We're Adopting!

We're Adopting!

Monday, August 26, 2013

Where are we in the process?

We finished everything on our end within about 15 days! Our FBI clearance, sexual abuse, and all the checks came back and all that's left is our last homes study visit. We bought a carbon monoxide detector and a couple more smoke detectors and are now ready! Our social worker has been on vacation so next week is our scheduled date! Once it is over we are looking at 1-2 weeks for final confirmation and review then we are DONE DONE DONE! Guess what this means?!? We go on the waiting list!! Our wonderful consultant, Tracie Loux has begun our profile(the book of photos and info that the birth mom will see and how she chooses us) and sent us a sneak peek. Let me tell you, she did AMAZING! We requested the colors of his nursery and it is very appealing!

* Don't daddy and big brother and sister look precious?!? Just waiting for Baby Hamby to come home then we will be complete :)


Once we go on the list, we could get chosen in one day and fly to the location and have a baby shortly or it may be months. We do not expect it to be more than 3 months to get matched. The arrival of our baby will depend on when the mother is due, so it is definitely up in the air! I bought a diaper bag and we are working on having it packed and ready in case of a situation that could arise and need adoptive parents the following day. Fingers crossed and prayers are said daily!


Pinterest Inspiration....
I used this photo and a couple other Pinterest nursery ideas to create my own....And so it begins...





Making baby bedding.... hmmmm.. this was definitely an ambitious task we took on! Please keep in mind that other than the burp cloths I recently started making I have NEVER sewn in my life!! Chelsea, my dear friend that helped has sewn some but we thought we could do this so we tried! You miss 100% of the shots you don't take, right?!? 
  So we began... It was not near as hard as I thought. Well ,the bumper wasn't. I was excited to find this super cute chevron fabric that was the exact colors I wanted to do! We completed the bumper in less than an hour and I was VERY pleased!!

Please note the sweet puppy in the middle of us. Krew is quite the helper and never leaves my side haha! I think he will be a good but jealous big brother. Next on our list was the valance and matress cover. BOY WAS THIS A CHALLENGE!!! I learned what a ruffler foot was, and we were terrible at using it and messed up 100 times, but hey, it turned out great! We made the crib skirt, that was pretty easy.. then tackled the mattress cover...... which was challenging....
 I left the mattress at home to start with so we guesstimated the dimensions.. then got scared... so I ran home and got the mattress. It wasn't extremely hard, but you had to cut corners off and sew them, then thread the elastic and blah blah blah. BUT, as you can tell we made it all and it fits and looks great!!! I made all this for less than $50 and it was an average of $350-$550 online so we were VERY happy! It by no means looks perfect, but o well!
Once the bedding was made it was time to finish painting! I found this amazing $3 product. If you are going to paint, ever, in your life... you NEED THIS! It is called an edger and I got it at lowes. It has a replaceable pad and you don't have to us painters tape or anything and you just swipe it across the wall and it works perfectly! Christa and Josh Franklin so kindly came over and Christa helped me make the white line across the top. Unfortunately, I am going to have to re do it because the Scotch's painters tape was NO GOOD and my paint leaked through!! Cory and I are going to put the crib up tomorrow (finally) and finish the paint!!
 Once we pull the painter's tape off there will be a pretty white line!
We started baby couponing. We haven't gotten very far, but last week when I bought toilet paper from CVS I pretty much got these free!  Every penny saved is worth it!!
After this week we will be half way done with the nursery. I am going to purchase some wall art I found on etsy and all that will really be left is a glider. I am searching for a white or grey glider that looks like a recliner within a reasonable price.

My plans for above the crib is to do a large Uppercase Living name with his birth weight all around it. So obviously, we will have to wait until he is born for that. Listed below is an idea of what I am talking about:

The alphabet listed above is what I would like to do above his changing table. We talked about having a match party once we are matched with a mother, unless its a sudden and quick thing. All the males will bring diapers to enter and the females will be assigned a letter and the guys can play pool and hang out while the girls have a craft night and paint or create their letter. I feel like this would be a neat celebration and would mean a lot to me knowing I had friends and family assist with making this part of his nursery... and who wouldn't want a craft night?!?

Samuel 1:27 "For this Child I have prayed.." Each and every day I pray for the courage and strength of the birthmothers who are selflessly giving up their child to another family. We have sped through the process thus far and will be on the waiting list VERY VERY soon, possibly within two weeks. Not only do we need prayers, but the birth mothers do as well. I am beyond thankful to know God has provided and paved this path for us so far and before we know it we will hold our precious boy in our arms. Thanks for the encouragement and prayers so far! We will continue to update you :)

Friday, August 9, 2013

Fingerprinting, medical form, animal safety... What's next?!?



Well... Today has been another awesome day! I feel like we are moving right along and going quickly! I had to do my fingerprinting today. Mine and Cory's are on file due to our jobs but I guess people can change their fingerprints so we had to do them again. Cory's appointment is improv and mine was today. It was so easy! In the past you did them on paper and it could take up to 11 weeks to process... This would be what would hold up a lot of people's home study... Thanks to technology we make our appointment online through a FBI clearance site and we went to the Cartridge Shoppe in Paducah and electronically scanned our fingerprints in! By the time I made it home (10minutes) my report of a criminal history (I didn't have one ;)) was already sent to me! We literally went from an 11 week wait to a 10 minute wait! 

I picked up our medical report, it had to be notarized and printed on the clinic's letterhead. We took Milly to the vet water day and her and Krew were cleared as safe animals so we got that paper signed. 

We paid the home study agency today! This means we are done with EVERYTHING as far as the home study goes except our references have to send on their paper and we need to have the second/last home study visit. Our social worker will type up our home study which may take a week, it gets reviewed then we are DONE! 

What does this mean?!? It means we submit our profile (our consultant is making us one to show to potential birth moms) and our home study then wait and pray for a match! We're soooo stinkin close! Thank you for the prayers! We cannot wait to get our little boy! 

Monday, August 5, 2013

Medical Exam



We have completed the first 999,999,999,999 pages of paperwork and every bit of it was TOTALLY worth it! We have really been moving along and worked as a team to get it 57 pages done in three days! Today, 8/5/13 was our medical exam to clear us and state that we are healthy individuals. I made my appointment with one of the sweetest APRN's in Paducah! The office was wonderful and very helpful in responding and doing what we needed to complete the form. Cory had to have a poor TB skin test, and I thought I was never going to hear the end of it. To be such a muscular and strong man, he is a WIMP when it comes to ANY needle... even a TB skin test needle. Nicole, the APRN told us we were good and healthy so now we prepare for our next step! HOME STUDY VISIT #1! And yes, it is already scheduled!!! For Wednesday! WOO HOO! Fingers crossed that everything keeps going as planned! We keep getting another step closer to our baby boy! 

Thank You Nicole Snow, APRN for being so wonderful!!!


 Whining about the upcoming shot (I do not consider a TB skin test a shot, but it might as well been considered a minor surgery for Cory) geeze....
Checking him out, he's one healthy daddy!

Painting 101

For those of you who know me, you know I love doing crafts and projects. BUT, I HATE painting and drawing. Mainly because I cannot draw a straight line even with a ruler and painting, um, lets just say a1 toddler can out do me! God bless JD and Lauren... when we first moved into our house some roo1ms desperately needed to be painted and I had no idea where to even begin, heck I didn't even kn1ow how to roll the paint on the roller in order to put it on the wall. They were a wonderful help, a1nd though I do not enjoy it, I reckon I can call myself a painter.
So... The day we decided that we were for sure adopting, I started my Pinterest addiction once again and 1found tons of baby ideas! We decided to do the room in grey with aqua and teal accent. The first ste1p was painting.. I found a room on Pinterest where the walls were grey with a white stripe at the to1p then a blue section at the top with a blue ceiling. It really caught my eye, so of course I have decided to copy this idea and do our baby's room like that!

I posted some before and during pictures for you to see. As of right now, I am ALMOST done! The hold up was the blue. I am making the baby bedding mainly because of expenses. As most of you may or may not know adoption is VERY expensive unfortunately, and we still need a little more funding, so we are trying our hardest to save as much as possible. The bedding I found online with the colors was OUTRAGEOUS, so here I go, making my own! Chelsea Jones, a wonderful friend of mine has offered to help so I am EXCITED to start! I found the fabric I wanted today, so now I can match the blue in it with blue paint!

 His room before....

 The pups are already over all this baby preparation!


His room during....
And hopefully there will be an AFTER picture!! I am hoping to do this Wednesday!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Lets go!

We sent the first two of the 57 pages to the coordinator of ABI today and sent open dates to our social worker. This is so exciting because we are so close to the first home study visit then shortly after we'll do our second one! Yippe! I better make sure the house is ready :) 
This is our printed home study packet! Cory was on top of his game last night and filled out the first paper we needed done and looked over our home requirements. I printed the large packet this AM and were going to spend the weekend completing it! I want to speed this process up and if there are things we can do, you better bet were gonna get it done... Quick! 

I plan to mail all of our background check, criminal report check, etc tomorrow!