We officially signed with Adoption Network Law Center on May 16th. This is the adoption agency we used 5 years ago when we adopted Avery. Once our payment was processed on Monday the 19th, we had another round of work ahead of us. Our media consultant got in touch and let us know all that they would need to build our online profile - our birthmother letter, 5 separate paragraphs about each other, us as a couple, our home, and family and friends, another questionnaire of questions frequently asked by birthmothers (some of those were really hard, thought provoking questions) and 170 pictures! Who has 170 pictures of themselves? Oh yeah, and they all have to be horizontal, no selfies, some formal, some with Avery, some of us as a couple, some of us as individuals, some action shots, etc. Probably the most challenging photo qualification for us was no sunglasses. We wear our sunglasses outside all the time! We know these photos will give prospective birthmothers a little insight into our everyday lives so this was definitely a labor of love. We finished everything on Memorial Day, compressed it into a zip file and uploaded it to their dropbox - ready and waiting for them Tuesday morning.
Checking out some historic sites in Roswell.
We know they've received our materials and are now working on building our online profiles. I've been stalking their website to see when everything will be up but so far our little square says, "Our profile will be ready soon!" So, now we wait!
Hanging out at Stone Mountain - one of our favorite places.
Of course we hope our wait won't be long but we're prepared that the journey may take awhile. We know that when the timing is right, we'll get the baby that is meant for us. In the meantime, we know that at any time we could get a call telling us our baby has been born or is about to be born and we need to get to the hospital. So we have gotten together a few basics - a diaper bag, some gender neutral onesies, sleepers, receiving blankets, and bottles. I washed everything and packed the diaper bag and put it in a laundry basket in the guest room closet so it's ready to go but we also don't have to see it everyday.
Kudos to Avery for her fab photography skills! :-)
Several have asked how they can help us right now and your kind thoughts and prayers mean the most to us. When the time comes that we are matched with a birthmother we will have lawyer and travel expenses. If the baby is born outside of the state of Georgia, we will have to stay in a hotel in the state the baby is born in until ICPC (Interstate Compact) clears - usually about 2 weeks. We have set up a paypal account and if you are moved to contribute to our adoption fund we appreciate your generosity in helping us grow our family. The paypal button for our adoption fund is located on the right hand side of our blog.
Our happy family, just waiting on our baby!
Thank you again for reading our blog and following along on our adoption journey.
