A Meeting Set!

On January 8th, we will be meeting with a social worker to get things started for fostering to adopt!  I'm so excited!

I still haven't heard about the private adoption situation, so I'm fairly confident that the opportunity has passed and that it isn't meant to be.

No News and Good News

No news:
We have yet to hear anything on the potential private adoption situation, so I'm not holding my breath that anything will come of it.

Good news:
The recruitment officer from the foster/adopt agency we have visited with called me today.  It sounds like she wants to get things moving for us as soon as possible.  She plans to take a day soon to do a walk-through in our house to give us a head's up on what will need to be taken care of prior to our home study.  She wants to do our fingerprinting and background check on the same day.  It also sounds like they want to put is through the more accelerated class, which will take less than seven weeks to complete.

We'll plan to continue on with our plan to foster/adopt.  If anything changes, we'll do what is best for us.  I need to leave this in God's hands and trust He has a plan for us and the child who is waiting to come into our family.

Feeling Cautiously Optimistic

Today, I heard about a potential match for us for a private adoption.  We had all but given up on private adoption because of the costs involved, but this situation is different.  I'm trying not to get my hopes up too much, because I know the possibility of the adoption not happening.  However, I am being cautiously optimistic.  Hopefully we will be parents to a new baby boy this coming May!

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving and it is a time to count our blessings.  I always try to write out what I am thankful for so that I can look at it when I am feeling down and discouraged.

I am thankful for my beautiful, funny, smart daughter.
I am thankful for my handsome, hardworking, husband who keeps me laughing.
I am thankful for our marriage and that it feels like it gets better and better with time.
I am thankful for our health and that we three are not sick today.  (Both my husband and daughter were in the last few days).
I am thankful for our modest, fixer-upper home.  I love it and don't plan on moving ever again.
I am thankful for my husband's job.  He worked so long and hard to get it and we will never forget that.  It isn't a high paying job, but it is his dream and he excels at it.
I am thankful to have (nearly) one semester behind me as a full-time college student (for the second time).
I am thankful that I do not have to work while I am going to school.  Things are tight, but not so much so that I have to spend even more time away from my family.
I am thankful for the little town in which we live and also our church.
I am thankful for my musical ability.  I may not be a professional, but I throughly enjoy making music in several different ways.
I am thankful for our decision to adopt.  It has been a long, painful road to get to this point, but I know we are closer to child #2 every day.

...I could go on and on!  I am truly blessed.

Gut Feelings

My friend showed me a neat DIY craft blog and it gave me some ideas on how to decorate our third bedroom.  I went to Hobby Lobby to browse supplies and thought, "I wonder what my second child will like."  At that thought, I had the strongest, most visceral feeling come over me.  It was as if I was being told that we absolutely have another child soon, and that we are finally on the right path to them.  I had the same feeling last night when Undercover Boss was talking about adopting children from foster care.  The feeling is so powerful it almost brings tears to my eyes every time I hear or think about it.

I cannot wait to get this process started!

Because I Love to Torture Myself

This morning, I took a pregnancy test.  This is our first unmonitored, unmedicated cycle in two years.  I checked the calendar to see when I should expect good ole AF, and it appears that I am overdue.  I know that when I'm not taking Clomid all bets are off on my cycle length, so the calendar doesn't count for much.  I decided to test this morning, just in case.  Of course it was negative.  I knew that before I took the thing.

::sigh::  I'm banning all HPT's from our house from now on.

More Signs

Tonight, I caught the tail-end of an information session for a foster/adoption agency.  There were five women there and I learned that three of us are from the same tiny town.  The lady giving the meeting said that it will probably be possible to get a MAPPS class right here.  That would be fantastic, as we wouldn't have to make another trip to 'town'.  I shared this information with my husband and another friend who is interested in taking the class, and we are all excited and hopeful!