Friday, February 22, 2008

We picked an agency!!!

Well, I wish I had more to update. I know many of you have asked when I was going to post new news. We have chosen an agency. It is the Adoption Network Law Center. Here is what I know at this point. I talked to the agency this afternoon. We cant set the dates for the homestudy until we get in a round of paperwork. We dont have this paperwork yet. We should have it by the end of next week. They are going to send us a packet of paperwork as well as a video and some other information related to adoption. We will get everything filled out as quickly as we can so we can get the date for the homestudy set. The homestudy takes 2-3 mos. It is good for one year. If it is complete by the end of May, we will more than likely bring home our little blessing between Feb and March of 09 give or take.

I was told by our adoption consultant (AC) that they will place a healthy baby with us. They do an intensive screening on the potential birth mothers. For those of you who have done this before, this agency does about 300 placements a year. (Some of the other agencies we looked at only did anywhere from 27 to 130 placements a year). The AC says they get about 30-40 calls from potential birth mothers every day. There is also a very good chance that our new little blessing will not be born in the state of TN. We could be matched with a birthmother pretty much anywhere in the country. We were asked if we preferred a boy or a girl. Our response was as long as the baby is healthy we dont have a preference.

The most scary part is the cost. It is not what we thought it would be. When all is said and done we are looking at 30-40 thousand dollars. Yes, you read correctly 30-40 grand!!! So, for those of you who are prayer warriors, please pray that the Lord would drop this money in our laps, like manna from Heaven. Our God is a very big God and this is a drop in the bucket for him. I am struggling with how we are going to do this. We have no choice but to look to and trust the Lord to handle the financial side of things. Sean and I are making changes in our lifestyle. There are things that we love to do that we will have to sacrifice for the time being. We are cutting back almost quitting eating out. If you invite us to go out to eat, we may so no. Please know that we are not being stuck up, but we are trying to be good stewards of what we have and saving to bring home our little blessing. I get an adoption credit through work. We will also be applying for every grant that we can find. For those of you who have been down this road we would love to hear from you on how you financed your adoption(s). If at all possible we would like to avoid having to take out a loan. We realize that this is putting a great deal of faith in the Lord, but we know He is the ultimate provider.

There are some things that Sean and I are trying to take care of and work on now...

1) Trying to save as much as possible every month
2) Cutting back on eating out and shopping
3) Working on getting the scrapbook done (if any of you are blessed in this area I would love some help!)
4) Trying to get the house ready for a home visit. (Getting what would be the baby's room cleaned out, baby proofing our house. If any of you know where we can get a screen for the front of our fireplace for cheap, please let us know)
5) We are praying like we have never prayed before. We pray for the birthmother and our unborn baby. We pray that the Lord would provide the finances to cover all of the costs. We pray that we would be the parents that we need to be. We also pray that the Lord would allow us to see our little blessing grow up to accept Him as Savior.

I wish I knew what else we needed to do at this point, but like I said in the last post it is hurry up and wait. If there is anything that you would like to know that I havent answered in this post please feel free to ask. I love hearing the adoption stories that many of you are sharing. Please feel free to continue to share! I have had many people ask if they can give our blog address to other people and our answer is a resounding YES!!! We would like as many people to see our blog as possible. I have read comments from total strangers and I love it!!! I have also had many of you give my email to others and they have emailed me their adoption stories. Please keep them coming. Above all I ask you to please pray for Sean and I. This a huge lifechanging thing we are doing. We believe that the Lord has led us on this journey. We pray that we would continue to seek HIM in all that we do and that HE would lead the way!!!

I hope ya'll have a wonderful and blessed weekend!