Hurry Up and Wait...

I am so excited that we are FINALLY a "waiting family" with Bethany Christian Services for the second time.  What does it mean to be a "waiting family"?

• It means that we have finally finished the roller coaster of a ride we were on with this home study process for #2.
• It means that we were approved and accepted by Bethany Christian Services.
• It means that we are officially on the list of waiting families on Bethany's website.  You can check it out!!  This is one opportunity for birthparents to check out the waiting families.  (And of course we hope that they see ours and say, "Hey!  We like those crazy people!!")
• It means that I say extra prayers every day for a woman out there who is or will be carrying my baby and who will give me one of the greatest gifts in this world.
• It means that I will have to be patient.  Patience is not one of my strengths.
• It means that I will have some frustrating days when I lose my patience.  
• It means that I will be praying constantly for the little one who will join our family.
• It means that I will begin a very long nesting process. I was a Girl Scout....I was taught to always be prepared.
• It means that I will jump every time my phone rings and it is from the 248 area code or if it pops up as Bethany Christian Services, Dawn or Faith (our social workers).
• It means that I will drive Joel crazy as we try to discuss baby names....just so that we are prepared.
• It means that I will start a journal for this baby that I will keep for him/her.
• It means that I will answer a lot of questions about our adoption journey. The most popular, "how is the second adoption process going?"  My response is usually something like, "it's going."
• It means that someday soon, I will get one of the most amazing phone calls telling me that someone chose US!  
• It means that I will get to turn to my hubby and share the most exciting news!
• It means that I will be sick to my stomach until I meet the birthparents.  And then I will remain a bundle of nerves until that baby is in my arms.
• It means that I am preparing myself for the harsh reality of the "risk period" in which the birthparents can change their mind.
• It means that we will wait for months until Baby Stape #2 legally becomes a Stapleton.
• It means that I will be even more of an emotional wreck than normal.

But most of all.....it means that I AM GONNA BE A MOMMA AGAIN!!!  I am so excited to hurry up and wait so that I can be ready to meet the next little one that will capture my heart!  I can't wait!!  Stay tuned for more details about our journey!!

Home Study: Part One

As many of you know, we are in the process of applying for our second adoption.  We are very excited about the idea of expanding our family.  This time around has been tricky!  We have gone through a lot just to get all of the proper paperwork completed, physicals done, fingerprints done, etc.  We hadn't even gotten to the Home Study yet!  Well, today we FINALLY started the Home Study!  WHOO HOO!!  Those close to us know that we have been getting our house cleaned up and pulled together for this meeting.  I was asked a number of times by friends or family about what this process includes.  So here goes...

If you want a definition of a home study, you can check out Wikipedia.  I normally do not think that Wikipedia is a reliable source of info, but after looking at it, it is pretty accurate.  But what did it look like for the Stape fam?  Well, we filled out TONS of paperwork, had our fingerprints/background check done twice, health physicals done twice, recommendation letters sent in, financial and tax info handed over, checks written,  drug tests taken twice, more paperwork filled out, paperwork refilled out when they changed the forms, etc.  Today was the first of our interviews with our social worker, Faith.  (Interesting that her name is Faith, huh?  Gotta have a lot of faith in this process!)

Faith arrived at our house this morning.  Yes, we cleaned our house like crazy people yesterday and today.  Even put Joel's sister and her kids to work last night.  (We invited them to dinner....and then put them to work.  :) Thanks, Gyolai's for always helping us out!!  We owe you big time!!)  Our house is cleaner than it was when we first moved in! It will be nice if we can keep it this way!

Faith sat down with us to go over a bunch of questions and paperwork that we have previously filled out.  We talked about things like our community and the racial make up of it, safety, location of schools, hospitals, fire stations, police departments, size of our lot of land, size of our house, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, bedrooms, bathrooms, Gus' preschool, employment, openness to children and what we are willing to accept, adoption education, family profiles, letters to birthparents, contracts and finances.  In addition to this, Faith took a tour of our house.  She took notes about what our house was like, what we had in each room, etc.  Gus was really excited to show of his bedroom to her.  Showed her his books and the pond out the window.  She of course, oohed and ahhhed over it all for him.  When she looked at my office, we got on the topic of Thirty-One.  (She LOVES Thirty-One!  I see that as a bonus!!)  Then came the bad part....the poor lady looked in our garage and in our basement!  YIKES!!!  Both are what we consider storage units!  So much junk stored in both of those places it is no wonder she didn't get lost!  Oh well....that is life!

We have our next meeting scheduled with her for next Thursday.  Stay tuned to what the rest of this process looks like!

Pinterest

Perhaps you have heard of this thing called Pinterest.  Besides reading blogs, this is what I do after Gus goes to bed.  Some people read a good book before bed....I read blogs and pin.

If you haven't heard of pinterest, you definitely need to check it out.  It is my new crazy obsession....much to my husbands dismay!  This site is essentially a social network to share ideas on EVERYTHING!  I have currently found 2000+ ideas to "pin" on my boards.  2000+ things that I want to try or I want to remember or that I want to share with someone else because they might like it.  At the rate I am going, I am going to end up on a special edition of the tv show, "Hoarders".  They will have "Hoarders: Pinterest Edition" just for me.  I cannot get enough of the ideas that are on there.  So many great ideas out there in the world and I just want to soak them all up!!  I have actually done quite a few of these already.  There are so many other things I plan to try this summer.

If you recall, one of my other favorite things to do is read blogs.  One of my favorites is the terpblog.  I have known this blogger since high school.  She is a great Thirty-One customer of mine and just recently allowed me to be part of her first blog give away.  Who doesn't love FREE Thirty-One stuff??  Anyway, the terpblog co-hosting a Pinterest Link Up.  So if you love blogs and love Pinterest like I do, you need to check this out. Lots of great bloggers and pinners!  Lots of great ideas!!

Beautiful Adoption Story

So I logged in tonight to write a new post.  Whenever I log in, I quick scan the many blogs that I follow and check out what others have to say.  I ran across this blog tonight. And after reading her post, I looked around her blog for a minute and thought I would check out the adoption story.  I had been reading her blog for a while and never noticed the tab with their story.  I will warn you....it will make you cry.  I mean all out, snotty, hyperventilating type of crying...or maybe that is just me.  Thank goodness I am home alone right now and nobody else can see this blubbering mess!!  Just a beautiful story that I wanted to share with others.  Check it out....and their blog!  She has some good stuff!!  Check out Rage Against the Minivan.

When I remember what I was going to write about, I will come back....if I don't get sidetracked by some other really cool thing.