A journey of 1000 miles...

We had our foster/adopt orientation last night! Our official first step. :) We got a HUGE packet of paperwork to fill out, sign, and turn back in, along with fingerprint cards for FBI and CBI background checks and physical forms. We have to get copies of all kinds of documents, including all the pets vaccination records, marriage certificate, driver's licenses, etc, etc, etc, etc... When I look at the entire 1000 steps I get overwhelmed, so I'm choosing to look at just one step at a time. We'll get there. :)

The house is coming along! The computer room is still clean and we even put bedding on the bed. I'm tackling the theater room closet and trying to clean a shelf off to put all the stuff from the hutch on so we can sell that thing. Anyone know anybody in the market for an old, wooden hutch with glass doors??? Let me know if you do! It really is nice. We just don't need it or have room for it. I'm also cleaning out one or two boxes a night in the basement. Randy's room is now void of boxes--if I could just get him to clean it! lol Robin's room apparently doesn't have any boxes in it (he doesn't want anyone in his room). I guess he just tosses things in the closet! I'm not sure I want to go in there. :p I'll tackle the 1/2 dozen or so under the stairs this weekend.

We're just going to keep trudging along! I think I've found my motto--one step at a time. :)

The decluttering has begun...

...and I've made a dent! lol I started with a few boxes in our closet that hadn't been opened in 3 1/2 years. Yeah, a lot of that was trash or donate! Then Monday this week I tackled the computer room (which will eventually be the kid's playroom). THAT was daunting and overwhelming! BUT, I did it! :) We can now vacuum the WHOLE floor and actually get to the spare twin bed that's in there! We will move the desk to Randy's room and get rid of the hutch (went with an old table we no longer have-we just use it for storage). Last night I went through a few boxes in the basement and threw a bunch of stuff out. I can't tell you how good it feels to walk into a room and have it completely cleaned out and decluttered! It feels, oh, fresh. :) The theater room (fourth bedroom upstairs) doesn't really need a lot. Basically just child proofing. Our room and closet still need quite a bit, but it's a lot of little stuff. It'll get done and I'll have killed two birds with one stone. Decluttering the house was one of my new year's resolutions. It also has to be done for the home study. There ya go! lol

Now we're trying to decide what gender children we want. We know we want at least one girl. We're thinking it'd be better if we could get two girls (siblings) close in age so they'll always have their sister for support and to play with. We don't know if we want to limit ourselves like that, though. If they have a boy/girl sibling group do we say no? I just don't know yet. We've bumped up our orientation to tomorrow night. Maybe we'll have more info and can make a better educated decision after that.

OH! We actually bought two matching cribs this weekend! I know--it's awful early. BUT, we got a great deal on them and they convert to toddler beds so they're pretty versatile. One thing less to get later and they really don't take up that much space. We will need at a minimum a gate at the top of the stairs, and I'd like a gate for their room and the play room, also. I really don't want the dogs in there. They get very excited very easily. I don't need three dogs jumping on two kids! :p We've got lots of time to get that stuff. I just like to plan ahead. :)

It just keeps getting better!

So now that I have all the classes scheduled, Rob and I have been talking about the "what if"'s. What if they want us to take a sibling group? What if it's TWINS?!? lol Well, after much discussion and talking to others who have been there and done that, we have decided that a sibling group of two may be best! A friend of mine who took two sisters (ages 1 and 2 at the time) put it all into perspective with her comment, "These girls had lost everything except each other." Hard to argue with that. We still want at least one girl, but we may end up with a brother/sister group or two sisters. We're okay with either right now.

Now to declutter the house. Today, we start with our bedroom and closet. There are boxes in my closet that were never unpacked when we moved in 3 1/2 years ago! YIKES! Hm. Yard sale, donate or Craigslist??? What to do, what to do... :p

The ball's really rolling now!

Sort of! lol I've schedule all our training (maybe--Rob may have to make some up if he's out of town). Orientation, foster parent core and adoption core. Twenty seven hour and we're set! The first class is February 2nd and the last ends April 10th. We'll fill out the application at the first class, along with fingerprinting and background checks. We'll all need physicals, and then the homestudy will have to be scheduled in there sometime, and that should be about it! We really could have all this done by summer! I have no idea how long it will take to get a placement. We could get one immediately or it could take months to match us with a child. You really just never know. But at least we're moving forward. One step at a time. :)

Ready for a wild ride???

We've made a decision! Rob and I are going to get licensed as foster parents with the intent to adopt! It's going to be an interesting process and I'm sure it'll be difficult at times, but it's really what I feel we're supposed to do right now. I'm waiting for the packet from Lutheran Family Services (they are the only agency that will dual license me for both foster and child care--doesn't have anything to do with religion) that will have info and paperwork for us. We're scheduled for Foster Parent Core Training in April. We're really in no huge rush to make this happen. If we wanted to would could get everything done in 3-5 months, but if it takes a few months longer we're okay with that. We'd planned on adoption taking 12-15 months, so potentially six months for a placement is a bit daunting. The actually adoption will probably not take place for a year after placement. That will be a scary time. If the birth parents rights aren't terminated during that time we may have to give the baby back. We'll learn all about that during the training, I'm sure. :)

So say some prayers for us that we get the right placement first. Yep, it's gonna be a wild ride!

Dream a little dream...

Rob and I had a bit of fun tonight. We walked through the baby section looking at all the stuff. WOW there's so much more than when the boys were little! We'd pretend to "beep" items we'd need (not a lot, really--I have SO much already because of the child care!). Top two items on my list--DIAPERS and a diaper bag. Top two items on Rob's list--beer and Cheetos! ROFL! (Do they really need to put those RIGHT next to the baby section?!?) We have decided to wait a few months before filling out an application with any agency, although I do think I've decided which one we're going with. We really want to pay off the few bills we have and save several thousand dollars. We're expecting this to cost close to $25K. Yes, we should get the adoption tax credit (if it's still there in 2011!), but we don't want to incur more debt. So our time line just got a bit longer, but that just gives us more time to plan. Hopefully by late next spring or early next summer, there will be a happy, healthy baby girl in our home.

I want to thank everyone for their WONDERFUL support! So far everyone has been happy for us and wished us well. I have some of the best friends on the planet. :)

I must be patient!

I keep telling myself to be patient. If we had chosen to have a child ourselves, we'd first have to get pregnant and then wait nine months for the little peanut to "cook", so we'd be looking at a pretty similar time line as we are for adoption. Everyone keeps telling me 12-15 months. Some overseas are a bit longer, but that seems to be the norm. I did talk to some agencies that license foster parents, but they all tell me you cannot have a dual license. I can't give up my family child care license right now, so that takes care of that. I do know of one agency in town that will do it, but I'm really thinking fostering to adopt is not the right direction for us to take. Right now we are leaning towards a domestic adoption. That would mean we'd get a newborn--probably straight home from the hospital! Ah, sleepless nights, matching luggage under my eyes, lots of diapers and formula (THAT will be a new experience for us! lol). None of that scares me though. I'm actually looking forward to every minute of it! We still haven't picked an agency, but I am narrowing it down. :)

In the meantime, to keep myself busy I'm decided to rekindle some old hobbies. Very old. Like childhood! lol I've picked out a very pretty quilt pattern and am going to head to JoAnns this weekend and get fabric to make a baby quilt. I may pick up some fleece and yarn and make a no sew blanket and a baby afghan, too. Hey, here in Colorado you can never have too many baby blankets! Little Girl's room will be pink and chocolate. I want it to be a very mellow place for her to spend her nights. No overstimulating characters on her walls or scary critters on her bedding. I suppose once she's old enough to want Princesses or something like that, we'll cross that bridge. For now, it's Mommy's choice. :)

Our first step

I feel like a student learning a new language. The language of adoption. SO much to figure out! What agency to use? Domestic or foreign? Newborn or toddler? What the heck is a dossier?! lol One site said the problem isn't lack of information on the web--it's too MUCH information. I have to agree. I've looked into a couple local agencies and requested info from them. One called me within about 30 minutes of me emailing them. She seemed nice, but I don't want to jump into something half blind. That's how I feel right now. Rob and I will have to sit down when we have some free time together and figure out if we want to go with domestic or a foreign country and which agency is for us. I think that's our first big step. Then the paperwork begins.

Oh, and if we do adopt a newborn we already have her name picked out. Yes, it starts with an "R". We love the name Rachael Marie. Marie was my grandmother's name, and she was a super-awesome woman! Don't hold us to this name, but for now that's what we've got. :)

Our journey begins...

This blog will cover our journey to adopt a little girl! This is a process that we've just started and will probably take us at least a year until pink is in the house. Right now, we're exploring all our options, including international and domestic adoption. I'm sure God has the perfect little girl out there for us. It's up to us to find her. I welcome you to travel on this journey with us!