Guest...

I read lots of blogs. In fact I would say reading blogs is my favorite past time. I love coming across new blogs and I can spend hours reading old posts. I came across John Piper's wife's blog today. OOOH Boy! I am excited to have stumbled across this. You can check it out Here. I'm sure I could get lost in her blog, but I already came across another blog and I thought it was really worth sharing. She apologizes for people that look like me that treated people that look like my son badly because of skin color. Very beautifully written in my opinion. And I'm sorry too.
"Dear Class,
We watched a documentary a few days ago about the 1921 Tulsa Race Riots. Just miles away, an area Booker T. Washington called “Black Wall Street” was destroyed overnight.
People who looked like me shot people who looked like you. People who looked like me burned the homes and stole the property of people who looked like you. People who look like me must look a lot like the enemy to you.
I’m so sorry.
I feel no connection to whites who looted and killed during the riot. I wish my skin were a different color so you wouldn’t see a connection either.
We’re learning together about the painful history of race relations in this country, and an ugly pattern has emerged: people whose skin looks like mine mistreating people whose skin looks like yours.
I try to show you the source of racial tension is not whites and blacks coexisting. I point out racism globally because I want you to see beyond the black-white struggle in America and recognize the problem of racism begins in the human heart.
We studied Rwanda’s genocide so you’d know it is possible for humans to slaughter humans whose skin is the same as their own. When we let hate take hold in our hearts, no one is safe. You need to understand that.
I point out to you the good and bad men and women on both sides. I show you civil rights champions of different races. Not every white accepted slavery. Not every black understood love of neighbor. I want the way you choose your heroes to go deeper than skin color.
Nate and I are adopting children from Africa, first generation African-Americans. I talk about them in class; you laugh at the thought of your white teacher braiding black hair. I look like the enemy to you. You look like my children.
I cried in the back of the class during the documentary. You stiffened, uncomfortable with our history. Rightly so. This is not comfortable. It will not be comfortable for my children.
What saddened me most was how familiar it felt. “It’s still like that where we live,” you said.
You know two responses: fight or flight. I want to teach you a third: faith. Faith in a God whose multi-racial family will one day live united, glorying in Jesus whose greatness swallows our distinctions in collective worship."

I found this on Noel's page. I am not sure where it came from on the other girls blog, but here it is.
http://noelpiper.com/category/adoption/page/2/

Hiccup!

We had a small hiccup this week with our bloodwork/tests. This added some extra steps to get our paperwork ready,but I definitely don’t think it will cause any problems in the long run. We are going on Thursday afternoon to get our physical to hopefully finally finish the medical paperwork. I knew we should have done this part earlier, but for some reason it kept getting pushed back. Now this is all we have left to do! I am looking at early next week to mail off our Home Study packet! Yahh!!!
Here is a sweet picture from Venezuela. Now just imagine the baby a little darker and dressed in blue……

Blog-versary

115 posts later...Today marks one year that I have been updating this little blog. When I started this blog I wanted to because I wanted to be crafty and I wanted to be an adoptive parent. I still not very crafty, but I am an adoptive parent! Yahhh!! Here are the top five of my most read posts, incase you missed them throughout the year...
147 Million
Baby Thompson
It. Is. Official!!!
All About Arin...
Are you ready for this??

I would probably say Baby Thompson would be my favorite blog post :)




Here is to another year!! Can't wait to see what God has in store for us this year!

Quick Update

Blood Work-- CHECK!
TB Test-- CHECK!
Financial Statement- CHECK!
Employment Letters- Sent off to higher people to fill out- CHECK!
Physical Appointment- Soon this week?- Probably!!!

Blood Work ^

Ryan acting "hipster" and our final paper *we* have to fill out for our Home Study!!

iPhone iLove

 

I seriously love my iPhone. I can't imagine any other phone. I love it mainly for its picture taking and internet using capabilities. I recently found out that I can EASILY import all of my pictures from my phone onto my computer. So I am going to post all of my favorites since Easter.

Happy Easter 2011!

 

Day at the River w/ The Cellar

Happy Birthday baby Cannon!

.Congrats Colby and Missy Jones.

Jacks Graduation

Dance Party. Roll Tide. Tuscaloosa.

Summer Fun! Spending time with Mawmaw and Emma!

Second trip to AL!

Nursing Home BINGO w/The Cellar!

Double Wedding Day
Congrats Erik and Katelyn Morgan, and Josh and Allison Waite!

Cody and Kristin Deitz Wedding!

Jack and Jovie- a day at the vet.

 

That wraps up April to August!

Many more to come…

Defining Paper Pregnant or the Paper Chase

When I first started stalking reading adoption blogs I quickly learned that to adopt a baby  you had to compile something called the Dossier. I have seen lots of post about how it is hard to get together all the paper work. I have also even seen pictures of families turning in their dossier. I was THRILLED to get to start our dossier! Until I got the email with all the guidelines. There was probably at least a weekend full of dread at the pages, and pages, and pages, of pages explaining what to get, how to get it, and what to do after you get it. I was overwhelmed, but eventually I sat down actually read all the guidelines and started my To Do list. THENNN I got the Home Study paper work. Now this is something I hadn't really heard much about. I knew I had to have one, but I thought that was just the interviews. I didn't know the Home Study paperwork is actually the bulk of the dossier! So once again I got overwhelmed, then I got organized and NOW we are really close to having our Home Study paper work ready to submit!! We will submit this packet of paper work then we will have four interviews. Here are the documents we have to have to turn in our Home Study:

Home Study Application- about 30 pages
Home Study Questionnaires- 5 pages of single spaced questions, we had to separately fill out.
Criminal Background Check
Photo copies of our DL and SS cards
Guardianship Form
Residential History Form
Medical Exam Forms
Home Ownership Proof
Birth Certificate Copies- Less than 5 years old
Marriage License Copies- Less than 5 years old
Health Insurance Coverage Proof
Pet Vaccination Proof
1040 Tax Form
Financial Statement
Floor plan showing all dimensions and purposes of all rooms
Employment Verification Letters- each parent has to submit one
Reading Agreement- We each have to read a total of 7 books.
Three reference forms.

All that doesn't SEEM to be a whole lot, I know. However, all of those forms have lots of questions to be answered that are hard to track down. We had a hard time finding out specific details of some of those forms and that is what takes awhile. Also, Ryan is super busy with work, the cellar, and seminary, so I have been collecting all these documents. If you know us well, you probably know that Ryan takes care of ALL our important stuff. So, it has been a little hard for me to track down copies and proof and that kind of stuff!
We also have a tons of forms that just had to be signed and I didn't list. Now some of those forms also have to be notarized. Again, not a big deal, right? Well anyone who notarizes our forms have to have a license that doesn't expire until 2014.  Thankfully everyone I have talked to or made an appointment with have been in this 2014 window, so yahhh!! We actually haven't had any snags yet! God is really making this pretty smooth for us and I am soooo grateful!!

All we have left for our home study is:
Employment Verification Forms- We started working on those.
Financial Statement- Hopefully we will finish this today!
Our Medical Exam- Should be this week.

And that is iiiiiiiiiiiit!!! Woohoooooo!!!!! My goal is for the end of this week to have all of those underway!

So that is the Home Study paperwork...

Once we send all this in, then we will have 4 interviews and keep working on our Dossier paperwork...That is a post for another day!!!

Baby Names

*pic from here

Yahh! It is a post like this that makes me sooo excited!  I have been thinking and talking baby names since I was a little girl! I have gone through TONS of baby names that I just knew my baby would have. Let's take a trip down memory lane....

Girls
Summer
Sailor
Savannah
Samantha and Emily (only use either of those names IF they were twins)
Stacey
Valerie
Austin

Boys
Matthew
Tyson
Cannon
Van (I was obsessed with Reba!, Ryan prayed this one wouldn't stick!)

Now for some reason or another, none of those names are currently made the cut for our sweet baby boy.  We have decided on our baby's name, but I feel like if I announce it via blog it will become monogram official. I am not quite ready for that permanent commitment just yet. I honestly don't forsee us changing his name though so...here is a hint....it is a biblical name....and it starts with an I.

Since Ryan and I are pretty sure this is our baby's name, I have been obsessing with sibling names! We have a whole list of new names for our future babies that I am not quite ready to share. But, since our baby's name is new to the mix, I am having to rethink about what names go good with his name! It is fun and exciting and I found the perfect sister name. However, I am pretty sure Ryan has already crossed off this name a time or two though...Maybe it will grow on him! It goes really good with baby I's name!

Man how about a post full of suspense! Haha. If you really want to know our baby's probably name then just message me! It isn't really a secret to my friends!

 I plan to do a post soon explaining the "paper chase"! Stay tuned....