Moving forward LEAPS and BOUNDS!

Hey everyone, so for those of you who talked to me during this past week, you know that were a lot of things that we got to check off our giant list this week. Let me fill those of you in who haven't been able to talk to me this week.

Tuesday morning we had our consult over the phone with our agency. It was about a hour and a half and she pretty much just explained how everything works. It was very informative and exciting to hear someone talk about when a birth mother picks you.... and when the baby is born..... when you take your baby home... it really made me excited to talk about all that stuff!

So shortly after our consult, we met with our social worker and read our home study. We felt that she portrayed us accurately and just requested a couple changes - most of them were very minor changes and corrections - like my parents are 50, we have a bathroom on our upstairs level, not the main floor... etc. So it was good to get everything finalized. From there she just needed to update all our corrections and she would be sending off our papers to social services.

Immediately after our home study meeting we swung over to social services and dropped off all of our required documents for our dossier. A dossier is essentially a compilation of documents that the agency requires in order for us to apply. It included our home study, criminal record checks, child abuse record checks, our profiles, etc. From there social services will send them directly to the agency in Florida. According to the guy that we are in contact with at social services all of our documents were prepared and sent off to the agency on Friday.

Once the agency gets our dossier, it takes them about a month to go through all of our documents and applications. Once they accept us we will be put on the wait list - which currently has 2 couples on it - so we will be on the wait list for 1 - 3 months. After we come off the wait list we will pretty much just be waiting to hear that a birth mom has picked us! Most birth moms pick an adoptive family between 6-8 months into their pregnancy, so it could be pretty short notice for us. Once that birth mom gives birth and signs her consents to the adoption we are able to travel to Florida and get our baby! I really don't think it will be too long before our baby is here! VERY EXCITING!

On another note, our fundraiser for the 26th is coming together nicely. We have consultants from Scentsy, Tupperware, Pampered Chef, Arbonne, Mary Kay, Gold Canyon, Partylite, Younique, Discovery Toys, South Hill and more! We have some that are still waiting to hear if consultants can come : Epicure, Lia Sophia, Stella and Dot. If you know someone that sells stuff like this and their company isn't already confirmed for coming let me know! The requirement is that they will be willing to give us a % of their sales for our adoption. PLEASE invite your friends to come to this event and start some Christmas shopping. I'm already saving up to buy myself some new kitchen gadgets AKA knives that are actually sharp! We look forward to seeing you there!

Our Partylite consultant has also organized an online fundraiser for people who would like to order from partylite but can't make the event. The link is http://tinyurl.com/jaarsma Her name is Krista Day and you will see her name on the top right hand. Purchase from her and she will give us a percentage of her commissions!

Thanks everyone for your continued love and support. Our baby's birthday is getting closer!