Program Update

Hey Guys, it's Bryan.  Em's been pretty good about updating the blog; me - not so much.  Anyway...some exciting news on the progam we're in: I received an e-mail from our adoption coordinator late last week stating that the agency we're with has not only expanded the number of placing agencies it's working with, but the program itself has now been expanded.  Instead of including just African American infants, the program will now include infants of every race.  The previously named "African American Infant Program" is now called the "Domestic Infant Program".  This means that our waiting time should be drastically reduced.  I have to admit; based on the time frame we were given, we thought we'd have our new little one by now, but we realize this is on God's time, not ours.  We are also excited about the changes to the program and trust in Him and His plan for us and our family.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we go through this process.  Thanks for taking the time to read this entry and to be a part of our adoption journey.

Thank you!

I'd like to thank Lisa K. who hosted a 31 party for me last week. She raised $77.00 for our adoption fund! How awesome is that! She did a catalog party for me and had 4 people purchase from her party. Her party was only $300. Every little bit helps! Thanks again Lisa you're awesome!

How to help

Working on some small fundraisers while we wait. Feels good to do small things like this, makes me feel like I'm one step closer to the finish line. So the fundraiser is 31 gifts. Here's the website: http://www.thirtyonegifts.com/Catalog/ Twenty five percent of the purchase goes towards our adoption fund. You can purchase one item or host a party. October's special is https://www.mythirtyone.com/content/specials.aspx and November and December's special are really great. Let me know if you're interested. These bags are great for that hard to buy for person on your list. Or great for yourself. =)

BUSTED

I've been busted, Aunt B informed me that there hadn't been a new post since July! Yikes!! So sorry guys! Sometimes I feel like I'm writing a journal, because we don't get a lot of comments so I forget that some are using this as their way to keep up on our adoption news.

Well here's the update. Homestudy is done. Albums have been delivered to Georgia and the placement agency thinks our album is "beautiful". Our agency in Portland is in the process working on signing 3 new contracts with placement agencies. So that's great news!! More placement agencies mean more birth mothers and more opportunities.

And the ending of the cliff hanger.... It was our adoption agency telling us there was a new birth mother in the program. Which is exciting.. but not as exciting as getting a call to tell us a birth mother has picked us. Sorry again for the cliff hanger, I'll try to do my best to keep this more updated, but we're in waiting mode.

Also in the process of painting a Jenny Lind craddle that has been in my family for years. So.. I will be posting pictures of that very soon. It turned out so stinkin' cool!! Thanks for reading!

Voicemail

Anyone who knows me.. knows.. my cell phone isn't a part of my being. I can go a whole weekend not knowing where it is. If you need to get a hold of me you call Bryan. That's just a fact, or you'll wait until I find it. =) hahah 

So generally this works good for me, but Saturday I about peed my pants. I was checking my voicemails saturday morning and got a voicemail from our agency!! Only the voicemail  was from last tuesday!! I was our social worker with some information about a birthmother in Georgia. That's all the message said.. did we get picked, is a birth mother looking at our album, is their just a new birthmother to the program? Well I learned my lesson, because now I've spend my whole weekend wondering what she needed to tell me. I have been checking my phone hourly just to make sure I haven't missed a call.  

And so the waiting begins...

Home Study

We have been given a social worker and a home study appointment has been made!! Our social worker Jodi seems very nice and we're looking forward to meeting her! I'm sure you're wondering what a home study is and why we're excited about it. The home study is when a social worker comes to your house and evaluates your home and mental state. That's how I like to explain it anyhow. We're hoping we pass this one.. since we have 2 pretty normal kids and a rad marriage. =))) haha So Jodi will come to our house and meet us and the boys for 6+ hours. Then she will write a huge report on us. That will take about a month for her to write. Our appointment is for June 18th, so if you can say a little prayer for us on June 18th we would appreciate it.

Because I think it's more entertaining with pictures....

This is the newest addition to my etsy website.. Wipe covers, not just for babies, I keep on in my car for the boys and their sticky faces and fingers.

And for the duck lovers...

I can make these in any of the bib fabrics you see on my esty site, but these are my favorite so far. I will tell you Aidan is totally disgusted with me that I would even own this fabric. "Do you like the ducks?!!?!" he asks me. Too funny.

Etsy website: http://www.etsy.com/shop/bibsbyleecoe?ref=shop_sugg

Paperwork

Paperwork is DONE!!! Bryan mailed the last of the paperwork in to the agency on Friday. What a feeling of relief. Just in time for the weekend so we can relax.. haha not really, but relax from paperwork. We have our monthly call from the agency tomorrow and we can't wait to tell her the news.

Next step is the home study! So we have been doing some decluttering this weekend in preparation. Which means throwing the boys junky toys away. We will also need to set up the baby's room to show the social worker we have a place for the baby.. not sure how the transfering of furniture is going to work.. but I am excited to put the crib up. =)

Happy belated Mother's day! Super blessed to have these cute little guys. Hope you  have a great week!

So close!!

Oh man, we're so close! We had our physician letters filled out today, which was one that we've been putting off. Mainly because we knew we were going to have to wait for a long time to be seen. But she gave us the stamp of approval and we were on our way. But we did indeed have to wait longer than I wanted to, with two cranky kids. I forgot to bring food and entertainment, so I'll take part of the blame for the crankiness.

We have 2 outstanding documents that we need other people to complete for us and one more form that we have to fill out. Bryan is filling our final document out as I type. YAY!

So what happens after we finish? We submit the remaining paperwork and they schedule an appointment to come to our house and make sure we're suitable parents..  which we're really hoping we pass, since we already have 2 children and we think we're doing a pretty good job with them. haha Then they do a little report on us and then our family album can be shown to birthmothers!!

Education is DONE!!

OHHH YEAH!!!! Finished our education that is required..  Another one bites the dust! I'm excited, can you tell? I will say there are a few more classes we want to take before we welcome our bundle of joy into our lives.

We have 5 more items to complete.. one might say just finish it up already.. well it's not that simple! Most of the items require someone else to complete for us. We constantly have to remind ourselves to be patient.. it will all come together. God has already picked out our child. So hang in there with us.. we can see the light at the end of the paperwork tunnel. We received a huge binder full of paperwork at the beginning of our journey and the binder is almost empty!

Education

The boys are such a hoot! These are their funny faces... I use this as a tool to get nice photos out of them.. Do funny faces and then do one nice one for me. Pick you battles.. =) They love looking at the funny face ones.

We've been busy getting educated. =) We have completed 3 of the courses and have 3 more to go. We're chugging right along, but I must say this part is taking a little longer than I expected  Seems funny to hurry up so we can wait. =) Anyways, hope you're having a great week and this picture made you smile.

FBI

Fingerprints are back from the FBI!! Sounds not so exciting, but trust me it's exciting! This means we should be getting to schedule our homestudy very soon! Once the homestudy is done then birth mothers can start looking at our family album. Once birth mother's start looking at our album.. we will get picked. =) Simply wonderful!

Bib sales are going really well! Sister-in-law Erin helped me with making some new things for the etsy website. Pacifier clips and burp cloths to match the cute bibs I already make.

Coming soon, grandma's dish cloths, these are my favorite. My grandma will be teaching me later this month so I'll be so excited to post those!

and we wait....

Here's the update.. not much.. still waiting on our fingerprints to get back from the FBI. Yep, they don't just give anyone a baby. We are working on little bits of paperwork. Getting copies of marriage license, driver's license and other simple stuff. But on the plus side we have been doing some great fundraising! We have cleaned a few of Bryan's rentals and that has been great money for the time. I have also sold a total of 20 bibs. It's so neat to think that people will be giving my bibs as shower gifts and little ones will be wearing them.. super cool!
Other ways to help us fundraise is.. have a thirty one party (25% of proceeds go towards our adoption), coming soon is a partylite fundraiser (50% of the proceeds), pop cans (yep every penny helps) and soon the puzzle piece fundraiser! Also thinking of doing a garage sale early this summer if anyone has things they'd like to donate. Thats the skinny! Happy sunday all!
Em

Ideas?

Wow! Feeling the love the past 2 weeks. Bryan and I have been telling everyone that were adopting and I am overwhelmed by everyone's support. So exciting to share this with everyone. We have sold 12 bibs as of today!!!  Seems like last week I received a call from Bryan every morning "I've got some good news for yah"..(in claudia's voice). If you don't know what the "claudia voice" is.. next time you see Bryan demand he does it for you. So funny!

I am loving the custom orders! Nothing better than making something one of a kind for someone. I just purchased Duck and Beaver material and have made a few, so those will be posted soon. So if you're looking for something special, don't hesitate to ask because I love that kind of stuff.

I have been hearing a lot of I would like to support your adoption fund, but I don't need any bibs..I totally understand that, so I would love for people to comment and leave ideas for me. So let me know of things you'd be interested in purchasing. I will be posting some pictures of possible fundraising ideas in the next few days. I really want to know what you think so leave a comment for us.

 Also met with Gavin's teacher yesterday to have her fill out a referal letter, which is required for our adopion. She had nothing but awesome things to say about Gav and how he was the perfect student and just a joy to have in class.. that never gets old and made me so proud to be his mama. Sorry had to brag, it was just too awesome not to share.

Here is a new addition to the etsy site. It's an interchangable headband. I absolutely love it and hope that if lord willing we get a girl she can wear them. More to come.http://www.etsy.com/listing/94999934/interchangable-flower-headband?ref=pr_shop

Bib Fundraiser

My mom came down for the weekened and helped me finish up some more bibs. These are one of many fundraisers we are doing for our adoption. My bibs were featured on one of my favorite scrabooking, photography and sewing blog this week. Check it out at: http://www.maggieholmes.typepad.com/  and you can also find them on http://www.etsy.com/people/bibsbyleecoe?ref=si_pr . I will say these are fantastic shower gifts, everyone has LOVED them! I know I can't wait to put our baby in one! =) More boy ones to come, as I know how hard it is to find cool boy things! Em

Where We Are And Where We're Going

The adoption journey has already been a very time intensive process.  We officially submitted our "Pre-Application" to our agency on the 2nd of January 2012.  This application was a quick summary of who we are and allowed the agency the information to decide on whether or not they wanted us to formally apply for adoption approval.  We were pre-approved quickly and moved into the "Formal Application".  The formal application was submitted a few days after our pre-application.  We were pleased to be approved by our agency and were sent a "Welcome Package" with all of the information on our specific program as well as all of the initial documentation to enter into an agency agreement with our agency.  The first round of paperwork was pretty straightforward, but still took some time and a notary public to complete.  This was also the first round of significant adoption costs.

After the actual adoption agreement was signed between us and the agency, we were sent everything we needed to get ready for our "Home Study".  The home study is a combination of social interaction with a social worker, verification of income and assets, lengthy essays filled out not only by us, but by our references, and much more.  This process is typically what takes the longest.  It's the "second leg" of the 3 leg journey.  We are fully immersed in the home study process right now and have completed a lot of the paperwork, have had our fingerprints & criminal background info sent to local, state & federal authorities, and have sent out our letters of recommendation to family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, our pastor & the boys' teachers.  Once all of the documentation has been processed, fingerprints and background checks are done, and reference letters are in, we will be scheduled for the visit with our social worker.  She will spend a total of 6 hours with our family in either one 6 hour session or two 3 hour sessions.  Once the home study is complete, we will be able to get our "Family Album" together and ready for prospective birth mothers.  Our family album will be a general description of our family, our lives, our likes and dislikes, work, extended family, etc.  We will also include a lot of pictures of us that represent who we are and what we like to do.  This will begin our "third leg".

The third leg can sometimes be the must frustrating (as we've been told) because there's really nothing for us to do to speed up the process.  We will have our family album shown to prospective birth mothers that are in their 3rd trimester.  Once we are chosen, we have the opportunity to get information on the birth mother, her family history, etc and we ultimately get to decide on whether or not to move forward with the birth mother.  If all goes well, we will then be in a holding pattern, waiting for our new baby boy or girl to be born.  Once the baby is born, we will be required to travel to Georgia to formally take possession of our baby.  We must wait there up to 10 days after the baby is born for the birth mother to fully relinquish her parental rights and for the interstate transport papers to be filed and approved.  Once that's all clear, we can head home and begin to adjust to the newest member of our family.  The adoption agency will set up visits at the 2 month, 4 month and 6 month marks of us formally arriving at home.  If all goes well after the 6 month visit, the final adoption papers are drawn up and sent to the State of Oregon for their final approval and we're good to go.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog.  We know that you may have many more questions and would also like to know where we're at in this journey.  The blog will be updated regularly, but if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail us at snogolf@hotmail.com.

The Beginning

Many of you may be wondering why we've decided to adopt a 3rd child.  The reason is that we both feel strongly that we've been called by God to have another child.  We both feel as though having 3 children will complete our family.  When we began talking about having a 3rd child, inevitibly the discussion came around to Aidan & Gavin and how they were both born premature.  Aidan, being 6 weeks premature and Gavin being over 2 months premature.  We felt as though there were potentially incredible risks and long term health issues for our 3rd child if we decided to have another biological child.  We also factored in the unbelievable physical, mental & emotional stress for us and our extended family & friends in that scenario.  With a lot of prayer and discussion, we decided adoption was the best option for us.  We feel that there are so many babies that are born into this world that need a loving, caring, safe home and we know we can provide that.

When the decision was made to adopt, the natural questions was: where from?  We researched domestic & international adoptions and also did a lot of research on several adoption agencies.  Initially, we were thinking of adopting from China, but that idea quickly turned when we found out we'd have to potentially wait for up to 6 years to adopt there.  We researched other countries such as Hong Kong, Vietnam, Eastern European countries, African countries, South American countries and felt as though none were the right fit for us.  Then we turned our focus to domestic adoptions.  We researched going through the foster care system and fostering and eventually adopting a baby from Oregon.  The downside of that for us was the fact that we could have this little baby and raise it for several years, only to have the baby eventually taken from us and returned to his or her birthparents.  We came to the conclusion that the Oregon foster program wasn't for us either.

As some of you may know, some very good friends of ours adopted their little boy a little over a year ago.  They adopted him through the African-American Infant program.  Seeing their family and how blessed they have been put a soft spot in our hearts for the program.  After much prayer, research and discussion, we have decided to adopt from the same program.  Although we would prefer to have a little girl to go with our boys, we feel as though any child God blesses us with will be an incredible gift and will be loved and cherished as our own.

Family & Friends

To our family & friends:

We decided to create this blog to inform you of all of the happenings with our adoption.  This blog will be updated regularly with status updates & information that we want to convey to you in regards to our exciting journey to complete our family.  We will also be attaching a fundraising chart to show everyone how fundraising is going and upcoming and ongoing opportunities for our family & friends to participate in this journey.  Thank you for taking the time to be a part of this with us.