2 Weeks In

It has been almost 2 weeks since we officially started the adoption process.  It has been a stressful 2 weeks, trying to coordinate documents for both the adoption facilitation center and the home study agency while working (and attending my sister's graduation and gabe's sister's wedding).  But, we have most of the documents turned in, have a temporary profile being shown to interested mothers, and so much more.  It is finally calming down!  Gabe has been great and while I do most of scanning and emailing, he has really pitched in.  I have been surprised by the interest he has shown about the process.  He is excited about having a baby, but to be excited about the paper work and creating a profile has been a surprise to me.

Now we need to create a profile.  A profile is a 750 word birthmother letter that is broken up into parts such as "about us", "shaina", "gabe", "our family", etc.  Each section is put on a color page that has pictures and stuff on it.  It seems like a lot of work, but I'm hoping my scrap booking skills will come into play even though it will be created on the computer.  We also get to include reference letters from family and friends.  We make like 100 of these, and they are given to birthmothers that meet our preferences.

We are halfway through our homestudy.  A homestudy is required by the state and it must be completed and up-to-date before we can bring a child into our home.  So far we have sent out requests from every state we have lived in for them to vouch that we have no child abuse records on file.  We also have been required to get our fingerprints run through the FBI (there goes my fallback plan of bank robbing).  The weird thing about that was that we went to a UPS store for it.  How secure, right?  Right now we are waiting for our actual meetings.  We meet once and will have a marital interview then, we each meet separately, then there is a walk-through of the house.  In the paperwork, it said we had to have a crib so they could approve it.  But since we are going to buy one, we just have to have it picked out so they can say it is safe. 

We also have to get a professional picture taken outside.  I'm excited about this as we haven't had a professional picture taken since our wedding.  A friend of ours from church recommended a couple who are currently in the process of adopting their 6th child!  I'm excited to work with them and to get some nice pictures.

Well, that's a brief rundown of what we have done so far.  I think in a week or two we should be done with all the paperwork and working on the profiles.  And hopefully we will have our homestudy done.  Once that is done, we can apply for grants, interest free loans, and are eligible for a drop-in-the-lap baby! 

It has been amazing the response we have gotten from our friends and family.  Everyone has been so supportive and encouraging.  It means so much to us to have people sharing in our excitement!  Thank you all!