Home Visit

The home visit from the social worker was this last Monday night. Everything went well and she loved our little place. I took some pictures because it might not ever be this clean again.

Here is Tobin's room and will become the new baby's room as well.

The living room as it is now. We had to add a wall to make another room in order to be able to adopt a girl. This way Tobin and the baby can have their own rooms.

Us right after church on Easter. The home study paperwork is all done and now I have about two weeks until it comes back completed. That gives me time to finish the dossier stuff that goes to Ethiopia. When all that is sent in we will get on the waiting list for a baby, which will probably be a 6 month wait. I am so happy that part of this is done and the next amount of paperwork is not as hard. Hopefully in 3 weeks or so we will be done with our part of the adoption process for a while and will just have to wait.

There is a lot of waiting involved in adoption and there are often unseen things that come up that make the whole process a whole lot longer. This is the reason that we started so soon because we knew that we would have to wait and the whole thing could take over a year. It will give Tobin a chance to grow up a little bit and get some more one on one time with us.

Spring Break at the Beach

This last week, Tobin and I took a break from adoption paperwork and went to St. Augustine, FL with Clark's parents, grandma, sister Addie, and our niece Maggie. Clark couldn't come because of work. We missed him, but Tobin had fun playing in the sand with his cousin Maggie.

Tobin and Maggie are only a year apart and they have so much fun together. Though Addie and I get tired of telling them not to take toys from each other. There was some crying (mostly on Tobin's part), but they had a blast together.

It was nice to be out in the sun again. Tobin had never really been to the beach since he has been walking so it was a great experience. The condo was right next to the beach and Tobin loved running along the board walk that lead to it.



























































Up at the top of the Ft. in St. Augustine. It was really interesting and had a great view, but very very windy.





















































The kids' favorite part was sticking their heads in the old cannons and hearing their voices echo.





































Tobin loved the water once he got use to it and kept wanting to charge the waves.













































Great Grandma with Tobin and Maggie.


Later on in the week we tried having a Easter egg hunt with both kids. Tobin didn't really get it and after picking up one egg broke into it and made a mess.

Happy Easter!

Weekend with Uncle Ryan

Not everything we do on the weekend revolves around adoption paperwork (though about 80% or it does). Two weekends ago we got a visit from Tobin's Uncle Ryan. Ryan and Clark were college roommates and he has been family ever since. We went to IKEA and got more stuff for Tobin's room and played at the park.

Tobin had a great time going down the slide and Uncle Ryan was nice enough to help him not fall on his face. Tobin is crazy about Ryan and loves playing with him when he visits.

We had a great Saturday out and about. I think that Ryan and I look like brother and sister in this picture. Tobin though looks just like his Daddy!

I got to try out my new cool baby backpack that I bought for Tobin now and will be great in Africa when we go to pick up the new baby next year. I can hardly feel him on me and it can fold up into a diaper bag.

Adoption Update:

Well we are still hard at work getting ready for the home visit in a week and a half. After Ryan left on Sunday, Clark and I painted our new wall (a very blue color) and then I spent the rest of the week cleaning up the construction mess. Clark has been busy putting pictures back on the wall and hanging up curtains in Tobin's room that I bought at IKEA. I will be gone next week to FL with Clark's family so I am trying to get everything done now. Most of the paperwork for the home study is in! Yeah!!!!!!! It is such a big deal to me because I have been working on it for over six weeks. Now all we have to do is be ready for the home visit and get to work on the dossier paperwork (which is not as hard as the home study stuff). We are slowly getting there.

Please feel free to leave comments and check back often for updates on the adoption and our lives in general!

Adoption Update

Well, we have been working on our adoption paper work since the first week of February and now a month later we are still plugging away. In two weeks or so (right after Easter) we are scheduled to have our home visit by the social worker. So right now we are busy getting the house ready and all of our paper work in. I am still missing some of the doctor forms but they should be done soon.

We have also had to make a few changes in the house like putting in a new room by building a wall and digging a path out back. Most of our changes are just because we wanted to do it anyway and this is a good excuse. But, the wall was something we had to put in. Ethiopia won't refer us a girl if we don't have a bedroom for each child (since we have a son already). It has been a big pain, but we don't really mind. You get use to jumping through a lot of adoption hoops along the way and it doesn't even phase you. Anything to be able to get our baby home.

For those of you who don't know much about the international adoption process I will try to highlight what we are going through right now. Three main things (paper work wise) have to be completed - the home study, the dossier, and the paper work to CIS (use to be called INS). The home study takes the longest and it is done by a social worker in your state. Tons of different papers and information goes into the home study including different meetings with the social worker. One of those meetings is when they come and see your house (the home visit). The dossier is what goes over to Ethiopia and has lots of different kinds of papers and information and it includes the completed home study. The CIS stuff is more forms (and money) and another copy of the home study. So in the end lots of paper work and a bunch of it has to be notarized. So we are very busy and with me still in grad school I don't have time for much else.

Here are some pictures of us building the new wall and digging out the path:

Grandma and Bobba were here visiting and helped with our little projects: the picnic tables and our path.

Tobin had fun in the dirt!

The guys came last week and put in the wall. Here is when it was almost done. The new room will be the guest room once we can save up for a bed for Tobin. More pictures will follow of everything being done for the home visit.

The whole family enjoyed getting to spend two week with GiGi and Bobba!

Announcing Our Adoption

I wanted to take this chance to announce our pending adoption. Clark and I have been talking about wanting to adopt since before we got married and have planned to adopt our second child. Now that Tobin is getting older we have started the adoption process. As our family and friends we wanted to tell you and to keep you updated on this new journey for our little family. We have been saving up money since Clark and I were first married and have almost half of the $26, 000 that it will cost. Right now we are in the middle of working of the mountains of paper work that is associated with international adoption and working on getting the home study done by the end of this month.

We hope to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia (whom we will name Jessa), but we are also open to a boy. The whole process takes a little over a year, so we could have our little girl (or boy) by spring 2009. She or he will more likely be around a year old by the time the adoption goes through. Tobin and the new baby will be close in age but at least a year or more apart. We are so excited! Please keep us and the new baby in your prayers as we wade through the paper work and wait to finally hold her/him in our arms.