Our Profile - Draft 1

Here is a rough draft of our profile so far. This is what the birthmothers will look at to get an idea of who we are.

You should be able to click on each to make them bigger so you can read the text. Enjoy!

Pg.1 - Dear Birthmother Letter

Pg. 2 - about Jeff & I, written by the other person

Pg. 3 - Pics & lists of some of the stuff we like to do

pg. 4 - Quirky little facts about us as a couple

pg. 5 - Very brief pics of our families

Pg. 6 - Getting ready for baby & thoughts on parenthood

Home Study Part II & Christmas Card Snafu

This past Tuesday evening we had the second part (of three parts) of our home study. For this one Jeff and I were each interviewed separately. For the previous interview we had turned in a biography that we had each written about ourselves and a quiz we each filled out. So the interview mainly consisted of going over both of these. Since we had each taken the same quiz, our answers had been compared. For the most part our answers were pretty in sync.
The 3rd and final part of our home study will be at our house. We decided to wait until the first week in January to do this, the holidays are gettin' a little hectic so it would be nice to wait until after all the stuff to finish up.
Once that 3rd part is done, we wait for them to write it all up. Then we need to turn in our profile, which I am "in process" of finishing up. We've finished our physicals except I still needed to get my TB test done. Once all of that is in, then we wait to get matched!

Pretty soon after Thanksgiving I got all of our Christmas cards put together and addressed. It was a picture my mom took of Jeff and I painting the baby's room, and at the bottom was something like "Happy Holidays From the Lunsfords" with this blog address. Another way of announcing our adoption plans to our peeps!
Any-hoo, apparently Walgreen's (who I ordered our cards from) had given us more envelopes than cards, and I addressed all the envelopes. So some addressed envelopes didn't have cards. I got on line and ordered more cards, picked them up, then I started my new job and a lot of things got put on hold. This past week I asked Jeff to buy stamps and at least mail out the cards I had already finished, which he did. Then today when I went to mail out the last remaining few I realized I couldn't find the empty envelopes. Which probably means we sent out empty envelopes to 3 or so people! CRAP! Oh well, not really much I can do about it now because I have no idea which ones were empty :(

Fingerprintin' - A Simple Process Made Difficult

Last Friday I had an appointment to get my fingerprints taken as part of the background check the agency does. Any-hoo, I had registered on line, made my appointment and at the last second chose to pay for the service there instead of using a credit card on line. When I looked up the building I was supposed to go to, for some reason I had it in my head that it was over by North Star Mall, which isn't too far from our house.
The next morning I was working on more adoption stuff and lost track of time. At the last second before I left the house I decided to look one more time at where this place was at, and realized it wasn't where I originally thought. So needless to say I left the house in a big rush because the probability of me being late was VERY high.
About 5 minuted or so after I left the house I realized I forgot the checkbook and pulled the car over so I could turn around and go back home. Then, because I am a freak about being late, I thought to myself "I'm sure they take debit/credit cards, I mean, they did on line." And got back on the road headed for my appointment.
I pulled into the parking lot right at my appointment time, so technically I wasn't late, and ran in the building. Of course the first thing I see when I walk up to the door was a very large sign stating that they only take check or money order.....crap! So I walked in and asked where I could get a money order. Apparently I am not the first person to ask this question because I was immediately directed to the Shell Station down the street.
So back in the car I get and head in what I guess is the right direction. I find a Shell station and walk in to discover that the ATM is out of order, no worries I'll just pay at the counter....WRONG! Since the ATM was out of order, then the debit machine at the counter also was not working, and of course you can't buy a money order with a credit card. I did have some cash, but was about 5 or so dollars short.
They lady at the counter was apologetic and pointed me to another Shell station down the road. But of course when I get in the car again and head in the direction I THINK she pointed me to, there is no Shell station to be found. I drive around a bit and finally spot a Valero. I pull in, turn off the car and look in my rear view mirror to see a gas tanker waving at me to move my car 'cause I am totally in the way. So back in the car I get and move to a different parking space. I run in to the station, wait in line.....and....they don't do money orders. The lady behind the counter does point me to a Check Cashing place right across the highway that she believes does do money orders.
Now, in hind sight, at this point I could have used the Valero ATM to get more cash and gone back to the Shell Station to get the money order. But by this time I am all flustered and mad because now I really am late for the appointment so I don't think of this 'til later.
So back in the car I get and drive across the highway to the Check Cashing place, pull in, turn off the car, get out...and realize the place doesn't open for another 45 minutes! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! At this point I am practicing deep breathing and trying to remain calm. I look around and see another check cashing place across the street. By this time I am starting to realize that I am getting further and further away from the fingerprinting building and am starting to worry that I won't be able to find my way back.
Back in the car, drive across street, park car, get out.....yeah this place is open!! I walk in and ask if they do money orders, which of course they don't, but the lovely lady behind the counter points me to the Valero station across the street (different from the other Valero I went to earlier), and she thinks they do money orders there.
Back in car, drive across, park, out....store open, no line of people, ATM seems to be working...I ask "Do you do money orders", reply "yes", "Can I use my debit card", "No", "Is your ATM working", "yes"....HOLY CRAP!!!!! Yippie!!! Of course by this time I am so incredibly flustered and rattled it takes me 3 tries to be able to press the correct buttons and get my PIN correct. It doesn't help that there is a women waiting in line behind me tapping her foot and rolling her eyes at my inability to work a simple ATM machine. (That last part could possibly have been my imagination and sensitivity to the situation, I'm sure she wasn't perturbed at me at all).
Cash in hand, I purchase the money order, get back in the car, and orient myself to where I am. And head back to the fingerprinting place.
I wait my turn, apparently the fingerprinting people are not as anal about people being late as I am, and the deed gets done. The actual fingerprinting part took a whole 5 minutes!
Needless to say, when I got home I immediately got Jeff's paperwork in order, got a check out, and told him several times "DON'T FORGET THE CHECK!!". His appointment wasn't until this morning. After telling him of my frustrating morning he did thank me for being the scout. And this morning he did not forget the check ;)

Home Study and Keeping the "Overwhlemed" At Bay

Today we started our homestudy! Except for a slight miscommunication as to where we were meeting, I think it went well. What they say about what happens when you assume is true. Jeff and I both had the day off today so we spent the morning putting up pictures (which needed to be done since we've been in our house 6 months now!), cleaning and picking things up in general. So the meeting wasn't at our house, but at least we got all that stuff done!
As for the infamous Babies R Us registering experience. Looks like I am not the only one who feels completely overwhelmed by all that STUFF! Jeff suggested we concentrate on getting all the adoption paperwork completed before tackling what stuff we'll need, which I thought was an excellent idea. So far I feel I have been successful with not being completely overwhelemd to the point of loosing sleep (yeah yoga!).
When we are ready to look at what baby stuff we'll need, this link is to a website dedicated to a book called "Baby Bargins". Recommends what stuff you actually need and rates the best brands. Whoo-hoo! This book might be the answer to my prayers :)

Bottles, Bottles Everywhere

Went to Babies R Us with my mom today and registered. HOLY CRAP, there is a lot of stuff for babies. As with pretty much everything these days, I am trying not to get to overwhelmed. At one point mom suggested I should have brought someone with me that had a baby recently. She couldn't believe the amount of stuff you can buy now compared to when I was born. I told her it was much more fun to go with her and both be lost :)



I must say, the thing that kinda freaked me out the most was the baby bottle aisle. After looking around for 10 minutes or so I had to walk to a different aisle. My outlook throughout was to keep everything simple, but for some reason I couldn't figure out what that meant for a bottle.



So any sueggestions would be greatly appreciated!







If you wanna take a look at the few things I actually had the courage to put on our registry click here.

One of the reasons for registering is that Jeff and I got our first present for the little one! Too cute, take a look :) A winnie the pooh moble.

Painting the Nursery

Prepping the room

Wow! That's green, but we love it :)

Making sure the crib has all the vital parts

Painting done & crib sort of put together.

This coming Sunday mom and I are headed to Babies-R-Us to have some fun!!

Officially Official

Yesterday we went to the agency an turned in some important paper work, set up to start our home study, and paid our money. I guess that makes this all official!

Jeff and I also actually worked on the text part of our profile (the advertisement I wrote about in an earlier post). We discussed how much we wanted to write, what we wanted to write and who was going to write what, etc. I feel like we are making some progress on that part of what we need to complete.

Also last night we had a couple of couples over to the house. One couple we met at orientation last weekend, and the other was a couple who had adopted using Abrazo. I thought it was an educational evening overall; learned more about the adoption process, the agency we are working with, and the couples we had over.

The first part of our home study is scheduled for the Monday after Thanksgiving! Should be interesting!

More Pics & A Big ThAnKs!

At Irenie's wedding last year

Jeff looking very official at work

The House

Mom emailed me this pic last night. It's a few years old, but I think its cute. So it is being added to the growing pile of pics.

We really appreciate all of the well wishes & sweet comments we've gotten from everyone! Thank you for all of your support.

Now that the profile is underway, the other BIG thing on a very long list of things, is getting the homestudy process begun. Tomorrow I am headed to the agency to drop off more paperwork and to find out what needs to be done to get that part going!

Other things that are up and coming that will need to be done at some point: (not close to being everything, just the stuff I could remember off the top of my head)

• physicals for both of us
• TB test for me (Jeff already has that for work)
• employer references
• background check and fingerprinting

Of course there is also the fun stuff like:

• Painting & decorating the baby's room
• Registering for stuff
• Picking names - (we'll take suggestions right now, but reserve the right to change our minds later)
• Looking into re-vamping the crib my mom has in her attic

Possible Pics For Our Profile

Yoga & gardening

Jeff posing with new kayak equipment

Me Running

Jeff & I in Mexico

Advertising

As with most things, you concentrate on the entire process and all the stuff you have to get done can seem overwhelming. So, right now I am concentrating on getting a handful of things done in the next few weeks. Once those are done I'll look at the next stuff. I just have to keep reminding myself that this is a marathon and not a sprint :)

One of the things we are working on right now is our profile. Basically a little pamphlet we put together showing and telling who we are as a couple. Lots of pictures and little notes to hopefully create an accurate feeling of "us".

This Friday we are getting together with a couple we met at our orientation weekend who also live in San Antonio. Wine and food are going to be involved, we'll see how much we actually get done. But it will be fun!

I'll post some of the pictures we already know we are going to use.

Naming of the Blog

Great and awesome last 2 days with the adoption agency we have decided to use. Sooooo much information I'm not really sure where to start or what to post. One of the many things that stick out in my mind is the suggestion that we actually start putting together and decorating a nursery. Hence the name. Jeff is pretty set on using the Winnie the Pooh theme, so this afternoon we went to Barnes and Nobles for a Pooh book and took it with us to Home Depot to pick out paint colors. So far we've picked a color called "celery bunch". Light, minty green....I know everyone is really surprised that we picked a color in the green palette ;)