Matched!

We are matched!!!! We had two people show interest and we went with the one we felt the LORD wanted us to go with. She has to turn in some papers to the agency and then they will let us know what is going on. Our wonderful birth mom is due around the first week of September as best we can tell and she is having a boy! Please continue to pray for her and the baby and for us.

We're live on the internet!

Received the email today from our social worker that we are live on the internet. What this means is that anyone can view our profile from anywhere...especially birth mothers...but also you, if you want to!

We're ACTIVE!!!!!!!!!!

We got word from our agency this morning that we are active on the internet. Wade sent us the final paper work to sign (a 21 page contract that required initialing each section; signing and being notarized). So now our profile is out there for anyone and everyone to see. The contract said that it is also attached to a network of Adoption Attorney's list, pregnancy crisis center lists, other Adoption Agencies list, ect. So now the true waiting begins! We have done all we can, now we just wait for a birth Mom to choose us! We aren't supposed to pester the Adoption Agency but once a month to see if they have heard anything. The birth Mother's Social Worker will contact us when one has chosen us. My phone is charged up and the voicemail/answering machine has been checked! Please continue to pray for us and for the birth Mom God has for us!

Profile Proof Received!!!

Got the email today with the proof for the profile! We glanced over it, but will spend more time looking at it this evening from the comfort of our home. We're SO excited!!!! They had the proof done in less than a week! yay!!!! Now we need to make changes/approve it/give them a chunk of money and we start getting exposure! One step closer! =)

Birth Mother's Day

I received an email from our agency this past week that said that the Saturday before Mother's Day is called "Birth Mother's Day". I wrote a little note to our future birth mother and will include it in the photo/scrap book that we plan on giving her at the hospital when our baby is born.

I didn't feel near as bad this year with Mother's Day as I have in the past. I know that we have done all we can this year and that this will probably be the last year that I won't be a Mom. We are praying that way anyway...thank you for praying with us for it! =)

Adoption Appointment 4/13

We made an appointment to go to American Adoptions in Overland Park to talk with our Adoption Specialist, Kelli, about our APQ (Adoptive Parent Questionaire). Usually they do this over the phone by conference call, but I emailed her and asked if we could come in and talk to her face to face instead. They always seem delighted to get to actually meet with you. So we showed up and got to meet Kelli face to face. She was very nice, easy to talk to and enthusiastic. She didn't talk she bubbled, and she smiled the whole time. One thing I really like about these people is that they seem to really be enjoying what they are doing! They instantly put you at ease, and you feel, within seconds, that you have known them your whole life! I was a little nervous that the APQ would need to be changed a lot. Kelli kept saying how wonderful it was that we were so open and broad in our APQ! She said that because we are so broad with it, that we will be exposed to a lot of birth mothers and have a great chance of getting several people interested. The only thing that she mentioned was our budget was a little low..but not too bad. She said any match that comes in between 1,000-5,000 over our budget will still be brought to our attention, so that we can make the decision if we can do it or not. But we are not required to do so. She told us a little what to expect in regard to the birth mother. She went over that the birth mothers only have our profile as far as information about us. When a birth mother selects us, and her social worker calls us to tell us, that we will receive everything the agency has on the birth mother, medical records, questionaires, financial records, ect. We have 48 hours from then to decide if we want to be matched with her. The birth mother's social worker has access to our APQ and is the one who will determine if it will be a good match before she calls us. We only have wiggle room if something is outside of our APQ or if we are not strict about something on our APQ. the birth mother is asked to choose up to three selections of adoptive families in case an APQ of one of the families doesn't fit her situation.
Since Kelli worked with birth mothers for quite a few years, before starting to work with the adoptive families, she gave us some ideas and encouragement in regards to the birth mother letter and what most birth mothers were looking for. When we get matched with someone we will have her cell phone number and will be able to reach her 24 hours a day. When a birth mother selects us, we will be dealing mainly with the birth mother's social worker thru our same agency. But Kelli said she will be kept up to date on everything and if we ever need to talk or have a question that we can call her. She is just there to make sure that we have everything we need, counselling for what to expect next, keep our rights protected, ect. Lastly, she said she thought it was awesome that we seem to both be on the same page with the whole thing and that that isn't always the case.
All in all, we had a fantastic visit with Kelli and are really looking forward to working with her.