I love Michael Franti and this video made me cry...
Friday, May 28, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Exhaling...
All together now...exhale...thanks, we needed that.
So the home visit took place on Saturday and go figure, it went great! Alexis came to our house and we spent six hours chatting. The interview was really wonderful - both of us had a chance to talk about our childhood, high school and college experiences, and our relationship with each other. It was a lot. Beyond just talking about ourselves, we also talked a lot about what it means to adopt, be a part of an open adoption and possibly a transracial adoption. Alexis even threw us a few curve ball questions for us to think about how we would react. We really appreciated the fact that she is an adopted child and had a lot of insight for us and is an excellent resource for our hundreds of questions. All in all, she is great and we feel lucky to have her helping us through this process.
We feel quite exhausted after this weekend - not only because it was a long day on Saturday but really because of the way we built the home visit up in our heads. We were nervous, not about "passing" the visit, but rather about how close we are really getting to the end of this 'hurry up and wait period.' It has been paperwork, fingerprints, family book making, etc up until now...now we need to talk about our motivation to adopt and our pasts...now we actually are reflecting and not just doing. It is exhausting to reflect and process.
We also had a lot of anticipation for what this home visit would be like. Of course we googled and checked out every blog out there to skim other experiences, but in the end still had no idea what it would be like for us. To our surprise the meeting was pretty uneventful and non-climatic. It was just a talk, nothing more, and quite easy. Of course for the rest of the evening I replayed every moment of the meeting in my head (and out loud to David) wondering if we impressed upon Alexis how much this meant to us and how great of parents we would be...thank goodness David is so patient! But as I said above, the visit was great and we feel good.
We have a final follow up meeting with Alexis in two weeks where we will see a draft of her write up and answer any final questions she may have. I look forward to seeing her final product! Then we have our class in June and we are officially in the pool. Can't wait to dive in.
Stay tuned...
So the home visit took place on Saturday and go figure, it went great! Alexis came to our house and we spent six hours chatting. The interview was really wonderful - both of us had a chance to talk about our childhood, high school and college experiences, and our relationship with each other. It was a lot. Beyond just talking about ourselves, we also talked a lot about what it means to adopt, be a part of an open adoption and possibly a transracial adoption. Alexis even threw us a few curve ball questions for us to think about how we would react. We really appreciated the fact that she is an adopted child and had a lot of insight for us and is an excellent resource for our hundreds of questions. All in all, she is great and we feel lucky to have her helping us through this process.
We feel quite exhausted after this weekend - not only because it was a long day on Saturday but really because of the way we built the home visit up in our heads. We were nervous, not about "passing" the visit, but rather about how close we are really getting to the end of this 'hurry up and wait period.' It has been paperwork, fingerprints, family book making, etc up until now...now we need to talk about our motivation to adopt and our pasts...now we actually are reflecting and not just doing. It is exhausting to reflect and process.
We also had a lot of anticipation for what this home visit would be like. Of course we googled and checked out every blog out there to skim other experiences, but in the end still had no idea what it would be like for us. To our surprise the meeting was pretty uneventful and non-climatic. It was just a talk, nothing more, and quite easy. Of course for the rest of the evening I replayed every moment of the meeting in my head (and out loud to David) wondering if we impressed upon Alexis how much this meant to us and how great of parents we would be...thank goodness David is so patient! But as I said above, the visit was great and we feel good.
We have a final follow up meeting with Alexis in two weeks where we will see a draft of her write up and answer any final questions she may have. I look forward to seeing her final product! Then we have our class in June and we are officially in the pool. Can't wait to dive in.
Stay tuned...
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Lots to Update
We haven't updated the blog in a while - we have been busy. First, we have finally finished our family book and are ready to share it with the world! You can find the final version here. We spent days locating appropriate pictures and finding the right words and we are so happy with the final product - 15 copies are on their way to our agency for showing to birthparents! Thanks to Kathy and Josh for helping us put the final touches on the book!
Whew! Glad that hurdle has been jumped.
We also found out (finally) that David's background check has been cleared. So really the only thing we are waiting on is my medical form. My appointment is next week, so we can basically check that off.
Some more exciting news is that we are scheduled to have our homestudy interview completed this Saturday! The social worker called us yesterday and set up our 5 hour (yes, 5 hours) visit for this weekend. We are busy cleaning and trying not to be nervous.
Thanks again, can't wait to update you all after we have the homestudy interview complete!
Whew! Glad that hurdle has been jumped.
We also found out (finally) that David's background check has been cleared. So really the only thing we are waiting on is my medical form. My appointment is next week, so we can basically check that off.
Some more exciting news is that we are scheduled to have our homestudy interview completed this Saturday! The social worker called us yesterday and set up our 5 hour (yes, 5 hours) visit for this weekend. We are busy cleaning and trying not to be nervous.
Thanks again, can't wait to update you all after we have the homestudy interview complete!
Monday, May 10, 2010
New Clothes
Okay, had to post these pics of the adorable clothes Sarah, Matt and Henry gave us! Thank you for the head start on some hip clothes! We love them...now to find a place to put them...hmm
Moving on up...
So we finished the darn family book...finally! We ordered our first copy a few days ago and are waiting to see the copy before we order all of the others for the agency to start showing families. They already have a brief letter and a few pictures of us that they printed out to show a birth mom, but now we will soon have a real family book. It feels good to have that done.
When thinking about all of the things that we had to do for the adoption (so far at least) the family book really didn't rise to the top as something that I thought would be so hard, boy was I wrong. Trying to encapsulate your life in 20 pages or less, mostly pictures, is really hard. Especially if you are trying to find pictures that make you look like you will be a good parent. I can tell you that all of the pictures I have taken over the years, not once did I ever think, "hmm, will this picture be good for my family book? Do I look like I would be a good parent?" It was hard, but I must say, the book is one fine album and I am quite happy with it. Once we approve it, I will share a link to the online version (in Shutterfly). However, I will warn you, when I do share it with you, they will all be printed and handed out, so if you notice something funny...don't mention it!
In other paperwork, my background and criminal history are all cleared (whew...) and David passed his medical physical (whew again).
When thinking about all of the things that we had to do for the adoption (so far at least) the family book really didn't rise to the top as something that I thought would be so hard, boy was I wrong. Trying to encapsulate your life in 20 pages or less, mostly pictures, is really hard. Especially if you are trying to find pictures that make you look like you will be a good parent. I can tell you that all of the pictures I have taken over the years, not once did I ever think, "hmm, will this picture be good for my family book? Do I look like I would be a good parent?" It was hard, but I must say, the book is one fine album and I am quite happy with it. Once we approve it, I will share a link to the online version (in Shutterfly). However, I will warn you, when I do share it with you, they will all be printed and handed out, so if you notice something funny...don't mention it!
In other paperwork, my background and criminal history are all cleared (whew...) and David passed his medical physical (whew again).
Thursday, May 6, 2010
1st Draft of Portfolio = DONE!
So we stayed up way too long last night working on our portfolio and trying to get our first draft to our agency - but we did it! For those of you not yet in touch with adoption lingo, our portfolio is essentially a family album, filled with pictures and stories about us, our lifestyle, our family, our friends, etc.
As a serious crafter I might even say it was fun to put together. Even above the crafting part, it was great fun to look at a bunch of our pictures and remember all of those great times. However, with that said, I also have to complain a little at how hard it was to find pictures of David and I together, without our sunglasses and not making funny faces! Who knew that would be the most difficult part of making the book.
Anyways, the draft link to the book has been sent and we are now so much closer to being officially in the waiting pool, even though we are practically their right now.
Our trip to MT was wonderful. Three of my close friends that I spent time with are either new moms or currently pregnant. It was a lot of fun to swap stories and experiences, we all had a lot to share! In addition to the story swaps, there was some generous hand me downs handed to me for the little one (we really need to come up with a better name than this, I know). Such cute stuff...pics to come soon of my favorite little clothes. My favorite part about the hand me downs is that when we dress the little one up in these clothes I will be also thinking about the ones who gave them to me.
Must get going on my day of work.
As a serious crafter I might even say it was fun to put together. Even above the crafting part, it was great fun to look at a bunch of our pictures and remember all of those great times. However, with that said, I also have to complain a little at how hard it was to find pictures of David and I together, without our sunglasses and not making funny faces! Who knew that would be the most difficult part of making the book.
Anyways, the draft link to the book has been sent and we are now so much closer to being officially in the waiting pool, even though we are practically their right now.
Our trip to MT was wonderful. Three of my close friends that I spent time with are either new moms or currently pregnant. It was a lot of fun to swap stories and experiences, we all had a lot to share! In addition to the story swaps, there was some generous hand me downs handed to me for the little one (we really need to come up with a better name than this, I know). Such cute stuff...pics to come soon of my favorite little clothes. My favorite part about the hand me downs is that when we dress the little one up in these clothes I will be also thinking about the ones who gave them to me.
Must get going on my day of work.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Fast Track
So last Thursday our agency called me and asked if we would be okay with quickly (i.e. doing Thursday evening) putting together a profile with a dear expectant parent letter and pictures. They wanted to show a birth mom our profile...huh? We haven't even turned in our contract?!
Apparently since we are from Oregon and completely open to race this birth mom was looking for folks like us. We were on our way out of town to hang with some friends in MT, so our drive there and back consisted of cobbling together a letter and starting to put together a portfolio. Crazy.
We were not expecting to be scurrying around this soon, but I do have to admit it is so exciting. It seems we are on the fast track now. For all of you still writing our reference letters...please get them in!
Apparently since we are from Oregon and completely open to race this birth mom was looking for folks like us. We were on our way out of town to hang with some friends in MT, so our drive there and back consisted of cobbling together a letter and starting to put together a portfolio. Crazy.
We were not expecting to be scurrying around this soon, but I do have to admit it is so exciting. It seems we are on the fast track now. For all of you still writing our reference letters...please get them in!
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