Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Homestudy Interviews Scheduled

Yesterday we received a call from the director of Hope's Promise letting us know that our file has been reviewed and we are cleared for the next step!  The next phase involves 3 different interviews with a case worker who has been assigned to us for the remainder of our adoption journey.  Our first interview is both Karl and I together and it will be on December 27th.  The second interview is each of us individually and that will be on January 3rd.  The individual interviews will be pretty lengthy at 2 hours each!   Finally, the 3rd interview will be in our home on January 5th.  This is basically to inspect our home and make sure it is safe for a child.  We're not too nervous but it sure will be nice to have these done!

We were talking yesterday about how smooth this whole process has been for us.  Throughout our time of infertility it was so frustrating because everything was out of our control.  When we started the adoption process it was very exciting because it felt like we had some control in the matter. For example: which agency we chose, when to start the process, how quickly we wanted to get the paperwork done, ect.  Then we went to our training through the agency and one of the things that kept being brought up was, letting go of all  our expectations.  It was good for us to hear this and also remember that ultimately it's all in God's hands anyways and He already knows the exact timing of this whole process for us.  We've tried to just let go of our expectations and know that when it happens, it's in His perfect timing.  God has blessed us tremendously with an experience that seems to be painless and even enjoyable!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Fingerprints are back!

Today we received a call from the agency letting us know they received our FBI fingerprints in the mail!  After hearing it can take up to 12 weeks, we had totally settled in for a long wait.  It took exactly 8 weeks, to the day, for them to be processed.  Todays call came as a bit of a surprise!  This is officially the last thing we needed to move forward.  Our entire packet has been handed over to the director of Hope's Promise for her to review.  Once she has looked everything over (probably mid to late next week), we will be getting a call to schedule our first home study interview. It's starting to become real to us!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

One Step Closer

This past week we moved forward a step!  We finally received our Colorado Springs local background check.  It was supposed to take only 5 weeks for processing but ours was received after about a 7 week wait.  If there's one thing we are learning on this journey, it is patience!  This was the last item on our checklist we needed to get done before we could turn our whole packet of paperwork into the agency.  On Wednesday, we checked and double checked everything in our pile to make sure it was all complete.  This includes our autobiographies, financial statements, questionnaires, doctors reports, insurance information and much more.  Being the anal person that I am, and not completely trusting USPS, I personally delivered our paperwork to the agency!  It wasn't necessarily that I thought it would get processed that much sooner if I delivered it. I just couldn't imagine what we would do if this precious package, full of so many hours of work, got lost in the mail!  After reviewing our paperwork, the agency called to let us know that it was all complete and everything looked good.  The last thing we need to move forward are the FBI fingerprint clearances.  These typically take anywhere from 6-12 weeks to be completed and we are now approaching 8 weeks.  Once the agency receives our fingerprints, they will call us to schedule our home study interviews.   We are hopeful they will be calling us any day!

Right now we are appreciating the break from adoption paperwork and  just enjoying normal life.  Please pray for our fingerprints to come back quickly and for patience for the wait!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Grateful

Throughout the past couple weeks with celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas rapidly approaching we've had many thoughts running through our minds. First, we are so completely grateful for our family and friends who have been such an amazing support to us throughout our journey of infertility and now with our adoption. This road is not always an easy one and we are so blessed to have these people by our side to encourage and pray for us. Secondly, we feel such an amazing joy for the excitement God has given us for adoption. It is such a blessing that God has chosen us to adopt a child into our family just as He adopted us into His. This journey has already been a life changing experience and we know it's only going to get better!

So as Christmas approaches, we are thrilled for the joy He has put in our hearts and the opportunities He has entrusted us with. At a time when it's so easy to loose track of the real meaning of the season, we are grateful. Grateful for what He has done for us and how He continues to take care of His children. Grateful for the peace and joy He has put in our hearts, and last but definitely not least, for the baby that will be joining our family!

Please don't be offended if you don't receive a Christmas card from us this year. We have decided to take the year off and focus our time, energy and money on our adoption. Merry Christmas!

Blessings,
Karl and Amy

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Baby Project

Over the last couple weeks we have been working on our first baby project.  This is aside, of course, from the actually project of the adoption itself!  We found an antique dresser on Craigslist which was in great need of repair and re-finishing.  It's been fun working on the dresser and seeing it transform into a really neat piece of furniture.  Additionally, it's been nice having something to work on for the baby while we are in this waiting process for our remaining paperwork.  Here are some before and after pictures of the dresser.


Dresser before any touching up.

The finished project!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Waiting...

Last week we finished all of the paperwork within our control.  It is such a great feeling!  However, now we are waiting for things to come through that are totally out of our control.  We are still watching the mailbox for our background checks, fingerprinting and insurance verification.  Once we get these three things we will be able to turn our whole stack of paperwork into the agency and start the homestudy interview process.  Even though our mound of tasks was overwhelming and daunting at least it was up to us how fast it was completed.  I'm not enjoying waiting on other people to complete these last couple things! 

Today I started working on our scrapbook the birth mothers will look through when they are deciding on an adoptive family.  I knew this would be a hard step and my feelings are proving true!  How on earth are we supposed to pick only a handful of pictures that portray our life?!  I just keep asking myself, "What would I want to see in a family if I were placing my baby up for adoption?". 

While we're waiting we continue living our lives as a family.  This past week my mom and sister came to town for a quick visit.  We officially started our baby shopping by making our first trip to Babies "R" Us.  It's so exciting to me that we finally get to begin our preparations for baby!  As with any adoption there are many unknowns with the timing of when we will bring our baby home.  There is no waiting list, we are put into a pool and chosen by the birth mother.  They have told us the average waiting time is 11 months but that we should also be prepared to get chosen right away.  We know everything happens in God's timing and that He already has the perfect baby in mind to join our family.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Training

This past weekend we attended a two day training course put on by our agency.  The state of Colorado requires adoptive parents to complete 16 hours of training before they will place a child in your home.  I went into the training with an attituded of just wanting it to be over so we could cross another thing off our list.  Boy was I surprised and impressed with our agency and the production they gave!  They addressed issues I didn't think we would be confronted with since we are adopting from birth.  Even infants can suffer trauma from being separated from their mother, the only voice and heartbeat they have ever heard.  We were taught ways to diminish this anxiety and how we can be involved to develop the trust the baby will need. 

The second day they had a panel of birth mothers who gave their story and how they came to the decision to place their baby for adoption.  I didn't know it would get so emotional!  This part of the training was the most meaningful to Karl and I.  We had planned to pursue an open adoption with the birth mother but without having met her, it's hard to know what this relationship is going to look like.  And while many people have concerns about keeping the mother involved, studies and experience have shown the child to be a more adjusted individual if they know their birth mother and the story of where they came from.  These women have made an amazingly brave choice to place their child up for adoption and they just want to know what their child's life looks like. 

We left with an abundance of information.  It was also very neat because there were two couples at the training who we knew!  It's such a small world.  One of them we knew in Phoenix 7 years ago and didn't even know they lived here!  We left the weekend with new friends and reunited with old friends, all of us in this journey together.    

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Our Adoption Route

Now that we've chosen adoption we will fill you in on the route of adoption we are taking.  Because the infant stage has always been very important to me we have been drawn to the domestic infant program.  After doing much research into agencies in our area we decided to go with a local agency in Castle Rock called Hope's Promise.  www.hopespromise.com


So far we have submitted our initial application with basic information and our statement of faith because it is a Christian agency.  Even though it didn't come as a shock, we were excited to get the acceptance letter!  The next step was signing our contract and them handing over to us a HUGE binder of paper and tasks to be completed.  Currently we are in the process of lots of writing, paper chasing and waiting on government departments for fingerprinting, background checks, etc.  After all of this is completed and turned in to the agency our home study will begin.  This includes 3 visits with a social worker interviewing us on our past, current life and goals for our future.  Once the home study is complete we are approved to be included in the waiting pool.  We will also be creating a scrapbook profile of who we are and what our family looks like.  Once we are in the waiting pool, our profile will be shown to birth mothers that fit the criteria of what we both are looking for.  There is no first come-first serve list.  The mother chooses the parents from the scrapbooks. The advantage to this is that it can happen very quickly which would be awesome!

We are hoping to be in the waiting pool by the first of the year.  We know many things can change and God's timing is not always ours but this is our hope.  This past week we have started praying for our baby and the birth mother of our child and ask you to join us.

Friday, October 21, 2011

The Adventure Begins!

As some of you may already know, Karl and I have desired to add children to our family for quite some time.  During the past couple years we have travelled down a road at times filled with heartache and confusion.  We have spent time exploring and researching fertility treatments and have made the decision to close that door for the time being.  Throughout this whole journey we have continually prayed that God would show us His will for growing our family.  And while we were feeling scared and apprehensive about getting involved in further fertility treatments, God began softening our hearts to the idea of adoption.  At this point neither of us have any known problems to prohibit us from getting pregnant.  We couldn't help but wonder if the reason we haven't gotten pregnant over the past couple years is because God had something else in mind for us...adoption.  After spending much time in prayer, we feel like this is not Plan B for us but that this is what we were always supposed to pursue.  This is our plan A.  God has given us an excitement and peace that we know can only come from Him.  This doesn't mean we will never have biological children but at this point we know there is a miracle out there for us through adoption. 

Our adoption announcement is made with great joy and excitement but will require lots of work.  We know we cannot accomplish this alone and pray that God will give us patience and in the end, success!  The purpose of this blog is to share our journey with you and to update you with our progress and prayer requests.  Thank you all in advance for your support!

With Open Arms,
Karl and Amy