“Be assured that if God makes you wait longer than you wish, it is only to make the blessing all the more precious.”

I have learned over the years that waiting is just going to happen in life. I wish I could say that it doesn't phase me but I am as human as the next person. When I think about this precious gift that a women will be giving us I just get so anxious I could throw-up. I think will someone pick us? What if they don't... What if they do? How long will it be? Will it be a boy or a girl? Do I care? What will he/she look like? Will this baby bond well with us? Will this baby bond with Miss Zion? Will Miss Zion still want to be a big sister when the adoption takes place? Will Miss Zion travel well? How on earth will we manage a newborn and a 2 year old in a hotel room for 15 days? I have lots of questions and this is what goes through my head when I should be sleeping...

During the waiting process we get lots of questions. In fact every time I go to work I get asked something to the effect of "Did you get that baby yet?"  I know people care for us and this is why they ask. They are excited for us as well and just don't know what to say I think. I appreciate the questions and welcome them. I feel blessed that so many care for us enough to ask. I wish I could say YES we have been chosen! But alas we have to wait. 

I have to remind myself of Gods faithfulness and how he brought Miss Zion and us together. He was totally faithful and I should not get discouraged. I am trying to prepare myself that it may take years for this baby to show up. I rest in the peace that God's got this! He knows what our family needs and what the right situations for all involved. 

LEGACY OF AN ADOPTED CHILD

Once there were two women who never knew each other

One you do not remember, the other you call Mother

Two different lives shaped to make you one

One became your guiding star, the other became your sun

The first one gave you life, and the second taught you to live it

The first gave you a need for love, the second was there to give it

One gave you a nationality, the other gave you a name

One gave you a talent, the other gave you aim

One gave you emotions, the other calmed your fears

One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried you tears

One made an adoption plan, that was all that she could do

The other prayed for a child, and God led her straight to you.

Now, which of these two women, Are you the product of?

Both, my darling, Both, Just two different types of love.

---- Unknown

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

Today we received the information we have been waiting for!!! Our home study is finally done!!! We also received a major blessing in the form of funding today. We have been scrimping and saving since January. We have also been attempting to fundraising through a website and a garage sale. We have appreciated all the donations! THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAVE DONATED!
Today I called CASI and inquired on the status of our home study. I was informed that it was finished (praise the Lord) and that it had been sent to Texas last week... This was news to us as we had told our social worker we wanted to stay in Idaho until we had saved enough to afford the placement fee for Texas ( this is about $7000.00 more then Idaho). So... this was exciting news and nerve wrecking all at the same time. We have had faith that God was going to provide what was necessary for us to adopt again. He came through in a big way today. We have met our goal for the placement fee for Texas today!!!! Thanks to the generosity of a family member. Thank you Lord for always providing.

   I spoke with our social worker in Texas and she let me know that all she will need is our profile. We are almost done with this and will have it sent there tomorrow :) This means that Baby Hart #2 could happen any day! We are hopeful the wait will not be too long but we understand that all things happen in the time they are meant to.

   We still need to raise money for travel expenses and post placement things such as the visits, lawyers fees, and so on. If this happens anything like it did last time... We will have a very short amount of time to set up our travel. This can get expensive quick and as we will be traveling to Texas and staying there for up to two weeks it will end up being very expensive. I know that God is going to provide this as well as he has never fallen short. If you can help we would so appreciate it! Please click on the link below and check out our fundraising website.
http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/help-us-bring-home-baby-hart/39968

Please remember our family in your prayers over the next couple of weeks as we wait. This can be the hardest part and we really are praying for the right situation. Thank you for your support and prayers in advance!

Almost there...

                                             
Just wanted to give a quick update about the adoption. We have completed all of the necessary paperwork :) We are waiting to get our background checks results. We also have about 10 hours of education that we are currently working on. We should be moving onto the interview portion of the home study soon. We are anxious to move onto this step. It helps us get closer to bringing home baby Hart #2!
Adoption is super expensive and we are working hard on scrimping and saving every penny. We started doing Financial Peace University several weeks ago and have managed to remain of a strict budget. We are hopeful to save enough to fund our adoption without loans. One of the ways we have decided to raise some money for our adoption is have a yard sale. We are currently collecting donations for the yard sale. If you have items/junk that you would like to donate we will gladly take them off your hands. Please call or email us if you have items you would like to donate. We are not picky and will take anything. We also would be happy to pick items up from you. Just let us know.
On Saturday we had a family. It was time to do Abigail's hair so I was working on that. We had a knock on the door and it was our dear friend Mattie Stewart. She handed me an envelope and told me that another friend had given her $50 to give to us. Mattie and her husband had given our friends Lindy and Mandy a bunk bed for their kids. Lindy attempted to give Mattie the money and Mattie would not take it. Well long story short they decided to donate the money to our adoption fund!  We have been so blessed by our friends. We were taken completely off guard. We are constantly amazed by the generosity of others lately. We are so grateful for this and for all the others who have donated money and items for the sale! We can't express in words how much this means to us. Every penny gets us that much closer to our new little one.
Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts! If you can donate items please email or call. Also please keep checking the blog for updates.

http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/Help-us-bring-home-Baby-Hart/39968

Doctors, essay questions, and background checks... Oh my...

Just wanted to give a quick update. We are in the midst of working on our home-study packet. We have started the essay questions. These really are quite time consuming and take a lot of thought. So we press on and continue to write as much as we can, when we can. I had my physical on Friday and was "medically cleared" :) well at least as much as they can tell without labs. But she said everything looked great! The form that is completed has to be notarized. So we will wait for labs to come back and then that will happen. Brent just had one and his paperwork should be done soon. So that is one less thing to complete.
We have our background checks scheduled for the first week in March. There were no appointments available before that week : ~ \ So we will wait and get those done in due time. The unfortunate part about this is that the home-study packet can not be complete until all elements are in... This means that we can not move on until EVERYTHING is done. I have hope that things will move smoothly and in the time it is supposed to.
We are so excited to get this process going and see things fall into place. We know that this is something that is meant for our family. Miss Zion keep asking about her "Coco brother" and we have to tell her soon. Thank you for taking the time to read our blog :)


http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/Help-us-bring-home-Baby-Hart/39968

Lookie... Lookie :)

I went and checked the mail on Monday and look what we got!

We got our home study packet!!! This is what we have been waiting for for about two weeks now. Now that we have the packet we have to fill it out. Just to give you an idea of what all this entails here is the list that must be completed and sent back in a month.

So as you can see we have our work cut out for us. We have most of the top section read and signed. The middle section takes a bit longer. This section is the question and answer portion of the home study document. This section includes questions like, "what kind of parent are you? What were your parents like? Siblings? Schooling? Work History? Personal Information? Hobbies? What kind of marriage do you have?" and so on. Lots of in-depth things to think about and put into words. At least this time around I know what kind of parent I am. 

The home study is one of the most import pieces in the adoption process. Along with the document we will have interviews with our Adoption Social Worker. Based on these things we will get a yes or a no on whether we can be adoptive parents. Lets hope they say yes! In the mean time I better get to answering those questions. Please remember to keep praying for us, the baby that we will be matched with, our birth mother, and the financial need. Thank you for taking time to read our blog. We hope that this will provide some education about adoption and keep you involved in our adoption process :) 

http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/Help-us-bring-home-Baby-Hart/39968

And so the waiting begins

Even as a child we are told to be patient and wait. It seems that things never happen fast enough these days. We want things to happen when we want them to happen not in God's timing. I remember thinking when we tried to conceive naturally... "I want to be pregnant now!" When we kept getting negative pregnancy tests I would plead with God... "Please PLEASE Lord I want to be pregnant NOW! WHY is this not working!" Then when we started the adopting process I remember our adoption worker telling us now its time to wait... I remember thinking "Well I know how to do that! This won't be so bad". We all know that Miss Zion happened SO fast. It finally felt like we got it right and God made it happen in just the right amount of time. I still believe that God knew what he was doing by making us infertile. He knew that we needed Abigail and Abigail needed us. 

A lot of waiting is about trust. Now that we have started the adoption process again it is time to wait again. This is the hard part. We are working with a new home state agency this time so we have to trust that they will do what they say they are going to do in a timely manner. We are currently waiting for the home study packet. I went and checked the mail today hoping it would be in the mail... It was not their. I will go again today before I go to work. Keep your fingers crossed... 

As we wait we are continuing to pray for the right situation. What I mean by this is when our adoption profile is being viewed by birth mothers/families that the person/s that chooses us will feel at peace with her/his decision. The hard part for me about adoption is that we gain from someone else's loss. As an adoptive parent already I feel so humbled that we were picked once before.Will it happen again? I hope so. I know that God knows who will pick us and has known this for my whole life. It is kind of strange to think about the fact that this has all been planned out and we just have to do our part. I guess for now I will just wait and see how things go.

Thank you for taking time to read our blog. If you have a chance check out our fundraising page. We know that times are hard and it is a lot to ask. We feel it takes a village to raise a child. We also feel that our dream of bringing home Hart baby #2 can be helped by you. If you can it would be amazing for you to donate, no amount is too small. If this is not a good time... Can you help us by sharing our blog and fund raising page with your friends and family? Every little bit helps us get closer to bringing home Baby Hart. The link is below :) Until next time. Have a blessed day!

 http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/Help-us-bring-home-Baby-Hart/39968

Ring ring

I am happy to share that we received a call from Katie at CASI today. She received our application. She told us that she is sending our home study packet out to us. She said that we will have to complete some education and it sounds like they have more options then the last time we went through this process. I wanted to give you an idea of what exactly is in a home study. Below is from a. Site called ababystepadoption.com. I thought they explained the process quite well :-)

Adoption Home Studies

"Our Adoption Home Study Steps:

1. request and complete our home study questionnaire
2. submit the additional required documents
3. schedule your home visit with one of our case workers
4. review the draft of your home study report
5. follow up phone call with your case worker to finalize your report

An adoption home study is an evaluation written by a licensed agency detailing your family's suitability to become adoptive parent(s). This report is submitted to the Court and is a legal requirement for every adoption. The report must be completed prior to placement of a child in public, private, interstate, and international adoptions. The home study report describes your childhood, education, career, marriage/domestic partnership, experience with children, parenting philosophy, home and neighborhood, finances, health, and the type of adoption situation your are looking for. The information in this report is complied from your completed questionnaire, home interview, and the 
following required documents: birth certificates, marriage license, divorce decree(if  applicable), copy of most recent W-2 forms, child abuse and criminal record clearances, physical exam forms, and 4 letters of recommendation from family and friends. While this all may sound intimidating, the intent of the adoption home study is to support and prepare the adopting family for the adoption process and placement of a child. The home study is confidential, only to be submitted directly to the court or referring agency. It is not shared with the birthparents."

I have been asked a lot how long the process will take. All I can speak to is how long it took last time. The process for the home study took about 3 months for us. We are hopeful to bring home baby hart this year but we will just have to take things one step at a time.