Since I last posted, we’ve hit some major milestones in our adoption journey. I’ve been sharing updates as they happen on a facebook page I created just for our adoption process. You can follow along if you like here: https://www.facebook.com/ryanandstephanieadopt/. But to sum up, we’ve met our caseworker and completed our homestudy.  To do this we filled out 100s of forms of information and took over 12 hours of training both online and in person, including CPR training, and met with our casework both at her office and in our home. With the completion of our homestudy – we are officially adoption approved and ready. (yay!) We’ve gotten our adoption profile complete for our adoption facilitator, and it has gone live on their website and is now being shown to potential birth moms. (Of course our website is still up for anyone who might find us that way at http://www.ryanandstephanieadopt.com, and we’re still working on raising money through our gofundme. Plus I have some other fundraisers in the works for this spring.)

And the best New Years present of all! December 31st, New Years Eve, we received our official license to adopt from DCFS!!

Now on to our update:

Sometimes you hear horror stories about caseworkers, but I have to say that I am incredibly grateful for our caseworker. Lori has been open, honest, and down to earth with us since we first started talking to her. As she prepped us for our home visit, she told us not to feel like we needed to deep clean the house. She said she was basically coming out to do a walk through to get a general idea of the layout and size, to determine how many children we could handle in our space, and to make sure it was a safe environment. That was insanely comforting to me because after filling out tons of insanely personal and detailed paperwork, I was worried about how detailed they would be in their report of our home. (To be honest, it’s a hard thing to constantly have to prove that you will be a good parent.)

The other way in which Lori has been amazing is the fount of information she has provided. She domestic infant adopted her daughter a few years ago so she is familiar with the process and has her own tips on things. For example, she told us if we have to travel out of state to meet our child to try and find a Homewood Suites to stay in because their rooms have little kitchenettes with dishwashers to clean bottles, and there’s a laundry room in the hotel too. This is ideal for this process because we could be waiting for up to two weeks for adoption paperwork to be processed before we can go home. And this hotel set up means we don’t have to pack as much when we travel because we clean it all while we’re there. She shared that most hospitals will provide us with a couple little bottles so we don’t need to pack a bag full of our own. She suggested how many and what size of outfits we might want to bring with us for the baby too. Just a slew of information.

With the Christmas money we received, I figured the best use for it would be to get some things for the baby. (Especially since we have no idea when we’ll be matched. It could be tomorrow. It could be two years from now. We just don’t know.) And it’s because of Lori’s tips that she got me thinking about what we absolutely have to have if someone were to call tomorrow and tell us we have a baby for you… The first thing my brain thought of was – if the baby is within driving distance, we will absolutely have to have a car seat in order to bring him/her home. So we headed to Target to find ourselves the best option. The one we liked best for keeping our little guy or gal safe was an Eddie Bauer Infant Seat that we had to order online. But it’s officially arrived in the mail on Wednesday so we’re all prepped to bring our little one home when the time comes.

The second thing we will definitely need for baby will be some clothes. Lori suggested a few newborn outfits and a few 0-3 month outfits in both boy and girl options. That way they will most likely fit the baby no matter what size or gender he/she is. In order to conserve even further, going gender neutral on the clothes means we have what we need regardless of what the gender of our child will be. Target had some newborn and 0-3 month clothes on clearance so we snagged 4 newborn onesies, 2 pairs of newborn pants, three 0-3 month onesies and 6 pairs of infant socks all in gender neutral colors. We figure this works for the quick rush to pick him/her up, and then we can snag more if needed in whatever town/state we end up in.

We’ve also started planning out what we’ll need for the baby’s room and what to do with some of the items in there now. We already have a cubby cabinet that we purchased for our goddaughter’s toys and I think we may move it into the closet and turn it into a sort of dresser for diapers and clothes and things. Obviously we know we’ll need a crib, and I’m all about planning ahead with multiple functionality. So we’ll definitely be getting one of those convertible cribs… the ones that become a toddler bed and full size bed too. That way it’ll last for a long, long time. One of Ryan’s sweet aunts gifted us some money towards the nursery – so her gift coupled with my Christmas money from my parents is covering that purchase for us perfectly. The only other thing I know I would like to get for the nursery is one of those gliding rocking chairs. We had one before the fire that I loved with the hope of rocking a baby in it, but obviously God had different plans. So in the near future we’ll probably be looking into those. Other than that… Our plan is to wait to really purchase anything else until baby gets here or we get matched and have more certainty as to what to expect.

We are very blessed to have friends and family who have had little ones and saved things. One of Ryan’s uncles gifted us one of those swing seats that I’m sure our little one will love. And my dear friend, Lane, offered us one of those co-sleeper things, I think that’s what it’s called, which I know I will love. My parents gave a us a little Chicago Fire onesie, bib and booties as a Christmas gift for their future grandbaby. My brother, Jeremy, got him/her a soccer ball to go with it. My sweet grandma purchased our child’s first teddy bear for him/her. And our dear friends, Frank and Kayla, got us this sweet little sign that says “This is where I belong.” So perfect for our little one’s room! All such sweet and touching gifts! Our future little one is so SO loved already!

As I mentioned before – we will eventually need to move some things out of that room too in order to make room for the crib and such. So in addition to all that prepping, I’ve been gathering a list of things to sell. Just like everything else – everything we raise from this will go towards our adoption fees. (Woot! Woot!) I’ve got some simple furniture, accessories, and paintings I’ve made, as well as a few photography props. I’m going to probably be selling them through the facebook page so don’t forget to like it to stay up to date.

Well that’s all I’ve got for today! I’ll keep you all posted as things progress!