Our Home Study Will Be On April 2nd!

FINALLY a date! We are so excited and nervous at the same time. We are frantically getting the house ready. Basic safety is our goal. Anything dangerous needs to be locked up or out of reach. Even though our baby will be 6 months or younger, this is what the social worker will be looking for. Today I went to Babies R Us just to browse and ended up buying safety latches for cupboards and drawers. It's been a busy couple of weeks for us. We have both been working as much overtime as we can. So we can put money away for adoption fees and baby stuff. The photo books for the birth Mother's came in the mail last week! Birth Mother's will be presented with a photo book, a letter from us, and some basic info. Like what we do for a living, what our recreational activities are, our hair color, eye color, age, etc. This is how they will choose a family, crazy! And the photo book is something they will keep forever! After much fussing, nitpicking and rearranging we finally had to say that's it we are sending them to the printer. Scrapbooking is not my forte. So we used walgreens.com to create photo books. We are very happy with the way they turned out. The pictures included with this post are some of the pictures we used in the photo book.

Thoughts From The Nursery

I'm sitting in the rocking chair in the nursery pondering everything that happened last week. Maybe sitting here will make everything seem more real. We bought furniture for the nursery today! We found a crib, changing table, dresser and rocking chair on KSL for $200. We originally thought the nursery colors would be pistachio green and black. However, this set is white and supper cute. I just love the dresser! I promise to post pictures soon. Corey absolutely does not want to paint the walls. He says it's new paint so what is the point in painting it. He is always so logical. This set does look really good with the tan walls and white trim so I don't think we will paint.

Corey and I had our physicals last week and everything checked out ok. We are officially healthy enough to be parents. Our family Physician thought he would check Corey's testosterone level.........COME ON! I am so done with the medical testing. Being in the medical field myself I know that it's in my Physicians nature to "fix it". And he wouldn't be a good Physician if he didn't. Were just both ready to move on, we have moved on. So needless to say when the blood work all came back normal we weren't disappointed this time. Liberty had her physical too. She has one kidney smaller than the other and the vet seems to think that it won't be long before she starts showing signs of kidney disease. :( Some things your just better off not knowing.

We completed our 45 question questionnaire this week for the social worker. It took us both about four hours a piece. We wanted to answer the questions as honestly and thorough as possible. Now all the paperwork for the social worker is done and we should have a home study date soon. I was able to get the delivery date for the living room furniture moved up by a week. Hopefully its here in time for the home study. I started the profile album and letter for the birth mother. I'm finding that to be the most difficult part of all this so far. Every time I think about how courageous, kind, and unselfish the birth mother is I break down. Somehow I'm finding the strength to do this. I don't know where it's coming from but I'm very grateful. Thank you all for your love and support.

PS Corey built storage shelves in the basement today, and is spraying everything with 409. Do Daddy's go through the nesting phase? :)

WERE EXPECTING!

Nope, I'm not pregnant. We are in the process of adopting! Corey and I are so excited! It's all we talk about anymore. And every extra minute we have is spent preparing to bring our baby home. We have created this blog to keep everyone updated.

A common question is why did you decide to adopt? It all started in May of 2005 when I had surgery to remove an ovarian cyst during the surgery they found endometrioses. Endometrioses makes getting pregnant and keeping the pregnancy very difficult. Since my surgery Corey and I have talked about the possibility of adoption. Of course with the adoption fees, which can be anywhere between $30,000 - $50,000, we decided to try and have biological children. Long story short........the process has not been easy. We decided not to proceed with IVF and to put the money that we would have used towards our adoption. It was like a heavy weight was lifted when we made that decision. We both felt a sense of peace, happiness, and excitement. The process of adoption is extensive. And yet everything seems to be moving along very smoothly. I have been shocked at just how easily things have been falling into place. The most common reaction from friends and family has been "I always thought you would adopt". When I have a particularly "hard" day I see somebody, get an email, or someone calls to offer encouragement, answer my questions or give light to a problem I thought impossible to solve. Thank you all so much! It pushes us forward and gives us hope.

Our next step is having a social worker out to our home to do a "home study". This is a full investigation on every aspect of our lives. I'm not exaggerating when I say EVERY. There are no secrets with adoption. The social worker will inspect our home to make sure it's a safe clean environment for our baby. Criminal background checks have already been sent in. We took the plunge and bought living room furniture. Because we sold our set when we moved from the town home. Even though were comfortable with the house only being partially furnished we thought the social worker might feel warm and fuzzy if we have living room furniture ;). Corey is an excellent negotiator! We got a fantastic deal at the Ashley Furniture store, GO BABES!

It's so easy to get caught up in the tasks revolving around the adoption. Maybe that's a defense mechanism so the emotions don't take over. Although I can't imagine being any more emotional! Having a baby in the home will be an exciting change for us. Starting our family..........well there aren't any words to describe the happiness it brings us. Were picking out names, making a list of baby stuff that we will need, and thinking about the interior design of the nursery. I even have a list of supplies that I would need immediately in case we had very short notice. I can't help it, it's the type "A" personality in me. Were told that after ALL our paperwork is in and we are approved it could be 2wks to 3 months!

Corey and I have been married for 6 1/2 years, and together for a little over 8 years. One thing I know for sure is that we can do anything we put our minds too. In the time we've been together Corey finished his electrical apprenticeship, and earned his journeyman's license (which took 5 years), I completed nursing school (also 5 years), we bought two homes, and started two businesses. Corey would be upset if I didn't mention the jeep, (rolling my eyes right now), seriously though he did work hard for it and made sacrifices. We never questioned how or if we could do it. We just held our heads up, moved our feet forward and dodged the punches. We can do this too, we will DIG DEEP! We have already received tons of encouragement from family and friends. Thank you all so much!