Paperwork complete... for now...

Today was a good day - I put the packet in the mail today - the one with all the documents that the home study agency wanted (well, except for the ones they forgot to send us and the one our insurance company needs to fill out).  All total, it was a list of 30+ things that we sent them, of which several had to be notarized or witnessed.  (Thank goodness for the list!)  Many of the items were 1 for each of us and we each had to have our fingerprints done too.  But I feel really good.  I worked on paperwork all day Saturday.  I filled out most of the forms and Chris read and signed the ones he needed to.  We did a few other things too (fixed the fence, went to church, visited Luke) the usual weekend stuff, but we devoted most of the weekend to getting through all of the paperwork. 

We both went to the doctor on Tuesday for physicals.  In my mind, I was thinking, "Really?"  Haven't I been to the doctor enough over the past 2 years?  But the doctor was great about it - just looking over all my recent visits, and not torturing me with any of the "you should exercise" lectures.  He just filled out the form for me.  He basically did the same for Chris. 

We had a call with American Adoptions yesterday to go over all of the information we submitted in our questionnaire - the Adoption Family Specialist was very positive about the information we had provided.  She felt we seemed very open in our preferences, which is good.  Now, we just have to get started on providing them with all of the stuff they are asking for...  a bizillion photos (if you have any goods ones of us - together or individually or with you - please send them!) and answering about 1000 questions so they can start to create our profile that will be shown to birth parents.  And all of this while working on our home study too.  Hopefully we will get a call early next week to get our home study appointments set up.  I know we will likely have 3 or 4 appointments with the Social Worker.  At least one of those will be here at the house.  Guess we better get to cleaning.  There goes any fun plans for the weekend. 

EHS - a medical (or maybe mental) condition

Ever heard of it? You might have had it at one point or another - symptoms include inability to sleep because you can't stop thinking about things (hence the reason I am writing this at 5:00 AM!), what seems like hundreds of things to do, a feeling that you can't possibly get it all done, etc... The official name is "Exploding Head Syndrome" and I know I must have it right now!

We chose our home study provider this week, and their "packet" arrived in the mail on Wednesday. Of course I opened it - what was I thinking? I should have waited until the weekend to do that - when I would have more time. But I don't want to wait. I want to get everything done ASAP. I have been waiting all my life for a baby! If I wait, it just takes longer.

I started going through the stuff - OMG! Why do they need to know that?! I know that every person who has ever adopted or fosterd a child has had to answer all of these same questions - but sometimes it just doesn't seem fair. We just want to love and care for a sweet child. We didn't have to do this when we were pregnant with our own - why now? But Chris, the logical, rational one in the family put it into perspective for me. I know we don't think the same way, and that's a good thing. (I think the EHS is blocking any logical thinking in my head right now.) That's why we are good together - balance.

So, let's get on with it! Make a list - that's logical right? Start checking things off the list - another logical step. EHS - you won't keep me down! I'm sure that I will have recurring bouts of EHS at times. (I can already imagine what the week before the Social Worker comes to the house will look like.) But I can deal with this. I have just one more day of work to get through and then I can start to concentrate on making the list.

If you'd like to delve into some of this information with us, I would recommend a website for adoption books called Tapestry Books. (www.tapestrybook.com) They have all sorts of books on all topics surrounding adoption. Of course you don't have to purchase them - just head to the library or get on Book Mooch - an online "library" located at www.bookmooch.com - thanks Sue Stuever Battel for introducing me!

All I can say is TGIF! And we have no major plans for the weekend - well, except all the paperwork. :-) But we will get through it - one piece at a time. Happy Friday everyone!

A Bittersweet Day - A New Journey Begins

Week 1 - Information Overload

Last Tuesday, we applied to American Adoptions (AA) - a national adoption agency located in Kansas that specializes in Domestic Infant Adoption. Our initial application was accepted, and now we are in the INFORMATION OVERLOAD stage of adoption. Who knew how much stuff there is to learn! It is CRAZY! Because AA (no that is not Alcoholics Anonymous - but we may need that by time we are done with all of this!) is not licensed in Colorado, we need to find a Colorado agency to do our Home Study - which will likely take 6-8 weeks - maybe longer. This digs into our history, finances, our house itself (better find our cleaning supplies and rubber gloves!), requires background and fingerprint checks, etc... In addition, we have to complete a very extensive Adoption Planning Questionnaire (APQ) with our preferences for our future child. (ie: race of baby, our acceptance of smoking, alcohol consumption and drug use of mother during pregnancy, etc...) We also have to complete information so that the agency can put together our print & on-line profiles. This includes gathering lots of photos, and also working on our video profile. All of these steps have to be taken before we are even officially activated with American Adoptions and our profile can begin to be shown to potential birthmothers. If we seem a little out of touch and overwhelmed over the next couple of months, WE ARE! Pray for us - we will need it as we travel this path.

Check out Luke's Love Marks

If you regularly follow this blog - whatever regular is based on how regularly it has been updated lately, you may want to check out our other blog -- Luke's Love Marks -- at www.lukeslovemarks.blogspot.com. It will give you an update of the most recent events of our family.

Pregnancy Update

Well, we are into week 24 of pregnancy and everything is going well. I found this little pregnancy count down, so now we can all keep track of where I am -- since I'm not the greatest at it. We haven't taken any pregnancy belly photos yet, but maybe we will soon. I am definitely showing, but nothing too huge yet. I gave in a few weeks back to wearing maternity clothes. I definitely look more pregnant in some things than others, and I find that my "regular" elastic waist clothes (mainly sweat pants) seem to slide under my belly more and more. I haven't bought any maternity jeans yet, but I probably will have to do that sooner rather than later, since my normal ones don't really even fit under my belly any more without being uncomfortable.

Happy News

Hello from Colorado,
I've not kept up on the New Year's resolution very well, but hey, I'm here now. So, Chris and I have very happy news to share -- we are expecting a baby! We are due March 8, 2010. We don't plan to find out the gender of the baby -- we just want a healthy baby -- that's all that really matters. So, green, yellow and orange are the colors of choice lately. We have decided that we will be getting one "big" baby item per month. Last month, it was the wood for a crib that Chris will be building. I'm so excited about that. Yesterday, we picked out this month's item -- a stroller, in orange. We went with the BOB Revolution. It is one of the "off-road" variety strollers that has the big air wheels. We are pretty excited about it. REI had them on sale THIS week, so it was now or pay a lot more, so we went for it. Chris, of course did his research and it had fantastic ratings and reviews. It has lots of accessories, but we decided that we would hold off on those. One that I want is a car seat adaptor, but we want to do our research on the car seats it works with -- hopefully at least one of them will rate well.

So, that's our news for now. I'm feeling much better these days -- had a few rough weeks, but nothing I couldn't handle. I don't look any different yet -- I've actually lost some weight over the last few weeks, so maybe I'll break down and post a picture or two at some point, but for now -- not much to see.

Hope you're all doing well -- see or talk to you soon.

Our Love,
Holli & Chris

A little research

Well, nothing really all that exciting to report -- we have recently finished making our loft into a 3rd/guest bedroom. We started putting the furniture in last night. We're still trying to figure out what all to put in there. So, when you come to stay for a few days with someone, do you expect to have a dresser to put stuff in, or do you just "live out of the suitcase"? That's our big debate right now. And, would you prefer a recliner or the dresser? (we do plan to put a TV in the room if that sways your opinion of dresser vs. recliner) Let us know your thoughts, as you all will be the ones using the new guest room, not us :-)