Waiting....

Since it's been several weeks since my last post, I thought I should give a little update! We are patiently (do you catch the sarcasm?) waiting on one piece of paperwork to come in to complete our homestudy. Once we receive that, we will schedule our last homestudy meeting. I am hoping that we will be able to finish this in the next couple weeks!

In the mean time, I've completed 8 hours of required online training and Josh is currently working on his training. (It takes him a little longer... :) I'm also reading a few books on adoption parenting. I have learned so much through the training and books, and I'm so thankful to have a little more knowledge! Hopefully it will help us be better prepared for parenthood!

Also, check out this blog. I love her posts and wish I could write and capture my thoughts the way she does. It's another great adoption blog. Follow them on their journey at www.meghmiller.com.

Tootles for now!

Hannah

2nd Homestudy Meeting Complete!

So we finally had our 2nd homestudy meeting on Friday. I was so nervous because this was supposed to be the meeting that we would be interviewed individually. When we started our meeting, our caseworker said she didn't really have a lot of questions for us and said we could both stay if we wanted. So, she asked us a few questions about our personalities and our parents personalities and we talked about our paperwork and that was pretty much it! It was very painless! And, Josh behaved himself! (for once!) I think I'll look at it as a good thing that she doesn't have a lot to question us about.

We are probably very close to finishing our homestudy, just waiting on a few more pieces of paperwork to come in and one more meeting with our caseworker before it will be complete!

Oh, and..Josh's renewed passport came in the mail yesterday! Woo hoo! Hopefully mine is on the way!

So there's the big update :)

Also, I found this video online and thought it was such a neat video documenting this couple's adoption experience. Thought I'd share it with you! Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/11402102

later!

Hannah

Catch Up

Here's a quick catch up as to where we are in the adoption process. (For a quicker synopsis, check out the adoption timeline on the right.)

At the end of June we sent in our adoption application and it was accepted. We then started the home study process. We had our first meeting with our home study case worker on July 9th. It really was a pretty low-key, uneventful meeting. We just went over all the LOADS of paperwork that we needed to prepare. Since the meeting that is what we have been working on....paperwork!

We will have at least 3 meetings with our case worker. The next meeting we will have one on one meetings with her. I have to admit this does scare me a bit. I'm a little nervous about leaving Josh alone with her and not being able to "buffer" his jokes or comments. If you know Josh you know what I'm talking about! Everyone has asked me how our first home study meeting went and since it was pretty uneventful, I always say "good". I guess because I'm so used to it, I forget to mention the fact that Josh made a joke in front of our case worker about me being an alcoholic! I've tried to explain to him that he shouldn't joke like that in front of people he doesn't know, because they don't know he's joking! Oh boy! Guess that is part of why I love him, you never know what is going to come out of his mouth next!

Hannah

Background

Let's start with a little background! Adoption is something that I believe God put in my heart at a very young age. I can remember being a little girl talking to my best friend about adopting a baby from China when I grew up. It's something I've just always wanted to do. Josh has also always been open and supportive of adopting. We've talked about it since the beginning of our marriage. It's always been in the back of our minds that someday we would adopt.

After going through different circumstances and years of issues with infertility, we felt like this was the year to really start pursuing adoption. So, I started researching, and we started taking steps. It's pretty amazing to see how what we thought our lives would be isn't always the plan God has for us. We always thought we would have "belly" babies first then adopt...nope, not what God had planned. We always talked about adopting from China or South Korea.... as of today we will be adopting from Africa first! God may give us an idea, or plant a seed in our heart, but he doesn't always lay out the details as to how His plan is going to be accomplished.

This isn't always easy, but we couldn't be more excited to see where this journey is going to take us. We know that the day we hold our baby in our arms is going to be that much sweeter because of the path we've taken to get there!! So hold on baby bickford! Wait for us, we're on our way!

Hannah

ME....Blog????

I started a blog! I have to say that designing the blog is much more interesting to me than the actual writing of this blog! In fact, writing terrifies me. Almost as much as speaking in public. However, Josh and I have started a new, exciting journey and what better way to document our journey than to blog about it. Right? Besides, maybe down the road after we've brought home our little munchkin, this blog could be an encouragement to someone just starting down the same path. I know I've learned A LOT through all the different adoption blogs I've been stalking lately!

So here we go! We are so excited to see where God takes us!

Hannah