August 28, 2008: Oh my goodness...life has been crazy this week!!
So, Monday we find out that Anna's blood pressure is through the roof and her doctor wants to send her to Indy to a specialist. Before the left to go to Indy, we stopped by their house. While we were there, we got an interesting phone call (which I'll explain in a moment). So, Anna saw the high risk pregnancy specialist who immediately admitted her into the hosptial. She's still there and they've got her BP lower, but it looks like they'll be delivering the baby early...maybe in 1-3 weeks. Check out her website for details:
www.babyhomepages.net/ww9ajr (I'm updating with details for her).
So, the phone call...it was our adoption agency! An expectant mother wants to meet us!!! Our profile had only been open to be viewed by expectant mothers for maybe 2 days! Crazy. So, we'll meet her a week from today...September 4th. We're not sharing any details because if she does choose us as the adoptive parents, this will be our child's story. Our Social Worker warned us about sharing too many details with people. Our child should get to hear those details first...and from us, not other people. So, please don't be offended if we don't answer specific questions you have. It's natural for us to be curious about everything, but we need to respect the expectant mother's privacy and that of the child.
But this is what I can share...the expectant mother is not a teenager, she is black, the birthfather is not in the picture, she is due September 22...and it's a girl! The chance of her making an adoption plan and sticking with it is extremely high and she's excited to meet us. As we are to meet her.
So, as I said...this week has been crazy. Ups and downs! I didn't know how I was going to pass the time until our meeting...but this situation with Anna has kept me busy. Thank you for your contiued prayers for us...and for Anna, Brian and their son!
First, we received our final report homestudy approval letter on Saturday! So, our first payment is due ($4250!) now. We've almost raised that much with donations and support from our wonderful family and friends. We're blessed that my parents are able to loan us the rest of this first payment. I'm putting the check in the mail today...so they should get it tomorrow...meaning our profile will begin being shown Wednesday. How very exciting!!!
Second, we looked at our schedules yesterday and realized that we don't have one free weekend until October! That's crazy! We keep busy. So, we decided that we would spend the day registering at Babies-R-Us and Target. It was fun...and exhausting! It's almost overwhelming looking at all that stuff that you "need"...which we quickly realized that we don't need! It was fun though picking out all that stuff together...realizing that we'll soon have a baby! So, we're all registered. It's mostly little things as we already have the crib (a gift from my parents) and our travel system (a gift from Jason's parents). We also already have a bunch of other things that we've either bought or I've picked up at garage sales or we already have. The only big thing we really have left to get is a highchair. We're blessed by that.
I think that's all the updates for now. I'm super busy getting ready for Anna's baby shower...which I'm throwing for her this coming Sunday. It's fun and I'm so happy for them. I'm also very excited that my best friend...for 21 years!...is coming down to help me out. It will be fun to visit with her...as well as my beautiful God-Daughter, Avery and her new brother, Isaiah. So, it'll be a fun week (especially as I took off of work on Thursday and Friday)!!
Thank you still for your continued prayers and support!
August 13, 2008: Well, we have now completed all our requirements for the adoption! Tonight was our last class...an education class that included tons of information as to what to expect from here on out...from meeting the birthmother to the hospital experience. It's amazing to know that we could get a call any day now telling us that a birthmother has chosen us or that our baby has arrived! It's truly amazing...and hard to fathom.
So, here's what happens now...our case-worker is finishing our final report of our Home Study. She should have that done in the next couple of days...then we'll recieve a letter stating the final report is complete and a bill for the Home Study and the Family Profile. Once we pay that bill, they will begin showing our profile to birthmothers. At that point anything could happen. There are so many senerios that could take place, we just don't know. We're just relying on God to take care of it. This whole process is a lesson in trust and control.
As you may have noticed, our fishy is swimming forward towards that big number. We have had many generous donations from friends and family...but we still have a long way to go. Please continue to pray that God will open financial doors for us. We'll begin applying for grants once we have our Home Study Final Report as that is a requirement for the grants. Just keep praying for us...we truly appreciate it.
August 7, 2008: I was writing an email to a friend who had asked about details of the nursery. After describing it to her, I realized that I hadn't given a very good description here, so I'm going to post here what I described to her:
The nusery has light green walls and white curtains (which cannot be seen in the pix because I just put them up yesterday...still working to finish the valance). The crib and dresser are a honey color. The dresser was mine as a baby and Jason stripped off the dark stain and stained it to match the crib. I made a crib quilt which is light green, light purple, yellow and white. We don't have a "theme" really. We've just selected that color palette and we're working with that. We have a lot of special things in the nursery. Like the dresser...we also have a bookshelf that was Jason's as a kid. Hanging from a shelf in the nursery are some things my grandma knit. When we were cleaning out her things this Spring after she passed away, we found two sets of knitted baby things that she had put away for Anna and I to have for our babies. It made us cry! So, I decided to hang those things up in the nursery until we use them. There's also a quilt my mom made while I pregnant with Riley. We put the tall cabinet unit (that my dad made us for a wedding gift) that we used as a pantry in LaPorte in there as well. It's next to the changing table so it will hold diapers and supplies as well as random things that need to be up out of the way. It's handy because it has pull out drawers. We've also placed the rocker/glider in there for rocking the baby. Sophie likes to sit on it. :-) We're not going to add any more decorations until the baby arrives...then we can make it more personalized.
August 6, 2008: Well, we just got back from our Panel Meeting at the adoption agency. An adopive family with a bi-racial son shared their story and their adoption journey. Then two birthmothers shared their stories. It was a great experience! Hearing the birthmothers share what they went through and dealt with was very emotional. I'm so glad we had the opporunity to do this. It's a great idea to have adoptive parents hear from other adoptive parents and birthmothers. It really helps put things into perspective.
One more class to go!!! Next Wednesday...will let you know how it goes! Thanks for the prayers and support!
August 3, 2008: Our little fishy has swum...swimmed...hmmm...got further along the last week or so! Thank you so much for your generosity! Knowing we have the support and prayers of our friends and family truly means more than we can express!
July 26, 2008: As requested, I've finally posted some pictures of the nursery. Enjoy! It's still a work in progress...the walls are pretty bare, but it's coming along nicely. Once we know if it's a boy or girl, we'll make it less neutral and more dedicated.
Michelle Potts: We're adopting from the U.S...Indiana specifically. We're using Bethany Christian Services.
July 24, 2008: Just a quick update...our fish is swimming: had a few more donations come in. How exciting! Thanks to you all!
Our social worker has read our family profile text and approved it, so now we'll add the pictures and have it ready to take with us to our first required meeting on August 6th.
July 18, 2008: Update...the Education meeting has been set for August 13, so after we complete that class our Home Study will be completed and we could get a placement anytime after that. Wow!!! We're working on our family profile and hope to have it done this weekend. They'll start showing it to expecant mothers after our Home Study is complete.
I just got back from Michigan last night. I had been there since Monday. Shelly called me early Monday morning to tell me she was in labor, so I hopped in the car and headed north. I got there just 2 hours after sweet, little Isaiah Maurice Marble was born at 9:15am. He was 7lbs, 6oz and 21 inches long. Mama and baby are doing well. I feel so blessed that I got to spend 4 days there...helping Shelly around the house and distracting Avery from feeling too jealous of her new baby brother. It was really hard to leave...now it's back to the grindstone.
July 9, 2008: Well, we had our home visit with our social worker, Tara, last night. It went really well. It lasted nearly 3 hours, but it was great to get all the interviewing stuff done. She asked so many questions that really made us think. They were good questions...just open ended and deep. She also took a little tour of our house. I'm sure we passed all that stuff no problem. She had some great advice for us and a good insight into adoption, as she is adopted and has an adopted son. It was a good meeting last night. That's done though...whew! We're now done meeting with her. Now we just have the two classes to take. The one at the beginning of August and the other is not scheduled yet...though she's thinking it will also be in August sometime. Now we're working on our family profile...writing our "dear birthmother" letter and adding pictures to tell expectant parents about our life, who we are and why we are the right choice for their child. Fun, fun. Thanks for all your prayers and support up to this point...keep them coming!!
Also, thanks for the great comments that you guys leave. I didn't think about putting pictures of the nursery up...will do! Thanks for the suggestion.
Again...thanks for the thoughts and prayers. We couldn't do this without you. Love you all!!!
July 6, 2006: Swim little fishy! It's adding up: another donation from a friend, a rebate from the paint we used for the nursery and a partial payment on an item we sold. We've broken the $1000 mark! Yeah! God is good!
June 30, 2008: Just wanted to share the exciting news that Anna and Brian got today. They're having a boy!!! We all thought it was going to be a girl...guess we were wrong. :-) Congratulations to them!!!
June 27, 2008: The money raising is slow going, but we added another $40 to our fund by selling a TV we don't use. Watch that little fishy swim towards our goal...one dollar at a time!
June 24, 2008: Well, we had our first meeting with our social worker as part of our Home Study last night. We really enjoyed meeting Tara. She's great. She immediately put us at ease and we felt very comfortable talking to her. She is an adoptee from South Korea and has an adopted son from South Korea as well. She is very passionate about adoption and can give us some great advice.
We spent about 2 hours talking...answering some indepth questions as she got to know us. I was a little nervous beforehand, but felt very comfortable talking with her. We felt like it went very well.
We have our next meeting with Tara on July 8th at our house. Depending on how much information we cover, we may have to meet one more time after that. As part of the Home Study we are required to attend an Educational Meeting (which has not been schedule yet) and a Panel Meeting (August 6th) which is a panel of former adoptive parents and birthmothers discussing things from their perspectives. So, we know we will not be done with our Home Study until at the earliest August 6th. We hope the Educational Meeting will be schedueled in August as well. Then after that, it could be any day! Amazing!
So the heat is really on right now to come up with the money for the adoption. When the Home Study is complete and we turn in our Family Profile (which we need to be working on) we will have about $5000 due (so by the end of August we need at least $5000 to pay for those fees). Then we have to be ready with the additional $3000 for our birthmother escrow account, $15,000 for placement and $1000 for legal fees. We have some major fund searching going on right now! We have a few ideas to raise some money, but we're really trusting that God will provide. We don't know how He'll do it, but we know He will.
Thanks for your continued prayers and support. I'll keep you updated!!!
June 14, 2008: Just a quick update...we have our first meeting scheduled for the Home Study process. We will meet with Tara, our Social Worker on Monday, June 23rd in the evening. We're working on our load of paperwork and I'm going to schedule our physicals next week and we'll go get fingerprinted. We're moving forward! Thanks for your prayers...keep them coming!
1. Our little fish was able to swim a little further up the bubbles indicating we've raised some more money towards the adoption fees. We sold our Wii to a friend so we were able to add $250 to the $600 we made at our garage sale. Only about $14,150 to go! :-) We'll get there...$1 at a time!
2. I got a call yesterday from our social worker. She sounds really nice and was very willing to answer any questions I had. She asked me to email her some dates that we're available so we can set up our first meeting. We will meet with her 2-3 times during the Home Study, once being in our house. So, now I'm waiting to hear back from her again so we can set the meeting up. So much waiting...trying to be patient! :-)
June 5, 2008: Exciting! I just got the call from Bethany Christian Services that our formal application has been approved and they will be assigning a Social Worker to do our Home Study today. So, now we just wait for the call from the Social Worker so we can begin the Home Study process. So very exciting!!!
We had a call from the agency on Tuesday asking about our financial situation. Because we have chosen not to specify race, this process could move VERY quickly. They wanted to be sure that we were going to be able to get a temporary loan to cover the fees. We applied for a Family First Loan on Wednesday morning and by that afternoon, we were approved. We were told that we could have placement very quickly after our Home Study and they wanted to make sure that we'd have funds to pay right away. So, we've got the loan ready to go when we need it, then we hope to pay it back very quickly from our fundraising efforts (family, friends, grants, etc!). So, now that we've got the loan, we can move forward, hence the news I posted above. :-)
Please keep praying for our baby, the birthmother, for our patience and for God to open doors to financial resources. We couldn't do this without the love, prayers and support of our family and friends!
May 29, 2008: It's been awhile since I've posted anything here, so I thought it was time. A lot has happened in our lives since I posted last...which will cause me to be posting more often!
Anna's pregnancy is going well (you read about her pregnancy at her page: bhp/ww9ajr). I think it's a girl, but we have to wait until the end of June to find out. Waiting is hard!
Speaking of waiting...we're doing a lot of that. About 4 weeks ago one Sunday after church Jason told me that he felt like God was telling him that we need to adopt. Mind you we've talked about adoption in the past, but Jason always hestitated. I guess God was telling him that now was the time. When God speaks, we try to listen. So, we prayed and truly felt led to begin the adoption process. We researched all the options: all the agencies in our area, the state, fostering, etc. We really felt led to go with Bethany Christian Services, which is a nationwide adoption agency and has an office in Indy. So, we requested information and sent in our preliminary application. Almost immediately we got a call inviting us to an information meeting on domestic infant adoption. It was God's hand at work because if we had not gotten our application in at that very time, we would have had to wait until July for the next meeting they offered. (His timing is always perfect!!) So, we went to the meeting on May 21st and learned all about Bethany and the process. We were thrilled to learn that our wait time could be very short because we are open to any race of infant from the US! The average wait last year was only 3 months after the Home Study was complete, but a lot of the cases were no wait at all. This could move quickly! We were given a big packet of paperwork to take home. After praying about it some more, we filled out the next round of paperwork and sent it off with the $500 application fee yesterday. The next step will be waiting for the call to set up a meeting with our Social Worker. We will meet with her 2-3 times as we complete the Home Study process. We'll also complete a Family Profile for birthmothers to look at as they decide which family to help create. The Home Study process only takes about 2 months, 3 months max. Then we wait.
As we wait, we need to continue praying big time for God to open the door to financial resources. When all is said and done, this whole process will cost us nearly $25,000. We are praying hard for God's guidence. We know He wouldn't have told us to do this if He didn't have a plan to provide. We're just waiting for Him to reveal His plan to us. We trust in Him completely and are trying to not to worry about the financial aspect. All in His timing and control!
We just can't wait to meet our child! Can you tell how excited I am? :-) Because this process could go so quickly, we've begun getting things ready. We've cleared out the nursery, combining our guest room and office into one room. We've picked colors for the nursery, have it painted and have fabric bought for the crib quilt and the window valance. We're trying not to be caught unaware. We've heard several stories about families getting the call to come pick up their baby and not having anything ready yet. We like to be prepared. Besides it's a lot of fun getting everything ready...praying for our child with every step of the way.
So, we're in the waiting for a phone call stage now. I'll definately keep posting updates. This is a very exciting process. We're so thrilled that God is going to add to our family through adoption. I have always wanted to adopt a child, even if we had biological children. It seems as though God has closed that door, but He has certainly opened another for us. We seek your prayers and support as we go through this emotional and exciting process.
Thanks for staying with me on that...it was quite long! Keep checking back for updates! Love to you all!
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