The mail

We have really done our best to resist the urge to purchase baby stuff until we are actually "waiting", but I couldn't wait any longer! So we bought this carrier to tide me over (now I am trying to make myself wait until I buy the next big thing - good luck to me!). We were both really excited to open the package when it came today - kind of like how excited we were to get our first wedding present in the mail (towels from Glen and Bob - it was so exciting).

Last weekend in September

Today Ryan got his greenhouse plastic in place and he will work on his indoor garden throughout the winter. Yesterday we got our cider made - I couldn't get the picture to post, maybe I will be able to post it later. What a beautiful weekend!

First Day of Fall!

We welcomed fall this weekend by going to Newport to help with the pumpkin patch hayrides. On Friday afternoon, Ryan and I had our fingerprints taken and some more paperwork notorized. I got these things mailed in on Saturday morning and more things crossed off the list. We are hoping to start working on our adoption profile (telling the birthmom about us) this week. We are closing in!


I just barely got this picture of Brinkley's cousin Nellie - there were gourds in a basket on the ground and she snuck over and took this one. She is so funny!

Home Visit Yesterday

We had our official home visit where our social worker came to tour our house. It is understandably something that has been stressful for us, but seems to have gone off with success. After we gave her the tour, we had our last homestudy interview. She is planning to have a draft available for us to look through in two weeks or so. Once our study is approved, we have just a few pieces left before we are officially "waiting" to be matched. We have to fill out and have notorized another form, get fingerprinted, complete a profile ("Dear Birthmom letter") and a coverletter. In the meantime, we are hoping to find a pediatrician to meet with and to read a bit more on newborn care, etc.

Meanwhile, we are going to take a break from home renovations for a little bit. At least for this weekend as it is the official start of the pumpkin hayride season at the farm. Time for hot apple cider and apple pie!

Adoption Education

Yesterday, we had a day full of our adoption education class. We got to meet a women who is a birth mother of an adopted baby, a family where they adopted a little girl 5 years ago and a family that came back with their baby just a few months ago. It was such a great experience, and we learned a lot from it! It has given us a lot to think about. It was also kind of overwhelming, but I think that is why they gave us the binder full of take-home materials :)

After our class, we headed straight to Kate's surprise birthday party - we were sorry to miss the actual "surprise" part, but we had a nice time once we got there.

Today we worked on the house all day - small projects (like installing the knocker on the front door) and general "putting away" to prepare for the actual home visit on Wednesday. I realize things like putting up the door knocker really aren't important to the process, but it was either put the knocker up or find a place to put the package. I think putting up the knocker was just easier.

The above picture is from 2004, I didn't have anything new to put up yet, and this is one of my favorites. This was in our last house when Brinks was just a puppy, (we don't even have the crate here in this house), he is laying with his brown-bear. He loves that bear!

First Homestudy meeting

We had our first homestudy meeting yesterday - at the agency. We answered lots of questions about our relationship, our families, our parenting style, etc. It gave us a lot of things to think about before we meet again. She estimated the process to be around six week long from this meeting and then we will have to write our Dear Birthmother letter - after we write the letter, we should be officially "waiting" (maybe late October?). The social worker is coming to our house on September 19 - so we will busy ourselves mostly with cleaning and organizing and a few other small projects - two weeks doesn't leave time to do much else!

Labor day weekend

This weekend we cleaned and then painted the walls and trim in our front room. This room has pretty much been just storage since we moved in, and as you can see, we are already using it well. Cross another thing off the list!
Today Kate and I had a yard sale at the storage building. Dad went to camp this morning to help Kate load up a few things to sell, and he almost seems reluctant to give up the old recliner, don't you think? We had a very good sale - we sold a lot of stuff and cheap! It feels great to get rid of some stuff and to have it go to people excited to get it (everybody seemed thrilled about our low prices!).