Agency Link

Ok, I think I figured out how to link you directly to our picture and letter. This might be easier than following my directions. At least I hope so! Ok, click here for the link!

We're approved!

Now the real wait begins!

Earlier this week we received a letter in the mail from our agency stating that we had been approved to be adoptive parents. After reviewing all of our interviews and paperwork, they gave us legal go ahead to become parents. Now, we just have to be matched with a birthmother.

And, since we are approved, we are now on the agency's website of waiting families. Our picture and letter are out there on the Internet for the world to see. Something about seeing our faces and story online has made this VERY real to us. We are so excited! We still don't know how long we will wait, but in a long list of steps, we know that we only have one more and that thrills us! If you'd like to check us out on the web, you can click on the agencies website on the right (Children's Home Society of Virginia). Once you are on the homepage, click on "adoption", scroll over "adoption" on the top and scroll down to click on "waiting families". We are at the bottom!

As far as our monthly purchases, we are a couple months behind. We have gotten some great suggestions, but I think we were a little gun shy to buy more things. We wanted to have the approval letter in our hands before the shopping really started. Now that we have that....we'll see what this weekend brings!

What to buy?

Never in my life did I ever think that I would have trouble thinking of something to buy. Well that is the case now, as we are on our 2nd month of waiting. We have walked through Babies 'R Us countless times and strolled the baby aisles at Target. We just can't figure out what to buy.

The only reasonable thing we can think of is the baby furniture, but we aren't sure if we are ready to buy that. Plus nothing has struck our fancy quite yet. So we deflect to clothes (they are all so cute). But we don't know if we'll have a newborn, 3 month old, or a 12 month old. A 12 month old cancels out the need for a swing or bouncer. Then do we buy things for a girl or a boy? Well then comes the fact that what will be the nursery is now our office. So we need a new laptop right? We'll that's not really what we had in mind when we decided to by something "for the baby" each month. So many possibilities, but we just can't decide.

So no monthly purchase yet...we are going to the beach this weekend. Maybe little baby Gerke will need an OBX shirt, or we'll find something cute and unique there. We'll see. Of course any suggestions are much appreciated!

As far as the process goes, we are very close to being "approved". Then our faces and letter will be up on the agency's website. I never thought I'e be so excited about my face being on the internet! We'll let you all know when we are there. In the mean time, you can always take a look now. The link it to the right side of the page!

Hail to the Redskins

So apparently the outfit we bought for the little one has brought good luck to our team! Since we bought the set, our Redskins have won EVERY game. I only wish we would have bought it a week earlier...we could have been undefeated! I guess we'll have to settle for 3-1. Let's hope the little outfit continues to be good luck for our team and for a short wait for us!

While we wait

Once Scott and I finished the homestudy, we decided as a way to help us through the wait, we would buy one thing for the baby each month. When we were completing our home study, we had each appointment to look forward to. Now, we have the wonderful joy of becoming parents to look forward to, we just don't know when that will be. We thought that buying something each month would give us little things to look forward to.

This month, in honor of football season starting we thought we'd get the baby some Redskins gear (yes, we know they lost last week, but we are faithful fans)! We headed to the Redskins store and bought this little set. Even if we have a girl...we'll teach her "Hail to the Redskins". Maybe by next football season, we'll be posting a family pic with us all showing our Redskins pride.

Back From a Much Needed Vacation

We're back from the beach! It is so hard to come home from vacation isn't it? Especially when the weather was in the mid 80s all week and the ocean was nice and refreshing! We had one rainy/cloudy day, but that was spent going to lunch, shopping, and napping. The rest of the week was spent at the beach, in the pool, or in the hot tub. What more could you ask for from a vacation?

There were 10 of us at the house, plus our nephew Noah. He had fun swimming in the pool, splashing in the surf, and digging in the sand. Plus he was the cool kid on the beach in these shades.


So now it is back to work for both of us! I'm starting in Hanover County as a Special Education teacher tomorrow! Where did the summer go? Where ever it went, it went too fast!

No updates on the adoption since my last entry...we'll keep you posted! We did want to share a couple of pictures from our beach vacation though!

The Waiting Begins

We have finally completed our home study! We have completed all of our interviews, turned in all of our paper work and now we get to wait. Our last appointment went well. Our social worked came to our house and completed the interview portion, then took a little tour of our house. I cleaned and cleaned the house for a 5 minute tour of the house. Oh well, at least the house it clean:-) This is probably the cleanest the house has ever been the day before heading on vacation. At least we'll come home from the beach to a clean house!

At our appointment, we turned in our "Dear Birthmother" letter. That was by far one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. How do you put your life in a one page letter to be accompanied by just one picture? I think we must have revised each paragraph at east four times! After a while we realized that we couldn't continue to analyze every word of our letter. We just had to trust that we painted a small, but honest picture of our life together. Thank you to all that proofread it for us and weighed in on picture and wording choice! We couldn't have completed this step without you guys. Here is the picture that we decided on. I'm not going to post our letter here, but if you'd like to read it we'd me more than happy to share it with you. Just shoot me an e-mail.


So now we wait. Wait to meet with a birthmother, wait for the baby to be born, wait to bring our bundle of joy home. We might not have a lot to report on for a while, but as soon as we have anything to report you better believe we will pass the information along! If you check back often you might just be reading about Scott and I, but hopefully after a while, you'll be reading about the new baby Gerke!