The Waiting Game...

It's official....all of our paperwork has been sent (as of today) to our agency in Texas. We sent it via Express Mail so the package should arrive at our agency by noon tomorrow! So now, my friends...it's a waiting game...

Homestudy Status...

It's official...it's done! Our homestudy is officially done. Our caseworker emailed us this evening to let us know that she has completed her portion and her supervisor has also approved our homestudy. The agency director will be back in on Monday and she will finalize the homestudy.

We knew this day would be coming...but it still seems a little surreal. Sooooo cool. We are VERY excited!

Almost 'Paper Pregnant'

We just finished gathering documents for our out of state agency! The two last items to be done on Monday are fingerprints and a signed medical exam form for PQ. Seriously, y'all...we are almost 'paper pregnant' and waiting for referrals! Please continue to pray for our family.

Girls vs Boys...does it matter?

As you may know, we have chosen not to choose the sex of our baby. We want God to hand select our child. We want Him to decide what little girl or little boy He wants to add to our family. It is fun to try and 'guess' what we will have though...

PQ is really hoping for a baby sister (as long as she "likes to play football" like his cousin, Beaner). I think PQ secretly wants a little sister because we are consistantly surrounded by little girls (IE: Baby Sunshine, Little Miss Sunshine, and Minnie). There are some cuties in our inner circle, that's for sure. Plus the adorable outfits for little girls are an added bonus. So adding another little girl into the mix sounds like a good time to PQ.

Papa H and I on the other hand are enjoying the future 'surprise' factor of it all. I keep wondering what little child will be coming into our family in the next few months. (If Country Mouse gets her way, we will be adding a set of twins to our family. We are open to every scenerio so this is always a possibility if God chooses this for our family.) It's all just so exciting to think about.

After taking Beaner and Chlo-bell overnight this past weekend, we got to see what having a little girl is all about. From the moment that they woke up, they were arguing over who would take a shower first. From there, the drama continued as I tried to iron Chlo-bell's outfit for the day (which had a little tie in the back of the shirt with a skirt attached to a pair of leggings). This was a first for me. It was at that moment that I realized that little girls come with lots of cute clothes that require a lot of prepping. After getting the clothes situation taken care of, we moved onto their hair. I combed out a bunch of knots in their hair and I was met with snarly smiles (no pun intended). Having to style little girls hair is definitely something that I'm not used to.

Boys on the other hand have simple clothes but they require less ironing. Boys can hop out of bed, take a shower, and then head out the door (without too much hair preparation). Boys are rough-tough-mega-machines. They are more familiar to me. Right now, I feel like I'm on a boys-only island (surrounded by Papa H, PQ, and Mooch). It's just me and the Little Weenie Girl and it often feels like we're so misunderstood.

Having a little girl will be great and having a little boy will great too! I'm up for either challenge! They each come with their own quirks and qualities, that's for sure. Either one will require some 'learning' on our end, as we venture back into parenting an infant. It's been a while since we took care of an infant so it sort of feels brand new to us.

I honestly can't wait to meet our child. I can't wait to hold them for the very first time. I can't wait to tell them all about this amazing journey that we've traveled on. I can't wait to call them our own.

Sooner than planned...

Earlier this week, we received some pretty incredible news! Our caseworkers (from both agencies) have confirmed that we can submit our inter-state application even though our homestudy has not been finalized. This is about 1 month earlier than we anticipated so we are a bit frazzled. Of course, we understand that it doesn't have to be submitted right away...but the option is ours. Once we file our application, we will be placed on the official waiting list for referrals.

We are currently in the process of completing our profile book for potential birth parents. The profile book is one of the main sources that birth parents use when selecting their adoptive family. Last night we created three profile books online...only to have the site crash each time! We lost every single book that we created. We are not discouraged though. Of course, we're a little frustrated that it's taking so long to do...but it's fine. We know that it will all work out the way that it's supposed to.

It's hard to believe that our little guy is soon going to be the 'big guy' around the house. Unbelievable, really. We are excited to see what God has planned for our family over the next several months. Please continue to pray for us...and if you could please pray specifically for the birth parents of our child, we would greatly appreciate it. They have some heavy decisions to be making in the upcoming months and we would like to lift them up in prayer.

Thank you again for all of your support.