Thursday, March 19, 2009

turned in!

the paperwork is turned in! praise the Lord :) so now, the waiting game begins...

we have 8.5 weeks until we begin classes in May. please pray for perseverance and that we would get a lot done around the house in between now and then. preparing for a baby in 3 months is harder than we imagined but it's totally worth it!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

the paper pregnancy...


well, our paperwork has been officially done for over a week now! i am impressed that we actually got everything done so quickly and am glad to finally get the monkey off our back so we could move on to the next thing. we are also both re-certified in cpr and have our handy dandy cards to prove it :) we are just waiting on 2 of our personal references and then we're ready to turn in the paperwork!!! i'm hoping that we will get everything tonight so that we can go tomorrow on my lunch break and turn everything in. now we can focus on all the stuff around the house that needs to be child-proofed and up to snuff for our safety inspection part of the home study...oh fun!


also, i went out this weekend and bought some fabric to begin my first baby blanket!!! while i was shopping for the material i was having a debate about getting neutral colors or just getting blue stuff. after realizing that they didn't have the lime green and chocolate brown fabric that i liked, i folded and got the baby blue stuff. i guess i can just chalk the blanket up to a little bit of wishful thinking!! i mean, come on, we've got about a trillion little baby boy outfits that my sister has passed on to us from sam, so we've got to put them to use!


anyways, so that's where we are now. i'm so happy to get this process moving along and to know that we have less than 2 months until we begin our classes!!! the finish line is near and sometimes that really freaks me out and other times i just want to jump for joy...


God is so faithful so i can't wait to see where He takes us!!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

parenting here we come!


we've officially began the application process to become state approved foster parents!!! this means we are also officially on our way to hopefully becoming adoptive parents as well :) after about 5 months of praying and considering foster-to-adopt as the route to take to begin our family, we are finally on our way! the meeting on tuesday night was very informative. after everything i've been reading on the internet and in books, it was nice to get some information from the source for once. the meeting covered the basics of the program and we got to mingle with a few other folks hoping to adopt through the process as well. although, we were the only couple from the group who signed up for the saturday training classes, who knows, we might still bump into the same people again sometime throughout this process.

anyways, yesterday i spent every free moment furiously reading through all the paperwork they gave us to fill out (looks like a small novel) and trying to wrap my head around this crazy process. some of the questions asked are harder than i ever imagined, but i guess i would want them answered too if i were placing my child in another person's care. there's just so much to do, but i am determined to get it done in a timely fashion! as we left the meeting, i told ryan that i wanted to have everything turned in by early next week. obviously i had not really read over everything then, but that's just not physically possible!!!! neither of us have general physicians here in louisville anymore so we both are going to a new doctor next week so we can have our physicals completed. now, with everything considered, i'm shooting to have everything turned in by Monday, March 16th but we'll see! also, i've made a long list of "to dos" already before our home worker comes out to our house. here's what i've got so far:

-re-install smoke detectors in bedrooms (we took these down when we were painting and they still haven't made it up yet!)
-verify dogs' licenses with the state and put their proper tags on
-remove the gun and ammunition from the house (ok - so this is not necessary, but ryan has an old gun and doesn't have a gun lock for it or anything, so i just want it out of the house altogether)
-buy a small first aid kit
-reorganize medicine and possibly get a medicine lock box
-get a lock for the gate on the pool
-check expiration date on our fire extinguisher and replace if necessary
-get a new driver's license (true confession - i've never gotten a new once since the townhouse we lived in when we first got married. we've now moved 3 times since then...ooops!)
-make sure all cleaning supplies are out of the reach of kids (not sure where this is going to be yet but we'll see)
-sign up for CPR classes and a baby care class
-shop, shop, SHOP!! - i am soooo lucky to have more baby boy clothes than i could ever need thanks to my sister but i want to start getting some things we will need in case we get a last minute call (or a baby girl!)

so, all and all, we are just pumped!!!! i can't believe that it is happening so soon but at the same time, i feel like i can't stand the wait. now, we're just hoping and praying that everything works out with ryan's new job so that we can commit to the may classes. thanks for all your prayers through this process. i am excited to see what God is going to do through this experience in our lives and the lives of those of you who care for us and are praying for us!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

going to "the doctor"


today i get a call from ryan and he says excitedly to me, "we're going to the doctor today!". "huh??" i replied. i was definitely perplexed because we have no plans of going to the doctor today or any day in the near future, at least that i knew of. "yes, we're going to the doctor today", he insisted. i was very confused until finally he clarified, "tonight's the info meeting for foster-to-adopt. it's basically like we're going to the doctor for our first appointment after finding out we're pregnant." :) all i could do was smile at his sweet thought and excitement.

so, yes...tonight we're going to "the doctor", aka - the foster to adopt info meeting!! this is our first official step in the adoption process and i'm sooooo excited! i cannot wait to know what God has in store for our family and to get one step closer to bring our little one home. the excitement has been building for awhile now but to actually get the initial information and start filling out paperwork, makes it all very real! while i know this is not the traditional way to start a family, i am sure that it is just as good as any other way and is the way our Father has called us to do it so i cannot wait to see what he brings from it!! i hope we can meet some other couples going through the same excitement as us and who may be in our same classes this may.

i am PUMPED!!