My boys...

Things are happening...

Things to do: This week Matt and I received our FBI clearance reports. Basically it is a copy of our fingerprints with a "No arrest" stamp on it. That's right we have never been arrested. So I need to get it notarized, I think, and send it in. I finally think all of our references have sent in their letters. Thanks Alex, Will, Kelli and Amy, that meant so much to us, you have no idea how grateful we are for the kind words! This week I also heard back from our dossier service, and Matt and I both have to redo our passport copies that we sent in apparently our signatures are not very good.

This morning we had a final homevist with our social worker. We talked about how we want to raise our child, our discipline methods, how Matt and I met and our relationship. Then she went around and looked at our house. She thinks she could possibly get our homestudy report done by next week!! I am getting very very excited as I feel this is the last part on our ends to get us on the waitlist for our baby E!!

Once we are on the waitlist we are required to do some reading to help us prepare for our baby (Currently most families are on the waitlist for 9 months before they receive a referral for their child from Ethiopia). Although Matt and I have already been doing some reading, they have certain topics we must cover. We are also going to go to the Together for Adoption Conference in Tennessee the first weekend in October which will be amazing. Check out another great video:

You gotta watch this..

Check out this sweet, sweet video of a family meeting their little Lucy Lane for the first time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duyL9UjLrdM

New updates...

Tuesday was such a stressful day. I was not feeling well so I went home early from work. I decided that I would organize some adoption paperwork as I was at home. I called over to my doctor's office to check up on my medical form. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had to get a physical to include in our adoption paperwork and the doctor did not complete it as it needed to be. Well since the form was completed incorrectly I needed a new one filled out. I had gone up there last week and they said it would be completed this week as their notary was on vacation. The part that was incorrect was that someone had put US in the county line and not Forsyth. They had also faxed the form so the doctors signature was not original. You would think this would be a simple request. So I called on Tuesday to see if the form had been completed for the second time and they tell me they know of no such form! So I had to re-explain my situation and tell them who I had talked to originally as of course this person was not working today. This takes about 30 minutes as they can not find my chart anywhere. So to make a long story short they eventually find my chart with the completed form and tell me it is ready to be picked up at the main office as I go to the doctor at their satellite office. I go to the main office and pick up my form. Low and behold the form was still not correct and when I asked if they could fix it the woman said no. I started crying right there in the doctor's office. I guess my tears must have made a difference, because the receptionist got on the phone to talk to her supervisor. They suggested that I take the form over to the satellite office and see if they could fix it. So I drove over to that office and luckily a doctor came out and wrote the word Forsyth on the form and signed it for me. I hope that this is all I need for this medical to be complete. You wouldn't think it would be so hard. Okay so enough of my complaining.

On Wednesday Matt and I went to Walgreen's to have 2 passport size pictures of us taken as this was needed for the adoption paperwork. Not sure exactly what this is for, maybe for our travel visas?? Then I went to FedEx and mailed off some of our completed forms to our adoption agency and to KBS who is helping us with our dossier. Our sweet friends Lee and Amy gave us a great, great deal on their baby furniture that they no longer needed. So Matt and Lee brought it over on Wednesday night. When I say furniture I mean a really nice chest of drawers and a changing table with a hutch top. Yea! Now all I need furniture wise is a crib and a glider chair of some kind. I still cannot make up my mind about what kind of crib I want, but I still have plenty of time.

This morning Matt and I met with our social worker who is conducting our home study. We had to talk about our upbringing and our families and what all they mean to us. Overall I think it went well even though I don't always enjoy talking about my personal feelings. :) She gave us some suggestions on books to read and things to think about. Another good thing was that she said she could connect us to some families in the area who have adopted from Ethiopia. What a blessing. We made an appointment for her to come out next week to see our home, as we had to meet her at her home today. Hopefully I can keep the house clean until next Friday!

Adoption update

Matt and I are still working on our paperwork. While we were on vacation my updated passport arrived in the mail with my new last name. Not really crazy about my picture but oh well. I was starting to wonder if it would ever arrive. I have to make a copy of it and get the copy notarized for dossier paperwork. We also got a call to schedule our homevist. We are going July 16th to Greensboro to meet with our social worker and then we will schedule a time for her to come to our home.

On Tuesday Matt and I drove to Charlotte for our 8 am appointment to get fingerprinted by Immigration. The entire appointment took all of 15 minutes and then we drove back home to go to work. The other thing I found out this week is that my doctor who did my physical did not completely fill out the form correctly so I had to go back and see if she could fix it. Well when I went back to the doctor's office I found out that she no longer works there! I am still waiting to find out what I need to do in order to fix the form.

I have a lot of forms completed just need to run by the bank get them notarized and then send them to FedEx.

Vacation

Matt and I just got back from a wonderful week in Florida. We flew down and I kept thinking that the next time Matt and I fly will be to pick up our baby!! I can't wait. We traveled down with my sister and her husband, and we stayed in a town near Clearwater. While there we went to a Devil Rays game, went to the beach, and went down to Key west for two days. Hard to believe we are back and have to go back to work next week. Here are some pictures from our trip. Enjoy!