We chose our adoption agency!

We finally had our meeting with Adoption Associates yesterday!! It went great! She was very helpful and straight forward with everything. She answered all our questions honestly and didn't make us feel like she was hiding anything. The meeting really put us at ease that they are going to take very good care of us, but at the same time raised our awareness of some situations that could arise. She gave us a lot of information about how adoption has evolved over the last 30 or so years. We have an opportunity to really market ourselves and make sure that everyone knows our situation and that we are looking to adopt a baby! You never know who might know somebody, who knows somebody who wants to create an adoption plan for her baby. The agency will really help give us some direction on how to really market ourselves and possibly find our own birthmother. This is where all our work comes in, this is where we can hopefully help our process move quicker.
We of course had to talk about the tough subject of all the fees that go along with adoption. This of course is not our favorite topic. Domestic infant adoption can cost $21,000-$28,000. It really is crazy to me that this is what we have to pay to become parents. But, if that is what it takes to bring our son or daughter home, than that is what we are going to do.
Now that we have finished this meeting, we need to complete our formal application and gather up our funds. There is one more meeting that we need to attend before we begin our home study. The next meeting is Sept.12th. We will need to send in our formal application with the initial fees before this meeting. The meeting will focus on the homestudy and what will happen during this process. After our meeting on Sept.12th we will then schedule our first meeting with our social worker and our homestudy will begin!!!!!!! The home study will take 6-10 weeks and then we will be officially approved to be adoptive parents!!!! We will of course keep everyone updated as we go through this process. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue our journey.
The garage sale is coming up in a few weeks! We have so many donations for the garage sale, it is going to be huge! We will update you on how things are going and the results of our sale! Make sure if you stop by and check it out! Let everyone you know, know about our huge adoption garage sale! We have lots of great things to sell!!!!!

Adoption Application!!

Today, we sent in our prelminary application to the adoption agency! We have our initial consultation with an agency that we are interested in on Monday July 18th!! We are so excited to have taken this step!

We also recieved our garage sale permit in the mail today,so it is official!! We are so thankful for all of the support from family and friends! This is going to be quit the garage sale so let your friends and family know!!!!!

Adoption garage sale!!!!!

We have finally decided on the dates for our garage sale to help with our adoption expenses. The garage sale will be Friday August 5th to Sunday August 7th. It should be quit the garage sale. Between Rick and I we have enough Express clothes to fill a couple closets as well as tons of other great stuff.
We have had so many people donate items to us to sell in the sale. We have felt so much support from the people that have donated as well as everyone that has been passing on our story. I hope that you all know how much you touch my heart. It is such an amazing feeling, to feel the support of having everyone in your corner. Thank you!
Today at work, I was helping a patient that was picking up her glasses. I was telling her about how Rick and I are about to start our adoption journey. She began to tell me about her struggles with trying to have a baby. Her and her husband have been married for 63 years. They never had any children. She held my hand and said she would say a prayer. I told her about my blog and about the "chip in" button. I told her that I told my friends that all we need is 5000 people to donate $1 and we would have a great start to what we need for this adoption. After I adjusted her glasses she handed me $1 and said "Here go sweetie, here's my $1" I was so touched by this woman. She was so sweet. I started to tear up, my co-worker started to tear up and then my customer started to tear up. She told me that I had to promise to let her know what is going on. I told her that of course I will!
I am just so overwhelmed by the support that we are already recieving, it is amazing!