November is National Adoption Month!!!

So, my friend posted this on her blog, and I thought I would too. Thanks friend!!!

In 1976, Governor Mike Dukakis of Massachusetts proclaimed Adoption Week to bring awareness to the need for adoptive families for children in the foster care system. President Ford followed this proclamation by announcing the first National Adoption Week. In 1990, this one-week was extended to the full month of November. Throughout the Nation, different states and organizations have a plethora of activities, campaigns, and observances. Amidst the month long celebrations there is an actual National Adoption Day (this year it is November 15, 2008).

Each year there is a specific theme and focused promotion of a particular need or topic in adoption. One year it may be a focus on Special Needs adoption, or adopting teenagers, or domestic adoption, or foster parenting, or intercountry adoption, etc.. This year's theme is: "Answering the Call - You don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent. There are thousands of teens in foster care who would love to put up with you."

This month is a month to get active in educating ourselves and others about adoption and about issues surrounding adoption. It is also a time to get active in advocating and promoting laws that will help adoption (ex: a friendly adoption workplace, etc). It is a month to collect donations, volunteer, sponser children who need to be adopted or support a family who is currently in the process of adopting. It is a time to celebrate multicultural families, develop new traditions, and give thanks for our families. For a month full of activites to celebrate National Adoption Awareness go here. For more information on the history of this month, activites, resources, and ideas go to adoption.com or google National Adoption Awareness month. I would encourage each of you to be aware of the adoption scene.

There are millions and millions of children - more than 130 million - both domestically and internationally, who need a home, security, and love. All of us can help in some way, some form, some how. Let's give a hand to adoption.

Voting Day!

Tomorrow is voting day, and I want to personally encourage ALL of you to get out and vote! Regardless of which party you choose to affiliate yourself with, it is a privilege to live in a country where we have the freedom to make these decisions for ourselves.

Plus, this is my opinion...

IF YOU DON'T VOTE, YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR PRESIDENT'S ACTIONS!!!

All I can say is, I'm proud to be an American. Sure our country has its problems, just like any other country. But I'll be doing what I can to take care of those problems by voting. Will you?

I Can See the Light at the End of the Tunnel!

So I really think the paperwork process for adoption is like the "labor" part that adoptive parents go through. But, we are proud to announce that almost all of our paperwork is complete! We have turned in almost all of the hard copy documents that are required. We just have to get them a copy of our temple sealing certificate. We have completed the entire pre-home study online application, and now we just have to create our profile! This is the part I'm nervous about. It's hard to know what to say. There are no words adequate enough to express our love and respect for the men and women out there who consider placing their children for adoption. And I'm just nervous that I won't say the right thing or something. This is the point where we just have to pray and ask that Heavenly Father will guide our words.

Now we just keep working, and waiting for our caseworker to arrange the home study. Then all we have to do is wait for our background checks to come through, and we'll be APPROVED! It's like seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. But of course, after approval, the real fun begins: the waiting game. But we've decided not to use the word "waiting." We prefer to use the word "finding." By that we mean that we're going to do everything within our power to find the RIGHT baby for our family. I hope all of you out there are willing to help us work to find our baby!

Corn Maze and other Halloween Fun!

This past Friday we had a super fun double date with my brother and his wife. We went to a corn maze/haunted hallow/Halloween extravaganza! We go to one every year, and this year we went to one that we haven't been to before. It was awesome! Just enough haunted to be slightly scary, but not pee-your-pants scary. Hubby likes that kind of stuff, but I guess I'm not that adventurous. Anyhow, here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure. So I need your opinion, do you think we should use any of these for our adoption profile?

A Mumbo-Jumbo of Recent Stuff

So I have been so caught up with the adoption process that I haven't really updated any of you on all the other parts of life. So here you go- a load of pictures for your viewing enjoyment! Two of the pictures are of our completed Halloween Gingerbread House of 2008. This is the third year we've made a Halloween gingerbread house, so I guess it's become a family tradition! Two of the pictures are of us with four of our twelve nieces and nephews. Can't you tell that they highly recommend us as parents to our future children? They think we're pretty rad. And I have to say, I can't blame them! :) The other picture is of our nephew "helping" us frost cookies. Don't you love his method?

Woohoo! Getting things done!

So things are moving along pretty steadily with the adoption application stuff. One week ago we had our intake interview and so far we have:

Background Check: Gotten fingerprinted, filled out the application, paid for, and turned it all in
Classes: Taken all the adoption certification courses on Friday and Saturday
AA Study: Half-way through filling it out
Bluestep: Pre-Qualification almost all filled out
Preference Checklist: All done

There's still so much to do, but I've been working on it a little bit each day, and it's coming along!

I'll keep you all posted!

Overwhelmed and Excited!

So yesterday we had our first interview with LDS Family Services! If I could describe my mentality now in two words, they would be "overwhelmed" and "excited." What a mountain of paperwork to complete! But our caseworker, we'll call her Angel, is amazing! She is super positive, and really motivated to help us get our approval pushed through in about 8 weeks. Now the responsibility is ours.

Angel can't get anything done until we complete some of the paperwork, so I started working last night. So far, we filled out the application for our background check, and need to go get our fingerprints taken for that to be done. Since the police department does this any day of the week, our goal is to have that turned in to LDSFS by Friday. I also started working on the AA Study.

Angel said that there are currently about 20 couples in our area whose files are active. Our area has a goal to complete 100 adoptions per year. They have completed about 80 so far. I'm not for sure what this means for our chances to be chosen, but hopefully it's good. But we told Angel last night that we aren't just looking for any child. We are looking for the right child for our family.

So I will be busy busy busy this week filling out paperwork. Then this weekend we'll be going to the marathon adoption certification class. Usually the classes span about a 6 week period, but they want to try condensing them down into two days. This is the first time they're doing it, so we're kind of like the guinea pigs. We will be attending the class on Friday from about 6:00 p.m. to about 8:30 p.m. and Saturday from about 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. It will be a long haul, but it will be really nice to just get them done. And hopefully it will just help to get us approved faster!

We will also be getting involved with our local chapter of FSA (Families Supporting Adoption). They have a lot of people who have volunteered to help couples who are filling out the paperwork, or support for waiting families, or pretty much anything else we may need.

So... buckle in folks. We're going for a bumpy ride. I'll keep you all posted!

Feeling Better and a few tasty tidbits!

Okay, so I know I only posted just a little bit ago, but here's a revise of my news. I talked with our caseworker and she's going to be able to fit us in MONDAY at 5:00 pm instead of waiting until next Friday! Now I'm feeling so much better.

So you want the tasty tidbits?!?!? We're going to be able to take all of our adoption classes October 10th and 11th! It's an adoption class marathon!!! It's amazing that we're going to get all of this done so soon. If we didn't go on the 10th and 11th, we would have to wait until January. I know Heavenly Father is helping us along in this process and it just reaffirms to me that we are pursuing the right avenue to add to our eternal family.

Okay, so the tastiest tidbit of all... our caseworker says that she thinks she can get us approved in TWO months! I told her we would have to get the background check and everything done, and she said that they have been receiving their results back at this office in 4-6 weeks on average. She's going to give us the background check papers Monday, and we're going to get them taken care of right away. That means that we could be considered by birthmothers before the end of the year! I'm so excited about all of this, I almost can't contain it.

Having said all that, I will say that I'm still trying to keep my expectations down and not get too anxious. After all, if I dont expect to be approved for 6-9 months, anything sooner will be a fabulous surprise!