With Love, Mommy

We are trying to prepare as much as possible during this waiting period.  I worked very hard to finish our scrapbook last weekend, and it's looking good.  This scrapbook is something that our licensing worker will show to CPS caseworker when they are deciding if we are a good match for kids.  We will also use it to show the children so they know what to expect.  We have pictures of our house and backyard, their room, and our family.  We have pictures of our extended family, our pets, and the activities we like to do like going to the park, the zoo, Disneyland, and the children's museum.  We also included a page for each of us on our hobbies. I am also trying to get our organization systems ready before we hear about the kids.  We will have binders for each kiddo with medical information, incident reports, important contact numbers, and reports from CPS, therapists, or any other professionals in their team.  There are so many things to get ready!...

Our homestudy is officially in the hands of the state of Arizona!  Our adoption application was mailed on Monday to the Court and they will make the final decision if we are certified for adoption.  Today, our foster care homestudy was submitted to the state board.  The foster care homestudy will be reviewed separately and we will be licensed based on the investigation that we have been through.  So now, we wait!  It will take a few weeks to hear back about both of these.  There is a potential that kids may be matched and even placed in our home before we are licensed though.  So we are busy preparing ourselves! There are a few very important things that I would like to mention.  Remember that these kids will be coming into our home from foster care, which means that we have very strict rules until they are officially adopted.  We are not allowed to publicly share pictures of the children or any details about their case plan, for their own ...

We have some good news!  We are practically "paper pregnant"!  Maybe there's no growing belly or morning sickness, but we are EXPECTING!  We are expecting one or two children to love, we are expecting years of happiness, we are expecting laughter and tears, and we are expecting to complete our family in the most amazing way.  And now starts the waiting game. Details, you ask?  Well, we met with our licensing worker last Tuesday.  We passed our second inspection with flying colors, which means that we now go to quarterly inspections until we are no longer licensed for foster care.  We had our couple's interview and finished talking about some of the details.  We talked about the children that we feel we would be able to parent, along with their special needs.  We feel like we can be good parents to children with developmental delays, some medical issues, or emotional issues.  We do have some limits, but these children all deserve a lovi...

We are on our way!  We have been working so hard to get things ready for the adoption process.  Last week Kevin painted the kids room a beautiful sky blue that will be the perfect backdrop for some Tinkerbell pictures or a wall decal.  Today we cleaned up the room and hung book ledges for our vast collection of children's books.  It's starting to look like the perfect little Neverland!  I'm sure any children will love the understated Peter Pan and Tinkerbell theme. As far as paperwork, we are pretty much done!  We got our final set of fingerprints done today.  That's right... the courts in AZ do not trust DPS to do a background check, so they require their own fingerprints even though we have our fingerprint clearance cards.  There are just a few more papers to sign! So what's next?  On Tuesday, we have our agency home inspection and our final interview with our caseworker.  We will turn in the rest of our paperwork then.  This ...

This process is so much different than when we were expecting Baby J.  No morning sickness, but those paper cuts sure do sting!  :)   The current paper cuts come from a stack of papers we had to review and fill out for our home inspection.  Our state home inspection was yesterday, and we passed with flying colors.  We have been preparing for this inspection for weeks.  Every room must have a smoke detector, all medicines must be locked up, as well as all potentially hazardous materials, including all cleaning supplies (even windex and laundry detergent).  Our hot water has to be turned down and we must have a shephard's hook and a life ring for the pool, which of course must have a 5' fence.  There were many more requirements in our packet.  The state has officially approved our home for foster care.  We will have another inspection with our agency worker in two weeks. At that time, we will also have our final interview, where are lic...

A new adventure! Our family is growing!  We are so excited to announce that we are expecting!  But maybe not in the way you are thinking.  We have decided to adopt through foster care, and we are thrilled!  This process can be a little confusing, so I am hoping that this blog may serve as a way to keep our family and friends informed about the process.  Our desire is to adopt 2 siblings so they may stay together.  We are open to children up to preschool age, so infants to age 5.  Many people seem confused as to our motivation.  We truly know without a doubt that God has called us to adoption.  We have found our ministry, and it is providing a loving family to children in need.  God calls us to care for orphans, it's very simple.  "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." ~James 1:27 Adoption th...

Time to refurbish the old blog!  Our family has some exciting changes happening, and I would love to make this blog a place to share the exciting details with our friends and family. So its time to start this blog fresh.  Keep checking back, it's about to get good. ;)