Survived the initial walk through

We survived the first home visit. It was so silly.. she was there for about 20 minutes. It was just an informal walk through. She said that there would be another one. One that would last a lot longer. Though she did not see anything of any concern,. She was not worried at all. 

Next step, more paperwork. I feel like that's what I do all the time. PAPERWORK (for any of my past nursing classmates... PUT IT IN YOUR PAPERWORK (Brook would get this best...lol) We will be scheduled to take one set of classes starting in February. This is a 9 week class, we are condensing it down to 4.5 days. DCFS offers the class either one evening a week, 3 hours each session, for 9 weeks, or there is one session that is all day Saturday, 6 hours, for  4.5 Saturdays. Jeff and I will be taking that class. We will also be taking a 3 day class at some point and then an additional 1 day class. We should be well prepared by the time all our classes over to be able to do this adoption thing! We are excited but overwhelmed by paperwork and its just the beginning. I know there will be a lot more to come.

Jeff and I are excited to start a new bible study with some great people at church. We will be diving into the book "All in Orphan Care" Our church is starting a new ministry to help support anyone who will be fostering/adopting/or supporting. They are so many needs out there. Not just needs for the actual kids. But needs for the caseworkers, social workers etc.... 

Romans 8:28 says; And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose

Jeff and I truly believe that we are being called to do this. God has opened up our hearts and given us patience. He has helped to calm my nerves and not make me so anxious. He has helped me to see the here and now, and helped me to accept that He has this! 

Deuteronomy 31:6; Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."

Am I ready? Of course I am!

The day is quickly approaching.. am I ready? Of course I am, God is in control. 

We had our face to face with the caseworker last week and everything is playing out the way I had hoped and wanted. For those of you who know me, you know I am a planner and researcher. If there is something that I need to know, I research it to death! That being said, I had read the agency's web site top to bottom. I clicked on every link. Printed off every form or informational sheet. So at the meeting a lot of the things they told us, I already knew. They did tell us a lot of things that we did not know either. Just more insight into the kids and more details about how the actual placement works. It was a great meeting. We already have our fist home visit on Friday. In order to get signed up for the classes we need, they have to actually see our house. I have been cleaning like crazy. Luckily though, the caseworker provided me with

official detailed information (well a link to look it up) of all the things that they look for during the home visit. I have been really stressed out... but know that God is there helping me through this. Its been good for us because we are doing little home improvements that needed to be done anyways! Tonight I have our youth group Christmas party, that will help with some stress relief. Then I will be grocery shopping, got to have food in the house when the worker comes Friday (and since Friday is my shopping day, I have to go tonight). I am lucky too because my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are going to through this also, so we have each other for support. And she had her home visit today and was able to give me pointers, tips etc... So knowing what lies ahead, well sort of, is good for me it helps to keep me on track. Will keep you all posted after the home visit. 

"The home visit made me realize that you and I were freaking out about nothing and our houses will be just fine" - Jessica Moore

Good quote by my sister-in-law, helps put my mind a little bit more at ease!!

Proverbs 16:9 “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”

-God is in control!

Let the purge commence...

I guess cleaning is the way to quite my nerves. Thank you to all who have been praying for my family and me. I just ask continued prayers that this process goes smoothly and we will pass! I also pray for quite nerves! I have a lot of anxiety in regards to getting my house ready for this homestudy. However, the homestudy will most likely not be happening for a few months down the road. Though my nerves at on high alert! I have a worriers heart and mind. I am scared that something will go wrong and we will be told no. Now I know that God is in control. I hear him telling me this. I am having a hard to accepting this. I have accepted this in my heart but I guess my mind still needs some convincing. I am needing something to keep me occupied. So, I am cleaning like crazy. I like to tell people I am "purging" my house. I have gone through some things in my closet and gotten rid of a couple things that I will never use (lotions, body wash etc...) I have gone through my kitchen cabinets and gotten rid of some of the pans and misc things that I have either never used or not used in a very very long time. Then, I cleaned under my bathroom sink and gotten rid of things that were expired or things we have never used. Next comes finishing my closet... getting rid of random things and clothes that I don't wear or use. Once I am done "purging" my upstairs, I plan on tackling my basement. Yikes, that's going to be a huge job. We have a lot of stuff in our storage area! This whole process is really good for me. I am ridding my life/house of a lot of junk that I will never use. Its great! I am pretty sure that my husband is loving this. He is much more of a "neat freak" than I am. He does not like clutter. Our house is not really cluttered by all means. However, I do like to use the table as a catch all and it usually ends up pretty cluttered. And sometimes I like to stack papers/mail in the corner of one of our cabinets. So I call what clutter we do have as normal house clutter. Though Jeff does not really care for all my clutter. So I am working to get all that cleaned up! Also, its going to be so nice to have more space under our sinks and in the kitchen cabinets!
Like I said this "purge" is going to be great for our house!!!

                                                     

Quiet my nervous mind...and heart!

Its been a great weekend!!! I am pretty sure that all of my family has now been told our plans to add to our family. Though I am pretty sure that no has told my mind to stop over thinking EVERTHING!!! For some reason I can't seem to stop my mind from thinking about everything that could go wrong with this whole thing! I just want my questions answered and my mind to stop. I know that there are several people out there that have been through this whole thing. The homestudy interviews, the homestudy inspection (I am totally freaking out!!), the parenting classes, and the DCFS classes. I know that I will have several people out there to lend a ear and some advise. However, I can't shut it off. No matter what I tell myself, I CAN'T SHUT IT OFF!!! I pray that God will help me to shut it off. I pray that God will help give me some answers and put all the right people there to help me. I just pray for peace in all this. I just keep questioning things about my actually house. The safety.. like where to keep my medications, where to keep my cleaning stuff, where to keep my knifes, what about my garage, what about my basement, what about EVERYTHING!!!! See, I can't shut it off. So I beg of you all... please pray for my peace of mind. Please pray that I CAN shut it off. Please pray that I will get answers sooner rather than later. Please just pray for me and my family. If you are reading this and have been through this whole process in the state of Illinois, any advise would be wonderful and much appreciated! I have no new news as far as this whole process, as we don't have a meeting with the caseworker until early December. Thanks for listening! Good night all!
                                       

Step two... and plenty more to come!

                                                    
So we got the call! I received the call from the agency yesterday! However, it was the wrong department:( But.... we got the REAL call later in the afternoon!!! It was just a basic intake call. She asked basic questions about my husband and I, and about Jaxon. Then she explained the steps we needed to take toward our goal of adoption! Wow, there sure are a lot of steps. Another thing we were not sure on was going to be the fees that we would be responsible for. There are some fees, but doable. I sat down last night and formulated a plan for all the adoption fees and then how we were also going to still be able to do a big fun vacation with Jaxon next year! We still plan on taking him to Disney over his birthday next summer! So no adoption before then... though we will hope to have all our classes and homestudy close to done by then!
Speaking of homestudy.. I am kinda freaked out. Anyone out there reading this, do you have any tips? Know of anyone who failed? (if so, why?) I am mostly nervous because of our finances. We have it all in check, but our credit scores are not all that great (mostly due to medical bills and past credit card debt stuff). But if its Gods will, it will all work out!
Another thing is our dog.. she is a great dog. Though, she likes to bark... a lot! She is never mean to Jaxon, though she does not really like it when he tries to pet her. I am pretty sure its just the breed, as she is a smaller dog. I hope Ellie (our dog) is nice to the social worker when she comes to our house. I am also nervous about the actual home "inspection". What all do they look for? What sort of things do I need to "fix" around out house.
I am positive that these are all things that everyone is worried about.. but if you know me, I am probably taking it a little bit to the extreme! That sort of what I do!  So anyone out there reading this.. if you have adopted domestically from the state of Illinois.. any tips for us?
The next step for us is to meet with the caseworker at her office in early December for a "more detailed" informational meeting. Then hopefully get signed up for our classes and get the ball rolling! We are very excited about this opportunity. Jeff and I sat down last night to outline what we would want in our future son. We are ready to roll! WOOHOO!

                                               

Step one... check!

 

And let he journey begin...Over this past weekend we attended a meeting at our church. It was an organization titled "the forgotten imitative" (www.theforgotteninitiative.org) we had the opportunity to hear what all they have to offer. Jeff and I went in to this meeting just to gather information about potential foster to adopt situations for the future, like 3-4 years down the road. You see our plan was for me to go back to school and then when I was all done, or close to, we would start the paperwork process of adoption. For those who know me, I had been on and off the fence about this whole going back to school thing for a while. For anyone that I talked to face to face about it, I would usually say... "Guess what? I am going to be going back to school in January... Yeah I agree its CRAZY!!!" I had changed my mind so many times, I lost count. Then, God intervened. He put some barriers in front of my plans, I had actually decided to do this whole going back to school thing. (I am pretty sure that my mind was in the school thing, but pretty sure my heart was not). Then I thought that I had found a solution to these barriers, well so I thought. Well God again intervened. He placed us at this meeting at church, at just the right time too. That night at this meeting my mind AND heart were both in. It was at that moment that I made my final decision, NO going back to school. God tugged my heart and I listened!! We were going to proceed with adoption. No waiting, NOW! That's right... Now is what God told us that night. He has a plan for us... and it does not include going back to school. It involves adopting a kiddo. We are hoping/planning/wanting to adopt a younger child. Maybe between the ages of 3-6, give or take a year or so. Jaxon has put in an order for a little brother, lol! So that Saturday we put in our information to the local organization for the "Adopt waiting children" program. We still have to to go through all the requirements to become a foster household. Even though we wont be technically be a foster family, we still have to have our foster care license. I got a call today from the agency... Will be calling them back tomorrow! The gal who called us was out of the office!!! God works his way in our lives when we least expect it. We just need to learned to listen! I hear Him and am ready to help a child find his forever home! Our hearts are open to love another one of Gods children!!!