Post Placement

We have our final post placement visit on Sunday...WooHoo. I know he's "ours" and he's here, but I can't wait for that silly piece of paper to tell us what we already know...We have a SON!

Our social worker comes to the house this time around, but thankfully we're in pretty good shaper cleaning wise. Have to stay on top of that stuff more than we used to now that Ty's around. Don't get me wrong...we still have plenty of hair, just fewer tumbleweeds :)

Once our final visit is complete, we can submit our paperwork to the courts on July 31st (6 months from the termination in MO) and then we sit and wait for a court date. Could take anywhere from 2 weeks to 4 months we hear. I am pretty sure there will be some tears on THAT day :)

Home Study!!!

We got it! We have our home study in hand, finalized and ready to go!!! Now we can actually start contemplating the "fax us your home study right away" situations...there was just one we had to turn down in PA...and already born, parental right terminated, peanut of a baby girl...under 5 pounds!!! She was Caucasian though so I knew they would have tons of applications for her, and I didn't feel bad about saying we had to pass...Our baby will find us when the time is right :) Just wanted you all to know!!

Final Home Study!!!

Well, of course everything went fine! We had my grandmother and cousin over yesterday to help us clean and pick up and a close friend also came over to help us with a section of drywall that we really wanted up. It wouldn't have mattered. Our home, though under construction, is ready for a baby. She asked basic questions about the home, neighborhood, and town; then looked over the rooms...DONE! Mike had his individual appointment as well, and opps...those little issues he had over 10 years ago were on his CORI. Driving to Endanger (speeding when he first got his license) and a property destruction or something. Smashing up a radio on a tennis court with a friend. It was his friend's radio too, but I guess they said there was damage to the tennis court. It was all continued without a finding, but he had to write a little paragraph on both anyway, since it was on his CORI report. Be good kids...that stuff comes back to haunt you. Mike is such a "bad boy" right???
So now we just have to do all our paperwork. I am off tomorrow, so I'm going to track down at least HOW to get our birth certificates, and social security cards. We aren't to sure where they are since the move. We both were born pretty local to where we live now though, so going to get the birth certificates isn't a big deal. SS cards might take longer...we'll have to see. Other than that, we have autobiographical statements to write. Mine is almost done. We have a little more writing to do on the profile, and then we need to get some assembled. Erina is going to help me out with that I think.
It's moving. Our official, we'll accept a "match due after date" is December 15th. At that point I can travel without effecting work too much, so it would be a go. IF we found an expectant mom due ON Dec 15, we could have the baby home by Christmas, but the chances of that...pretty slim. We'll take the right match, over a match we would have by Christmas.
Take Care everyone, as always...thank you so much for all your overwhelming support! We need every bit of it!

Newer, Improved(-er), and Sooner "Final" homestudy date

So as I've said before, our Social Worker has a lot going one. We also, have a lot going on. Needless to say, she had to change the final visit again, we could either put it off, or take this Sunday at noon. We took this Sunday, even though we were planning for this whole weekend to be the final big cleaning and repairing weekend, it looks like we'll work on what we can all day Saturday, and just have someone come in and clean on Saturday evening. It's totally cheating, and I don't even care. I love having other people clean my house. They clean like they really care...it's awesome. So we'll do all the organizing, and touch up repairs (you know, covering those still open walls where electrical work was done) and then they can come in, and do all the floors, counters, tables, the bathroom, and whatever else I want to put on the list. It's awesome! Sunday AM, we'll wake up and go out for Breakfast.
Calls to see how it went are more than welcome after 4 on Sunday, and that's if I can't update here as soon as it's over. After Sunday it's all over! Well it's all over except getting ALL our financial papers (all our CC, loans, mortgage, employer statements, tax returns, checking and savings account statements, and Mike's employee profit sharing statement) and getting our Dr's appointments and health statements, making sure all our reference's returned their forms, waiting for our background checks (one for criminal, and one for child abuse/sexual abuse) After all that comes back, she can write our home study. While all that is coming back, we'll have to work on making multiple copies of our profile, which isn't even all written yet (yeah I need a rough copy of that for Sunday too...easy peasie right?)
We decided to pass on the birth mother in Ohio, she was due in November and on one hand it's like, oh neat we could be chosen by a Birth mom, and have a baby for the holidays, and on the other hand it's like
HOLY CRAP, THEY WANT US TO BE READY FOR A BABY IN LESS THAN A MONTH!!!!
In the long run, it will be a placement that is that fast, or faster...most likely. They only allow Black American Mom's to make birth plans very close to, or after their are due. So it could be even faster. That is scary shit. End to End on this jounrey we are looking at about 6-7 months. Most mom's get more time than that!
As always keep us in your thoughts, or prayers...whatever you're up for! We are friends with a couple, and we were visiting them the other night, and she told me she prays for me every night. It blew me away that anyone else thinks about what we are going through as much as I do...Thanks so much for all the support!

Baby Finances

Well we are really doing this now...Saturday we closed the home equity loan, so we're either adopting or a new car!
We're all set to pay for the baby now...well to pay for services I mean. Paying for a BABY is illegal...I tell you though, sometimes when you talk to these agencies it seems like a thin, thin line!
9 days till our home study is done. If the washer goes none stop from now till then, we might make it. We sorted some shoes tonight. Our yard sale pile is getting bigger and bigger. To bad it looks like we won't make it for this year. Maybe I'll just sell all the stuff on e-bay during the cold winter months. Gotta pay off all these bills somehow.
We've decided on another baby name...
So far we like:
Lillian Michaela (nickname Lily)
Makayla "Something" (nickname Kayla, or no nickname, we aren't sure)
Tyler David (nickname Ty)
Benjamin David (nickname Ben, or BenBen)
Brayden David (nickname Brady)
Owen David (nickname O?)
So we need a middle name that goes with Makayla, and some other girl names we like. We'd like to have a few, and then name the baby when we see them.
Any requests to name the kid after our friends will be turned down...except obviously Ben. His name is actually Benjamin David...
Alright, it's late...Talk to you all later...

Final Homestudy Date!

We finally got to reschedule our last home study visit to November 6th! After that we'll only be waiting on our paperwork. CORI checks (ohhh...scarey..lol) and our references to return their paperwork, etc. Oh yeah, and a baby...we'll need to find one of those too!
We haven't heard too much more on the expectant mother in Ohio, what I have heard is that Ohio is a crappy state to adopt from. A few people I've connected with adopted out of Ohio, and they had to wait in state for the ICPC paperwork for almost a month (you have to stay in the state the baby is born in until this paperwork is done. It makes sure the both states will recognize the adoption, and that the state you are going to will finalize you adoption in accordance with state laws where the baby was born, and bunch of other stuff) ICPC usually takes about 2 weeks or less, so a MONTH, is a really slow moving state. I just don't think I can last a month in a hotel with an infant. Mike wouldn't even be able to stay that long. I would have to find out more about it before I would commit to an adoption in that state. Otherwise the adoption laws are ok (as in they protect the adoptive parents reasonably well)
If and when we hear more, you know I'll let you all know!

We got bumped, but also good some good news!

So on the adoption home front, our last meeting (a home visit) got pushed back. It was planned for this Wednesday, but our Social Worker Deb (who we love) has to go to Springfield, MA to witness surrender paperwork for a Birth mom there. I guess she delivery 3 weeks early, so Deb wasn't planning on doing this yet. Those babies! They sure do come whenever they darn well want to! She did tell us we could stop cleaning (she has no idea how mess the house is though!) and start working on our profile. She has an expectant mom due in December that she thinks would be a great match for us! So far we know 2 things. Deb thinks (based on what the mom has told the other social worker) that she is due in December and 2) she is located in Ohio. Deb knows more than that, she just hasn't had time to get us the other information yet. It's exciting and sort of scary all at the same time. December, let me remind you all, is NOT very far away. We are not planning on doing a nursery till after the baby gets here, so we can be sure there isn't a disruption or anything. The baby would be in the master bedroom for at least 3 months anyway...So we don't know what our last meeting is, but we keep cleaning the house anyway. And working on the profile. Speaking of which, if anyone has any recent pictures of Mike and I together, we would love to see them. I've spent far to much time behind the camera and not in front of it, and now we're playing the price with a complete lack of pictures for our profile. We are trying to take a picture or two of ourselves everyday, but I always hate how they come out. In Mike's words...."This is who we are! If she doesn't want fat adoptive parents she can go look at another couple." *SIGH* Isn't he romantic!

It's Really...REAL!

So today Mike was at home. He took vacation time today and tomorrow, so he could work on the house before the home visit on Wednesday. He took EVERYTHING out of the garage, and put it in the driveway. It's only been two years here in this house...how do we have that much stuff in the garage??? He decided to lay a cement floor in the back of the garage (our garage is two cars deep, and the second one back was a dirt floor) He mixed and poured 16 80lb bags, and he was only half done the floor, so him and Brad ran to Home Depot to get more. It is almost 8PM...they just got back, and everything is still in the driveway. I hope it doesn't rain.
On the adoption home front, the most wonderful, amazing thing happened today! I know I said I "gave" Mike the financing ball and expected him to run with it...but who was I kidding? Everyone that knows me even a little knows that I am control freak when it comes to things that are important to me. This adoption is very, very important to me. He wanted to wait the 10 days to hear back from a loan we applied for. I basically said, if they are taking 10 days to get back to us, we didn't get it. We were looking into personal loans at this point, because we were told we didn't have enough equity in the house for a home equity loan, since the real estate market has gone down so much. On a whim I went on to Bank of America, and checked out their programs, and started talking with a rep on line. They had two programs, a Home Equity Loan (where they put all the money right into your checking account) or a Home Equity LINE....meaning you can write checks from it, or use a special CC, and then as you continue paying it back, you can use the $ again. For the first 10 years, you can only pay interest if you want to. So she encourages me to apply, and this equity line sounds so perfect for us (we really only need to carry the amount till we get the tax credit, which would be in 2009 most likely) I explained that I wasn't sure we had enough equity and gave her the whole run down of what the other place (who we have our actual mortgage through) said. Turns out the other place told us that a home equity loan or line was a standard 25K minimum. We didn't quite have 25K in equity, BUT with Bank of America we did get approved for....
$20,400.....
Enough for the actual adoption. The home study fees we have in savings, and the travel (if we have to) and post adoption monitoring we'll have to pay another way....it was still very, very good news. I had been getting worried about the financing. Now I know...we WILL be adopting. I can really start to look at situations in our price range. I actually started crying when we were approved. Sometimes it seems like this is going to good to be true. I fully expect we'll have a disruption or two, but I can know for sure now. We will be bring home a baby to this house :) It was a very good day. I'm going to go have some chocolate and watch the guys pour cement.

Good News on the Adoption Front!

After a delay in getting started our social worker is pushing us through super fast. We are already half done our home study appointments, and we'll be done the other two by October 28th at the latest :) It will take time to write it all, and get all our background checks and everything back, but the visits will be done, and that means we can start looking for adoption situation...well right after we get the financing squared away. Mike is taking the ball and running with that one, so hopefully we'll have some answers on that next week. Just thought I would let you all know we have moved forward on the homes study. :)

As Promised a New Blog Post!

I can't even believe that it's been so long since I blogged. We've been way to busy this summer! Dewey is almost a year old, and truly thinks he runs this house. Dogs have NO concept of how large or small they are. Daisy thinks she's a 5 pound Yorkie and Dewey is positive he's either a German Shepard or a Bull Mastiff. Dudley is the only one that is normal of the bunch. He was sick again though, so I did have to make a late night trip back to the Emergency vet. Ironically we had to do that the exact month that we made our last payment on his last services there. Thankfully this trip was only for a bad ear infection. The poor thing is a silent sufferer...we had no idea he had one till it was running out his ear. It was really gross. Daisy gets them all the time, but never Dudley. We were informed that it was likely from Dewey licking his ears out (that is a dominance thing) He's a much happier guy now that it's better...and that we don't let Dewey lick his ears out anymore too I think. He's moving slower though, and I think the vet called it perfectly at this time last year when she said he would be prone to arthritis. I guess him and I can limp around the house together. Daisy on the other hand has no slowed down at all, despite her rapid greying. Her face, ears, butt and tummy are all white and grey now. Pretty advanced aging for a 4 year old dog. Dewey keeps her young energy wise, but I don't think it was a coincidence that her grey hair intensified once we got him. Poor old girl...she had it so easy keeping submissive little Dudley in line. Dewey is pushing all her buttons, and wants that alpha dog title pretty bad. He's not even one yet, so I think the next year will tell a lot about the pack dynamics in our house. I'd like to keep Daisy as the "leader of the pack" because I think that's cool...her and I...we run this house! (Love you Mikey!) Hopefully Dewey taking over wouldn't be a sign of the tides turning...Maybe I should run around and pee on things or something?
Anyway, obviously our most exciting news is the pending adoption. We start our home study on Sat, Oct 6th. We've met with the HS coordinator once already, this is our official signing on. We love her, and she really great about helping us out. We have actually already been offered 2 expectant mother profiles that we could have submitted to, even though we are not HS approved, but we did turn both of them down. The first one we thought really hard on, since it was a Due Date in Jan 2008. In the end we decided that it wasn't right to submit our profile to her if we didn't have our financing yet. These expectant women are going through enough. I wouldn't want something on our end to fall through and have her adoption plan put into a tail spin. The second one was a Nov due date, and we just knew we would never be ready in time. Obviously I would LOVE a placement by Christmas, but it looks like it would more likely be the first few months of next year.
Okay, I have some laundry to do, so I'll update you all more later!
Take Care