Happy Halloween!

Wow, it is amazing to me how many of you are keeping track of our progress on this adoption journey, not to mention how excited you all are.  A few of you have even mistakenly taken a TBT post by Emery the wrong way.  He posted a picture of Isaiah, Xavier and I from when we got Xavier and I had several texts that day congratulating us on the new little one.  Took me by surprise:)  Anyway, no we do not have a new baby.  To clarify, our home study is not complete yet, therefore we are not even on the list to get a baby yet. That is the purpose of this post.......

We are almost there, people....almost have our name on the list.  We have one more step in the home study process left.  THE VISIT.... dum dum dum.  It's not really that bad, actually.  Someone will come out to our house and chat with us about our lives, probably even talk to the kids about what awesome parents we are.....now I have to worry about what they will say:-)!  KIDDING!  We are on the schedule for that visit.  A very nice lady will come out next Wednesday evening.  After that, our home study, should be complete and approved!  Then the real wait begins.....

Last night we filled out an adoption application.  This form is to officially request to be on the waiting list.  This is where we also choose gender, race, whether we would accept any drug exposure, or if we are willing to accept any kind of health issues etc.  It is very specific and there is a lot of research that needs to be done to be fully able to answer the questions.  Luckily, we have been through this in the past and we filled it out pretty similar to how we have in the past.  With one minor difference........the box next to female was checked!  As you already know, this time we are requesting a girl. 

I guess that is all for now.  Visit from social worker Wednesday and get our application into the agency....probably 2 agencies.  Those are the next steps.  And just to clarify and avoid any future misunderstandings, we will be very specific in our posts.  That is my goal with this blog, a step by step account of this journey.  I would never skip to ....here's the baby.  There will be many phases between now and then.

In honor of Halloween and TBT.....

Pictures, pictures and more pictures

So as I stated in my last post, I have been busy making our profile.  The profile is a small scrapbook of your family.  It is what the agencies show to birth mothers, so they can make a decision as to who they want to place their child with.  I can not even begin to imagine what it must be like to make a decision like that.  The courage it takes, is more than I have, that's for sure.  It's easy for us.  A birth mother chooses our family, we gain yet another blessing and get to pour our love on them.  The birth mother, however, places a child in our arms and goes home. They make this decision looking at pictures of families and possibly speaking with them on the phone a few times.  Can any of you imagine doing that? I am humbled by these women who make the ultimate sacrifice for their child......and for our family.  If it were not for women who make the decision to place their child for adoption, our home would be childless.  I am forever grateful for the 2 women God has put in our lives to help us build our family. 

This post sort of took a turn of sorts.  Started with me mentioning making our profile......  Our profile is complete.  I sat down at my scrap booking table a few days ago to begin.  I got as far as cutting all my paper into the correct size.  I then got distracted and went online to look at other families profiles.  It was then I realized, I needed to be doing this digitally.  Funny right? I was making it by hand and then went to look at others online.  Should have realized earlier I could do it online!  Then I began searching programs to help me make it.  This turned into hours of research on how to do it digitally.  I fell asleep at my computer working on it. 

The next day, after finding a program, I sat down, yet again, to make our scrapbook.  Hours later I completed a draft.  I made 2 different books.  The first one was practice.  I made the whole book, then went to the print options and realized I could only print in one size, and of course, this size was too big.  So, back to the drawing board to find a template that would print smaller.

After completing the draft, Emery checked it and we made a few corrections.  We now have a finished product.  I am going to share some of it with you.  This is not the whole book, but it is a majority of it. There will be a few more pages inserted within this version.  Maybe after I get the whole thing scanned as a PDF file, I will attach it to a post.  For now this is all you get:) Click the link below to have a sneak peak!

Skolfield Family Profile

And the anxiety begins...

I am sitting in the car line at Isaiah's school, so this will be a short post. I said I was going to make you all ride the ride with me right? Well then it's only fair that I share my feelings right now. I sent the paperwork one week ago. All our references have given their recommendations. So now we sit and wait. Wait for the next steps. How Lon you ask? If I knew I wouldn't feel anxious. 😉 this is where things get rough for me. I like being in control, and I am not. Ultimately God is in control of this situation. I have done all I am supposed to do. The agency will let us know when there is a next step. And it's only been a week since I put it in the mail......I have serious problems getting anxious to hear from them already! Ha!

So to help ease my mind and feel like I am taking steps in the right direction, I will start to work on our profile. I need to pick out pictures and make a small scrapbook, which is shown to birthmoms (when we are at that stage!). So that's what I will do....I will have it done so when they tell us they need them, I will be ahead of the game. 

That is all for now....y'all will really get to know how crazy I am through all this.

At least I was distracted a few days with a mini-vacation. Here we are on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.