We finally submitted all our of paperwork to our caseworker this week! We have also completed our Homestudy classes this month. Now we wait for our caseworker to review everything. Once our file is checked over to make sure all of our paperwork is in order, we will schedule our first in-office meeting with our caseworker. We are thrilled to be moving forward, but I can't help but feel that now we are being judged by virtual strangers who will decide if we can become parents. All I can do now is just pray about it and turn my fears over to God. I know He has a plan for our family, and we both feel led to this agency. If everything goes smoothly over the next few weeks of meetings both in the office and in our home, we should be "Waiting Parents" within the next month!

We have been so busy with our classes and paperwork packet the past few weeks! We have 2 more classes to go and then we will be ready for our first in home visit with our caseworker. They tell us not to be nervous, but I am sure I will be cleaning like crazy the day before she comes.

At our last homestudy class, we were able to hear from a Birthmother. She did such an awesome job of telling about her Journey. She also made an awesome statement that gave me goosebumps, "Some babies are born into families; some babies are born for families". We were very touched by her story and her willingness to answer everyone's questions. This was also our last class as a group, so now each of us begins to follow our individual journeys toward the children that God has planned for our families. We will continue to pray for each couple and hope to get updates along the way.

We have two families that we know who are very close to bringing their children home to their forever families. One couple will be adding twins to their family. The other couple will be adding a son. We continue to be in prayer for each of these birth families, adoptive families, the babies, and everyone that touches their journey. What amazing Blessings!

Our first fundraiser, a Green For Gold party, was more successful than we had expected. It was so much fun to see the look on people's faces when they realized how much their gold was worth. It was also a great way to include our family and so many friends in this Journey. We placed a basket and envelopes on the table, along with the cutest piggy bank. Our guests were able to sell their gold and decide for themselves if they wished to donate. As the hosts of the party, we also received 15% of all sales. Our guests were very generous, and we have had many others who could not attend send donations for our adoption fund. We are almost halfway to raising our next fees!

Our next fundraising adventure will be a huge yard sale, which we are planning for April. We have put the word out for donation of items, and we will be gathering items soon. We hope to raise as much or more from the yard sale as we did with the gold party.

Adoption funds are hard to come by, and we feel so blessed to have so many of our friends, family, and church family step in and offer support. Our Journey continues, and we will have more updates in the coming weeks!

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.

January 2009 ~ We submitted our Formal Application, along with family and personal references, to our agency. Oh my goodness, I think I would compare filling out this application with filing our taxes for 3 years all on the long forms. But, I know this is just the beginning. We will travel to our all day Orientation Meeting on February 5th. At that time, we will learn what to expect from this entire process. We will start our Homestudy just 4 days later. Oh, we are so excited to be getting Our Journey underway. Once we have completed our Homestudy, we will be considered as "Waiting Parents" by our agency. These "Waiting Parents" have now been waiting 2 years and 8 months, and we pray daily that we will soon be able to hold Our Precious Gift in our arms.

December 2009 ~ We submitted our Preliminary Application to our adoption agency. I was so anxious and nervous. Every day that we didn't hear anything (which was about 2 business days~it seemed like weeks) I told Bobby, "They aren't going to accept us". He would just laugh and say, "You're so silly; quit worrying". His faith never waivers. I don't think mine really waivers, I just have trouble giving over control to God sometimes. I'm working on this! We have now been assigned to our case manager, and I am able to email her or call when needed.