one family interested and they have to look in other areas to pull family profiles. This was just the answer I needed. I poked my DH and he grinned a little…this was our avenue. Caucasian baby=18+ months. Bi-racial=12 months or less. The very thought of having our baby in our arms by the end of this year feels so surreal…although I’m very prepared to wait as long as next Christmas as well. You just never know. So here is the process (in a nutshell):

• Group information meeting (check!)
• Preliminary Application
• Formal Application
• Education Workshop
• Assessment Interviews
• Approval
• Agency circulates profile
• Support Groups
• Possible meetings with birthparents
• Placement
• Post-placement supervision
• Finalization through local court
• Post-finalization services

We are guesstimating a fee of around 15,000. About half of what I was expecting.

So all in all, I was pleasantly surprised and super excited. Now to get ready for some major question answering…bring it on ;)