I'd like to add just a bit to what Sean said yesterday...
We also greatly appreciate your praying for us which, of course, is the best thing any of us can do in any circumstance. I cannot say enough how blessed we have been and will continue to be through your involvement in this process, whether it be through prayer, donation, kind thoughts, smiles, or words of encouragement; it all means so very much to us. Even a little note or comment can do wonders for lifting my spirit especially, and for all of that, we thank you.
Through some reading I've been doing I have learned that, in general, most people who haven't had experience with adoption don't really know much about adoption apart from some common myths (which we also used to believe to be truth). We both enjoy sharing this part of our lives, but we are not always sure how to bring it up in everyday conversations. We welcome any questions you may have. :)
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Accepting Donations
Here's a post from Sean. Heather and I have almost completed the Home Study portion of this process. Once this is completed, we will be able to apply for grants and/or loans, but we will still need additional funds. Our total cost paid to Bethany Christian Services will be over twenty g's. These monies go towards counseling of the birth mothers, legal fees/paperwork, and other good things. Heather could probably explain that better. Anyway - there is now a "donate" button in the right margin that would allow anyone to contribute to our cause through PayPal. ANY donation would be greatly appreciated by myself, my wife, and our yet to be determined child(ren). Thank you for reading. Thank you for caring.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Short Update
With the completion of our CPR and First Aid course on Saturday we are officially finished with all of our Family Assessment obligations. We have our individual interviews set up for Tuesday, July 27th and hopefully we'll be able to set an appointment for our home visit soon after that. I was hoping to be able to get to work on our profile during summer vacation, but I suppose it will have to be an after school and weekend project instead.
There's not really much more to tell right now. I do feel the need to say that I do not intend for my blog to come across as me trying to show off our seemingly wonderful life. I do not want anyone to read this and feel envious of us, nor do I want to be pitied. We are so excited (and at times nervous) about this process, but it is not without months of heartache that we have arrived at this place. It continues to be a daily (and sometimes hourly) struggle to give our future up to what God has planned. Again, it is my hope that by reading this, someone will be encouraged just as you all have encouraged us so very much with your interest and positive comments.
There's not really much more to tell right now. I do feel the need to say that I do not intend for my blog to come across as me trying to show off our seemingly wonderful life. I do not want anyone to read this and feel envious of us, nor do I want to be pitied. We are so excited (and at times nervous) about this process, but it is not without months of heartache that we have arrived at this place. It continues to be a daily (and sometimes hourly) struggle to give our future up to what God has planned. Again, it is my hope that by reading this, someone will be encouraged just as you all have encouraged us so very much with your interest and positive comments.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Fingerprints...check, check...Doctor...check, check...
Today's post is just an overview of the whole process and the many, many steps we have taken and will be taking.
1.Preliminary Application, Informational Meeting
Back in January we decided we may as well start doing something about the nudge God was giving us, and we filled out a preliminary application to sign up for the next evening informational meeting on domestic infant adoption with Bethany Christian Services in Fresno.
2. Seminar
In mid-March we attended that meeting in which they told us the next step is to attend a day-long seminar in Modesto, the next of which just happened to be that following Friday. We didn't want to wait two more months for the one after that to come around, so we got things straightened out and attended the March seminar the next week.
We left the seminar with a much greater understanding of adoption, specifically open adoption, and a list of things to complete in order to submit our formal application.
3. Formal Application
We took about two months to complete our application. It included all of our basic information, a financial statement (how much we make and how we spend every bit of it), and a spiritual questionnaire among other things. After that, they contacted our references (thanks again, everyone!) and scheduled our intake interview.
4. Intake Interview
Sean and I sat down together with two ladies from the agency for this interview. They asked us lots of questions from things like "How does your family feel about this decision?" to "What are your thoughts on discipline?" After the interview, they gave us an even larger packet of paperwork to complete.
5. Family Assessment
This paperwork includes, among other things, being Live Scan fingerprinted 3 times, having our doctors sign off that we are healthy and would make good parents, being certified in first aid and CPR (not, as I have discovered, just doing the little class at the hospital which is only CPR and does not even provide certification), having a will in progress and people named to take our children in the case of our deaths, and many, many, many more (open-ended) questions about our personalities, childhoods, marriage, and feelings about adoption and open adoption.
Whew! So that's what we're working on now. When this paperwork is all turned in we will start in on the following steps:
It is a lot of work that we are happy to do knowing each step is one step closer to having our baby; however, I can't help but wonder what the world would be like if every person was put through such a process before becoming a parent.
Thanks for reading! I hope that provided a better understanding of how the process works.
1.Preliminary Application, Informational Meeting
Back in January we decided we may as well start doing something about the nudge God was giving us, and we filled out a preliminary application to sign up for the next evening informational meeting on domestic infant adoption with Bethany Christian Services in Fresno.
2. Seminar
In mid-March we attended that meeting in which they told us the next step is to attend a day-long seminar in Modesto, the next of which just happened to be that following Friday. We didn't want to wait two more months for the one after that to come around, so we got things straightened out and attended the March seminar the next week.
We left the seminar with a much greater understanding of adoption, specifically open adoption, and a list of things to complete in order to submit our formal application.
3. Formal Application
We took about two months to complete our application. It included all of our basic information, a financial statement (how much we make and how we spend every bit of it), and a spiritual questionnaire among other things. After that, they contacted our references (thanks again, everyone!) and scheduled our intake interview.
4. Intake Interview
Sean and I sat down together with two ladies from the agency for this interview. They asked us lots of questions from things like "How does your family feel about this decision?" to "What are your thoughts on discipline?" After the interview, they gave us an even larger packet of paperwork to complete.
5. Family Assessment
This paperwork includes, among other things, being Live Scan fingerprinted 3 times, having our doctors sign off that we are healthy and would make good parents, being certified in first aid and CPR (not, as I have discovered, just doing the little class at the hospital which is only CPR and does not even provide certification), having a will in progress and people named to take our children in the case of our deaths, and many, many, many more (open-ended) questions about our personalities, childhoods, marriage, and feelings about adoption and open adoption.
Whew! So that's what we're working on now. When this paperwork is all turned in we will start in on the following steps:
- Individual Interviews
- Home Visit - They check our house for hazards, etc. This will complete our Home Study and we will then be certified foster parents. We are not in a fost-adopt program, but we will legally be foster parents for the first 6 months that we have our baby.
- Profile - This is where we put together photos and information about ourselves for potential birth mothers to look at and possibly ask to meet with us.
It is a lot of work that we are happy to do knowing each step is one step closer to having our baby; however, I can't help but wonder what the world would be like if every person was put through such a process before becoming a parent.
Thanks for reading! I hope that provided a better understanding of how the process works.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Here goes...
Welcome to my blog. If you are reading this, you probably know that Sean and I began the process of adoption earlier this year. (If this is news to you, I apologize that I haven't been better at keeping in touch. Hopefully this blog will help with that shortcoming of mine.) We feel so blessed with the overwhelmingly positive support we have received thus far on this journey of faith, and we are encouraged that so many people in our lives have a genuine interest in seeing it all play out.
It is my hope that, through this blog, we will be able to keep you updated on how the process works as well as the progress we are making and also that, through our story, we will be a light and an encouragement to those who are struggling with God's plan for their lives not matching their own. I will be the first to tell you that it is much easier said than done to let God take the reins; for so long I wanted His plan for us to be what I already thought it should be. It is still and will always be something that I must turn over to Him on a daily basis, but as we feel led on this new path to grow our family I am thrilled to see how He will bring it all together in time.
As I close for today, let me make one thing clear: adoption is not second best. True, this is not the way that we had first imagined our family getting started, but we wholeheartedly believe that this is God's first choice for us. We would love your continued prayers for blatantly obvious open and closed doors as we take this giant leap of faith.
It is my hope that, through this blog, we will be able to keep you updated on how the process works as well as the progress we are making and also that, through our story, we will be a light and an encouragement to those who are struggling with God's plan for their lives not matching their own. I will be the first to tell you that it is much easier said than done to let God take the reins; for so long I wanted His plan for us to be what I already thought it should be. It is still and will always be something that I must turn over to Him on a daily basis, but as we feel led on this new path to grow our family I am thrilled to see how He will bring it all together in time.
As I close for today, let me make one thing clear: adoption is not second best. True, this is not the way that we had first imagined our family getting started, but we wholeheartedly believe that this is God's first choice for us. We would love your continued prayers for blatantly obvious open and closed doors as we take this giant leap of faith.
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