We had our second meeting with our social worker on Monday down in Nola. As I mentioned in our first blog post, the home study is a crucial part of the adoption process. We need a completed home study before we can sign on with most agencies and definitely before our profile can be presented to any birthmom. Each visit with our social worker lasts approximately an hour and is a way for her to gather information about Chad and me as a couple, educate us on different adoption related topics, and ensure that we have the knowledge to make decisions regarding adoption. Now we have one visit left with our social worker before our home study is complete! For our next visit, she will come to our house for our "home inspection". What does that mean? It is her job to make sure that our home is safe for a child. We need to have working smoke alarms, a fire extinguisher, a first aid kit, cleaning products out of reach, etc.
We also made a trip down to Nola on Saturday to meet with an adoption attorney. There are several ways to go about adopting a child. You can use an agency, consultant, facilitator, or attorney. Each one comes with pros and cons which I will try to explain in a later post. Chad and I have spent the past few weeks weighing all our options, praying ALOT, and making our own list of pros and cons for each. We have finally decided that we are going to use an attorney to help facilitate our adoption. This is a little different than most attorney assisted adoptions. Ms. Lisa works very closely with an adoption agency in Lake Charles, DeColores. Once our home study is complete, any time she gets a call from the adoption agency with potential birth moms, she will call us and let us know. At that point we need to decide whether it would be a good match for us and let her know. If we decide that is it a good match for us, then our profile book would be presented to the birthmother along with the profile books of other couples. If the birthmom chooses us, then we are considered "matched"!! We may need to present to a few birthmoms before we are chosen, but just getting close to this point is super exciting and surreal!!
With that being said, now we really have to focus on fundraising!!! Chad and I have been working hard to come up with some great ways to raise money to help us bring home Baby D. If you are on a computer, look at the top of this page as there are tabs with our different fundraising events. If you are on your phone, there is a menu option at the top left. I will add tabs as different fundraisers are added. Here is what we have going on right now:
1. Garage Sale Fundraiser. Chad and I are going to host a garage sale at our house in Baton Rouge on March 7, 2015. We have already started collecting items and pricing them as we get them. We are more than willing to come pick up items at your house (even those not in Baton Rouge), and no donation is too small. We are super appreciative of anything you are willing to donate to our sale. We are accepting any and all items so please tell your friends. Anything not sold at the garage sale will be donated.
2. Puzzle fundraiser. We have purchased a 150 piece puzzle to hang in Baby D's nursery. We are writing the names of all those that have donated on the puzzle pieces. Each puzzle piece is $20 and will make such a wonderful keepsake for our child.
3. Future events include a raffle, jewelry show, and jambalaya dinner. Please let us know if you have any other ideas as we would love to hear them.
Here's how you can help us this week:
Pray as we continue our home study that everything continues to go smoothly and that we are ready to present to birthmoms soon! Pray as we continue our fundraising efforts, specifically our Garage Sale and Puzzle fundraisers. Also, we received our first few adoption donations this past week! Please pray for the sweet, generous people who have supported us thus far. We have been touched by people's willingness to bless us.
Pray as we continue to share our story with so many! Chad and I were overwhelmed by all the love we received after making our announcement, and all of you who took time to visit our page!! We want to continue our strong faith along this journey and help share God's plan!
And finally, please pray over all the aspects of our adoption, especially our sweet baby-to-be! We are trusting God with our journey & rejoicing over answered prayers!
Thanks for checking in!!