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).

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.

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!