More about the Adoption :)

Hi everyone!

I'm not even sure if anyone even reads this or looks for updates about our adoption and I know its been awhile so here is what is going on so far!

We had our homestudy November 21 and we just finally received our final draft this past week! Our agency has received a copy as well and I had to send in a few more papers so they can review the homestudy themselves. Our profile is done as well and as soon as its posted online I'll post a link! Once the homestudy is reviewed we will finally be activated! Activated means that we will finally have our profile shown to birthparent(s), which is really exciting and we hope is done by the end of this month (this week!).

We are also doing a fundraiser for our adoption. I would like to thank those who have already donated to our cause. Thank you Stevie, Melissa, Brandy, Liz, and Jennifer!! You guys are awesome!

If you would like to help us out by donating to our adoption please do so here:



Please pass our link to family and friends. If everyone that this passes by donates one dollar we would meet our goal quickly. Thank you all so much!


Here are a couple pics of her room so far.



Baby girls crib and her dolls so far.



Our little princess already has a whole dresser full of clothes! The bottom two drawers are full thanks to Jessica! Thank you for all the clothes!



This is her come home (to the hotel room) from the hospital outfit. Her daddy picked it out.



Her first me to you teddy bear! We still can't find the my first teddy bear one which is super soft....


Oh and we have decided to cloth diaper our child. I'm really excited about it even though its probably going to take some getting use to. It will not only save us money, its green, but it is also healthier for her in the end. Plus it helps that they look super cute and are super soft! I have our first batch in and they are super cute! If you're insterested the brands we are using are www.nubunz.com, www.sweetbabydolls.com, and www.theluvyourbaby.com/index.htm.

Help Us Raise Money for Our Adoption

Stupid Photobucket

I finally found a picture of the fantabulous stroller that we bought for our future child Hayley and of course photobucket decides to go crazy on me and nothing works! How aggravating is that?!?! So now you don't get to see this crazy expensive stroller, but I'll find another host so that I can post our pic of it.



edit** As you can see photobucket started working so here is our stroller!

Just so you all know I did not pick out the stroller and I so didn't have a say in it. I wanted something really cute and girly but I was told that stroller wasn't good enough for our child. Apparently my hubby has become the stroller guru and I mean this literally. He can tell you all about them and has apparently been watching other parents with their strollers. When we were looking we had to have a three wheeled stroller, one with rubber tires not the plastic ones, and so many other details I would have thought about and I really didn't think he was all that interested in all the baby stuff to begin with! He really surprised me with all his stroller knowledge!

Let's see what else he's going to put his foot down about when it comes to our child?!?!

Hmmm...I guess I should put an update as well even though there isn't much of one at this time. We've been kinda slacking cause our social worker was on vacation or out of the office but for whatever reason he was gone. Now that we know he's back we really need to get things going. I have all our paperwork printed (well for the background checks) and I need to get money orders and to go visit the SPs (Security Forces-Air Force Police for those of you that don't know) and get them to fingerprint us for our federal background check (which we both had to do already to be part of the A.F. so we know we'll pass LOL). I also need to finish the questionaire or I should say the hubby needs to finish his section and I can send that in with some pics to our social worker and set up our day for our homestudy (which I'm hoping to do in November). And then I have until then to get all the paperwork I need done for the social worker and hopefully we'll have all our reference letters in by then as well (yes I'm calling you slackers out! I have two of the five needed and you know who you are! LOL).

Oh I have gotten almost her whole scrapbook done and I think its pretty cute so far...its not like one of those super fancy and put entirely too much time into one page because I sooooooooo don't have the creativity or paitence to do so.

I think that its for now but once I can get pictures posted I'll post the stroller and some of the cutest outfit we've gotten for her already! Oh and the gift one of our fantabulous friends gave us already!

Hayley's Room

For those of you that didn't know we moved out of the Italian economy and into one of the government housing complexes run by the base. It is sooooo much nicer than the house we were in and we couldn't be happier with our decision! We can actually have the a/c on and dry our clothes during the summer which is soooo nice cause now we can live comfortably.



Also with the move means now we have Hayley's room. Yes, we are a bit ahead of ourselves with getting things for her room, but honestly who can pass up a good deal when you're spending a ton on an adoption?!?! Definitely not I LOL.



So here are a few of the things we've gotten so far.





Hayley's Crib! Which was given to us from a very awesome person and good friend Sanchez! Yes we put it together already to make sure all the pieces were there. We really like it though! OH and that is a brand new mattress we bought for our little one!







Here is all her bedding which I'm not going to wash or make her bed until its closer to her arrival.







This is a mommy and me doll from France. We got it on sale at a local baby store. We love some of the stuff they have here cause its so colorful and different than anything you can find in the states.





The dresser our wonderful friend Flores gave us before he shipped off to Korea! Yes, we're using it in or baby's room Stevan!! And you can see some of the other items we purchased already.



Her hamper LOL. I just got a really good deal on it LOL. I got it on sale for $15 from $60! Who really would spend 60 bucks on a hamper?!?!



The glider we got off the classifieds for 50 bucks! I thought that was awesome! And you can see her handmande Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls sitting in the chair. Along with her AF teddy bear and her chihuahua (she is kinda weird looking lol but we got her at an Italian store.)



This is one of my favorite dresses we've picked up for her so far! I got it from Macy's. It was originally $38 and I got it for $9 plus 99cents shipping. So 10 bucks! Woohoo!!

(oh and we're getting a changing table from another amazing friend woohoo! We have been blessed with some amazingly wonderful people around us!)

Oh and if you want to get something for Hayley we are registered at babys r us and www.amazon.com.


Okay now that you've seen her room LOL. You are probably wondering how the process is going! Well now that we are moved, we can get ready for the last set in our adoption process. The HOMESTUDY! Which once we get approved through the social worker and he sends the paperwork off to the adoption agency its simply a waiting game from there! We are sooo excited. We just have to give him a month or two notice so he can come down here (he lives in Germany!) and then we have interview and we're done! We probably will contact him next month to make sure our house is absolutely perfect! No meds within reach of child, make sure the hubby has all his knives safely out of reach, make sure all cleaning supplies are properly stored, make sure the baby gates are installed on the stairs (which will also b good when we have friends kids over since they are def dangerous to play on), and whatever else we can think of to make this a safe house for children! I'm also excited to show the social worker her room and all the things we have for her! I think it will show how dedicated we are and also how excited we are and also how wonderful friends and family are for the things they helped acquire for her!



Ok, ok I think I've babbled on long enough LOL.

Paperwork Coming Outta My Ears

I haven't written anything here in awhile and for those you who actually check this little blog of mine I apologize. We've just been super busy or so bored I just don't know what to do with ourselves LOL.



I figured it was about time that I posted an update about the adoption. We are about 1/3 of the way through the process. We have sent in our Adoptive Parent Questionaire (APQ) and have had a telephone conference with our social worker from the adoption agency (her name is Kelli). She was super helpful at explaining things we may not have understood. Plus I can email or call her with all my questions when I'm freaking out or just curious and she's super nice about everything. We got really lucky with someone so nice and who will answer or find out the answer for any question I may come up with.



The next step we are working on is the "Dear Birthparent(s)" letter and the rest of the profile. Which contains several different sections where we talk about ourselves and we must provide what feels like a billion pics of our life! You know somedays its just so easy to talk about yourself and your family and just your life in general, but I'm having a hard time putting this together. I want it to be honest and truthful and I don't want it to see needy and too mushy, so needless to say I'm having a super hard time with this portion of the process. I'm hoping that I wake up one day and it all just comes to me.



We are getting ready to move in to Government Housing (GRHP), which is basically base housing (so its run by the military) but off base since that base is too small for housing. Once we get settled in there and have the house unpacked and acceptable to having a social worker over we will do the last step of the adoption! We will do our homestudy. We are hoping to do this in about October which means we will hopefully be active by the end of the year and we'll just be waiting for match.



So that is the plan as of now. Once we get through all three steps we need to talk to the hubby's work and let his flight chief know that we are in the adoption process and make sure we have all necessary paperwork filled out. I also need to start calling airlines because some give really good discounts for families flyin for adoptions and give that crazy flexibility that you need with tickets...maybe you need to leave sooner or later than originally intended.



The hubby does get a free three weeks off of work which we're excited about! Plus at the end of the adoption they give us a couple thousand to help pay off that wonderfully big loan we are going to have to get to fund this adoption. We still have a lot of stuff to figure out though!

Oh we bought some new baby stuff but I'll do another post later of the baby things we're waiting for in the mail!

New Baby Stuff

Tomorrow we will be picking up a couple things for our future little one! We are getting an Eddie Baur Cherry Wood High Chair that sells for over $130 for $30. We are also getting a BabyBjörn Baby Carrier Active that also sells for $130 for about $40 and an infant carseat and base for $5 bucks! that's like over 300 bucks worth of stuff for $75 and she's trying to get rid of the stuff quick (I think they're moving) so we may be able to get it for even less! The hubby wasn't a fan of buying slightly used things but now that he is seeing the savings its growing on him LOL. He also didn't like the fact that everything isn't going to match perfectly but hes getting over that too because he's realizing that is something Hayley will never realize! I'll post pics after we pick it up tomorrow!!

Oh and we've decided to move into government housing (just much more affordable than living off of the Italian economy) and once we're settled and unpacked and what not we'll do our homestudy! I'll keep you updated with everything!

Oh yeah we have $294 in change that will go towards that $325 profile fee! Woohoo! Our friends and family are awesome and helping pay for one of those small fees we didn't know we had to pay!


**Update**

We ended up getting the high chair for $20 instead of $30. She gave us the carseat for free and we paid the $40 bucks for the baby bjorn. Oh and we found out we don't have to pay the $325 so the change will goes towards the $3,000 for the homestudy!

Hayley Update **Adoption**

I know everyone is wondering where we're at in this whole adoption process, so I'm going to tell you. We have done all our research, we've figured out what papers need to be sent where, where we need to get background checks through, the differences between our adoption agency and the social worker, and now we are working on reference letters. Yes, we need reference letters from all of you that love us! We will be doing our homestudy this fall now that we know all of the requirements. We will be setting up the baby room! (I'm totally excited about this because we know we're having a girl so I can buy all the cute pink and purple stuff!) I will probably be registering us in the near future so that we can have a half way complete baby room before the social worker gets here this fall! We were going to just right in and just start but we figured it best to do our homework and prepare ourselves thoroughly and now we're ready! We have all kinds of books on adoption, on parenting, what to expect the first year and so on!

We are also deciding on cloth or disposable diapers, what bottles are best, which formula we want to feed her, how we're going to discipline her, and many many more things that have come up from all the paperwork that we've acquired!

**Save the Change Update**

We have saved from the help of some of our coolest friends ever about $194 so far! We still have people that are going to send more which is awesome! If you want to help with the save the change message me and I'll give you details! With what we have so far will almost be enough for our profile! (Which in my opinion is one of the hardest things ever to put together!)

We are getting excited and we are starting to gather things for our little one! We just picked out a few things for her room today! I'll post the pics below and of course everything has flowers and butterflies and pink and purple and yes Jerry did help pick these things out too! Let us know what you think!






A pillow and a little cabinet to put lotions and ointments and things in.



The bigger baskets for like diapers, blankets, toys, etc. (we got two)



These are the smallers ones used for the same purpose as above.





These were just too pretty to pass up! I think I'm going to use them to put a pic of Hayley and each grandma in them!



Book ends! For all those fun and fantabulous stories her daddy is going to read her! (He picked these out for her so I'll prob put a pick of the two them in the framed end). I do have this funny feeling he'll be reading to her from Mustang Mags though so she'll be car savvy when she's older!