Emotional Day

I wasn't expecting today to be so emotional! I seemed to have watery eyes quite a bit during the morning sessions. We discussed topics such as when to tell your child he/she is adopted, what the home study will involve, we listened to a birth mother's story, a lawyer discussed legal issues, we listened to three sets of adoptive parents speak, we discussed financial issues, and the topic of post adoption. Michael spoke up a few times to discuss his story of adoption and several people had questions for him.

I have so much information to digest! I can't even begin to list everything that is going through my head. We have been so excited to get the ball rolling, but once again we have more waiting to do. The agency is behind on their home studies. They are still finishing up couples who attended the September training session. Once they are done with them they will start our group in the order that we completed our formal application. If you remember, we were the third couple. So...for now we sit and wait for them to call us and let us know when they are ready to start our home study. We can call every couple weeks to check in, but I'm not going to get my hopes up that it will be anytime soon. I wish we could use someone else to complete our home study, but they require that you use their social worker so they feel like they really know you...it makes sense, but it's frustrating too.

While we wait we are going to go ahead and start working on the nursery and preparing our adoption book. We will also start writing the letter to the birth-mother and video (picture) slideshow that will go on the website when our home study is completed. Working on these things will help keep my mind occupied and hopefully make time move faster!

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

 

Excited for Meeting

Friday is quickly approaching! This week is a busy week at school, so I know Friday will be here before I know it. I'm excited to attend the meeting and to start the home study!

Michael has some days off this week so he is organizing things around the house, clearing out our nursery, and other odds and ends. Oh, how I wish southern houses had basements. It is so hard to figure out where to store things.

I will be happy to say TGIF this week! :)

Research

I've been doing quite a bit of research lately on cribs, mattresses, car seats, etc. Thank goodness for the internet! I love searching through the web for different baby items. I can't wait until we actually purchase something. Our neighbors had a garage sale this weekend and they were selling a glider and ottoman. I stopped over to see how much they were asking for it...only $16, but I would have had to reupholster it and the wood wasn't the right color so I passed. I think she ended up selling it for $14...great deal! She also had tons of cute baby girl clothing...if only we knew what sex we were going to adopt.

I'm getting more antsy to start preparing, but I'm trying to stay in the moment too. I don't want to miss the present because I'm looking towards the future, but I'm finding that hard to do!

Overwhelming

I had a great weekend with my mom! We did lots of shopping on Saturday and Sunday, but didn't spend much money. The goal was to check out cribs and other baby necessities. We got a great lesson on travel systems (car seat, stroller, and base) from a very informative male sales associate at Babies R Us. This is really the first thing we will need. I don't think the adopton agency will be too keen on letting us take a baby home without a car seat.

I was a little overwhelmed in Babies R Us. I think it was the fact that there was so much to look at and pregnant women everywhere. It felt weird to ask questions because I obviously don't look pregnant so I felt the need to tell the sales associates that I'm adopting.

We won't have much money to spend once we "buy" our baby so I went on Craigslist to see what goodies people had listed. I found some good prices on gently used baby must haves. I've never bought anything on Craigslist, but it will probably be something Michael and I consider since we'll need to be financially responsible. Of course, I would love to have baby items that are brand new and a color or pattern I love, but I have to remember that having a precious baby is more important than material possessions.

"Mommy Fix"

I am very close to my mom and whenever I talk to her on the phone Michael always says I'm getting my "mommy fix". I'm so excited because her and my step-dad are coming tomorrow for the weekend. I haven't seen her since July and I'm due for a "mommy fix". She is going to go to school with me on Friday and then we are going to do some baby shopping while Michael and Jay go to the Gamecock game.

It feels wierd to say I'm going to go baby shopping. I feel funny doing it because we aren't pregnant and it could be awhile before we get a baby, but I've waited almost 4 years to be a mom...why can't I start to get excited about the possibility that it might happen within the next year? Women who are pregnant get nine months to prepare...I could possibly have a baby within 9 months so I'm going to start preparing too! Just because I can't have my own child doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to go through all the exciting steps of preparing a nursery and buying cute baby items. As someone told me..."baby items don't go bad or spoil" so they will be waiting for our baby whenever we are blessed to bring one into our lives and home.