Thanks

I just wanted to give a special thanks for all of my helpers! Elvis you did an awesome job with the room and we are so blessed to have your family in our lives!! Thanks to Angie- love you so much and thanks for helping! Thanks to Mary for being so excited for us and dropping off treats for the workers. And Summer you do so much for us we can't thank you enough. The house looks awesome- thanks for painting our kitchen cabinets as well. And Elvis thanks for turning my husband into a carpenter just just Jesus.
Here is a picture of the kitchen.

The room before and after

Guest room before 

 We found some bears under the wall paper.

Mark, Elvis (project manager) and Angie

 Emily and my good friend Mary- stopped by to feed the workers... so sweet!

Summer working hard.

Painting the doors

Glory and Kayla playing downstairs.



After!! Love it.  

Baby nursery plans...

After talking with all my interior designers (you know who you are) we have decided on the colors of the room. The walls will be painted gray and the trim will be painted white. The furniture will be a dark wood. And the accent colors will be white and a plum purple. We are painting next weekend - Elvis, Glory, Angie and Summer are coming to help. It should be a good time... Mark and Glory will be responsible for watching TV, eating and playing with Kayla. I will post pictures next week.
We appreciate all the love and support from our friends and family!!

Not a match...

What a difference a day makes. We talked to the birth mother last Monday and because of various circumstances we decided to move on. We learned so much in 2 days. If we adopt out of state (she was from Texas) we need to hire a Texas Social Worker to meet with the birth mother and to give us information on her. We have a social worker here in IL and then we will have another one in the state the birth mother resides. And possibly an attorney in each state.....
We were very nervous to talk to the birth mother at first but we are so glad to have this experience because it will prepare us for our next contact.
God has already chosen our child... and I can't wait to meet him or her!!

We got the call!!

Sharon from Angel Adoption called me (Jessica) at work this morning saying that a birth mother saw our profile and wanted to talk to us. Her name is Karla and she is almost 4 months pregnant. I called her at 5:30 pm and we talked for about a half an hour- she a 30 year lady from Houston Texas. She is very nice and we are very excited that she wants to talk to us and we that she is considering us to raise her child.

Final meeting with our social worker!!

We had our final meeting with Stephanie our social worker. Stephanie has been very easy to talk to and helpful. A lot of people are scared of the home study process- but it has been very easy just a lot of waiting. We have our CPR class scheduled for the 10th and we will send that to Stephanie and we are still waiting for our background check to come back- that always takes the longest. Stephanie said we should be done with our study in 3 weeks. I told her I would call on November 27th to confirm:) Once our home study is completed then our profile will be released out on the Internet for potential birthmother's to find us. Is this exciting or what??

Halloween Weekend

Jess and I enjoyed my little cousin Jaron, who stayed with us over the weekend. He did something very sincere as he prayed for us during dinner time. He prayed that God would save all of his family. He prayed for God to bless me and Jessica. Then he prayed for God bring us a healthy baby...umm this is from a 9yr old.  I think God heard his prayer. Let see what happens. Then we can always tell Jaron, his prayer brought us the baby he prayed for.
Mark

Canceled Again....

Stephanie- our social worker canceled our meeting again. She wants to try and meet us this Saturday November 6th.... sigh....

We completed our training last week. We heard from a panel of Adoptive parents - they told their adoption stories and we were able to ask them questions. It will be so interesting to find out how our story will end. I'm just so excited to be a parent I just can't wait to see how this all unfolds.
Jessica

Meeting Canceled

Stephanie, our social worker, canceled our meeting. She sent me an e-mail today and wants to schedule our meeting for next week. This is not a big deal since our study will not be done until we complete our CPR class on November 10th. You are loved baby Foster.

1st Entry From Poppa Smurf

This process has been very smooth and easy so far. I know there could be still months or a even a year away. We just do not know.  But what I do know is God is in control. I have no fears, or worries because I KNOW its not in our control not matter how much we want it or think we want to do this. GOD has our best interest. He knows our desires. He knows our prayers and most of all GOD knows what is best for me and Jessica. So as we pray Gods will  for our lives and the baby to come. We will wait patiently for him to choose this baby girl or boy that will be perfect for us and our extended families. We pray now in advance and we thank God that this child will grow up to love the LORD, and serve the Lord. And that this baby will embrace JESUS as his/her Lord and savior. And we will all truly be an Eternal family in the life to come.. This is my first blog and prayer for the baby and the family to come......GOD YOU ARE IN CONTROL.
Mark

Prayer from a stranger

Mark submitted a prayer request at church a few weeks ago and we received a card in the mail from a member of our church that read "We are praying for you in regards to your adoption process and preparation for the child and parenthood. Psalm 46:1 tells us, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble." As you go through this time, we want to remind you God is sovereign and always there. You are being prayed for and You are Loved."

That is a great note of encouragement and a perfect example of God's love. We are praying for you Baby Foster. You are loved!

Joann's dream

Our dear friend Joann sent us this e-mail today about her dream - "Oh, and I forgot to tell you that I had a dream last week that you got a baby girl !  She was all in pink and her room was that one you had shown me with the tree on the wall and the pink and gray accents -- it was all very sweet in my dream !  Except she didn't have a name - darn it !"

Our Story

We have always dreamed of having children and we are currently in the adoption process. We are currently singed up with Angel Adoption in Cary IL on September 13th 2010. We chose to adopt a new born baby within the United States.

Home Study
We have started our home study- this is process that is required by law to complete before adopting a child. The Social Worker that is assigned to you interviews you 4 times and tours your home. So far we have completed 3 of the interviews and the 4th one is scheduled for this Tuesday.
We are also required to attend 10 hours of training- we have completed 8 hours and we have our last 2 hours scheduled this Thursday. The training sessions are wonderful we sit with other adoptive parents and each week they have different people on the panel. The first week they had adults and children that have been adopted and they shared their stories with us. The 2nd week we had a panel of birth mother's that gave their children up for adoption and this week we will have parents that have adopted. I love to hear this process from every perspective.
We also had to have our finger prints taken and a background check done. We both had to go to the Doctor to have all our our medical history released.
The last thing on our list to complete for the home study is the CPR certification that is scheduled for November 11th 2010.