Garage Sale and Exciting News!

Hello All,


We had our garage sale last weekend, here are two pictures from Day #2 of our garage sale before we opened:

We had great success!! On Friday, it ended up just being Mark and I setting up and running the show until about 1:30 when my aunt (Kelly's aunt) showed up to help. It was very awesome that she could be there to help out--Thanks Aunt Kappy! We sold a LOT of items on Day #1 and could not believe how busy it was. Mark and I woke up at about 3:30 am on Friday morning to start setting up and at 8 am people started shopping our sale, even though we didn't start until 9 am. So we weren't quite all set up, but people shopped anyway. It is what it is...but that means I didn't get any pictures of the first day! My parent's (Kel's parents) came and helped put things back in the garage over night-so thank you Dad! It was nice having help putting things away!

Day #2 we got up at 3:30 am as well to start setting up, and then around 8:30 am we had a lot of help. Mark's dad, Kel's friend Paula, Shawn's girlfriend Allison and then Mark and I. Mark's dad and Mark set out the furniture in the morning as I've been recovering from a shoulder injury so that was awesome we had some extra muscles--and Paula, Allison and I got to help customers as the showed up. Saturday (Day #2) wasn't nearly as busy as Friday (Day #1) but it was still busy! We didn't have nearly as many big items as we did on the first day, but we had a successful day. We sold lots of items on both days but still have half a garage full of items that didn't sell--and so we plan on donating those items to people who need them :)

In other news, WE GOT APPROVED!! Our home study hit the hands of the supervisor I believe on Friday, and by Wednesday afternoon, our home study was approved!! We thought we had several weeks between when the home study was finished to when it got approved--but apparently it doesn't...so we are now on the waiting list! However, we haven't finished our profile books which is what we need in order for birth parents to find out who we are. We have been so busy between my mom breaking her leg (and taking care of her) and our garage sale that our profile books kind of took a back burner...but now they are front and center and need to get done ASAP. We have so many emotions going through our bodies right now--we are super excited that we are approved as it means that at any given time, we could become parents...but it's scary because at any given time we can become parents with little to no warning. This weekend we are going to buy a car seat so that we are at least prepared for that--and then from there slowly build are baby accessories as we find them on sale and as needed.

We would like to thank everyone who have prayed for us and walked with us as we got to this stage in adoption--there is no way we could have gotten here without walking beside us! We also would like to thank everyone who donated so many items for our garage sale!! You helped us get that much closer to being able to adopt!!

Prayer requests:

1)For our profile books to get done within the next day or so

2)For all birth parents out there that they may feel peace and love as they make decisions for their kiddos whether that's choosing to parent or choosing to place their child for adoption.

3) For us as we start getting birth parent profiles--that we will make wise choices that God has given us and that we don't rush into anything without feeling called by God. I know there are going to be some tough decisions as to whether we want our profile book shown or not. So wisdom in that area.

Thanks y'all!!

Our Garage Sale is Coming Up!

Hello all,

We are still waiting for our homestudy to be completed which then means the next step after it's completed is getting it sent up to Seattle for approval. We emailed our social worker today and she is about 75% done writing it up but truthfully, I'm getting impatient. We are coming up on July 4th which is the time frame of when we should have gotten our approval notice...but now our homestudy won't even be seen before the committee on July 4th. So it's hard to just wait! I'm ready to stop waiting and to have our little one in our arms :) But alas, we wait. Isaiah 40: 31 has been a good Bible verse for me to meditate on... "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like angels; the will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

In other news we have our big garage sale coming up in a week and a half! Our garage is getting filled with donations by friends and family and we are able to sort through it this week and weekend. We are so thankful to all those that have donated! We are still taking donations as well to those that would like to donate. Please email, facebook, or call/text us as we'd love to take anything off your hands. THANK YOU!!

We will write another update after our garage sale. :) Enjoy the sunshine that is supposed to come in the next few days--I know Mark and I will :)

Interview #3 & #4

Sorry it's been a while since I've updated the blog! Both interview #3 and #4 came and went without much to them. The third interview our social worker came to our house for literally 15 minutes for us to sign a couple of forms... which kind of was sucky because I had the house clean head to toe for the second time at that point only for her to be at our kitchen table for 15 minutes...oh well, it was nice to have a clean house :) Then the 4th interview came and that was our final interview where C (our social worker) did a walk through of our house to make sure we had everything we needed for optimum safety in our house. There are a few things we'll eventually need to take care of (such as locking the cleaning products that are under the sinks)...but we currently have carbon monoxide dectors on every floor of the house as well as in the future nursery and in our bedroom. We also have 2 fire extinguishers and a fire escape ladder in the future nursery. We are as safety prepared as we can be and now just waiting for C to write up the home study. If everything goes according to plan, we will be on the waiting list on or before July 4!! It's so exciting knowing that we are almost done with this step and will just be waiting to be picked by expectant birth parents!!

We are working on our big garage sale July 13-15. Our hope is to raise $1,000 OR MORE during this garage sale that will go directly towards our adoption costs...so if any of you have items to donate, want to help out with the garage sale, or even come on those dates, we would love it! We need to get more items to sell in order to make getting $1,000 even possible. Ideally, we'd love to get 10% of our total adoption costs, so we would need to get $2,800...but I think we would be completely floored if we got $1,000 :) We'd love it if you partnered with us to reach our goal!

That's it for now. We are currently trying to figure out how to pay for our adoption so fundraisers, grants, and loans are currently being researched. We would love it if we could earn/get enough money without having to get a loan, but we will do it if that's what it comes down...since we are on our way of getting out of debt, it's hard to commit to going into more debt--but we will gladly do it if it means we get to have our little one home with us one day!

We hope that you are all having a great weekend!

Interview #2

Our interview #2 was a success!! Like I mentioned in the previous post, our house was probably the cleanest it has ever been!! However, our social worker only came right over and we sat at the table for the interview--all that hard work for nothing-bummer!! But it was good to get through one more step! So this interview was our one-on-one interview where we both filled out more paper work seperately and then Mark left the house for about an hour and when my portion was done, he came back and then I left for his portion. Thankfully it was a beautiful day so on the parts where we needed to leave the house, we each took our yellow lab for a walk.

The interview itself really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be-praise God!! I was so stinkin' nervous for it I couldn't sleep a couple days before it! And since Mark went second, a lot of the times when Mark would say something, C (our social worker) would say, "glad you and Kelly are on the same page" or "yes, that was what Kelly was saying too!" So it really does seem like Mark and I are in a great marriage groove and are on the same page and gave similar answers-which sounds funny, but that's actually what I was nervous about. We have been married for almost 4 years (yay!!!) but Mark isn't the best at remembering all the "facts" (bless his heart because he does listen and tries to remember) so I was really anxious that our stories would be told differently and wouldn't match up--but they did!! :)

Our next interview is on May 2nd and this is where she will be inspecting our home to make sure we have a room designated for the baby, smoke detectors, a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, and a few other things. I'm not really "nervous" for this one persay, but will still clean like a mad woman since she will be all over our house "judging" it and making sure it will be a good place for a baby to be part of our family. Thankfully I have the best friend in the whole world who will come over and help me clean the day before!! She seriously rocks!

So after our home inspection I guess we have one more interview--not sure what the 4th one will entail--I think it was something about us reading what she has written for our home study? Not sure!!

We do have a few prayer requests:
--That above all, God is glorified in this process
--Please be praying for all those affected in the adoption process (ie birth parents, adopted kiddos, adoptive parents)
-for the birth parentswho either are considering placing their child(ren) for adoption or has placed their children for adoption
-for those who have been placed for adoption or are in that place that Jesus heals the loss that takes part in adoption
-for adoptive parents in all walks of the adoption (either considering it, are in their home home study or have already adopted) that they may know that they aren't alone, adopting is hard but worth it, and that they may empower their kids to not be ashamed of being adopted
--for our social worker, C, that she is able to portray us in a truthful manner, but also with our best foot put forward and that she helps us get approved if that's what the Lord wants
--And lastly, for us. Mostly for our finances at this point as we just wrote a check for our home study that pretty much clears out our adoption savings...we are still $26,000 (and some change) short of being completely funded in our adoption. That number is mighty scary because we have no idea how that money is going to come about--and while we could totally get a loan, we would prefer not to as we are trying to get out of debt instead of into more of it so we can further the kingdom-and believe God wants us to get that money some way, some how. So prayers as we figure out creative ways to make that work and for those who would love to help us out :)

Thanks for following us on this journey we call adoption :)

Interview #2 Coming Up

We hope everyone had a great Easter weekend and are able to enjoy the sunshine (if you've been lucky enough to have any). Tomorrow marks our second home study interview. Our social worker is coming to our house for the first time which makes me SUPER nervous! It's crazy to think that this is kind of our halfway mark in our interview process, it could even be our second to last interview. It's really hard to know how our social worker wants to do things. Some social workers will only have 3 and others will have 4--it is really social worker dependant.

We have been working on cleaning our house like it's never been cleaned before. It's funny though--when I say we need to clean our house and do some "deep cleaning" I've gotten interesting responses from people such as, "oh, you're house is clean enough" and "it won't matter to the social worker that your oven is clean or not". Not that those are INTERESTING, but really, it for me, the root of wanting our house super clean, even deep cleaned, is a control issue. We don't get to control how our baby comes into this world (ie being a biological baby), we don't even get to control when they come (the birthmom chooses us and she delievers the baby when it's time) and we don't control a lot of other things--so by me cleaning, I can control how clean our house looks. It may not make a difference to the social worker knowing that our oven has been cleaned for the second time in a month, but it makes me feel better to present our house in its cleanest state. Luckily my best friend came over and helped me clean all day yesterday and we were able to bust out some organization too! Tonight will be finishing cleaning and tomorrow morning, before our social worker comes, will be last minute straigtening and cleaning.

I am more nervous for this interview than I was for the first one, because this one is even more personal. They ask you questions that know one should really know except your spouse--yet somehow, it affects getting a baby or not??

This adoption process is crazy. It's a whirlwind I tell ya!! So we are just finishing cleaning tonight and then if there is time, I may even hop online and start our profile book. There is a gal that I met through our agency that is also adopting and they have to turn their books in before than can be approved...so if we really only have 1 or 2 more interviews left, then we need to get on that!! We also need to be putting more time into our birth mother/father letters as those need to be ready to go with our books. EEEKK! It's all becoming that much more real! We are excited to see where God is leading us and taking us. It's such a great season of life to be in when we have to be dependant upon Him. He is so great and is totally blessing us!

I'll leave you with a question--for our profile books, we have to make a "scrapbook" of sorts--but we are doing ours online because I am not crafy it my life depended on it (although I do love it). So we are looking into using mypublisher, mixbook, shutterfly, or whatever else is out there. What's your favorite to use and why? (you can answer this even if you're not adopting/have adopted...I'm sure many of you have used these services for other things than a profile book :) )

OH!! Something unrelated to adoption--my parents have been down in Haiti for a week (as of today) and come back tomorrow. They have been with 19 other people training police officers and security guards and have had such a blessed time. I was able to talk to my dad briefly last night and he said that this is one of the best teams he has been able to lead and that God is doing amazing things down there. I cannot wait to have them back in the States where I can chat more with them but if you could be saying a prayer for them for safe travels home-thanks!!

Enjoy the sunny weekend--we are supposed to hit 80 on Sunday!! WAHOO!!

Our First Interview!!

Yesterday we had our very first home study interview. I was a nervous and excited wreck! For me, this made it feel all that more real that we are adopting!! I know I've talked about it for months, researched every agency in our state, talked and prayed more about adoption, applied to Bethany, then did the training in Seattle followed by tons of paperwork--but walking into the Bethany office knowing it's our first interview just made it all real.

We are so thankful to all those that prayed and thought about us yesterday--the prayers could be felt! When we made it into our social worker's office, our nerves were calmed and the interview went well (in our opinion). This was the first time meeting this social worker as our original social worker changed positions within the agency, so I think that also led to me (Kelly) being more nervous. Our social worker, C, is super nice and has a really cool personality and love for the Lord and love for adoptions. She said that this interview was about getting to know us--and it was just that. She asked us some questions such as, "what are your goals for your family?" and "what does a typical day look like your lives?" and "describe the other person/what are the other person's strengths?" and "what are your disciplining styles?" and other questions about us. We liked that some questions were easy and others made us think a little more, but were still answerable. We didn't feel "tricked" or anything like that and we both feel she really does have our best interest at heart--which is something I KNEW, but it wasn't something I FELT until yesterday.

So what's next? Well, we have our one on one interviews coming up where she will come to our house and interview us one at a time and the other one of us will have to leave the house and then switch. That's the next nervous thing for me--because I like to always know what Mark is talking about/what he's going to say...not that we have anything to hide, but there is stil that scary piece of the unlnown. Then we will have one, maybe two more interviews after that. Once C (our social worker) feels like she has asked all the questions she needs and knows us more personally than anyone else does, she will write our home study. So the process from interview one to when she writes our actual home study is about 6 weeks. After it's written, we will get the chance to read it and make sure we approve what is written, then the home study gets sent to the panel for review and either approval or denial. That could also take about 6 weeks. So in about 12 weeks (hopefully sooner!) we could be on the waiting list and waiting for a baby!! Now THAT is the most exciting and nervous statement I've made in pretty much my whole life! I cannot wait to be a mom to a little baby to hold and love forever! It's so nice to have a time line also to know when our profile books and dear birthfather and dear birthmother letters need to be written and "published" with something like mix book or snapfish.

So there you have it. Yesterday was great, next interviews in a week or two, and we have a timeline!! :)

Still Plugging Away

Where has the time gone?? I feel as though time is just flying by--which is great in some ways but also so weird in other ways.

March 13 we officially sent in all of our paper work to the agency that was in our home study. We were still waiting on a couple of things to get turned in to the agency by our doctor and an employee reference form but that was out of our control. So, as in the adoption world, we waited and waited for that to get all turned and to the agency. A couple weeks later we found out that our social worker was switching job titles and going into more of the counseling side of Bethany. It was disappointing to us because we really liked her--but after a few days of being sad we decided it must be for the best and will just continue to take steps of faith and trust God. We also found out who our new social worker was going to be.

THEN, one week later (this past Monday), Mark called me from work and told me he had been laid off. He worked for a small start up company in an industry that was completely client contract based. So if there were lots of clients, his work would hire more employees, and if there were less clients, his work laid of employees. Mark had made it through quite a number of rounds without even coming close to getting laid off--but he happened to be on a contract job that didn't have a paying client as it was an internal project. So they let him and about 12 other employees go. To be honest, I haven't really had a freak out moment yet. I am more scared that it'll affect (or is it effect...oh gosh, I'm too tired to care) our adoption. The total God moment in this is that the week before he was laid off, he had an interview with one of the companies he has wanted to work with for a while. He obviously blew the socks off of this company because THEY OFFERED HIM A POSITION!!! He has to pass a background check first (which we are not concerned about) before he can start, but his official start date is April 9. So we sent an email to our social worker letting her know of the changes and are just praying we can still move forward in our adoption.

Prior to Mark getting laid off, we found out that our new social worker wants to start the interview process of the home study!! It's pretty crazy to think that once we complete the interviews and make our birth parent books--we could get picked by a birth family to adopt their baby!!! So we will continue to trust God that He has perfect timing and that we can start the interviews next week while both Mark and I have completely open schedules.

So we would love for you to join us in prayer for a smooth transition and that Mark's job change doesn't affect/effect our adoption. Also, please pray for our future birth parents, our future baby and for the other families in the adoption process.

Working Through the Home study

We haven't blogged for a couple of weeks as we took a small break from our home study packet. We have a couple of things we need to complete before we can send our packet in--but three of the things are dependant on outside resources. So tomorrow we get our TB test (but we had to wait for our appointment so we had to wait for that "resource"). In two weekends we are taking our CPR/First aid for infant class (but had to wait to take it for when there was a class opening). And our final check list item is getting our physical, however, our doctor office doesn't have an opening until APRIL!! So we are hoping tomorrow we can show them what the physical consists of and they can squeeze us into some random appointment time :) Then just a few more worksheets to work on and we'll be DONE with the packet itself. After our packet has been recieved, we will have our interviews that we will need to set up with our social worker. If you can all be praying for our birth mother (that may or may not be working with Bethany/even be pregnant at this point) right now that she is feeling loved and is working through her adoption plan and that God is protecting her--that'd be great!

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So as we work through our packet, I wanted to share with you something that was read to us while we were at our training.

It is called, "Different Trips to the Same Place: A Story about achieving parenthood through adoption vs conception" by Diane Armitage, an adoptive mother.

When you decide you want to have a baby, it’s like planning a trip to Australia. You’ve heard it’s a wonderful place, you’ve read many guidebooks, and you feel certain you’re ready to go. Everyone you know has traveled there by plane. They say it can be a turbulent flight with occasional rough landings, but you can look forward to being pampered during the trip.

So, you go to the airport and ask the ticket agent for a ticket to Australia. All around you, excited people are boarding planes for Australia. It seems there is no seat for you; you’ll have to wait for the next flight. Impatient, but still anticipating a wonderful trip, you wait…and…wait…and wait. Flights to Australia continue to come and go. People say silly things like, “Relax. You’ll get a flight soon.” Other people actually get on a plane and then cancel their trip, to which you cry, “It’s not fair!”

After a long time, the ticket agent tells you, “I’m sorry, we’re not going to be able to get you on a plane to Australia. Perhaps you should think about going by boat.”

“By BOAT?!?” you say. “Going by boat will take a very long time, and it costs a great deal of money. Besides, I really had my heart set on going by plane.” So you go home and think about not going to Australia at all. You wonder if Australia will be as beautiful if you approach it by sea rather than air. But you have long dreamed of this wonderful place, and finally you decide you travel by boat.

It is a long trip, many months over rough seas. No one pampers you. You wonder if you will ever see Australia. Meanwhile, your friends have flown back and forth to Australia two or more times, marveling about each trip.

Then one glorious day, the boat docks in Australia. It is more exquisite than you ever imagined, and the beauty is magnified by your long days at sea. You have made many wonderful friends during your voyage, and you find yourself comparing stories with other people who also traveled by sea rather than air.

Other people continue to fly to Australia as often as they like, but you are only able to travel only once, perhaps twice. Some people still say things like, “Oh, be glad you didn’t fly. My flight was horrible. Traveling by sea is so easy.”

You will always wonder what it would have been like to fly to Australia. Still, you know God has blessed you with a special appreciation of Australia, and the beauty of Australia is not in the way you get there, but in the place itself.
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We hope you enjoyed the story! I will post more another time on why I love this story :)

We are moving forward!!

We got a packet in the mail that had our contract with Bethany Christian Services (BCS) and our fingerprint/background check forms. We are so excited to be moving forward and making a little bit of progress towards having our future child with us in our home.

In this packet, we also found out that we need to be at a training up in Seattle this coming weekend--so we booked our hotel and will have a little night out on the town as we get to work towards adoption--YAY! And, the domestic coordinator up in Seattle was nice enough to let us do our orientation on Friday so we get to get two things out of the way, instead of spending two different Saturdays doing the training on day and the orientation on the other day. Thanks to the coordinator for doing this!!

And this morning, Mark and I went to get our fingerprints taken! It was a weird feeling going in to get it done. I kept saying, "we are doing this to work towards adoption." OR "We are doing this for our adoption" just so everyone didn't think we were getting booked into the jail for something. Haha!!

We are excited that we can be pro-active in this stage of the adoption--because from all of the adoption blogs I've read, waiting is the HARDEST because there isn't much you can do once you've turned in all your paperwork and your homestudy is approved, the only thing you're waiting on is for a birthmother to choose you and then for the baby to be born. There isn't much you can do while you wait besides sort of prepare your home for a baby whom you don't when he/she will arrive--you can be waiting for one day after your approved home study, or you can be waiting for years. So I am glad that I am in the stage where I can check things off and move forward at this time :)

Well, off to clean the house, but just wanted to update people as we had some info.