Paperwork Complete!

The last few weeks have been filled with tons of paperwork, including writing autobiographies, answering  essay questions,  having physicals done, ordering certified copies of our Marriage License, Birth Certificates, DMV Records, and having County and Federal Backgrounds done.   Some of the paperwork was as easy as reading and signing our names, but most of it was rather exhausting.   I ended up having to create a spreadsheet for us to keep track of what had been done, ordered, and taken to the agency.   I happily drove out to the agency on Friday morning and dropped off the last bit of our paperwork.   So, now we wait for the FBI Background checks to be complete!  We were originally told it would take 13 weeks… however, when I called to check on the status, I was happy to hear that they plan to have it complete in less than six weeks.   Once they complete the background, our Home Study can be completed.   The Home Study consists of three separate interviews/visits with us.  We did the first interview during our Weekend Intensive session back in July.  The second visit will be in our home and the third visit can be anywhere.   I can already feel my anxiety level rising!!!

In other news, we started telling more of our family and friends about the adoption.  We have enjoyed hearing everyone’s reaction.  It is so nice to hear all of the love and support from everyone.  We couldn’t be more excited about our future!

A New Chapter…

I can’t believe I am starting a blog about our adoption journey… The last few years have been very difficult for us. Dealing with infertility and multiple pregnancy losses has been the toughest thing that we have ever gone through. The highs of seeing those two lines appear on a Pregnancy Test followed by the lows of dealing with miscarriages has been quite a roller coaster of emotions. Along the way, I was often asked if we had considered adoption… I wasn’t even sure how to respond to that question… Even after multiple miscarriages, I wasn’t ready to let go of the idea of giving birth to my biological child.

I am not sure what made us finally realize that our ultimate goal was to have a family… and even though we wouldn’t share the same biology, we would love any child that we were blessed with unconditionally. We reached out to two very special friends of ours to see if they would be willing to share their adoption story with us. We met with them and their beautiful little girl a few days later. They told us the good, bad, and ugly of their entire journey. I think I cried a majority of the time we were there. They have such an incredible journey that had its ups and downs but sure ended with a beautiful little girl being placed into their lives.

We attended an information session a few weeks later with Independent Adoption Center in Raleigh (the same agency that our friends used). We immediately noticed photos of babies and their adopted families posted all over the room. During the first break I got up and was fumbling in my bag trying to find my phone. I looked up and directly in front of me on a huge bulletin board with hundreds of photos was the birth announcement from our friends with their little girl on it… I couldn’t have asked for  more of a confirmation that we were doing exactly what we were always suppose to do.