We had our appointment last evening for our psychological evaluations. We really had no idea what to expect other than taking personality tests, but it was a very relaxed setting and we were finished earlier than expected. We are officially mentally stable! It was great to be able to sit down at dinner afterwards and discuss how we had individually answered questions. Our answers were so similar, but we had not really discussed anything ahead of time. It is also amazing to be able to go through this time together~when we were on the infertility merry-go-round, there were many times that I had to go to our appointments alone or with my mother or a best friend. I love that we are able to be on this Journey completely together every step of the way.

Our next big adventure is our first fundraising activity this weekend. My sister-in-law and one of my best friends are co-hosting a "cash for gold" party for us. It does feel a bit strange to be asking family and friends to donate to our adoption fund, as we really aren't used to asking others for help other than for their prayers. We have come to realize that we have spent so much on trying to get pregnant, that now we may need some help with our adoption fees along the way. At least we are finding fun ways to get everyone involved and get everyone excited about our Journey.

It is definitely a Journey, and it is one that we wouldn't miss for anything!

We attended our first Homestudy class last evening. It was postponed last week due to snow, so we were anxious to get our classes underway. We were asked what is our greatest expectation and what is our greatest fear regarding adoption. Our greatest expectation is just being able to finally be parents. Our greatest fear falls into the main "what if" of adoption~what if the birthmother changes her mind. Although we do know that God has a plan for our family, and he has a child for us. Our faith helps us to know that if a potential birthmother decides that keeping her child is the best for her situation, we need to support her and continue to pray for her and the baby. If that were to happen, we would know that this baby was not the child that God has in store for us. So, our greatest "fear" would become a way to minister to the mother and family that we are all in this journey together, fears and all. When you chose to live by faith, your worst fears don't seem so bad after all.

We will continue through 8 weeks of Homestudy courses and completing our required paperwork/evaluations. This will be a very busy time for us, but once we have this two months behind us, the waiting begins. Our agency encourages us to start preparing for the wait time~read, read, read; talk with parents who have adopted; plan a vacation; plan fundraisers; complete projects; etc. Having a plan for the wait time will give us a feeling of still being proactive in the process. We have decided that we really don't want to prepare our nursery until we know for sure that we are bringing home our baby, but it sure is fun to be able to start looking at furniture, bedding, and tiny little outfits and be excited and full of hope~finally!

We attended our all day orientation meeting with our adoption agency yesterday. We were a little bit anxious since we really had no idea what to expect. There were about 20 other couples in the orientation, with 3-4 of those couples planning to adopt internationally rather than domestic (US). We were able to listen to several former adoptive parents speak (3 domestic, 1 international, and 1 couple that had chosen embryo adoption). Our agency representatives kept stressing that it was "our day," and we were free to ask questions. We then heard from 5 agency employees who spoke about their different responsibilites and also took questions. The last item on our agenda was to go through our "folder". Oh my goodness, we were sent home with a stack of paperwork that is about 1" thick. We will start on our folder this week and plan to have everything complete within the next 2 months. We will also start our Homestudy classes this next week. We are going to be very busy little waiting parents!

All in all it was a great day for us. It was a good time for us to just talk about our expectations and really feel like we are on this Journey together as a couple. We were told that 95% of the couples in our class will complete this Journey and have a precious child in the end. Some will, unfortunately, become frustrated or just feel that they are being led in a different direction. The funny thing for us (I guess you can call it funny) is that if we were able to just have a baby "the old fashioned way," none of the things we are being asked to do would ever happen ~ for example: urine drug screens, TB skin testing, criminal background checks, psychological examination, infertility consultation (again), in-home visits, family/personal references, and the list goes on and on. We know that these items on our checklist are needed to provide the Birthmother and her family the peace of mind that their child will be placed with a good family, but it can just seem so overwhelming for two people in love that just want to share their wonderful life with a child.

But, we both came out of yesterday feeling that we are definitely on the right path for us. We know that there is staff available to help us through each step, and they will be there with us when we are finally able to bring Our Precious Gift home. I can hardly wait! You know we just had to look at the baby aisle at the grocery today. It is so much fun to finally have Hope and feel the excitement of knowing we are moving closer to becoming parents.