Yahoo!!

I received an email from Dale today telling us that everything had been turned in and our profile had been reviewed and "published". This means that birthparents can now look at our profile online!!

Here is the link directly to our profile....

https://itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/25996283/ourMessage.jsf

Please share it with anyone you know that may be interested!

One More Hurdle

I knew that there would be a few bumps in the adoption journey. This "bump" is just frustrating.

We were fingerprinted back at the beginning of April. I just got an email today that informed us:

"The first fingerprinting was rejected by the FBI as unclassifiable."

What does that even mean?

Mike thinks that they must not have been readable. So I will wait until written notice comes with further explanation. I will have to be fingerprinted again, we just hope they won't charge us the $55 to do it again.

I just keep telling myself....this is just one more hurdle...

On a happy note, Mike's background came back clear within the week of being sent in.

UPDATE:

I received an envelope today (6/27) with a new finger printing card. I can take it to my local sheriff's office to complete. I think I know someone who can hook me up :)

That means I don't have to make an appt. and wait weeks for it to be completed. Even better, they won't charge me the $55 fee to process them again.

One Step Closer

The following is the email that I received from our case worker, Dale, today.

Hi Mindy,

Your home study will be completed soon and then you’ll get “published”, meaning your profile will go live on the “itsaboutlove” website. So I don’t think you have any more to do except wait. We will let you know when you’re published.

Dale

Paperwork Completed

We have finally completed all of the adoption paperwork (I think). I emailed our case worker, Dale, and let him know everything from our end is done.

Now we wait....

Fingerprinting

I was fingerprinted today for the first time - at least that I remember - that's a good thing right? They don't use the ink pads anymore - instead they have these high tech scanners. It was pretty interesting to see how it was done (shows how much I get out :). Mike was not so impressed - guess he has seen it enough at work. The state worker said that both of our backgrounds were clear. Now we just wait for the FBI to review them.

One more step done!

Now we are just waiting for a date for our home visit.

Adoption Process Update

We have most of the paperwork completed now.

We still have the prospective birth parent letter to complete - we have the basic ideas down - just need to put it all together.

We have an appointment tomorrow to get our fingerprints done for the background check.

We continually pray that we will be guided to the right people at the right time.

Prospective Birthparent Letter

We have completed almost all of the required paperwork in our adoption journey so far. This is serious business. They want to know LOTS of information - but that is good. We understand why they request so much detail.

There is one last requirement that we haven't completed yet......we haven't even started it yet. Not because we don't want to......not because we haven't tried.....but because we simply don't know what to say or how to say it.

We need to write a letter to prospective birthparents.

How do we express the deepest desires of our hearts to be parents?

How do we acknowledge the un-imaginable emotions and decisions that birthparents are facing?

How do we convey that we would be amazing parents?

How do we offer comfort to those making such crucial life altering decisions?

How do we stand out compared to so many other great couples?

And how do we do it with only a few short paragraphs?

Hmmmm.....lots of questions, but not very many answers. We will just keep a prayer in our hearts that whatever we come up with will be just right for our situation.

The Beginning of Our Adoption Journey

It is official! We turned in our adoption application today. We are nervous and excited at the same time. We now wait for Family Services to let us know what to do next.

I am finding that this is going to be a very long lesson in patience :)