Wait...Stop...Hold On...We're Not Perfect Yet!!

So for the past few days we have been stressing about getting ready for our first home study visit.  Trying to make sure everything is perfectly clean and going over potential questions that we could be asked. Our poor dog Katie even got brought into the adoption stress(she got a bath and a nail grinding). Anyway, the visit went really great.  We were asked to describe each other, give a brief overview of our childhood, and why we chose international adoption. When it was all said and done it wasn't something to stress about. The meeting was relaxed and we were given some useful information.  We still have 2 more interviews and I am sure I am gonna be stressing about those too but at least we know what to expect.  

We are so appreciative of our friends and family and all the support and prayers.  I can not describe how good it was for my parents helping me to get the house clean(for those that know my dad you know how he has high standards). That alone lifted a lot off my shoulders.  Sean and I are so blessed to know that so many people were praying for us today.  Keep praying for us! Pray is the most powerful tool!

So Far No Morning Sickness...But the Paper Cuts Are Terrible

Look at all this paperwork and this is just the beginning! Plus we have already done some of the paperwork. We have a list of about 14 documents that need to be completed or obtained(thats just from our agency not including what our home study agency requires).  In addition to all this paperwork we have to complete 10 hours each of parenting classes.  So in between filling out papers and parenting classes we have to find time to go to work, eat, and sleep. 

UPDATE:
OK so while typing this entry I received an email with the document list from our home study agency. This adds an additional 12 documents to the original 14. So its a total of 26 documents.  This brings the question of HOW MUCH PAPERWORK CAN 2 PEOPLE HANDLE?!  Each piece of paper that is complete is one more step to getting this child home. In the end it is all worth every paper cut!

Just Love Coffee

You may have noticed that we have added a link to our Just Love Coffee Store Front.  We are going to be using this as a fundraiser for our adoption. Just Love Coffees are 100% fair trade. For every bag of coffee purchased through our shopping cart we will receive $5. 

Paper Chase and Christmas Lights

So as you can guess from the title we are doing lots of paper work.  We are starting to gather the documents needed for our dossier.  A dossier is basically a smorgasbord of information about us.  We are going to be very busy for the next couple of months gathering all the necessary documents, filling out forms, and doing our home study.  I have made lists of lists.  I recommend to anyone who is considering adoption or starting an adoption get a filing system going. There is so much paper to keep track of and keep organized.  It is all very overwhelming especially for someone like me who has to be in-control/overly organized all the time.  On the other hand every piece of paper that is completed is one step closer to bringing baby home. 

Christmas is just around the bend and Sean and I can't help but wonder if we will have a little one helping to decorate the Christmas Tree next year. Sean and I were blessed to be able to spend a weekend at the Homestead with great friends to kick off the Christmas season.  We are so blessed to be surrounded by amazing people everyday. 

Now the Fun Begins!

Well today we start all the fun stuff for our Polish Adoption. We received our Approval Letter and Adoption Agreement.  This is one step closer to bringing our little one home! I exclaimed to Sean that we have to make sure to keep our approval letter safe so it can go in the baby book. Its funny the things that come to mind as important when your excited.

As Thanksgiving is only a couple days away it only seems right that good news comes when everyone is remembering what they are thankful for.  So this Thanksgiving Sean and I are thankful for all the experiences that have brought us to this point, our family, our friends, and each other.

Now we just have to let everyone know!

Everyone Waits

We have mailed our application to the adoption agency! Now we are waiting to hear from them.  This is going to be the first of many waiting periods in our adoption.  Myself being the type of person who likes to have control over the situation is going crazy and driving my husband crazy.  I am trying to keep myself busy by doing projects around the house. I am completely sure that by the time our child comes homes I will have driven my husband, family, and friends insane.  I have been working on to-do lists in my head all week and sorting them by how long it will take to complete.  Sean seems to get this glazed over look when I start talking about how much we have to get ready before our little one arrives. However, yesterday in church instead of listening to the sermon he designed a new storage system for our laundry room. So it seems I am wearing off on him.  Well my parents just got here to help paint so off we go.

How We Got Here

I thought my first post should be on how my husband (Sean)and I got to this point in our marriage.  I was like any other young married women who thought that getting pregnant was gonna be easy. I figured I would get pregnant within a couple of months of trying.  However 3 1/2 years later and thousands of dollars worth of fertility treatments and 1 surgery we were no closer to growing our family.  It was a hard decision to decide to stop fertility treatments.  My husband and I went over all the what ifs: What if 1 more treatment was the one that worked? What if we just took a break and then restarted treatments? What if we still didn't get pregnant after all that? And countless more thoughts and ideas.   So with the final decision made to stop treatments and focus back on us as a couple and our marriage the baby talk turned to adoption.  I started doing fact-finding on domestic and international adoption. Even though I did some research on domestic adoption I always figured that we would end up adopting internationally. So...after several months of researching countries and adoption agencies we settled on our short list.  

So with the decision to adopt set in place Sean and I began talking about how to tell our family and friends.  Very few people knew that we were experiencing infertility. Actual the majority of all of our friends and family didn't know about it. We did not know how our families would react to finding out that we were unable to conceive and that we're going to be adopting a child from another country all at once. We didn't want our child be treated any different because he/she was not biologically ours. We began testing the waters so to say by telling our closest friends who had been with us and supported us during our infertility. At this point we decided to tell everyone about the infertility and adoption when we had signed the contract with an adoption agency.  As I am writing this we have not told everyone about our adoption. Our hope is that this blog will help our family and friends understand our decisions to grow our family by adoption and keep everyone updated on the happenings of our adoption.