No Words

Seriously. I have none. For the letter I need to write to birthmommas. I always have words. Enough for at least 2 people. At least.

Our Agency gives us guidelines of things to include in our letters, (Jake and I each have to write one...and if I don't have words Jake for sure has less) but it still doesn't really help.

Maybe this situation calls for a throw back to college tactics. Maybe I need to start with an outline. And an extremely pressing deadline that I procrastinate towards until I almost run out of time. And a library (if I wasn't at the hospital I was on the 3rd floor of the BSU library in grad school). And coffee.

I thought that the easiest place to start would be with the pictures. I organized all the pictures we have printed by year and will go through the ones that are electronic next. If pictures are the easiest place to start I'm in trouble and this profile is going to take me months...and make me laugh and cry a lot.

And the background checks are in...

And they came back good to go! Imagine that. After resubmitting 23 pages of updated paperwork to one of our caseworkers following our last home visit from another caseworker the last of the paperwork is all done!

We were expecting to wait for this a bit longer, but are so happy that it is done. Last week we got letters in the mail requesting notarized releases of information for the state of Oregon to look up our names in a state of Idaho database. One last name check in one more database. As annoyed as I was to have to jump through one more hoop, considering we just had background checks completed in Idaho, there is a reason for all the database checking...it helps keep kiddos safe. It also helps that I was able to call one of my co-workers who happens to be a notary and get the notarized releases the same day we got them in the mail. I love small-town, small-hospital stuff like that.

So, what's next for us? The next (and last) step is to put together a profile that includes letters from us to birthmoms and pictures/stories showing who we are. The idea is to put together a little bit about us so that a mom can get enough of a sense for who we are that she wants to know more and hopefully wants us to parent the baby in her belly. Seriously...what do you say?

I'll post pages of our profile as I get them put together...so excited to be getting to this point. I can't wait to be waiting. Waiting to be chosen. Waiting for a call. Waiting for the airplane to take us who-knows-where. Waiting to bring our baby home. Waiting to be a family.

Oh Where to Start

It's been ages...

I have a bad quirky habit of quoting Disney and Disney-ish movies. I blame it on my upbringing. So, when I sat down and decided to update my little blog this was the first thing that popped into my head. I adore Roger from the Open Season movies. :)

So, it has been ages. A lot and nothing at all has been going on it seems...

We officially bought a house and moved in at the end of January. Our new house is in need of some good ol' fashion TLC and elbow grease. So far we've scraped away popcorn ceilings, had said ceilings refinished, have painted almost the entire interior of the house (the goals is to paint it all, so almost there), replaced the old creamy-yellowish-original plug ins and light switches, made built-in closet storage in the spare bedrooms, and are working on replacing the light fixtures. I'll try to post some before and after pictures just because I think they are fun.

We've been working like crazy on the house and will hopefully have a home visit from our adoption agency next weekend. After trying to get them here for almost 5 months now, I'll believe it when I actually see them on our doorstep.

A big part of my not updating this blog has been my waning optimism about adopting. Our agency laid off part of their staff last year, were busy finalizing the adoptions of those who were already placed, and pretty much fessed up to us that we were just more work that they put on the back burner until they could get caught up. This is something I can understand. I understand business. Supply, demand, and resource availability are pretty basic. What has been so disappointing is our case worker, in my opinion, didn't feel like she could share with us what was really happening with our file. It literally didn't get opened for the 4 months after  we moved and I started calling and emailing for our home visit. The home visit that is the one last thing we need to do before we can get our profile out there for birth moms to look at. The story we were told when we first moved was that they go over to Oregon all the time and they can get the schedule put together in a few weeks. Then it was sorry our November trip is already full. Then it was we aren't coming over to Oregon in December, how does January 13th sound? Oh, we aren't coming in January now because we have another couple we wanted to include on the trip and they aren't ready for the visit. Then it was...we aren't planning any more trips to Oregon. You need to talk to the director, maybe she can send out a case worker from Bend. And the story keeps going...but I think I'm out of breath.

At the end of the day they tell us a case worker from Bend is coming next weekend.

So, back to my waning optimism...I think I've shied away from sharing because I feel like we are trying with no result. Kind of like trying to conceive. This is our conception period of trying to grow our family. Weird thing to share with everyone. We are going to keep trying though and will hopefully have a progress update to share with everyone in the near future.

Happy Saturday all!

Packing :o)

We are packing! After putting in an offer a month ago, we will finally be closing on the house either next Tuesday or Wednesday. Purchasing a home was much more difficult this time due to the changes in the industry, but we are almost done and finally feel comfortable to start packing.

The best part about moving will be getting our homestudy redone finally! I emailed our caseworker today and we will be having a new caseworker come out from Bend. The downside of this is how much more they are going to charge us and how little they are actually supporting our file now, but it is better than starting completely over.

Who knew I would ever be so excited to pack up my stuff!

Holidays

There is magic and joy in the holidays that I find to be so completely addicting. The traditions we grew up with are now becoming new again as we've become adults and there are littles running around my older sister's house. And, of course, there are some new fun ones....like hay on the roof for the reindeer. It's apparently a farm thing. :o) Watching the holiday season through the eyes of a child is so honest and heart warming, which is exactly what I need this time of year. I need the heart warming magic and joy to help keep my heart patient. Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve was the last place I went with all my siblings just a few months before my brother was killed. So this time of year I think my heart yearns for that togetherness feeling that I once knew just a little more than usual. This year I have been so thankful and appreciative of living closer to my family. We've almost always travelled during the holidays and only missed the long ten hour drive over more than one mountain pass on ice and snow a little bit. The drive was becoming a bit of a tradition in it's own right though with our regular stop at Mom's house in Burns, grabbing coffee in Bend or Sisters, running the dogs at Lost Lake, and calling/texting the second we hit Sweet Home to let everyone know we were almost there.

So...this year was a bit different, but great. One new great experience we had this year was Jake and I getting to take my mom to the Nutcracker the day before Christmas Eve. Going to the ballet in Portland was fabulous! I absolutely fell in love with the venue, the ballerinas (the sugar plum fairy was my favorite), and the orchestra. And getting all dressed up to go out was fun too...

Jake doesn't dress up often, but is oh so extra handsome when he does!

An up-do :o)

And my super cute madre!

It really was a great experience. I don't know how often I'll be able to talk Jake into taking me to the ballet, but I can't wait to go again.

Then there was Christmas....

We got up really early on Christmas morning so we could make it down to Sweet Home before Amelia and Olivia woke up. We made it with plenty of time to spare, got the homemade cinnamon rolls in the oven, the coffee brewing, and then waited like kids ourselves for the girls to wake up.



Super adorable in their matching pajamas (tradition).

Papa with his little Doll.

These girls are just so amazing! They loved that they got presents to open, but they loved having so many people to play and share with even more. Amelia helped coordinate the present opening and was so excited to be the "giver". So sweet. And little Olivia wanted to stop and play with everything she opened. Papa Greg found himself reading the new books that got opened almost immediately.

I can't wait to see what next year brings!

What about a house?

What else could one impatiently waiting a home inspection for their adoption do with their time...well, why not a little house hunting. I love real estate anyway so having a reason to look for another house is fabulous. We found a house to rent while we made the quick transition from Idaho to Oregon, but after being home owners for so long we found it terribly difficult to be satisfied living in a rental. It took quite a bit of looking, a property we loved but had foundation issues so no-go, one with fall-in-love-worthy acreage that slipped through our fingers, but in the end...we might just have found something...

This cute little Spanish-style on half an acre is pending...we are under contract awaiting a home inspection scheduled on Tuesday! If they don't find anything major we hope to close by January 13th. It's too early to jump for joy just yet, but I can't help it. I love the idea of having our home awaiting our baby. If all works out this will be our family home! 

Profile

While we've had some extra time awaiting our agency we decided to get a jump on our profile. Wanting to document this time in our lives as we are expecting our first child we put in a call to Toby with Gobias Media to schedule a photo shoot. Toby does some of the most artistic and beautiful photos and we were excited to have him agree to meet us on a crisp fall day at Laurelhurst Park in Portland. We got some great updated photos of us and are still trying to decide which one to use as our main profile picture that will be sent out to birthmoms.

One thing we didn't anticipate was how old we look. :o) When did that happen?!?