Happy Memorial Day

Gorgeous Days!

We have had two busy days and tomorrow will be the same!

Saturday we headed to the fun indoor play area and met another little friend whos parents we became good friends with through our preadoption classes two years ago! We had a good time catching up, playing, and eating lunch.

I love basketballs! Practicing my shooting, the hoop seems so far away!

Today we headed to Jared's grandparents farm for a visit and then back to his dads to hang out with his brothers, sister, and nephew. It was a beautiful day out and we took full advantage of being able to be outside!

Meghans Petting Zoo!

My good friend Meghan has a menagerie of animals so we went over to meet them all. Addy loved them, especially the mini-donkeys. Addy and her little friend Adia played very nicely together and ran around laughing playing with dandelions! SO CUTE!!!

3 seconds of FAME!

She's a superstar!

Saturday fun in the wind!

It was a cold windy day but we braved the weather for some fun with friends!

There was a kiddie festival at a local outdoor mini-zoo. We went on a hayride which Addy slept through, visited with some of the animals, and even got to pet some miniture horses.
Before heading over there, we stopped over at our friend Kari's house who is duck sitting... Yep they have ducks! So Addy got to see and play with the ducks for a little while as well. She seemed a little nervous at first but when we left she was yelling, "ducky ducky ducky" and was very excited about them!

More Updates!

We had our homestudy visit on Wednesday and it was pretty fast! Our social worker was at our house for about an hour and all we talked about was Addy! She said since it was just an update we just needed to talk about what was new since our last one. Addy was spinning, dancing, and playing pretty nicely most of the time.

So next steps....

1. Our social worker drafts our homestudy and we review it for it to be finalized.
2. We finish putting our profile together (it is drafted, just need to get the pages printed and get hooked together)
3. Finish our application to the placement agency
4. Send everything in and wait to be approved
5. Then once all is in order we start our waiting!

On another note... Miss Addy is just hysterical! She is talking a lot, repeating and remembering everything! She is saying more short phrases as well. She is VERY polite, says please and thank you for just about everything! SO CUTE! We think Addy J will be a GREAT big sister! We hope that by being close in age that they will be good friends and have a positive sibling relationship. And of course will be able to cause trouble together and gang up on us!

Due to popular demand.....Details!

Since our Mother's Day post, I have recieved numerous emails looking for details! So here they are!!!

YES! We are starting adoption number 2!

We have decided to use a different agency this time. We loved our previous agency but since they have made a lot of changes to their program and have a low placement rate, we have decided to follow our hearts elsewhere. We will be using an agency in Utah who does placements all over the country. We know many families who have used them and loved them so we are comfortable with their practice (lots of birthparent support, good ethical agency, etc).

So where are we in the process.... We have been collecting our paperwork, fingerprints, etc for a little over a month. We have our first (maybe only) homestudy visit tomorrow. Then we need to get our application for the agency completed, do our family profile, send it all in, get it approved, and then we will be officially waiting. We hope to be waiting by the end of June.

Questions we have been getting that you may be wondering too:

• How long will it take? We don't know! Domestic is variable depending on what you are open to, what birth moms are coming into the agency and what they are looking for. Our wait won't officially start until we finish all of the things I listed above. We are planning on a 6 month wait until we match. The agency typically matches people fairly quickly (within 3 months) but setting our goal out a little bit makes it less stressful for me! However since it is domestic adoption, it could be as quick as a day or as long as 4 years (or longer).
• Are we ready for baby #2? Our plan is to have two children. We would like them around 2 years apart. Because adoption isn't a guarentee and we don't know if it will be weeks, months, or years, we want to start now in case it does take a longer time. And if we match a week after we start officially waiting GREAT!
• What is a match? A match is when a birth mother has chosen you to parent their child. They may have a month or two left in their pregnancy or be close to delivery or have a baby they want to make an adoption plan for who is already born.
• Can a birth parent change their mind? Yes, this is one of the hard parts of domestic adoption. There are no guarentees. The birth parents can decide to parent at any time prior to their rights being terminated. Termination is based on the different state laws so will vary depending where our baby is born. Although a failed match would be very difficult, we know that the birth parents need to do what is best for them and we wouldn't want to adopt a child if the birth parents were not at peace with their decision to do an adoption plan.
• Will our baby be African American again? We don't know! We will be open to all races again (except Native American due to ICWA and extra legal issues). Our new agency does mainly African American and biracial adoptions so most likely the baby will be one of those.
• Will we request gender? We think maybe! Jared would like a boy, but we would be happy with either. I know they need more families open to boys so we may request a boy but haven't solidified that decision yet. (Some of you may disagree with having the option to choose since when you give birth you don't get to and if you do disagree, keep it to yourself! We have an option and will do what we think is best for our family.)
• How old will the baby be? We will be homestudy approved for 0-12 months, however will not adopt a baby that would be close enough to Addy to be in the same grade. So if we wait a short time, we would only be open for a 0-5 month old, if we wait longer that age range would expand. The majority of the babies placed with this agency are newborns and are placed directly after dismissal from the hospital.

If you have other questions, feel free to email them to me! We do reserve the right not to answer questions that may be inappropriate!

So we are excited about adoption number 2 and hoping that it goes smoothly. We will keep you posted on our progress and will let you know how things are going. No news is, well, no news!

Thanks again for your love and support through this process. As you may remember from our last adoption, it is the most exciting, amazing, stressful, scary, heart warming journey. There will be ups and downs and we are ready to face them.

A wonderful mothers day *read carefully*

Today was a wonderful mother's day! My parents and sister came and we went to a big antique flea market, out to lunch, and continued our mother's day tradition of planting flowers. Growing up I remember spending mothers day with all the girls (sister, mom, aunt, grandma) and we would go to the nursery to get flowers for grandma's house.

This day reminds me how blessed I am to be a mother, and to be the mother of the most wonderful perfect daughter in the world! How much more lucky could I be! It reminds me that I should be greatful for every moment that I get to spend with her and to cherish all of the memories that we are making each and every day as a family. To cherish every smile, every laugh, and soothe every tear. This year I learned what the best sound in the world is... "mommy". I learned that every one of Addy's smiles lights up the room and warms my heart. I learned that you can't do everything by yourself. I learned that I have the best husband in the world who is an amazingly caring dad. I learned that even temper tantrums can turn into snuggle time. I learned that we are a loving family who is raising the daughter who was always meant to be ours from the start.

And for next mother's day.... A mother of two???

Improving Parts

Parting patterns are hard to figure out! This one I came up with on my own; the pictures really don't do it justice! It is absolutely adorable in person, even Jared likes it! (Ignore the white goop, it dries soft and clear!) And the bonus, the hanging twists stayed flat and are hanging in the right direction today!

Nice Weather

What is better than a nice Sunday at the park with nice weather and good company?

An extended family

We are so blessed to have a network of adoptive families near us. Most of the kiddos are between 1 & 2, and most are African American. We had a big barbeque playdate yesterday which was SO much fun. Addy J played nicely with all the kids and the parents were able to enjoy eachothers company as well. And with 9 kiddos under 2, you can imagine how hard it was to get a picture of all of them together.. here were my best tries!

It is important to us that as Addy grows up that she is around other families that look like ours, multiracial families with different backgrounds and situations. We don't want Addy to ever think that she is alone. In the short time we have known these other families, they have become an extended family to us. We all share common goals to raise happy healthy beautiful children where adoption and being a multiracial/cultural family is a positve aspect of their lives. It is really nice to have others that we can easily and openly talk to about adoption issues, hair and skin suggestions, and racial issues. These are families that will be in our lives forever, and for that we are truely blessed.

Play dates!

Here are the kiddo's dancing at a playdate last week! Its a little dark but you get the idea!

Three Kiddos Dancing from Sophie Thedog on Vimeo.