Once Upon a Time...

Once Upon a Time...
There was a couple adopting a sweet baby who took a long break from their adoption blog to enjoy the holidays and to finish their profile book.  After long days and nights of parties, gifts, lots of fancy food, and hours upon hours at the computer writing their book, the couple decided they needed to rest.  And so they did.  They rested after all the celebration and all the thinking.  Then, the two love birds printed a sample copy of their book and kept if over the weekend to be sure they were ready to send it.  After making a few changes and consulting their adoption agency, the couple ordered seven copies of their profile book!  They can't wait to pick up these pages from the printer and send them to the magical baby land called Love Basket.  Here they are, living their "Happily Ever After", just days away from waiting for one very special phone call. 

to be continued...

Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner

Remember them?  Someone was always running off a cliff or blowing up from an unseen dynamite trail.

That's how I feel after the weekend.  The reality of our situation is that our first big fee is due when we turn in our profile book.  And our profile book is ninja fighting me everytime I try to sit down with it...okay, not really.  But, it's overwhelming to work on and knowing that once its finished I still have a lot of work to do to get our loan in place, is a little much.  And you know what I do when I have "a little much" to deal with?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  My body shuts down, I'm not hungry, and all I want to do is sleep.  This is apparently my new found way of handling stress? So, I'm sitting down to work on my book and decided to blog first.  I feel a tiny bit better now that everyone knows I'm overwhelmed. It's like having an online pity party, no?

After all that, I have a small update.  Love Basket emailed this morning to set up our phone interview and the earliest availability is next week, with openings all the through the week before Christmas.  Once we settle on a date, I will let everyone know!

Thank you, as always, for all of your support!  The emails, phone calls, and text messages have been a huge blessing and fuel to keep us going!  Please continue to pray for our birth parents.  Unity in their decision to make an adoption plan is #1!  A safe and healthy pregnancy, peace in our household as we wrap up this pre-adoption process, and patience for yours truly as we feel so close....yet so far away.

We love all of you!  Thank you thank you for experiencing this journey with us!

Sneak Peek

No new information, but here is a sneek peak of our profile book.  I like to think I'm finished with these two pages:
 

 

Bottoms Up...We're Having a Baby!

Straight to the point....

WE ARE APPROVED!  WE ARE APPROVED!  WE ARE APPROVED!!!!!!

Adam and Nichole Lewis are officially an "awaiting family" in the adoption files of Love Basket Domestic and International Adoption Ministry in Hillsboro, Missouri!!!

I am currently bossing my husband around to hurry up and shower so we can go to dinner and celebrate!  We had a cheap-o-saving-for-baby date planned for Taco Bell, but I've upgraded us (just a smidge) to Olive Garden so we can at least have a glass of champagne!  

Our agent called today with our official approval and said, "Normally we would now send out a letter of approval and the profile packet.  But, I'm telling you so you don't have to wait for a letter...and I sent the packet already so you're good to go!"  I asked about the letter just to confirm, "So...we won't get a letter?  Just the phone call?"  to which she replied (as an experienced LB adoptive mother), "Yes.  But if you WANT  the letter, I can send it anyway."  Wanna know what I told her?  "Heck yeah I want a letter!  It's going in my binder AND in the baby book!  I'm keeping everything!"  She laughed at me, then said she completely understood...and it was in my inbox within half an hour.  There's a chance it will end up framed in the nursery.....when we have one....

Next up:
We will have a phone interview with a LB Birth Parent Counselor.  The purpose of this is for her to get to know us a little more, ask some questions that she knows Birth Mother's are likely to ask, and so on.  This will be about an hour on the phone, maybe less and then she will start showing our book to her clients!

I need to finish our book.  I had said I wanted to take my time and send it in by January.  Adam said he didn't want to wait, and let's shoot for Christmas.  After today....I'm pulling all nighter's until it's finished so it's on our agent's desk first thing Monday morning!  

We're having a baby, People!!!!

Okay so the reality is comparable to.....being 7 months pregnant....and we could stay "7 months pregnant" for a year or longer....but I don't even care!  The hard part is over!  I can wait 5 years if I have to (okay not really....God, I didn't mean that!)  But I'm so freaking excited!!!  Woo!!!
 Please keep praying!
-Unity for our Birth Parents in their decision to make an adoption plan
-Peace in our household for upcoming decisions and conversations to be made and had.
-Money to start growing on our Christmas tree so we can pay our (ginormous) fees as they come up (hopefully sooner than later!)  Okay...maybe not money on the Christmas tree, but guidance for our adoption loan and smooth sailing for that whole process...

Thank you for traveling with us!  We have a way to go, but we're so excited to be where we are!  

Thank you, Jesus!  We "knew" we would be approved, but now it's so real it's hard to breathe.

I'm about to start rambling.
Peace.  I have a hot date!             

"I think I can...I think I can"

It's been 10 days since my last post and today was the first day I really made much progress at all.  Granted, there was a holiday in there...and a whole lot of driving/traveling...but I wish I had more finished than I do.

We have not heard from Love Basket yet, regarding our approval of Packet II.  I will call tomorrow to check in with our agent.

As of now, we are finished working with our Home Study agency until our baby arrives home with us (!!!!)  Then, we will do a set of post-placement visits.  Details on that process will come as it gets closer.

I've worked on our profile a little more.  Ten pages are drafted and a handful of photos have been selected (thanks to the help of my BFF when she came to visit last weekend)!  I need to sit down and put in a solid few hours on this profile book, but it's hard to do with Christmas coming!  I so badly want to keep pressing on.  And I so badly want to be sure to enjoy the holidays this year and not be so consumed with "expecting a baby" that the rest of my life passes me by.  It's a tough balance.  No matter what I decide to work on, I feel like my time should be spent on something else.  EVERYTHING Baby, Christmas gifts, Decorating for Christmas, Baking for Christmas....I have a million things I usually fill my time with this time of the year and I don't want to drop everything.  I need to sit down this week and prioritize my wishes!

Today, I drafted our Dear Birthmother letter.  Talk about a feeling of accomplishment!  I have several re-writes ahead of me, but the bones are there.  I plan to send out my draft to a few select resources who have written their own letters, and hopefully receive feedback soon after.  Technically, we are not "behind" schedule, because we haven't been approved yet, and our packet for the profile book came early.  But, I want our book ready as soon as we are approved!  It will drive me crazy to be working on it knowing that I could have "finished already" and Birth Mothers are not getting a chance to see it "yet".  (Insert cyclone inside the brain)

I think that's all I have for right now.  As I complete more pages in our profile, I will try to share them.  Our letter will remain confidential, but I will share the process as we write it.  For now, the main requirement is a length no longer than one page, including a 3x5 photo.  I have a seven page document of other guidelines and directive, but will spare you the overwhelming details....at least for now, anyway.

After prioritizing my goals tomorrow, I will be a woman on a mission!  (Even more so than I already am....)  Keep watch for details.  We plan to finish this book before Christmas!  I have 29 days left!

Please continue to pray for unity between our Birth Mother and Birth Father.  Their decision to make an adoption plan together will be a huge blessing in the midst of everything to come!  Peace of mind for our Birth Mother, and a healthy pregnancy and delivery are also at the top of the list.  Peace in our home is a continued request...and a prayer I can say, first-hand, has been working!  Thank you!  Thank you! For praying for us.  

Oh!  I almost forgot!  I decided at the beginning of all of this that I wasn't going to miss out on anything just because I'm not pregnant.  We are expecting a baby.  It's an exciting time in our life!  I've decided to have as much fun as possible....which includes jumping in on the belly photos on Facebook.  I've already posted our initial announcement with my "starter belly".  Here are the new photos I took with M last weekend!  (This is a talent I possess...and for the sake of my self-esteem, I feel the need to clarify that I am pushing everything as much as I can for the sake of these photos and I do not look this pregnant on a daily basis.)

14 Weeks into the adoption process:

Step by Step....Inch by Inch....

Yesterday our Home Study was edited, signed by all necessary parties, and emailed to Love Basket.  I talked with our Adoption agent today.  Here is where we are:

Adoption agent prepares our file for the review committee
Review committee (one other agent, plus the agency's owner) review our file
After approval (which I was told to expect), we have a phone interview with one of the agents at Love Basket who meets with Birth Parents.  Once the interview is complete, our profile book is reviewed by that same agent and sent back to us for revisions (if necessary).  After the final copy is approved, we make six more copies of our profile and send them to Love Basket.  From there, LB sends them out to all Birth Parent counselors.  Once they are in the hands of counselors, all profile-ready Birth Parents begin to review our book. (Deeep breathe)

A few elaborations:
The owner of Love Basket has been out of the office since Tuesday.  He will return Monday, but then leave again for the rest of the week.  Our agent is doing her best to put what she can on his desk for Monday, but warned me that we may not hear back from her, regarding his approval, for two weeks.  (!)

We were given our profile instructions early, so we can work on that early and have it reviewed even before we are officially approved.  'm working on that book now (finally!) and hope to complete it by the end of next week.

We are so freaking close to being available to birth mothers!  I have goosebumps all over my body as I type this information.  

Since I'm at a stopping point on the first page I'm working on for our profile book, I'm going to share it with you.  This is a template.  The only thing that won't change is the photo of the layout of our apartment.  Also remember the photo is a screen shot, so the black border won't be on the printed page.  I hope to knock out three of these pages before Little Man wakes up!  Cross your fingers for me!  I need this tightening in my chest to go away now.

P.S. if you click on the photos I upload, they will enlarge on your screen.

...If I Only Had a Brain....

As I sit here in bed with my laptop (BIG no-no in this house), I can't help but feel overwhelmed....and a little scared.  This profile book is intimidating.  I know I need to put on my big girl panties and my Mom jeans (okay skip the mom jeans) and just pull it together already, but I'm experiencing writer's block...among other things.

We have so much going on this week, that I think I'm going to spend the next couple days praying and thinking about how to put this thing together.  I wanted it finished by Sunday, but I think my new goal will be NEXT Sunday.  That potentially takes us into December before being approved, but I'm not okay with rushing any of this or driving myself crazy over it.  I want to enjoy as much of this process as I possibly can!

In Other News:
I've read over our Home Study review and found a few factual errors.  I was going to let them slide, but Adam said absolutely not.  I knew he would...which was why I asked him before just signing off on it.  I wanted to just say, "Yep!  This looks GREAT!" and move on, but I knew it would bug me to turn in a report that I knew needed corrections.  So, I called our CSI agent today and will be dropping off the report tomorrow.  She plants to edit tomorrow, sign the packet, get her supervisor's signature, and email the documents to Love Basket by the end of the day with hard copies in the mail by the end of the week!

Random Side Note:
In one of our sample Profile Books was a poem, on the last page, regarding a child's relationship to both his Birth Mother and Adoptive Mother.  I'm not one for Chicken Soup books, cheesy lines and sayings, or cliche....anything (unless it's an 80s party, then I go all out...)  However, this poem helps communicate the roles of each mother in the child's life and offers a great picture of what an open adoption looks like.  I may put it in our Baby Book or in the nursery if it sticks with me.  The details in here aren't an exact fit, but then again...I didn't write it.  It's someone else's story, but it's one that leaves me with a calm.

Legacy of an Adopted Child

author unknown

Once there were two women,

Who never knew each other,

One is in your heart forever,

The other you call Mother.

Two different lives,

shaped to make yours one.

One became your star,

The other became your sun.

The first gave you life,

The second taught you how to live it.

The first gave you a need for love,

And the second was there to give it.

One gave you a nationality,

The other gave you a name.

One gave you the seed of talent,

The other gave you an aim.

One gave you emotions,

The other calmed your fears.

One saw your first sweet smile,

The other dried your tears.

One gave you a family,

It was what God intended for her to do.

The other prayed for a child,

And God led her straight to you.

And now you ask me through your tears,

The age old question through the years,

Heredity or environment...

Which are you a product of?

Neither, my darling, neighter,

Just two different kinds of love. 

 

"You've Got Mail"

Our instructions for or Profile book have arrived!  We also received two complete profiles from couples who have recently adopted through Love Basket.  The profiles are packaged the same way, but designed differently.  I've been contemplating how to do our own profile, and think I will stick with the look and style of our Pictorial Essay.  I shared a page or two of our Pictorial Essay back when I was working on it.  I'm going to include the whole presentation in this blog.  I'm not sure how much time I will take to pause and upload profile pages as I create them, but I want to share what we've done so far!  

These pages won't be included in our profile, but some of the pictures will be used for sure!  In addition to photos of ourselves, we need photos with of our parents, friends, cousins...our "social circle" and "support group".  Photos of the apartment, vacation photos, and a brief overview of our income and lifestyle will also be included in our profile.  The most important piece of our profile will be the very first page...our letter to Birth Mothers.  I've read an entire book about how to write this letter.  I've talked to my Adoption Counselor about how to write this letter.  Our agent has given me advice on this letter.  I've read multiple samples of this letter....and it has me the most anxious I've been since we started this whole process.  I know I can write well.  I can connect with others emotionally, both written and verbally.  I'm an emotional person who wears my heart on my sleeve.  So the advice I've been given will be easy to follow.  But I can't help but feel "this is IT."  Like I have one shot.  That's not true, because our agency will proof our profile before we make copies of it to send out....but even once they approve it, we're done.  Once the letter is signed, the profile composed, approved, duplicated, and distributed...we wait for God to place it in the right hands.  

This is overwhelming.  My excitement may be the equivalent of a blood test confirming the results of a home pregnancy test mixed with the feeling of actually looking pregnant, having a shower, and physically preparing for Baby's arrival.  I can believe this is happening, but it's more surreal than anything I've experienced to date.  Just before Adam was hired with MM, I told him I felt like we were just sitting in the water.  I saw us in the still of the ocean....knowing the tide was about to come in, the waves would rise and we would not be overtaken by them.  We would rise above them, and enjoy the ride.  That time is here, and it is an amazing, AMAZING adventure.  

Here are the pages of our Pictorial Essay:

 The above pages* were created for Love Basket, in order for them to get to know us a little more.  Our profile book will be similar, but more personal.  It will be created for and addressed to Birth Mothers.  Eventually, I may post sample pages, but I can't commit to it right now.  

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!  Our biggest prayers are for the health and peace of our Birth Mother and her baby and the relationship between our Birth Mother and Birth Father.  We pray they are unified in their decision to make an adoption plan for their baby, and we pray everyone goes through this process as healthy as possible and that we all come out stronger on the other side.  Comfort for our Birth Mother is also a prayer.  In addition, we pray for Peace in our household.  Adam and I have some very big decisions coming up and we need to make them together, as a team.  We need to be stronger now than ever before (and we believe we are)!  Our family is growing, and our entire life is about to change. (!!!)

***This just in*** 
 As I was concluding this post, my phone rang.  Our Home Study agent has an approved copy of our report (from her supervisor) and is ready to meet me tomorrow morning so that I can pick it up from her.  Adam and I will review the report for accuracy, sign off on the document, and then it will go straight to Love Basket!  Between now and when I meet our agent in the morning, we need to send her one last piece of information that was forgotten during our visits.  However, that should be completed already (note and a wink to husband: this is your assignment from Wednesday that I'm referring to...) so all we need to do is email it to her!

More to come soon!

*All graphics in this post were created by Nicole Koller.  
Professional photos taken by Jennifer Jayne Photography

Do Not be Consumed

Do Not be Consumed

This has been the soft whisper of my inner voice, my conscience, the Holy Spirit.  There are a million things to do, learn, read, and act on regarding our adoption process.  I was beginning to feel overwhelmed, and at one point, decided, "I don't want to be the Mom who spends so much time reading and preaching about parenting....that I forget to actually parent."  You know who I'm talking about, the Mom with five blogs about budgeting, child entertainment, cooking, and so on.  She's always preaching on Facebook about what not to do with your toddler, or she's tweeting pro-(pick-a-mom-rant)s.  And....her baby is the one who fell out of the Bumbo...that was on the edge of the counter...  My baby isn't with me, yet.  But I have consumed myself with adoption everything.  I needed to take as step back.  While being a Mom is the most important job in the world, next to being a Daddy....I don't want "Mom" to be all that I am.  I don't want my husband to wonder where his wife went, because I only ever call him "Daddy" and talk in that annoying, high-pitched "Baby Voice."  (Because we all know how sexy that sounds....)  I want to have hobbies aside from finger painting with yogurt and corn on the cob.  I love to do these things, but I realized at one point that ALL I was doing, was adoption paperwork, adoption phone calls, adoption counseling, and baby shopping, baby planning, etc.  And I don't want to be that way.

So, I went to Target.  I bought Ellen's new book, which has nothing to do with adoption.  I made a Halloween pumpkin full of chocolate and I drove to Denver to visit my best friend for a day and a half, and drove back.  I went shopping for random things I don't need (not baby stuff).  I called my Grandma, and we didn't talk about adoption.  I cancelled a counseling session, and didn't blog for awhile.  I spent a weekend in yoga pants, on the couch with my husband.  I made new recipes, and got dressed up for dinner out (that didn't involve adoption talk or baby shopping after eating).  A lot of thoughts have made their way in and out of my head, and I wanted to blog about them....but then I just wanted to "be".  So I did.

This week, I touched base with all necessary adoption folk, made myself a to-do list and am happy to say that the sky did not start falling when I took time to just be me.  Not me expecting a baby....but just me.  Here's where we are with things:

-Our Home Study Agent is about a day away from finishing our report. (WOOO!)  She will call when it is finished and then Adam and I will review for accuracy before she sends it to Love Basket.

-Love Basket is waiting on our Home Study report and a letter from one of my doctors.

-Our adoption agent at LB has been approving our documents as I've been sending them in (another Wooo!)  She told me yesterday that she doesn't see any red flags and doesn't anticipate anything keeping us from being approved to proceed with adoption.  That being said, she asked if I wanted our profile packet early.  Um....ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY YES, PLEASE!!!!!  After laughing at my enthusiasm, she dropped our packet in the mail so I should have it in a couple days.  

-Our Profile packet includes instructions for creating our Profile Book as well as a couple sample books from couples who have adopted through LB.  Once we create our book, it is sent to the agency as a draft.  We will be notified of any changes that need to be made and then make them.  Once our final version is complete, we make six more copies and out they go!

-Back to the approval of Packet II.  While our agent has been approving things as we go, the rest of the committee won't review our file until all documentation has been received.  This way our file stays in tact, nothing is removed or lost, etc.  

-During our wait for approval of Packet II, we will have a phone interview with an agent from Love Basket.  This is for them to get to know us a little more before representing us when speaking to Birth Parents.  Because they didn't do our Home Study, they only have our paperwork and a couple photographs to go on.  That's really not much when you're talking to someone about finding a home and wonderful parents for her child.  So, I fully understand this interview and am actually looking forward to.  (Possibly because it's a final step??)

-HOLY TOLEDO, BATMAN!  Shit just go real.  Pardon my "french".  But this is all happening!  It's really really happening!  I know there's a wait period after all the paperwork, but I don't even care!  If we don't get matched for a year....that's okay!  We're waiting!  And we're official!  And we're "on the market".  We are actually an OPTION for Birth Parents!  Aaaahhhhh!!!!!

-Okay, I'm good now.  From the sound of things with "all our people", we should be available for Birth Parents by the end of the year.  Which puts a very very happy light on 2013!!!

-That's all I have for now.  It's BIG and it's wonderful and overwhelmingly exciting!  I will share profile details as soon as my packet arrives!

Please continue to pray for our Birth Parents.  Pray that God places an obvious peace on all our hearts, that He brings us together in a way that only He can.  Pray for unity with our Birth Parents in their decision to make an adoption plan.  And continue to pray for Baby's big big family: Birth family, Adopted family.  More people to love you also means more relationships to foster.  We need God's grace and guidance to do this well.

I hope to post on a few topics in the middle of updates.  However, they may not happen with the holidays approaching... at the least, I will share profile pages as I create them!

Thank you!  Thank you!  For your continued prayer and support!

Home Study #3...Check!

Slooowwwlllllyyyyy, but surely, we are completing paperwork!  Our Home Study agent is back from vacation, has all of our paperwork and came over yesterday for our final Pre-Adoption Home Study meeting.  She arrived at 9:00am and we were able to finish by 11:45.  Adam and I had focused our energy on preparing for questions like "What is your parenting philosophy?" that I completely forgot to prepare myself for the Family Tree portion.  

During the Family Tree diagramming, we name ourselves, siblings, parents, their siblings, and grandparents, then elaborate on each.  I was totally fine hearing Adam talk about his family, until we came to grandparents.  We've lost two of Adam's grandparents in the last few years and it has been hard on us.  Our agent asked about Grandpa H....and I was fine, then she asked about Grandma's age.  To which Adam replied, "um....she is deceased."  Annnd I cried.  So we talked about Grandma's personality when she was with us, her temperament, demeanor, character, etc.  Annnd I cried.  Luckily we broke the cry fest with Gramma Lewis, who is still with us!  But...then it was time for Grandpa Lewis...annnnd I cried.  I think I excused myself from the table three different times.  We thought we were in the clear, but after asking Adam to describe his sister and her husband, we moved on to Adam.  She told him not to say anything, because she wanted my perspective.  Annnnd I cried.  "President of the fan club" was her note next to my name, concerning Adam.  After I told her how amazing my husband is, she asked him if he had anything to add.  So he did get a chance to chime in.  We moved on (finally) to the questions regarding parenting ideas, traditions, holiday plans, openness in adoption (aaahhh!!!  I thought I was finished there!), ideas concerning discipline, and many more things I no longer remember.  When the meeting was over, I felt the flood gates had opened and anxiety rushed out of me, wave after wave.  I felt relieved to have our meetings finished!  Our training finished!  Our paperwork finished!

So from here:
-Our CSI agent needs to review her notes next week, write up a report about us, and send it to Love Basket.  She is looking at just over two weeks for turnaround time.
-I need to follow up with two doctors regarding release forms for information that has yet to arrive at LB.
-Love Basket will receive the above documents, review, and report back with us regarding our approval of Packet II.  
-Shortly after the approval process, we can expect our profile guidelines to arrive in the mail!  I'm pretty sure the second that packet arrives, the rest of the world will cease to exist.  I will be glued to my computer and working on page after page in hopes of completing our first draft as soon as possible!

I will keep you posted on details of the profile book once I receive the information!

Thank you for your continued prayer and support!  Please keep praying for a unified plan of adoption from our Birth Parents.  This is at the top of our list right now. 

Happy Thursday!

Home Study Meeting Tomorrow!

It's been a week since my last post, and that's not exactly how I would like this to go.  However, I've been avoiding blogging about my feelings because...well, sometimes our feeling can consume us and because there isn't really anything tactile left to do, I'm just thinking about a gazillion things like our relationship with our birth parents, bonding with Baby, options for breastfeeding (or possibly not breastfeeding) Baby, My husband's work hours and how our family life might look, the fact that our contract fell through on our house, so now we're paying for two homes....something we didn't plan on doing until.....um....probably never, what our baby's name might be, Baby's gender, different ideas about parenting a boy as opposed to a girl, and (Adam, don't read this one) what if we have surprise twins?  Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for reading the world's longest sentence.  That's what's been going on in my head.

Out in the real world, I've been building a baby registry, which IS SO MUCH STINKIN' FUN!!!!  I found a site that hosts your registry regardless of where you like to shop.  This means that my quilt I've wanted (for the last five years) from Land of Nod can go on the same registry as our car seat from BabysRus, along with essentials I found at Target and our cloth diapers from a couple different websites!  Woo hoo!  I guess the downside is that it makes shopping in store a little more difficult, but I'm working on a way to help with that.  The registry has been a huge time filler and I'm only doing it because I keep being told that we have to have one, even though we will be so excited to just to have our baby, and introduce him or her, that gifts will surely be over the top.  I have to admit though, the request is one I'm fulfilling with glee. ;)  Who doesn't love making a wish list??

Our final reference letter has arrived at its destination, and tomorrow is our last Home Study meeting.  Our social worker will be at our house at 9am and should be finished at Noon.  We have a lot to cover, so hopefully she's a quick worker tomorrow!  Items on the meeting agenda:
-Adam's family tree and family history
-Our family values
-What it means to each of us to be a Lewis
-What is means to be a family
-What are our ideas of parenting, what is important and how will we handle specific issues
-What are our existing traditions and what new traditions do we hope to start with our own family?
-How will we plan to celebrate holidays
-What are the rules in our house?
-How do we think things will change once a baby arrives?
-And a million other related questions

I feel like the answer to a lot of those questions will depend on our child's temperament and personality.  All children thrive in different ways, express themselves differently, and some need discipline methods that may not be so mainstream.  We will have to deal with issues as they come.  But, I do know this.  Adam and I are a team.  And adding a baby, is adding a team mate...a "Lewis in training." Whatever comes our way (temper tantrums, karate trophies, volleyball state championships, lost soccer games, new family members, and spilled milk...)we will handle as a team.  And when someone needs a "time out".  We'll allow it.  Foul play....will come with penalties, and home runs will be celebrated together.  Our friends and family will be our cheer leaders and we'll make it through all of life with our spirits high and our eye on the ball.  I'm getting a little cheesy with the metaphor, but the point is getting across, no?

After the Home Study meeting, we wait for our social worker to type up her report on us.  She will send it to Love Basket, and then we wait for LB to approve Packet II.  Hopefully this goes as quickly as our approval of Packet I (24 hours)!!!  We shall see...

Once we're approved, we receive guidelines for our profile book along with samples of books from matched families.  I'll share details from that point once we get there.  We're still moving quickly, just don't have as much to do so there's a little less to write about.

Another thing I am thinking about this week is a letter to our Birth Mother.  Every profile books requires this letter, and my adoption counselor is helping me think of what and how to write one.  I have a book to read that's full of advice and samples, a DVD to watch, and then a little online reading to further educate myself.  I'm hoping to have my letter drafted by the time our profile book guidelines come in.  Then, I can get to work on the picture stuff.  That's going to be a lot of fun!  (Grandmas are currently working on gathering past photos and sending this way.  If you have any of your own pictures we've taken together, feel free to send them....you know, for proof we have friends. You can email them to me or take a field trip to the post office if you like!)

I will be back after tomorrow's meeting with an update.  Hopefully, before next Tuesday!

Keep praying!  And thanks for keeping up with the details.  We love our friends and family, and feel the support every day!