Final Steps

Hello All!

*Warning: Extremely Long Post* ...but please read, there's pictures!    : ) 

Since I haven't updated in so long I figured I'd do a couple separate entries of the past happenings in our life!

Individual Interviews

On September 26th we completed our individual interviews. We really weren't that nervous but we definitely didn't know what to expect. I have to admit I was excited to take the day off from subbing! ...and I was BEYOND excited to be getting one step closer to finishing up this process...plus I ADORE walking into the Bethany office and doing anything that has to do with adoption...so all in all it was a great day before it even started!
I interviewed first because I didn't want to be the one who had to sit for an hour-and-a-half waiting for my turn.So, Daniel, being the amazing husband that he is, agreed to go second...not that I gave him much of a choice. The interviews were more of conversations than questions and answers. She went over our Self Studies (the huge books we wrote on ourselves) and clarified any questions she had. She asked me one question and then told me I had been extremely thorough and did a great job! Whew! Daniel on the other hand...she had lots of questions for him...haha!
Anyway, so after being in there for what seemed like forever I figured she would wrap it up any minute. But then she proceeded to ask 8 questions that she asks everyone. These were basically questions designed to get us to start thinking about things that we might face with an adopted child. For example, a biological child will never come home from school telling us he had to tell others about his birth mom and the other students were confused. How would we parent in situations similar to these?  What have I read or done to prepare to adopt transracially? Etc.
By the end of the interview, it was a huge relief to be finished but I could have kept on talking to her for hours. I love our social worker. She is very blunt and factual but she is very good at what she does. You know that if she approves you, she definitely believes you are ready to adopt. It's definitely encouraging and has helped us feel that we are actually capable of doing this!
After the interviews we decided to treat ourselves by going on a date to one of our favorite restaurants! We are really trying to live on a budget so we hadn't eaten out in quiet a while (like 3 weeks...which was a VERY long time for us at the time! Sad, but true). We ate at Maggiano's. I love the atmosphere of that place...and the food isn't bad either! Then, we walked around the mall just for fun. We were one step closer!

Home Visit

So Daniel has already blogged about this somewhat. I was more anxious than nervous. Same thing? Maybe. Anyway, I had worked VERY hard on this house well, really...for the last year. I think I've mentioned before that my sister came a year ago and gave me a jumpstart on organization tips. We threw out a ton and put quadruple that in a yard sale. I NEVER would have been able to make the progress on the house that I did if she hadn't come. Since starting the nursery, I did rearrange a few rooms and continued to clean out, throw away, and organize.
The weekend before the social worker came my dad surprised me with a visit (YAY!!!) and put the crib up with me which made me beyond happy...he is a carpenter so I have memories of working in his woodshed with him so putting the crib up together was so awesome. Then revival started at church so needless to say I was way too busy to even think much about the home visit. That turned out to be a great thing because I know I would have sat here being ridiculously nervous waiting for the day to come.
The time finally arrived and the 3 of us sat right down and completed what we want our adoption plan to look like. We went over all the paperwork to make sure she had everything. We gave her a nice big fat check and the tour started, which consisted of zooming through the house in about five minutes!! I was SO relieved. She definitely didn't look inside any cupboards or swipe surfaces for dust!

I have to admit there was a lot that went into this whole adoption process but I am so grateful for everything it required. We were forced to think about a lot of issues, deal with things from the past, communicate about our present and future, and clean out every corner, closet, and drawer in our house. Our house has never looked this good in all our days together. I am DETERMINED to keep it that way! I figured I would leave you with a couple of pictures of the house.

This pic is just for fun because I love my purple, grape containers. They are currently emptied...I tossed all the candy...my sister would be proud.

Here is the living room. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE my curtains! My mom spent some time here and for some reason we got to talking about curtains and we discovered that at night you could see crystal clear shadows through the windows! Needless to say, we went straight out the next day to buy curtains. We thought it would be a lot easier than it was..but by the end of the day we had curtains I simply adore. They consist of, believe it or not, plain, simple block out light curtains from Wal-Mart. Then, in front I put a panel of beads on the right and left side. The effect was exactly what I wanted..something that would pull the living and dining rooms together, would go with the current furniture but also new furniture (if we ever get new furniture! ha!). I really didn't think I would find something as much as I like these!

Here is an up-close pic...not the greatest but what I had.

Dining Room with old bedroom curtains...I didn't plan on having red curtains in here but it just worked out that way and looks perfectly fine!

Dining Table with a fall/winter theme...not sure what I will do in the spring and summer since I love how this looks right now! Maybe I'll just leave it year-round!

Another just cause pic. My best friend took this pic of the hubby and me and helped me find the candle accents for 6 bucks a piece. Can't beat that!

This is a work in progress, my goal is to fill the area with pics of friends and family from past and present.

Our final step is ordering our profile book! It is complete but we are waiting on the approval from our social worker. I actually made the book twice. The social worker wasn't thrilled with the 'boringness' of the first one. I wholeheartedly agreed with her but once I had started I didn't want to take the time to re-do it. I had used a pre-made template so fixing it would basically require redoing it. Well, since we both felt it was pretty boring I decided to bite the bullet and redo the whole blasted thing...I mean beautiful, glorious thing. Actually, I copy and pasted the wording and used the same pics as the old book...just made it a whole lot more fun to read! I hope. She told us she LOVES the new book but we're not for sure if she has approved everything we wrote so we're waiting to hear from her. The second we do I'm hitting the order button!
The social worker's goal is to have our Home Study written by Nov. 21st or before. At this time, our profile will be shown to prospective birth families. The time is drawing near! Who knows, we could be pregnant right now!

Prayer Requests:
1. We need $$! We are still about $6000 short of our goal. In order for a baby to be placed with us, we have to have the complete amount of money.
2. Pray for our future birthmom/family.
3. Pray that God would prepare us!

Thanks for all your support!

Megan