It's Been a Long Time Comin'

(These are the pics of the Raffle Drawing party that we promised in our last post)

It has taken us a long time (ok, a month or so) to get another update posted, so here you go! Much has happened since we last blogged about our adoption journey, so we'll bring you up to speed as best as we can.  We apologize for the delay in posting... at times it felt like we were drowning while trying to complete all of the paperwork, assigned reading and book reports, and everything else the agency requires for this phase was done properly.

1. Good news!  Our adoption paperwork is FINALLY complete and we are getting ready for our first home study appointment! We're hoping we can get all three appointments done this month, so we can be on the waiting list some time in November at the latest. With that in mind, our house is a flurry of activity. We're cleaning, baby-proofing, and tackling some minor home improvement projects so we can make a good impression on our case worker. Talk about motivation! :)

Cindy actually went to WalMart the other day and got teary-eyed as she wandered through the baby aisles, thinking about what we might want to buy for our son or daughter, and realizing that she was shopping in the baby aisles for OUR baby this time!  Even if it was just for outlet covers and cabinet latches, it was finally for us this time!  It's becoming more and more real every day. Months and months of preparation are finally leading us up to our big moment - the time we are matched with Baby B!

2. Our friend, Lori, took some pretty amazing pre-adoption photos of us. We are so happy with how they turned out and cannot wait to share the finished product with you once we get them. A few have been uploaded to Facebook, so we'll link those here soon enough.  Thank you, Lori!!!

3. The next step once the home study is complete is to create our profile books and online profile for the adoption agency. These will be passed around to the expectant parents so they can decide who they want more information on and to possibly meet in person. We have already completed our short profile and web profile, and are working on our long profile book now.  This part will be a little fun, too! Cindy has a great digital scrapbooking computer program that will make this step fun and easy to complete. :)

Well, it's late so we're going to close out for now. We promise to update more regularly and to keep you posted on our latest adoption shenanigans! Please keep us in your prayers this week as we get ready to meet with our case worker on Sunday, October 7th.  We are very nervous!  Thanks and God Bless!!

Josh & Cindy <><