Adoption T-shirt fundraiser!!!

Hey Everyone, 

We are selling t-shirts for the adoption!!! We decided to have a little fun, and show our love for adoption with one of the most well known adopted men of all time. SUPERMAN!!! If you think about it...a lot of famous super heroes were adopted...Batman... Spider-man...I am sure there are some others, but you get the idea.

Who knows... God may send a little super hero our way! ;)  

Everyone needs a new t-shirt, and this new t-shirt will be for a great cause!  

The cost is $15 per shirt.

The cut off date for orders will be December 1st, 2012.

Please let us know your name, shipping address, and desired size. 

Just send orders to the e-mail contact, or leave information on the comment board.

Payments can be made through our pay pal account or you can just mail us a check. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks again!

front

back

Home Study #4 Finished!!!

We are proud to announce that we completed our last home study interview last Friday morning. The overall experience of the home studies was great. The last home study was pretty much the same experience as the previous interviews. The questions were mainly based on how we would raise our children, and the type of family we grew up in. We also had to write an autobiography of our lives. Naturally, Joshlyn wrote hers about a week in advance, and I waited until Thursday night. Procrastination at its best! Ha!

So whats next?
In the meantime we are at a bit of a stand still...In order to complete the home study we are now waiting for our background checks to clear. While we are waiting for that to be completed Joshlyn and I will be continuing to research grant and adoption agency information.

We will be sure to keep everyone updated on any new news that arises. Thanks again for you support!

Homestudy Interview #3

Things are moving along pretty well. This Monday we had our third homestudy interview. For this interview David and I were split up. April (our social worker) interviewed David first and then interviewed me. The questions this time were geared towards how David and I were raised. We were asked about all of our immediate family members, their ages, about their personality traits, how close we are to them, characteristics we have in common with our parents, ways in which we are different. We talked about how we were disciplined, who disciplined us, what type of kids and teenagers we were, our best and worst memories from growing up.  It was interesting trying to explain huge chunks of my life in a couple of sentences. Jumping from - "tell me what you were like as a child" immediately to "who are you now, who is Joshlyn today" can kind of quickly put your life in perspective.

I'm so thankful that God allows for these moments in my life. Moments that make you step back and evaluate how far you have come and where you want to go. What God has made glaringly obvious thus far in my life is that even the best laid plans aren't always HIS plans. I know if everything in my life was stripped away today that I would still glorify His name and I would thank Him for His saving grace. I am not in control of my life and hallelujah for that; what a mess I would make of it. God has continually stripped down walls that I built up that I thought I could control and many that I thought made me better than those around me. This process is terrifying at times, but then you have to step back and put things in perspective. God gently reminds me of all those times I earnestly prayed that He would help me become a more patient person, a more humble person, that I earnestly wanted Him to have complete control in my life. I feel like He says "here it is". Are you going to turn to Me? Are you going to see this as an opportunity to grow? Or will you see this as an opportunity to hide and become bitter? If life has brought you to an unexpected place, and you're struggling to reconcile with the fact that life doesn't always go as we plan - I pray you will turn to Him too. I pray that you will not become bitter. I pray that you choose to grow. I pray that you search to find peace within your circumstances, whatever they may be. I can say from experience it isn't easy but it's worth it. There is great joy to be found on the other side of your suffering and pain.

This process has brought David and I to place in our marriage and our spiritual lives that we may have never experienced. I think we are both grateful for that. Granted we still have a ways to go! One step at a time . . .

Next step,
Fourth (AND FINAL!) Interview scheduled for
Friday, October 19th at 10:00 am

Then . . .
We will wait for our background checks to come back and April to finish the homestudy.

As always we are so appreciative of your love, encouragement and support!

Homestudy Interview #2 (out of 4)

I'm so sorry I'm just now getting this posted. The time has really flown by this week.

Our week started off with our second homestudy interview (of 4 total). April, our social worker, came over to the house at 10:00 am Monday morning. We were much more relaxed going into this interview, seeing as though we had already met April and knew more of what to expect. This interview the main topic of discussion was our relationship. We talked about how David and I first met, what our dating life was like, how long we dated before we were married, what our marriage has been like, how we resolve conflict, our current and previous jobs, etc. For the most part I think it was pretty easy for her. As most people are, she was surprised that we were high school sweethearts that actually "made it". I guess in the grand scheme of things it is rare to meet the man of your dreams (or boy as it was) in the eigth grade. I consider it truly a blessing that I was able to know and be a part of my husband's life at such a young age. Sorry, I'm getting a bit side-tracked . . .  anyways, April stayed about an hour and a half. Again things went wonderfully! We are so pleased (and relieved). We ended the interview by planning the dates/times for the final two interviews.

Interview #3 (David and I will be interviewed separately for this one!)
Monday, October 8 at 10:00am

Interview #4 (We will talk about parenting)
Friday, October 19 at 10:00am

Thank you all for your words of encouragement, thoughts, prayers and support - it means so much to us!I hope everyone has a fantastic rest of the week. David and I will be working on finishing up the paperwork side of the homestudy process and looking forward to our next interview. We will keep you posted!

I thought this verse was so neat, I came across it this morning . . .
"But as for me, God's presence is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge, so I can tell about all You do."  - Psalm 73:28

First Homestudy Interview

To those who have been thinking about us and praying for us these last couple of days please know that we are so thankful and that we truly felt the support.

For those of you who didn't know (sorry I didn't do an extra post it was a very busy weekend) our home study was rescheduled from Friday, September 21st at 10:30 am to TODAY - Monday, September 24th at 10:00 am (day 63). I have explained in detail more about how our homestudy process will unfold. This was the first interview of four total that will take place.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience! Praise the Lord!

This morning David and I woke up and frantically ran around the house doing last minute things such as putting out some Fall decor that we had stored in the attic, sweeping over the floors again, making sure the bathrooms looked polished, dusting the blinds in our bedroom to name a few. By the time 10:00 rolled around we were both on the couch no doubt thinking about all the things we forgot to do or corners we hoped she wouldn't want to look in. However, at this point although our minds were racing we were sipping coffee on the couch watching The Price is Right. David looked at me and asked "are we ready?". I shrugged and nodded with apprehension.

April pulled in the drive-way right on time. We both took a big breath filled with anxiety while Maggie (the Chihuahua mix) barked incessantly to warn us of her arrival. Honestly the first things I noticed about April were that she seemed very friendly and she was wearing black capri pants. The pants might be an odd thing to notice, but we have two blond dogs and I immediately thought oh no any dog hair in our house is going to flock and stick to her. Yikes!

We all sat down. I offered for everyone to sit at our dining table, but April said "oh no no I'm not that formal". Whew. That sounded good. So we all sat down on the couches together. Maggie immediately jumped in her lap and made herself at home. We emphatically apologized. But, you could tell that April was a dog person. She loved Maggie and told us that she had a Golden Retriever and a cat and grew up around animals. Wow, that was so nice to hear. She then began telling us more about her story . . . she has two adopted children and they are both teenagers. So cool.

Conversation continued effortlessly for two hours. She asked a few "get to know you" questions and explained what we need to expect in the upcoming meetings. She walked around the house and complimented us on how nice it looked. We showed her the future nursery. The only thing we were missing was a fire extinguisher. So we will be sure to have one when she comes next time. Speaking of that  . . .

Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday - October 1st, day 70 (since we posted our first blog post).

We are so thankful that God paired us with April. We are looking forward to meeting with her again! Thank you again for all of your words of encouragement they mean so much to us.

On the paperwork side of things:
We have had our physicals.
We have collected copies of all paperwork needed.

We still need to be fingerprinted and submit for background checks. We are going to try and do that this week! Hope everyone has a wonderful week.

Day 51

Today is the 51st day since the day we published our first blog post (July 24th). We feel like we have already accomplished quite a bit, although we are not naive to the fact that we have a long way to go!

We just found out yesterday that DAY 60 will be a BIG DAY for us! Our social worker called yesterday to set up a time for our first home study interview. This interview, as I explained more in detail in the previous post, will be one of four that will take place through the home study process.

Please be in prayer for us this week and next week as we prepare not only our house for the home study but also our hearts and minds. We know that it will be fine, that God is in control, and we are not so much scared, but very very anxious.

Day 60 - will be Friday, September 21 - the meeting time will be 10:30 am.

Remember as you continue through the week that what you focus on increases. . .  I will choose to focus on the good not the bad, the happy not the sad, the things I have instead of what I lack, my blessings not my struggles. God works all things together for good - I think it will be hard for us to recognize that if we are only focusing on the bad. Don't miss out!

Bring on the Paperwork Pile

Some updates  . . .  

We have finished answering all the family profile questions for Christian Adoption Consultants and emailed them. These 30 questions, over 12 pages of size 11 font typed, will be included in our family profile that birth mother's will see. It is personal information about who we are, how we were raised, what we enjoy doing, our plans for the future, etc. In essence a way for the birth mother to "get-to-know us". We are working on finishing compiling and labeling over 120 pictures for our family profile as well. 

Also, we have already heard back from Lifeline! They called to let us know that they received our application fee ($250), that all the initial paperwork looks great and we should be hearing from the local social worker in our area this upcoming week! So exciting! They also emailed us an extensive packet of information, questions and forms to be filled out. 

We knew this would be coming, but seeing it all in a 50 page packet to be printed out was still a little overwhelming. To give you a better idea, on the agenda for this week is the following:

1. go online to fill out paperwork to begin a background check on David and I (this can take up to 3 months to finish processing)

2. contact the police department about getting our fingerprints taken

3. going by the vet to obtain vaccination histories on all of our pets

4. schedule appointments with our doctor's for physical exams 

5. signing a couple of forms

6. working on some autobiographical information for the social worker

7. having copies compiled of 

          a. most recent tax return information (federal and state)

          b. most recent pay stubs

          c. medical/dental insurance cards

          d. driver's licenses

          e. each of our birth certificates

          f. current marriage license

Whew. One thing at a time. 

That is the paperwork side. The other side of the process is the actual in-home visits by the social worker. I've learned that different agencies may have slightly different processes, ours will proceed as follows:

1. The first interview is a home visit in which the social worker will address each of the qualifications for adoption.

2. The second and third interviews are individual interviews and are based on our autobiographies we provide. 

3. The third interview will focus on parenting philosophies and plans. Issues such as experience and exposure to children, the applicants' parenting received when they were children, values and discipline will be explored.

4. The fourth interview will focus on adoption education. We will discuss how to educate a child on his or her adoptive status, how to educate others, proper words and timing, books on adoption, inter-racial adoptions, contact with birth parents, background information on any prospective adopted child, and many other issues common to adoption. 

The overview is that we will have 4 separate in-home visits. We will not have the exact dates for these until we have spoken with the social worker. 

That is all the information we have for now! We are excited and I would be lying if I I didn't also add nervous! 

I thought I might share a little "perspective" from a wonderful book I'm reading (The Noticer by Andy Andrews). 

- Direct Excerpt from Chapter 1- 

Why does everyone think that when people say that 'God will put a person after His own heart where He wants him to be' . . .  that it means God will put them on a mountaintop or in a big house or at the front of the line?

"Think with me here . . . everybody wants to be on the mountaintop, but if you'll remember, mountaintops are rocky and cold. There is no growth on the top of a mountain. Sure, the view is great, but what's a view for? A view just gives us a glimpse of our next destination-our next target. But to hit that target, we must come off the mountain, go through the valley, and begin to climb the next slope. It is in the valley that we slog through the lush grass and rich soil, learning and becoming what enables us to summit life's next peak.

So here is to slogging through this week . . . looking forward to what good stuff I might be able to soak up!  What about you?