a little bit of progress....

Today we received an email from our Adoptions Specialist telling us that she has reviewed our file and the only thing we are waiting on is the Fire Inspection. YAY for medical forms, reference forms, and DHEC forms being completed and received by the adoptions office. She informed us that she had sent the request back in November for our inspection to be scheduled but feels the delay is caused by personnel changes with the Fire Marshall's office. She is sending a second request for an appointment...keep the prayers coming!!!

As we continue this journey we will keep you updated, stay tuned for the great things God has planned for our family!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Today I said to Rob this is the year we could be parents, how exciting/crazy is that?!?! We haven't had any changes in the process since before Christmas but we figure once the holiday hustle and bustle wraps up things will get moving again.

What else do we celebrate this year? We will be married FOUR years in May! It has been a great ride so far and cannot wait to see what else is in store. We will be in our home for TWO years. And we have had our sweet Roddy boy for THREE years this year. :0)

We hope that everyone has a wonderful new year with lots of fun, laughter, and love!

DHEC Inspection & Adoption Training 101

Since my last post we have been pretty busy around here. We received a phone call the week of December 1st from DHEC to set up the inspection. Of course if you know me, panic mode set in!!! I knew we had to have the inspection completed but I thought it would be after Christmas before anything would be scheduled. We set up the appointment for December 12 that way we could work on the list of "general guidelines for DHEC inspections" that we received at our orientation. Here are some of the "guidelines" for your reading pleasure:

•  Refrigerator temp must read 42 degrees or cooler
• Water Temp must not exceed 120 degrees
• All chemicals, cleaning products, toxic substances must be in locked cabinets or our of childs reach
• Septic System will be checked
• All firearms must be locked away and ammunition must be in a separate location
• Pets vaccinations must be up to date and proof of rabies vaccination is needed
• sharp objects such as knives, scissors, etc. need to be out of childs reach or in locked cabinet 

We decided to be proactive so we purchased drawer locks, outlet covers and cabinet door locks. The drawer locks were AWFUL to install. It took us two days to install SIX of them---yes we probably said some not so nice words during the installation process (not at each other but at the locks). Nevertheless, the locks were installed and ready to go. For our cleaning products, we used over the door shoe organizers in our laundry room. This was perfect and we only had to latch one door. We did use two more latches on the kitchen cabinet under the sink and one side of the master bathroom cabinets. 

Once we had the locks in place it was time to make sure all fire arms were up and that was hubbys job--he did a great job in locating a large box for our firearms. 

I tested our water temp at least FIVE times to  make sure it was right and checked the water heater itself. We were sitting right at 120 degrees!!! :O)

Anyhow, the DHEC inspector arrived and who would have guessed it but I went to college with him!!! YAY, I was more calm now knowing that. Mike checked over the house to make sure the items above were taken care of. He checked to make sure our blinds were not the aluminum kind because those may have lead in them. He wasn't at the house too terribly long, about 45 min to 1 hour at most. Per protocol, He reminded me to keep meds locked away as well as knives, scissors, fire arms, and cleaning supplies. It was refreshing though when He said we were good to go!!! I signed the form and he gave me a copy. WAHOOOOOO, one more thing to check off the list!!!!

On December 14, we had our final class and this one was just for Adoptions. In the class we were able to get any questions we had answered about the process. We also got to see a few of the couples we had met at our Orientation back in October.  

So what is our next step for licensing?? 

• have reference forms completed (in process)
• purchase a fire extinguisher 
• purchase a carbon monoxide detector
• Fire Inspection

Slowly but surely it is all coming together. Continue to be in prayer with us. 

Luke 1:37 "For nothing is impossible with God"

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

Parenting 101

I had never pictured myself sitting in a classroom learning "how to parent", but that is exactly what Rob and I did. As part of the Adoption process we are to attend two classes to learn the Foundations for Caregiving and then we must attend one more about Adoption---this one it to be scheduled.

So back to the classes, we have now SUCCESSFULLY completed 14 hours of training. There were about 30 or so people in our classes with us but the majority were there to become Foster Parents--in fact, one other couple was there to just be licensed for Adoption. The classes are not your typical "here is what you need to do to be a great parent" and then they send you on out the door. No, you are learning to think and feel like a child who has been abandoned, broken and/or abused so that you can hopefully have a little more insight as to how to parent the children when they are in your home. This is no easy task. During the classes, tears were shed and it made you dig deep to ensure that you are committed. 

Something that I took away from the classes the will stay with me is that I do not need to try to fix our children because they are not broken. Our children will be stronger than any other person I know because they have learned to cope with the hand they were dealt at a young age. They will be street smart because they had to survive off of little to nothing in some cases.  Our children will always love their birth parents no matter the circumstances they were taken out of. Our children will be wide-eyed and ready to learn but will be shy and withdrawn until trust is built. Our children will throw temper tantrums like no ones business. Our children will test every being of our nerves BUT the one thing I know that is true, is that they will be OUR children. 

So what is our next step?? 

• take one more six hour adoption class (scheduled!!!! :O))
• get medical forms completed (in process)
• have reference forms completed (in process)
• purchase a fire extinguisher 
• DHEC Inspection
• Fire Inspection

One more thing....we are blessed to have amazing family and friends who are walking through this process with us and we want to say Thank You. I do not know how we can repay you for all you do---I do know that your crowns in Heaven will be FILLED with jewels!!

...we keep going and going and going....

Happy Friday Blog-Reading Peeps!!! It has been a couple weeks since we last met so I thought an update was needed. Our next step after our orientation was to get fingerprinted so we went on 10/21 to Charleston to have this completed. Of course, as with everything with us, it was an adventure. We ended up having to take a detour because of an accident on the Interstate--good thing we left early!! We drove back roads through Summerville and found "the Kickin' Chickin" (more on that in a moment) and eventually the Interstate again. We made our way to Ashley Phosphate Road to get the prints completed. I think Rob was planning to have to wash his hands repeatedly to get black ink off of them after the prints but we would up using a scanner type machine to get them completed---technology is amazing. After the prints, we headed back to the Kickin' Chicken and dined on some delicious hot pimento cheese dip and scrumptious wings!!!--obviously we recommend going there!!! 

So, fast forward to today. We have completed the stack of paperwork to include financial statements, autobiographies, our life history, our parents life history, a detailed fire evacuation plan for our house, and more!!!! Tonight we went and picked up the last piece of the packet to send off and that was two pictures of us and two of our house. All of this is now tucked away in a big manilla envelope, sealed and ready to be delivered to the St. Matthews Post Office Monday morning. 

So what do we do next???...... attend (and successfully pass---ha ha, wonder if there is a test on parenting???) two Foundations Classes and get our medical forms completed.

Everything is falling into place and there have been no hurdles or speed bumps thus far to get over. We know it will come a time when PATIENCE will be tested to the fullest and of course we know that God is with us the entire way. 

Oh and one more tid-bit for this blog, this is a fantastic month because its National Adoption Awareness Month. :O)

More to come.....

Jill

Lets Get It Started!!!

I received an email yesterday from Region III Adoptions letting us know they received our paperwork. So what is the next step....attend an Adoptions Orientation, get fingerprinted, and turn in LOTS of paperwork. We are heading to our orientation tonight and we are both pretty excited--probably because we have no clue what we are in for!!! I know this is a short update but we told you we would keep you in the know and wanted to stick to our promise. 

This comic from Family Circus makes my heart smile....

Update within the Update (ha ha ha!): just left orientation and I am a little overwhelmed but Rob is excited. Lots of paperwork to complete!

Psalm 37:4
Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart's desires. 


~Jill

Our Heartfelt Calling....

“So, when are you going to have a baby?”—oh how I dread hearing those words. I love children and want to have a house full of them but you see, for us, the road to get there is going to be bumpy, hilly, and may sometimes have a detour or two. We were told recently that our chances of having our own biological children are SLIM TO NONE---not exactly the news you want to hear EVER!!! You see, Rob and I had BIG plans to have three to four children and even have their names picked out. We want to hear the pitter patter of little feet, the words “mommy and daddy”, and also deal with the spit ups, diaper blow ups, and hissy fits. But now, we just have to take a detour to get there. Grant it I was pretty darn upset when we got the news but Rob always makes my gloomy, gray skies turn into the brightest, sunny day. We cried together, laughed together, and he held me forever. Being that I am a girl, the emotional roller coaster I have been on the past year has been TORTURE!!! Having to go to the doctor’s office and see pregnant women or even see my friends rejoicing online about their pregnancies always made me envious an angry----I really wanted to be happy for them but I always said “why can’t that be me”. Every step of the way though, my husband has been by my side. He told me that no matter what we would have our family—he also said “you know you always get what you want” :O)—I will take that as a positive instead of a negative statement honey!!!!

Rob and I talk to each other about everything; there are NO secrets in our household and we love it like that. I tell Rob all kinds of things and I am sure at times he probably wishes I would have kept it to myself. Through the past year we have talked about “options” a lot. Do we want to take the “pill” to jump-start pregnancy, do we want to have IVF, or do we want to adopt. For those of you who don’t know, I have always wanted to adopt children since I was a small child…might be because I have two pretty awesome cousins who were adopted!!! Luckily, my husband feels the same way. We decided this month, October 2013, to begin the process of adoption. We have received packets of information from three agencies thus far and have chosen to go through SCDSS Heartfelt Calling. 

On October 2, we received the application in the mail. Of course immediately we started filling it out. Rob has an assignment on October 3, to measure our windows and then on October 4, we prayed over our application and placed it in the mail. We are not going through this journey alone, we KNOW God is with us. We want God to choose our children, not us. We understand the process can take at least 6 months or even years to complete but we are ready. We have a HUGE family and friend support system who are praying for us each step of the way.

The one request we would like to ask of you is to pray with us. We always heard “it takes a village to raise a child” and we feel this will be the truth when it comes to our children. Thank you for partnering with us on this next step in our life. We will be documenting everything as we go. 

Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.