Finally a NEW POST!!!

Ok, so I know it's been a long time since I've posted. I've been getting harassed by a lot of people, so I'm back. I guess I've waited so long to post because quite honestly, our life has been a mess since Jeremy lost his job, so I haven't had anything good to report... but it looks like things are finally turning up for us. Jeremy has finally started working, not for New York Life, (that job ended up falling through :( ) but he is selling auto and home owners insurance, with a guy that my sister Katie and her husband know. He just started last week, and we are praying that this is a great opportunity for us. I must say that we have been so blessed through all of this. We have had a lot going on in our lives, and we have truly seen the Lord's hand at work.

With all of the extra time Jeremy has had, our lawn has never looked better, and our storage space has never been more organized!! We finally got our basement painted, and our upstairs bathroom. I'm trying to decorate the basement, and I'm working on getting my craft room done, that will one day be a baby room. It's in desperate need of paint... and carpet, but the paint will have to do for now! I'll be posting some pictures soon of what we've done. My sister Sara has requested it, seeing as how she's not close enough to come over! I promise I'll be better about posting, now that life is getting back to normal, we'll be able to get our paperwork done and approved, hopefully by the end of the summer!

Quick Update...

Okay, so I've been getting harassed that I haven't posted for a long time! Let me update everyone on what has been going on. First of all, we finished our classes at the end of February. A week after we finished our classes Jeremy lost his job. We had heard that is was a possibility, so he started looking, but it happened a lot sooner than we expected. It has been a hard 2008 for us, but losing his job has been a blessing in disguise. Losing our job, means losing insurance, and losing insurance means the adoption has been put on hold. We are still working on our paperwork, but we can't be approved until we have insurance... ahhhh!!!!! The good news is, we have a job pending! Jeremy has been offered a job working for New York Life as an insurance agent. I say pending because he has to get his insurance license before he can be put on payroll. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks he'll have it and can start working. The best part of the job is that the insurance will start the first day of employment!!!! None of this 90 day waiting period! What a blessing! I must say it has been a hard year for us, but things are looking better!

Our Classes...

Well it's been a few weeks since my last post. Our classes started on the 17th of January. They have been amazing. Last night we had the birth parent panel, and we were able to bring our family and friends. They started the night explaining a little about the adoption process, and about the importance of using the correct terminology. Such as... when a birth mother chooses a couple she "places" her baby, not she "gave up" her baby. Just a few things to help our families understand adoption. Then they introduced a birth mother who placed her baby a few months ago. It was amazing, truly. I've never felt the Spirit like I did last night. This whole process has been so emotional, feeling like you are being judged on every aspect of your life. Your finances, marriage, relationships with your family, your job, your looks... everything. But last night I realized again, that we are supposed to adopt. Despite the emotions, and the heartache, we are supposed to do this. So a little update on where we are at... we have 2 more classes left, and some more paperwork. We've made a dent in it, but only a dent!! We're picking away at it, but there's a lot!

Just a little side note, I had a comment by someone I've never met, Lila. I couldn't find her blog to comment, but we are going through LDS Family Services in Utah. I have researched a lot of different agencies and would love to chat more!

"BUB"

So I know it's been a while since I posted anything new. The past few weeks have been crazy, and emotional. Let me start by re-capping. As part of our adoption, we have to provide references, and only one can be a relative. Jeremy and I decided to ask my grandma, who is affectionately called Bub, if she would be our reference. We asked her after Thanksgiving Dinner and it was quite an experience when she replied, "I'd love to, this is so special, I'm honored" with tears in her eyes. She excitedly asked when the papers would arrive every time we saw her. Finally they arrived on January 5th just one short day before she very unexpectedly passed away. My sweet Bub spent part of her last morning, from what I have been told, working on our reference letter. A notebook was found with her unmistakable perfect handwriting where she wrote out each question and thoughtfully began to answer. It was so sweet to read how she described Jeremy, she loved him, maybe more than me!

I miss and love her so much, but I feel very strongly that she is still playing a vital role in this process for us, she was so excited for us to start our family through adoption and I know she's still very aware of our desire to have children. Some have commented that she probably decided to handle things on the other side, rather than wait for them to happen here. Probably so...

First Interview

Well, we had our first interview today at 3:30 with our caseworker Amber. Things went great! She asked us questions about us, our jobs, basic getting to know you stuff. She also went over the process of getting our paperwork done. It looks like we will be able to have our profile approved by the first of March, which is pretty quick! We had lots of questions, but we feel really good about our decision. When everything was done, she asked us if we wanted to continue with adoption. Of course we said yes, so we filled out our paperwork for our background check and we paid our down payment. So it's official!! We have more paperwork to start filling out, and medical check-ups to get done, and our classes start on January 17th. It's exciting, but I feel overwhelmed! It's been an emotional few days, and I hope we can get this done quickly. Amber told us the average wait is 18 months to 2 years. Oh... that makes my heart hurt!! We are praying it won't take that long!

Getting Started

Hello Family and Friends!!

I'm still trying to figure out how to do all this, but I really want to start documenting our adoption process! Jeremy and I after four years of wanting to start our family have decided to put our adoption papers in! Hooray!!! Our fifth anniversary is quickly approaching, and we have decided it is time to adopt to get our family here. About a week and a half ago we got our first few papers, which we turned in on Monday. Today we were assigned our case worker, and we have our first interview with her on December 13th. The process of just getting to be an approved couple will probably take until the end of February... at least that's the goal, it could take longer. We have a lot of paperwork, home studies, interviews, classes, and did I mention a lot of paperwork!?!? Then we wait... we know there are children that are supposed to come to us. So I'll be documenting our journey to get them here.

I have an amazing book called "Fertile in our Faith" by Krista Ralston Oaks, the way she describes adoption makes me cry every time I read it. She compares adoption to a family reunion, some come to the reunion by train, some fly, some drive, some walk, what matters is who not how they come. So... here we go!