The Catch Up

Okay our decision to adopt first came in late August and we have been very busy from then until now. Here is the catch up entry to get you where we are today. I have been way too busy with paper work and education courses to even think about starting an adoption blog. Today is a snow day for the kids and I have off of work so what better timeing as to update.
The end of August is when we decided on 2 adoption agencies. One for the placement and the other for our home study. The adoption agency that we chose for the placement is in Oregon so we needed to find an agency that worked with them to do the home study. I remember being a complete reck as we read over every detail of paper work and prayed that our applications were approved. As I was freaking out Matt would calmly say that I was over reacting and that everything would be fine. Now that I look back I laugh to myself on how I was over reacting. August 29th is when we received the phone call that our application was received and approved!! I was relieved!
September brought contracts and paper work to sign and notarize. I once again was freaking out on all of the paper work and more worried about if everything was going to go through or not. We had also started an 11 page report on our lives and who we were that was required for our home study agency. I had never studied our lives in such detail! Matt and I had made a deal that he would deal with the financial aspect and I would handle the paper work. I think he definatly got off easy. Towards the end of September we were able to send all contracts in and we were now in the next phase.

Once October rolled around we were elbow deep in more paper work and gathering documents for our home study. We had started our home study visits with our social worker. I was so nervous and Matt was so cool and relaxed. We were also working on some of our education course requirements. I was so excited to learn as much as I possiably could to better our adoption experience and raising an adopted child. We were able to attend a full day seminar in Madison and got to meet other families that will be adopting from Ethiopia. It was great to hear their experiances and where they were i the process. I am so excited to watch some of the families that are further in the process than we are. We are able to see what is comeing next and how they are dealing with it. We were alson tring to finish our kitchen at this same time. I wanted it complete before our home visit from the social worker. Actually while we were in Madison our tile floor was being installed. I was so worried that the kitchen wouldn't be done in time. Matt was also makeing a change in his career during this time. He was transfering to a sister company to a different position, so you can say in October I was totally freaking out.
November brought an end to our home study. Nov 11 was our home visit and yes the kitchen was complete except some minor finishing touches. We received our certificate as foster parents and Matt asked if he could frame it. in Wisconsin you need to become registered foster parents prior to adopting. We were now working on our dossier paper work. I was told in the very beginning that when you gather the documents that are needed for the home study gather duplicates for the dossier. Great advise!! We also completed all required education courses!! My goal was to have all of the dossier completed shortly after Matt returned from deer hunting.
Our completed home study paper work arrived December 11 which is close to my goal and was definatley after deer hunting. We had all of our dossier complete and ready to ship out on December 13th. due to the 13th being a Thursday I didn't expect the a call from our placement agency until Monday. Friday morning I received an e-mail tht the dossier was received. I was going crazy looking at my e-mail and checking my cell phone to see if the dossier was okay and complete. I was so sure something would be missing or incomplete. At 6pm on friday I received a phone call from our social worker that all was perfect. The social worker then asked me if I would like to know our numbers for the waiting list. Of course I said "YES" so she said that we were #17 for the boys list and #31 on the girls list. I know she said a bunch of other stuff but I could not concentrate. I have never been so excited to be 2 numbers in my life!!
So that is where we are right now. We are now waiting for a referal from the agency and then we will find out what the sex of the child will be and how old the baby is. So now we get to play the waiting game. I heard from others that it is the hadest part ever. I told Matt that we can just start to gather the stuff for the trip to Ethiopia now and then once the referal comes we can then gather the baby items we will need. We got rid of the baby things we had from the other 2 so now we can start all over. I'm sure i'll get too excited and start to gather the supplies sooner than later.

Our Decision to Adopt

As many of you may now know, we are adopting from Ethiopia. As long as I can remember we have always wanted to either adopt or we were actually considering becoming foster parents for a while. After our daughter was born we both knew we were done having biological children and knew that if the time ever came to want more children we would then adopt. After many years of tossing the idea back and forth we finally decided to step forward and take the plunge of adopting. Often times I would ask Matt if he wanted to adopt and he would reply that he wasn't ready and there were times that he would ask me and I would say I wasn't ready yet. After J's accident this past summer and spending days in the hospital and weeks of recovering we both decided that life is way too precious to not do the things you have dreamed about doing. We both love children and knew that it was now time to live our dreams and not just dream them. After much research and praying we decided that Ethiopia was the country for us. The need is so great there and every time I would look at the paper work for the Ethiopian adoption my heart would literally sink. To later find out that Matt was having the same feelings as well. Telling our children was so fun. We picked them up from a friends Birthday party and had some baby booties wrapped up for them to open. When they opened the gifts their jaws dropped and eyes got huge. A (our daughter) had said " excuse me for a minute please" and went into the other room and screamed at the top of her lungs. Then she came back into the room and said, "okay, now I feel much better". She then continued to say that she had always wanted us to adopt and the she could not believe it. J was just in shock and said that he was so happy he didn't know what to say. After explaining that we were adopting from Ethiopia they were both even more excited. Telling the rest of our family was fun and they all took the news as we had expected.