our first baby gift!

Peggi works with 3 of the coolest ladies in the world--the Customer Service Team at Sabic Innovative Plastics Specialty Film and Sheet in Pittsfield, MA.  As the Lexan Sheet Specialist at Piedmont Plastics, my job is to be a liason between the two companies, so let's just say I talk with these women more than most family members!  They too have been following along on our adoption journey because they are like family.  Ironically, one of the women's husband graduated from University of Maine Orono and her daughter is hoping to attend there next fall so they have been visiting recently. On her most recent trip for Homecoming weekend, she picked up this adorable UMaine Bear and baby socks for our soon-to-be baby!!  I LOVE IT!!! 

Another Step Closer

Today we had our Home Study Home Visit where our Social Worker, Kim, comes to the house to make sure everything is "safe" to have a baby. And a good way to get the house cleaner than normal and those little things fixed that have been on "the list" for a while.  All smoke detectors working, fire extinguisher filled, etc.

She also emphasized again that we are under contract to not tell anyone when we are placed with a baby for 7 days.  This is the "legal risk" period of when the birthmother may change her mind.  It is also a chance for the baby to react and get comfortable with us as we will be strangers to him/her since he/she didn't hear our voices, etc during pregnancy.  It is going to be hard for me not to shout it to the world---but it is best for everyone and agency policy....so don't be offended when we delay in telling you!!! 

I think we passed the Home Study---next is to complete our Profile Book and Dear Birthmother Letter...meet with the Director of the agency and then WAIT for the phone to ring!!!!!!!!

Now all we need is a baby!

After a day or 2 of deliberation, we came to the conclusion that we DID have all of the necessary parts!  See, we bought this crib on Craigslist, came home and had no idea how to put it together! 2 people with no children and don't know how to put together a crib! They had the extra parts to convert to a toddler bed attached, and we were stumped!  Alas, finally, we figured it out!   Paddington and Raggedy Ann were quite happy too!

My Mom made us all (me, Mindy, JoAnn) Paddington Bears and Raggedy Ann dolls when we were kids. I've been carrying mine around for YEARS waiting to let my child play with it...finally the day is coming soon for that to happen.  I also have a cradle that my dad made me when I was a kid--I still even have the scary looking doll that I played with...I think the doll may go (looks way too much like Chuckie in the movie), but the cradle will stay. If we have a boy, then the cradle becomes an arc or a big boat.  We are waiting on bedding and theme until we find out if boy or girl.

Adoption 101

Part of the requirements with our Adoption Agency is to attend 2 weekend workshops. This weekend was workshop #1 called "Adoption 101."  We went Friday night for 2 hours, then all day Saturday. What was great was meeting other families going thru the same thing we are. There were about 70 total people attending--and from all stages to just putting in pre application to just brought baby home 9 weeks ago and all stages in between.


Our agency, Christian Adoption Agency, works only in NC so it was good to meet and network with families that are relatively close by. We were able to share books we are reading, pediatrician info, what to do and not to do during the Home Study, etc.  It was nice to make some new friends! We exchanged emails and will keep up with each other's progress. 


The "workshop" part of it was a speaker coming in and addressing many of the "challenges" adoptive families may face from interaction with birth mothers, transracial adoption, how to handle identity issues with the child as they get older, attachment issues as an adoptive family, etc....it was a good weekend and we came away armed with some new and great info and a few new friends to boot!