Almost There...

SO EXCITED! We got an email from our caseworker yesterday with good news.

We've been waiting to hear back from DHS - the state of Oregon has to approve the adoption. We had to wait for them before we could finalize the adoption. They have been taking forever. Surprise, surprise - something from the state is taking longer than expected. :) Oh well. So far everything's worked out perfectly.

So we got this email yesterday saying LDSFS heard back from DHS! Yay! Finally! So she mailed all of the paperwork from LDSFS to our attorney, who has been awesome so far, by the way. He has everything ready on his end so when he receives the paperwork from LDSFS, he'll submit it and we'll just have to wait for a court date and then it'll be finalized! I've been told this part takes a couple of weeks. We'll see how long it really takes.

I sound like such a whiner in this post. And I don't mean to be. I'm just so incredibly anxious to take our little guy to the temple to be sealed. It's the part I've been imagining since the very beginning. Everything so far has worked out great and things have gone so smoothly for us and I know it will continue that way. I know I have absolutely nothing to worry about. I'm just SO EXCITED!

Last Meeting

On Wednesday, we had our last meeting with our caseworker! We met her up in Salem at the library and she asked pretty much the same things as our last meeting. Basically to see how we're doing, how we're adjusting, and how Drew's doing. I can't believe we're already this far!

Now we're just waiting for the state to approve the adoption and when they do, our caseworker will send all of the paperwork from LDSFS to our attorney (who is awesome!) and he'll submit it to the courts so we can set up a court date to finalize! (At least this is my impression. I could be terribly wrong, but I think this is how the rest of the process goes...)

We're getting there! It's all gone by so quickly. It's so hard to believe that this all started one year ago. It's gone by so fast for us! I think about how long we've wanted a child and know that our little Drew was definately worth the wait!!

One Step Closer

Yesterday, we had our first post-placement visit from our new caseworker, Julie. She came to our home to see how we're doing, see how Drew's doing, and to see how we're all adjusting. It went really well! I was hoping Drew would be awake, but he slept the whole time instead. :)

Our next step is to have one more visit with Julie - probably in Salem or Tigard. Then, she'll send all the paperwork to our attorney (who is great!) and he'll get things finished with the court. We'll meet with a judge from there and it will be finalized! Then we get to do the fun stuff. The thing I've been the very most excited about is taking Drew to the temple. It's what I've been picturing in my head throughout this whole process and I can't wait!

But that'll all take a little time. For now, though, we're one step closer!

A Phone Call

Words can't quite describe how I'm feeling tonight, but yet I want to write something. Dan and I got an exciting phone call today. Our caseworker called to let us know that a couple has expressed interest in us! I feel such an amazing love for these sweet people, and yet I haven't even met them. I can't begin to imagine the courage they have and the feelings they're facing and I admire them so much for it. I know they might not end up choosing us, but I feel honored that they have even considered us. Please keep these sweet people in your prayers. Even if we're not the path they choose, I want them to make the best decision for themselves. Thank you all for your continued love and support! We love you all!!

Home Study

Today we had our home study! I've been so anxious and excited for this day because this is our last formal meeting, which means we're almost approved! It went so well. It was so much easier than I could've ever imagined. I was so worried - wondering if our smoke detectors were in the right places, wondering if I had to baby-proof anything yet, etc. Our caseworker was so great. He stuck his head in the rooms and that was it. He just made sure we had smoke detectors (which were just fine) and a fire extinguisher. The rest of the time was spent watching a great video he brought. ABC had done a special a while ago that followed birthmothers along their path of placing their babies for adoption. It was so neat to watch. I have gained such a huge respect and love for these special girls that are in these situations. I can't even imagine what they have to go through. I now know that they are such an important part in Heavenly Father's plan to help families grow and I am so grateful for them and their selfless choice to do what they feel is best for their child. I can't wait to meet our birthmother - I already feel such an amazing love for her and her family. I've learned (especially from this video) that this isn't just hard for the birthmothers, but also their families. I feel like I've been so self-involved that I hadn't even started thinking about how hard this is for all those involved. This has been such an amazing growing experience for me - I can't believe how much I've learned in such a short time and how much I continue to learn about Heavenly Father's plan.

So our next step is to get our profile together while we wait for our background checks to come back. We still need to write our birthparent letter and figure our which pictures we're going to use. :) So exciting!!

Second Meeting

This afternoon, Dan and I had our second meeting with our caseworker. It went really well again! He's so easy to talk to and I'm so excited we're working with him. We had our one-on-one interviews with him, which weren't really interviews, just advice to us. We went over the profiles we get to put together soon and talked about the letter we write to the birthparents. It was so fun to talk about the profiles because I am SO excited to put that together - to get our pictures taken and put together and hopefully help our birthmother get to know us. :) He showed us some videos from birthmothers on the LDSFS website, which I LOVED watching. I actually came home and watched the rest of them. I feel such an overwhelming love for these women that make this selfless decision! I love the first video by Sierra. If you want to see any of the videos, you can click here. We have our home study in two weeks from today - I'm so excited for it! Each step gets us closer!

First Meeting

Last Friday, Dan and I had our doctors appointments to make sure we're healthy and have a long life expentancy. We had to choose a new doctor and the one we happened to end up with actually adopted last year. He was great and talked to us for almost an hour - about what the agency would be looking for and asking us about our process and giving us advice. We had to get blood work done on Monday and he personally called me to let me know everything came out okay and he would be sending our documents to LDSFS.

Today, we had our first meeting with our caseworker. He is AWESOME! We both really, really like him. Our meeting was an hour and a half, which was mostly just talking about us (maybe that's why I liked it so much...). He talked about the questions we answered online about each other, our families, growing up, things like that. He answered any questions we could think of. I'm really excited to work with him - I think he's going to be great. We set up our next meeting on April 8. That meeting will be one-on-one. We'll each meet with him seperately and go over more of our answers we filled out online. Then our home study is on April 22 and if that goes well, we'll be approved!!! Once we're approved, we'll be able to get our profile up online! I can't believe how fast everything is happening! We need to get our fingerprints done on Friday for our background check and we need to finish up a few things online, but we're a little bit ahead of schedule, which I'm excited about.

I'm still loving every single step of this process. It was so fun to hear some of the things Dan wrote about and I always love talking about our process so that was fun to do with our caseworker. I get so emotional when I talk about how I knew it was the right thing for us and it was no different today. I could feel the spirit so strongly in our meeting and I have felt it so many times recently that I know of a surety that this is for us. I'm so thankful we get to start our family this way. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father has chosen us to be a part of this and I can feel His hand in every single thing we've done in this process.

Once again, thank you so much for all of your love, support, and prayers in our behalf! We couldn't have asked for a better family or better friends to be going through this with!