Mark Your Calendars...

Well, OK, you don't have to mark your calendar- but we certainly are marking ours!!! Why? Why, you ask?? Only because the Education Meeting with Bethany we have been waiting for has been scheduled!! The meeting is August 13 at 6:00!

So, just what does that mean for the whole process? The Education Meeting is the very very last component of our home study. Once we attend the meeting, we are "in the pipeline." Our profile can be shown to potential birthmothers and we are eligible to be chosen as adoptive parents. Once we hit this point, the "real" waiting begins. There will be nothing else we can do. We will be one of those sets of parents who are just praying and waiting for some birthmother to look at our profile and say, "I like deese guys- deese are funny guys!" (Oops- slipped into movie mode there- 3 Amigos- remember?) But that really is the idea- our profile is what catches the eye of a birthmother- and you never know what might catch someone's eye.

And while we are on the subject- this profiling thing, let me tell ya...

It is not an easy process. I mean, let's think about it... All you have to do is write up a summary of who you are, how you got there, what makes you different, what makes you good people, what makes you good parents, what makes you a good family, what sets you apart from all of the other families out there, what makes your home the right kind of home, what reason to think there is that you will handle adoption issues well, how regular you are at paying your taxes, how you voted in the last 5 presidential elections (and why), your theories on discipline, nutrition, quantuum mechanics, the economy, global warming, public education, the Academy Awards, and which peanut butter is better, (JIF smooth)

OK. So I am exaggerating a bit. But it is kind of like that. You have to distinguish yourselves from everyone else in about a page and a half. Not easy. The text of our profile went through 5 revisions and is pretty much in its final form now. The establishment of the August 13 meeting date gives us a time frame to work with. We want to have our profile ready to roll immediately upon the completion of the Education Meeting. So, in the next month we will have to get the profile into its final format. I will add photos and work on the final layout and produce the copies in order to have the whole thing ready to go on August 13.

So, there you have it. That's the latest. Home stretch on the profile, meeting in a month, then it will be, as they say, in the hand of God.

Brinkley says "hi"- He stopped chewing on things long enough to say it.

Thanks for coming along

-ja-

We Interrupt This Blog for the Following Special Announcement...

We have a new family member!! Now before you get down the road with this too far and start jumping to conclusions and saying things like, "Holy cow- they got their baby! There was no shower! I need to get a present! How did this happen so quickly! Oh my goodness!!!", let me put your fears to rest and let you know that the new family member is not a baby... well, it kind of is... WE GOT A PUPPY!!!!

We have been talking about this for a while and we decided that now would be a good time. We are not traveling in July, I am home most of the day during the summer, and, we found a breeder fairly close with just the dog we wanted!

Our new little guy, Brinkley, (named after Tom Hanks' dog in You've Got Mail), is a Cavalier King Charles spaniel and is about 8 weeks old. He is pretty small, (a skadoosh over 3 pounds) and will be around 15 pounds when he is full grown. He is a "blenheim" King Charles, which for the rest of us means that he is a mix of brown and white. We just got him on Wednesday, (7/2), and so now we have been dog owners for a whole day!

We were fully prepared for a long night last night but I put him in his crate, read him his bedtime story, gave him some warm milk...oh wait, I am getting our adoptions confused- those are things I will do with the baby... Anyway, I put him in his crate, talked to him for a minute, closed the crate door, turned off the light, and we never heard another whimper all night long. Totally did not expect that. We will see how it goes tonight.

Photos of Brinkley below!

I guess it is truly the summer of adoption around here. We have added a puppy to the mix. Now on to the main attraction... a baby!!!


Thanks for coming along!

-ja-

No White Smoke Yet...

...but we are getting closer!! We met with our case-worker for the last time, and I think that as far as she is concerned, we pass! (We don't have that in writing yet.) As long as all involved parties get the paper work to the agency, we are only waiting for one more thing- the "Education Meeting". This education meeting is a bit of a mysterious thing to us. No one has really said exactly what happens. I guess they think that it is implied in the title. But we do know this- your home study is not complete and you cannot do squat until you have attended the meeting!

So, when is this meeting? If you hear anything, let us know. Apparently these education meetings are scheduled "every once in a while", and as of our latest communication with the agency, no date has been established for the next one. We are just hoping that it happens before we wind up with a wheelchair and a stroller in the family at the same time!

(You all know I am just having fun with this right? We firmly believe that God is in control of the timing of this entire affair- it will all come together at the right time and we are willing to wait for God's timing. I have noticed that it is just a pinch better than mine!)

In the meantime, I have been writing the rough drafts of our "profile"- the document that will be shown to potential birth mothers to tell them all about who we are and why we are WAY better than any other family out there (kidding). More about this profiling process coming soon!

For now- thanks for coming along!

-ja-