We Have Been Approved!

Today started out at the doctor's office fo me. I woke up with the room spinning several times, through out the night. I was really scared! But, it turns out, I have a sinus infection and a virus, accompanied by a fun dose of vertigo! So I had to take the day off and while I was lying on the sofa, I got a call from Children's Services. I was half out of it, but she said that she commpleted our homestudy paperwork on the 19th and she turned it into her supervisor. She said that I sounded confused! I was more surprised! I was really starting to think we would never get this call! She said that we will be assigned a new social worker and we will hear from her within the week...then WE GET PUT ON THE LIST OF FOSTER TO ADOPT PARENTS!!!! I cannot wait! Tears of joy just streamed down my face as soon as I hung up and called my husband to give him the big news! He thought something was wrong with me! LOL! I am just so happy! Last week, I was growing so impatient. It felt like it was never going to happen for us! This is the best Christmas gift ever!

The Home Study is Complete!

We have completed all of the requirements! We have attended TONS of classes, had many appointments, got fingerprinted, had physicals, psych evaluations, background checks, wrote biographies and have finally finished the nursery! Now, we just wait for our caseworker to compile all of the information and to finally become certified! THEN.......we get to wait for the BIG call!Tomorrow, I will take some photos of the nursery and will post them :) We were told the paperwork should be done in December! Maybe we will have a baby in our home for the new year! Who knows!

Only Two Homestudy Visits Left!

I have not updated lately because I started a new job and have not been feeling very well. Thankfully I am feeling much better and have a ton to fill you in on! We have had 3 appointments since you last heard from me! Both my husband and I had our individual biography appointments, we had an appointment together at Children's Services on Friday, and we had our psychological examinations yesterday! Our social worker said we only have 2 appointments left: 1 more at Children's Services and the final one at our house! Then we can start waiting for the big call to get our baby!
In the mean time, we have been working on the nursery! I made the bedding and we both have been refinishing the furniture.  We even made a trip to Ikea with some friends who are also going through the adoption process!  We are also using some of our wedding decorations in the nursery! I do not have any final photos but you can see our progress:

Last night, we had our fire inspection. I was so worried there would be some hidden danger zone in our seemingly safe house that would instantly fail us! THANKFULLY there were none. We passed! Easy peasy! Flying along.....
Today we checked a few more items off the old check list! I went in for my physical with the doctor and both Dear Hubby and I went in for fingerprinting. His, of course went fast and easy. Mine, however was a royal pain in the you-know-where! I do not have good prints. Every year, when I volunteer for camp, I have to get fingerprinted and every year it is a chore. My prints just don't work. It does not help me that everything is digital because those machines hate when they see these fingers coming! So I went to Children's Services for my prints and this poor woman! She tried so hard! We just could not get 3 good finger prints. So, she sent me to the sheriff's department, with the warning that they hate CS's there. That was an understatement. As soon as the woman heard the words Children's Services, she went on a rant about how they never do anything right there and she is going to tell them that they will not do prints for them anymore. Whew! Well, I told her that I would like to adopt, however they were unable to get viable prints. She said "well, what makes you think I will? I probably won't either." I said "I understand that you have a ton of frustration with them, but please understand that I am just trying to get through this process, so that we can bring a baby home". She softened up and apologised. She got 3 decent prints from me, after a ton of tries, but she did not want to give up! There was a bunch of stuff I skipped. Well, this costs money, of course, but she said she would try to see if she could even get good prints before she sent me to the atm, next door. Since she did, I ventured over to the atm and I tried every. single. debit. card. in . my. purse. Seriously. That machine had to have been out of money. It just spit out a receipt with an error code on it, with every card I tried. Yes, I have a ton of cards. Finally, I called my super-hero-husband, to rescue me and to please bring me some cash! I was supposed to be at work at this, point, and while I know they don't care, I still have to make up all of this time!
Oh yeah! I got a new job! I forgot to say that! I start on Monday the 15th! I currently have an hour and a half commute and this new job will give me 2 hours of my day back! Wahooooooooooooo! So, while I am still here, they don't care what I work, as long as I get my 40 hours in, so I am taking advantage! Tomorrow I am going in late, so I can go to the social security office, so I can FINALLY change my name! That only took 5 weeks! (Whoops!)

Our first home study appointment on Friday was a success! We gave her all of the paperwork we had completed, thus far, including the infamous autobiographies! We showed her around the house and she tested the water temperature, which was not to go above 120*F, which is considered scalding. We passed with a whopping 110*F, so she told us what we are to do next. We were given the go-ahead to have a fire inspection, which is actually scheduled for this evening. We are to have a crib assembled,  baby gates, fire extinguishers, etc. Over the weekend, we sanded down the crib, in preparation of painting it white, purchased a mattress, baby proofing gear, 2 baby gates, paint and a paint gun to paint the crib and the dresser. I am very excited for the nursery! The one bad thing is that the social worker told us that the baby's room needs to be on the same floor as ours, up to a certain age, which she was not sure of which age. I told her the baby could sleep in the alcove up in our room, which is legal, up until the baby is one. I hope that they can sleep downstairs after that, or else I do not know what we will do. Well, HOPEFULLY we won't have to worry about it, as we will hopefully have custody by then! I have my doctor's appointment tomorrow, along with Eli and I will both get fingerprinted. We are moving right along! Oh! And my appointment with the social worker to go over my autobiography is on Friday and Eli's is next Thursday! I feel like this is moving right along! I am super excited to get this part of the process done and over with!

The first appointment with the social worker.

Our first appointment with our social worker was...disappointing. We were led to a very institutionalized looking room. Small, with metal furniture. Even the tissue box was metal and was bolted to the desk. She started out asking us what we were looking for. We said we would like to adopt a baby, as young as possible, but no older than 2, no sibling groups and I have always wanted a girl, but we are open to either sex. She said that this may not be the best fit for us. That they are there for the children, not for us and if we are looking for an infant, an agency or an attorney may be a better fit for us. She then continued on to go over the process of the home study process. Once she was done, she asked us if we had any questions and I said I did. I had made a list of questions to make sure to ask, although she had already answered a number of them, but first, I wanted to say that her initial statement to us was so disheartening. We have known families who have found what they were looking for through Children's Services and for her to say it is not the right avenue was kind of off putting. Not to mention that the woman we have been working with up until this point with her, has been very encouraging and assured us that this was a good fit. She softened up and said that she didn't mean to be that way and that it just takes a few placements before you find your forever baby. Basically that we have to be prepared to foster and give the baby back too. I asked some more questions and we scheduled our first at-home visit for our home visit.
My husband and I walked out of the building feeling pretty bummed out. We stopped and talked it out for a bit before departing. We decided that we are prepared to foster a couple of babies if we need to, if it means finding our baby.
But I can't help but keep going back to what she originally said....So I am looking into other avenues. I am aware of Children's Services' purpose, but I can't shake this feeling that she may be right. I hope she isn't. I really felt like we were on the right path until she came along.

This is an Exciting Week!

The day after we got the call that we were matched with a social worker, and she would be calling, was suuuuuuch a looooooooong day! I thought for sure she would have called that day! But she didn't and my poor adoption buddy had to hear about my disappointment all day! (She is such a trooper!) At the end of the day, when my son got home from school, in hopes of the application's arrival, I had my son check the mail. After 2 and a half weeks and 4 promises, we finally got it! I was so excited to spend our Friday night filling it out! When I got home, I saw that we also got a smaller envelope from Children's Services and guess what! Our social worker sent us a letter, rather than calling! Who knew people still use snail mail for appointment setting!?!? LOL! We have our first appointment with her on Wednesday at 4:00! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Super excited!
We then spent our weekend in adoption classes, which I enjoy, purely because it brings us closer to adoption. There is always so much negativity, so to counter balance it, I brought in a nice poem (I came across it in an adoption group, I did not write it) for everyone to take home and leave on a brighter note.

Isn't it nice? Our last class is on Saturday!!!!!! We are moving right along! Also, I decided to make the baby's bedding, rather than purchase it because, well, IDK! I just thought it would be fin and cost effective! Here are my inspirations I found tutorials for:

This is the skirt

 

For the sheet

I am buying the rest of the materials this evening! I hope it will come out as nice as these! I am a beginner, ya know!