Almost on the list!!

Well, our interviews and homestudy visit are DONE!!!! Although, we did not make it through the homestudy visit without a little bit of drama first! Let me create the setting for you :)

We had spent days cleaning our house, organizing every closet, cupboard, etc. to get ready for our caseworker to do our homestudy last Thursday (6/25). Everything was tidy as can be. Thursday morning, I awoke to a stench. I asked Justin if Frankie (our shitzu) was tooting again....he'd been gassy lately. Justin said, "No, he had an accident in our room last night!". This was very strange- Frankie just doesn't do that anymore!! We went on with our day- Justin off to work, and I was home cleaning some more. Later that day, I went to pick Justin up from work in time for our homestudy visit. As we're scrambling to get the iced tea made, scones on a plate, etc., I walk by the nursery to see that our little shitzu had pooped AGAIN!!! I was furious!! How could he do this to us just 20 minutes before our caseworker arrived?? Ugh! As you can imagine, the next 20 minutes were chaos, as I wasn't even dressed yet! I've heard dogs can feel your stress in certain situations...now I just feel bad for stressing Justin AND Frankie out!

Our caseworker arrived a few minutes early, not a good start for me. As I was rambling about coffee, tea, water, and scones, she calmly said "Let's sit down and go over some of my questions." A few minutes later, I was just as calm as she was :) The rest of the interview and visit followed accordingly....very easy and relaxed. I was so stressed out for this horrifying 3 hour visit, and it all ended in just over an hour after easy talk and a very non-nosey tour of our condo. Easy as that...it was just over! Justin and I collapsed onto our couches and said "I think we deserve happy hour!" Hahaha!

So, now what? About a month of waiting for our caseworker to write up our homestudy and get it approved, and then we will officially be on the wait list! After that, only God knows how much time it will be until our arms and nursery are no longer empty!!

Ready...set...interview!

Well, looks like we’re getting one step closer! I met with our caseworker today to show her the family profile book we created on picaboo.com. She looked it over and gave us two thumbs up (and many of you know how much I love a thumbs up!)! During our meeting we also set up our interviews. Next week, Justin and I will have individual interviews with our caseworker (Susan). We’re not 100% sure what the interviews will consist of, but each interview will be 2 hours long….looking for cracks in our life possibly??? She’ll find plenty, but hopefully we’ll still be deemed as future adequate parents.

The week after next, we will be having our homestudy visit (on Thursday 6/18). Susan will come to our home for 3 hours to learn even more about us…I guess the pages upon pages of information we’ve already submitted haven’t shed some light ;) I’m kidding of course- we’re happy to do whatever we can to grow our family! During the visit, we’ll show her around our house, verify that our shitzu is not an attack dog and has his shots, show her the nursery, talk to her more, etc. Please pray for us during these interviews and visits! They will be very nerve-racking! Aside from the anxiety of unfolding our life even more, we are mostly just so excited! After the homestudy is done, it will take about 3-4 weeks to be approved. At that point, we’ll turn in our family profile book and our profile will be posted on Bethany’s website for birthmothers (BMs) to view. This profile will consist of a letter to potential BMs a couple of pictures and a video we put together. Below is our video (until we get it uploaded on the Bethany website next month). Feel free to pass this video on ;) If you do pass the video on, rather than passing on our actual blog, please right click on the video, and click on "Watch on YouTube". From there you can copy and paste the YouTube link and share it with whomever you like!

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That’s the extent of our updates for now. Oh, except that Justin and I will be celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary next week! I can’t believe it’s been that long! Anyway, we’re just moving right along and getting more hopeful that our little family will start to grow soon! Again, we appreciate all of your support and prayers more than you know. We are so very blessed to have such amazing family and friends. Love you all!