Approved and expecting

It's official we are now a waiting family.  I have a feeling of anticipation in waiting for a phone call that will most likely be months away. I don't know how long I can keep this up.  It's a great feeling, but I know that it is unrealistic and that I sometimes just wish I would go back to they way it was before.  I was happy about adopting, but didn't have the emotional high that goes along with it.  Now I feel the excitement of knowing it may happen at any time.  The problem is it may happen in a month, it may happen in 5, maybe even longer.  The feeling although different reminds me of what I felt each time I saw the double lines on a pregnancy test.  I had thought of us as expecting prior to this, but it didn't really feel like we were expecting.  Now it really feels like we are expecting.  I just miss knowing basically when it will happen. 

The photo is one that Tara from Leigh Wells Photography took.  She graciously donated her time and talent to take pictures for our profile for the adoption. You can check out her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Leigh-Wells-Photography/178091304597. 

With the Christmas season upon us we would love your additional support from using our link to purchase things from Amazon.  Remember that you need to start each search from our link in order for us to get credit for each item you bought.  This has been an amazing support for us.  So for we have raised $225!  Thank you :)

Home study update

I wish I was more of a writing to be able to journal this process, but it is just not a gift given to me.  I do have some exciting updates.  As of Oct 29th we have submitted everything we need to do for the home study.  It is now in the process of getting approved.  I have no idea how long that takes, but I have been checking my email so often hoping for news that we are approved.  I don't doubt that we will get approved I just am excited for it to happen because when it does we are in the waiting stage and that means that we can be linked with a birth mom at any time.  Our family could be larger this Christmas.  We most likely will not get connected that soon, but it is possible.  This process took longer that we anticipated for a few reasons.  On is that our home school got off to a rocky start this year.  I was so busy with school for the first weeks in September I had no time to spend on the home study.  In October Dan was sent to North Carolina for 3 weeks for work.  Hopefully I'll have an update soon stating the Home study is approved.

The homestudy

We are almost done with the home study.   All we have left to do is finish reading a few articles, write up summaries said articles and make another payment to the agency.  We also need to trim photos and glue them into the 25 portfolios that the agency printed out and will hand to birth mothers.  I want to give a big shout out and thanks to my friend Tara of Leigh Wells Photography https://www.facebook.com/pages/Leigh-Wells-Photography/178091304597
for donating her time and taking some great photos of us for our profile. Please think of her for any photography needs.
Our next step will be waiting to be picked.  That could take weeks or months or a year.  It will be in Gods hands.
Please don't forget to use our link to purchase things through amazon.  We earned $180.00 so far!  What a blessing that is to us.  We also plan to have another fundraiser.  It will be easy for anyone interested in helping.  All they will have to do is go to eat at Chili's on Rochester Rd on a specified date with a premade flyer and we will get 10% of your total sales!  How cool is that.  A win win for Chili's and us.  I will post more as we get closer to the date, but first I need to figure out what that date will be :)

Amazon Earnings

I just wanted to say thank you for everyone who is shopping on Amazon through this blog.  We have earned $100.00 just for the month of June and it's not even over yet!  We praise God for this blessing. :)  An now for an overdue update.  Dan and I have both met individually with our case worker to give our own life history.  It was pretty intensive and my meeting lasted over an hour!  We are still reading and reading and reading, but learning a lot about how adoption affects the family and the child.  We have done all our trainings and have written up the profile that the birth mom's will read when choosing the family to raise their child.  We have a friend who is a photographer coming over next week to take pictures which will go into the profile.  We still have things to do, but are hoping to be done with this stage of the adoption by mid Aug and then it is on to waiting to be picked!    I hope to write again soon about some of the things we have learned in the trainings and readings. 
Blessings,
Jill

My next fundraising efforts

A friend of mine is a consultant for MY Thirty one and has offered to give me her proceeds for a my thirty one party.   You can order online at www.mythirtyone.com/marymacfarlane
click My Parties and Davis Adoption fund. 

We also had a meeting with the adoption agency that kicks off our home study.  This process will take 2-3 months. 

Assisgned a caseworker

We are officially done with our formal application, and we have been assigned to a case worker. Sounds kinda important.  I'm not sure that it is, but it does feel like an accomplishment and one more step closer to holding our son in our arms.  Yes we are planning on adopting a son. Is anyone surprised?  I thought not.  :) 

On a side note, I have recently purchased a used sewing machine from a friend.  I have enjoyed making a craft for the girls.  It is a marker/colored pencil holder for the car.  I am thinking about making some to sell for a minimum donation of $10.00. I do have one other fabric that is blue, but I could buy some more boy fabrics if anyone is interested.  I can make one for crayons, but I chose colored pencils with the hopes of them not melting in the car.  Let me know if you would be interested. 

Our first meeting

We met with the director of the agency we are going through last Tuesday.  It was a fun day.  It was especially fun to see Dan getting excited about adopting.  We have been given a list of requirements which include a  plethora of paperwork, two educational meetings (which are scheduled for next month)  and a list of articles and books to read.  Trying to keep costs down, we looked at the library and were able to check out two of the books we need to read so far. The next step is to tackle the home study.  I absolutely love that the journey is beginning :)

It begins :)

I have been surprised to feel anxiety after I last posted.  My thoughts ranged from "It's really out there now and we have to follow through with this" to "My family is perfect just the way it is, are we going to ruin it by adding another baby/child to the mix."  I didn't expect those feelings.  Up to that point it had been just excitement with no reservations.  I soon remembered feelings of ruining our perfect family during my last two pregnancies so I was comforted that this was a normal feeling.
A week went by and the feelings went away and the joy came back.  Then we got the blessed surprise of a check from a generous friend allowing us to start the process.  So we called the agency we chose to work with and made our initial appointment for this Tuesday.  The excitement is definitely back!

Our adoption story, Part 1

I've, really felt a call to adopt ever since I worked with mom's at risk for child abuse and neglect when I was single and in my early 20's.  It broke my heart to see some of the homes that these kids were raised in.  There was always at least one young child on my case load that I wanted to take home with me to raise.
I always thought I wouldn't be able to have my own children and was happy to hear that my husband was open to adoption if we couldn't conceive.  Go figure that while I was surrounded by friends and family who struggled to conceive, I got pregnant every time we tried.  Don't get me wrong I was overjoyed and grateful to be able to have my own children, but a part of me grieved because I assumed this meant that I would never adopt.
Then in 2007, on the night before Thanksgiving, Dan and I somehow happened on a discussion of adoption.  He said that he would be open to adopting a boy.  I was floored.  I called a friend the next day who had adopted two children because I just had to share my excitement with someone who understood my desire.
At the time we lived in a small 800 square foot two bedroom house.  Needless to say when had no room for another child.  I couldn't put another bed in that house.  The  bed's I did have fit with only an inch to spare.  We were planning to move so we figured that when we got into a bigger house within the year we would start the process.  God had other plans.  We didn't move for another 2 years and by that time Dan had lost all desire to adopt as I was struggling to keep up with homeschooling, cooking and cleaning.  He gave me a choice, to home-school or adopt, but not both.  He didn't think I could do it and to be honest I couldn't.  So I prayed about it and had a peace about homeschooling.  I even felt peace about not adopting as a friend of mine and I were in a lengthy process of starting up a ministry at our church for orphans. At least I was doing something.
So what changed?  I did.  I went on a crazy diet called "The Gaps Diet"  and my energy level increased significantly.  For the first time Dan thought I could actually make it work.  So in December of 2011 he agreed to adopt again.  Then we thought he was going to get laid off so we delayed starting the process and I prayed about how we could raise money to adopt.  In February God gave Dan a promising job at a company that he used to work at.  I also started selling things on Amazon.  I started with things that we didn't need and or use from home.  I also learn from another adopted mom that you can raise money through Amazon via a blog.  If you purchase anything from Amazon and use the link on this blog, I will get a portion of the proceeds.  100% of all our proceeds from this link and from selling on Amazon will go to fund our adoption.
I hope to set out our initial meeting as soon as we raise the money to pay the initial fees.  Hopefully that will be soon.

My new blog!

I am taking the plunge into blogging!  We are hoping to adopt a baby and have started up an amazon selling account to raise money for adoption.  Our name is Adoption Fund.  So if you see that when purchasing you can know that all the proceeds will go to fund our adoption.  We are also in the process of becoming affiliates throught Amazon.  Once it is completed I will have a link on the blog.  If you click the link to make your purchases we will receive a portion of your proceeds and put all of it toward the adoption.