Checkin' things off the list

We're checking things off our list! We completed our profile book last night, all except the letters of recommendation to be added. We've received 3 letters back so far and we're waiting on the rest before we make copies of our book & send them to Little Angel Adoptions. (If we asked you to write a letter for us, we'd appreciate receiving the letter in the next week. Thank you!)
The profile book was a BIG project and a bit stressful! We're happy to have it behind us and we're trusting God to put the book in the right hands! We've also begun the first steps of our home study. We completed the application & turned in the deposit. We were assigned a social worker & we spoke with her yesterday. Tomorrow we'll be filling out individual questionnaires and turning in the remaining balance due. We'll also be getting fingerprinted. Once those things are complete, our social worker will schedule interviews & a home assessment with us. We're hoping the entire process won't take as long as it sounds like it will, but we're content to have plenty to keep us busy while we're waiting to be matched.

"Dear Birth Parent"

After signing our contract & turning in our fees, we then wrote our "Dear Birth Parent" letter. This is a letter from us to the potential birth mother of our child, sharing who we are and why we desire to be parents. (It took us HOURS to write. It's such an important task!!) Along with a picture of us, this is to be submitted for posting on the Little Angel Adoptions website. Birth moms can go to the website and browse through the waiting families and read their letters. We'll also be putting this letter in our profile book which will get sent out to any birth moms that could be a match for us. Our letter & picture was posted on the website this morning- feel free to read it! (By the way, we know the Little Angel website is ridiculously outdated & cheesy in style, however it hasn't seemed to stop them from being very successful!)

http://www.littleangeladoptions.com/ProspFams/Zach_AnneLtr.htm

"Pregnant on Paper"

We've signed the contract & turned in our money, so as Little Angel Adoptions says, we are officially "pregnant on paper"!!!! Yay!!! We're so excited to have officially begun this journey! We have a lot do now! Our first step is to write a letter to the potential birth mother & submit it along with a picture of us to be posted on the Little Angel Adoptions website. Next, we will need to collect letters of recommendation from friends & family to put in our profile book. (THANK YOU to our amazing friends & family who have been so willing to write these letters for us! It's such a big & important part of the process and we are honored to have you be a part of it!!!) We will also need to make a profile book (basically a mini-scrapbook telling all about us). This will be what gets sent to the birth mothers to look at as they make their decision for a family. Needless to say, there's a lot of pressure on making this book! Finally, we need to have a home study conducted. This simply means a social worker will come and assess our house for safety, space, health, etc. I'm grateful we have plenty to do while we wait. :-)

We've also been advised by Little Angel Adoptions to purchase a carseat & any basic necessities we might need in the event that they receive a call from a birth mom who's already had her baby & needs a family asap! Though this isn't a common occurance, it can and does happen, so we need to be prepared! It's crazy to think our lives could change that quickly!!

We'll keep you posted on our progress!