All in favor say, 'I'...

Anyone been waiting for and update?!

Well it's not too exciting because we are still trying to finish our profile.

Wow it's been awhile since I've posted (I'm sorry).

Since my last post, we did do our interviews, classes, and home study. They all were nothing to worry about (even though I did stress out about them).

The Interviews

We both went in for our individual interviews, I was kind of nervous, wondering what they were going to ask us. But it was no big deal at all! It was just like having a conversation with someone that was trying to get to know you...

Do you have any family traditions?

Tell me about each one of your siblings: name, age, relationship with them, so forth

Have you had any traumatic experiences in your life?

and so forth.

We PASSED!

The Classes

I loved LOVED the classes!

They use to spread the classes over a six week period (from what I've heard), but now they do it in one weekend. Which made for some long days, but I'm glad we could get it done quickly!

We went on Friday evening after work from 6-9 PM and the next day from 9AM-5PM. In the classes they have 3 panels. We got to hear from birth moms and dad, adoptive parents, and people who were adopted. It was very interesting and helpful to hear every one's stories! We laughed, we cried, we smiled, we felt love and peace, and we have hope!

It was so fun to get to meet with some of the other couples that were going through the same thing and to be able to talk with them, I wish we would have had some more time to talk with them. All in all I loved the classes and the day didn't seem so long after all.

We PASSED!

The Home Study

My husband will tell you that I stressed out a little too much over this one! Not that I thought it was going to be hard, I just wanted my house to be as close to perfect as I could get it.

We have 2 bedrooms upstairs, one being ours and the other one has always been an office/junk room (you know, "if you don't know what to do with it, throw it in this room"). Well this room will become our nursery, so we decided that it would be a good idea to at least have the room empty and painted waiting to put a baby and baby furniture in it. So we started the long process of moving everything out and of course I ended up organizing just about every other closet and cupboard in the house so I could make room for all of our other stuff. Well the week before the Home Study, I realized that I had 2 messy, unorganized rooms. And I know that it didn't matter to the caseworker, I could have just told her that I was working on getting things organized, but I don't like people to see my house messy, so I kicked my butt into gear and got it done. Which I am so glad because now I don't have to worry about it anymore.

(This is what our computer room used to look like and I'll post pictures later of the end result, this may take awhile. Maybe I'll post some in between pics as well.)

Well anyway I got my house spotless (mostly) and we had our caseworker come over on an early Saturday morning. She came in and we sat down and we talked and told her about our house so she could jot down some notes.

Tell me about all the rooms in your house.

Where do you keep your cleaners? Medications?

Are there very many kids that live in the neighborhood?

How is the traffic through here?

and so forth.

And then we took her on a tour and that was it! The only thing we need to get in the future is those covers that go on your basement window-sills.

We PASSED!

and Now...

All that we have left to do is write a letter to the birth parents (this will go on our profile) and upload a copy of our most recent tax form. I have been putting both of these off. I feel like such a slacker because we are so close! Hopefully we will get these done very soon. After we get everything in, our caseworker has to write up a 9 page paper on us (from what I understand) before we can be approved. She has already been working on this, which is fabulous! Hopefully I will have some good news soon on being approved!

Also soon after we are approved we would like to send out a letter/pass-a-long card and such about our hope to adopt and some info on us. I sure I will do a post on this, but if you would like to get something in the mail and I don't already have your address, you can send me your address to my email... mosser1023@yahoo.com.

Thank you and sorry for such a LONG post! Hopefully we will talk to you again soon.

Update!

Well we have set up some of our final appointments.

1. We go in on this Wednesday to have our individual interviews

2. Friday and Saturday we go to the adoption classes

3. On the 28th we have our Home Study

In the meantime, we are working on our Profile and going over our paperwork to make sure we answered every question. We still have a few bits and pieces to fill out, but it's coming along!

emotions

Today my emotions are high...

I attended the Funeral of Adrianne McBride, age 23. She died in a car accident.

I didn't know her, but her sister, Melissa works at Capelli Hair with me. I can't imagine what her and her family are going through right now. My thoughts and prayers are with you!

I cried my eyes out for 2 hours during the funeral service. It was beautiful and the spirit was so strong there. What an amazing family!

May Peace be with you!

To answer a few questions...

Here are just a few questions that we have been asked a lot lately...

How much longer is the process until we are approved?

Well that is mostly up to us! The paperwork takes a LONG time, there are so many questions! After that is all done we have to make appointments for our individual interviews and then an appointment for our home study where they just come out to our home and basically make sure that it's a safe place! Last but not least we have to go to some classes and those are on February 20th and 21st. We have already sent in our background checks so hopefully those won't take too long (they normally only take 2 weeks, but I've heard of people having to wait months!).

I have also been working on an adoption blog to go along with our profile. When I get it finished I'll give you a link so you can view it!

Do we want a boy or girl?

Either. We just want a healthy baby. Plus, when you get pregnant you can't choose, so we are not going to choose.

Do we want an open or closed adoption?

This one we have thought a lot about and are still not 100% sure on what we will do. We have heard a lot of people's stories and that has helped us a little bit, but every one's story is different. I do know that we want to meet the birth parents! We want to be able to tell our child about their birth parents and have a picture to show them. We are open to discuss an open relationship with the birth mom to decide what is best for the child.

These are all the questions I can think of right now, if you have any others, feel free to ask!

Funny conversation...

WARNING: There is content that may be inappropriate for readers under the age of 18.

I just had to post this, I thought it was hilarious!

So today I was filling out more paperwork and asked Remi if he would get started on his. The conversation went something like this...

Me: Hey will you start your paperwork today?

Rem: Will you just do it for me?

Me: No way!

Rem: Why can't we just have sex to have children? I hate filling out paperwork!

Me: Well the sex thing isn't working for us as far as getting pregnant goes, so we have to fill out paperwork to get children.

Rem: How about I sex you and you fill out my paperwork then?!

Making Progress

On Wednesday we met our CASE WORKER, her name is Shantel Pettit. We love her already! She was so easy going and helpful. Basically all the first meeting is learning about every step of adoption, what we will be going through. Then we just talked and she got to know us. Then we paid our $1,000 deposit to be able to get our paperwork. This is what made it very official! We then went home and Remi had to go to work, but I got started on the paperwork right away! Most of it was just passing out papers to our employers, doctors, and references. I filled out our background checks and financial records and the hardest one was our Child Preferences Form: what race do you want, what medical things are you willing and able to handle, and how open of a relationship do you want with the birth parents. We had been talking about this a lot already so we had already made a lot of decisions prior to filling out this one! Well today is Saturday and most of that paperwork is taken care of!

Yesterday we received our login and password to fill out a whole bunch more paperwork online! WOW there is a ton! I have been on the computer for about 3 hours tonight filling stuff out and I'm not even close to half way through it. There are some great question though, they really make sure that you are ready for a child. Which I think we most defiantly are! We are so excited and working hard on trying to get all this paperwork done as fast as possible!

I just want to say thank you to those who have commented on the blog and to those I have talked to in person. You really are such a support to us and thank you for all your prayers!

Exciting news!

Remi and I are excited to announce...

that we are putting in our adoption papers!

Some of you may already know that we have been struggling with infertility for the past couple of years. We are still working with the doctors, but have decided to keep our options open. Remi has always been open to adoption and I've always said that if it ever came down to it, I would defiantly do it, I just never thought it would come down to it. So for me, I struggled a little bit making this decision. I've always dreamed and longed for the day that I could see what my children looked like and what features and personality they had from me and Rem. But we don't know how long it is going to take us to get pregnant, so we have opened our minds and our hearts towards adoption! And now I can't even tell you how excited I am about our decision! It feels so right! I know this is what we are supposed to be doing! So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers, they will be greatly appreciated!

Since our announcement, we have had so many questions and everyone wanting to know what's going on and to keep them updated on everything. So to make it easier, I have decided to post it all on here!

We are going through LDS family services. We have gone to the orientation, put in an application, and our bishop has sent in some paperwork on us. We meet with our case worker on Wednesday! We are so excited to meet with her and start the process. From what I understand, it will take a few months before we are approved. There is a lot involved: interviews, paperwork, house visits, background checks, classes, and who knows what else?? So once we are approved we will send out a letter and pass-along card of some sort to start spreading the word! They tell you to tell everyone you know and have them to tell everyone they know, because a lot of the time that is how you get a baby. So please help us out in our journey to starting our family! We love you and will keep you updated!

Thanks for your support and prayers!