Lots of progress!!!

Well, since I last posted, we have received all of our profile books, and they look so great! I actually teared up when I opened it and read it for the first time. It's been really fun to show them to people and be finished with that big part of the process!!
We traveled to Colorado last week to see friends, and when we got home our caseworker was asking for our books to be brought to Gladney. Believe it or not, there is a birthmom who will be looking at our profile sometime in the next couple of weeks! We know that it might not be the right match, but it feels very exciting to already be out there in the mix.  Of course, I thought about it all day yesterday when we heard about her and cried about 4 times. :)
Yesterday was also a big day because we bought the car seat/stroller combo to be ready in case a baby comes earlier than expected! That was pretty fun. We started registering (wow, that's a lot of work!), but we still have a ways to go. I had a weird moment turning in the scanner, because this other mom waiting to register looked at me and then at my non-pregnant stomach so weirdly. It made me feel awkward, almost like I had to explain that I was adopting- but I didn't.  Oh well, little weird moments along the way, but that's okay. I'll try and post a picture of our car seat soon!

Profile books galore

Our book is finished and has been approved by our caseworker! We worked really hard on that book- glad it's finished! :) We should be ordering them soon...I'm waiting to see one copy in my hands before I order the big batch. I just want to make sure it looks good in real life, you know?

We are officially approved (again!!!) :)

Okay, we received our official homestudy approval packet- complete with a certificate and a sample contract for the adoption! It's feeling more real everyday. We have emailed our book to our caseworker to review, so we are waiting to get that printed and in her hands.  Our next steps are to pay our 50% payment (we are in the process of getting that all together), attend a CPR and baby care class, and to get our books printed once the caseworker gives us the go ahead.

So, that's where we are at!! I've started looking at diaper bags and car seats- two of the items I will need for placement.   :)

Nothing more, nothing less...

Hi there!

I know I haven't posted anything in quite awhile, but it's because we are in one of the many waiting periods in this adoption process. We should be receiving the completed homestudy approval and a packet from Gladney in the next week or two. This will include our next payment bill, a list of trainings we need to get signed up for, and a letter showing our official approval for the homestudy stage of the process. I have been working on our profile book...and I am almost finished! I am tweaking it now and soon I will send it to my caseworker to review and approve. After that, it's to the printing presses we go! I have to make 7-8 copies of the book, so I'm sure I will have to wait a little for them to be delivered in the mail. I'm thinking we will get the books into the hands of the caseworker by late November, early December. I'm feeling fine about everything so far...not worried or feeling rushed or lazy, so that's nice. One day at a time :) Thanks for staying updated....I'll post again once my book is approved and in print!

Homestudy Happiness

We had our homestudy today with Jennifer.  She was awesome and it was a great time for her to get to know us and to talk about the process. We still have one more section of the homestudy to complete individually with her on the phone, so hopefully we will be able to do that in the next few weeks. It will take about a month to type up and have everything approved from the homestudy process- and I'll be working on my profile book so that we will be finished around the same time. We're excited!!!

Our homestudy is in 2 days!

We're getting ready for our Homestudy on Friday!  Slightly nervous about it, but very excited to move onto a new stage in the process. It will be an all-afternoon get together, but once we're done, we'll be ready to move onto our profile book!  I've picked out paper for the book and ordered pictures- so I just have to get my creative juices flowing to put it together. When I think about the fact that this will be THE BOOK that will make us a family...a little overwhelming.  But, I guess I just need to take it page by page and not worry about the whole thing yet.

:) Thanks for staying in the loop!
Heidi (and Danny too)

Baby Boomer...

We got our first baby gift from our sweet friends Josh and Sara. This little guy or gal doesn't have a chance to not love OU!

Adoption Bug fundraiser

We have two fundraisers up and running now....

The first is on a cute website called Adoption Bug. We have an online store where we are selling t-shirts. Just be sure if you purchase a shirt to use our link instead of the general website so we can get credit.  Check it out:

www.adoptionbug.com/CoxFamily

The next is for coffee lovers! Click below to order some delicious fair-trade coffees...

www.justlovecoffee.com/CoxFamily

thank you for all your support!!!

:) Heidi and Danny

I can't believe it...

We are already approved with all our paperwork. That sentence sounds weird grammatically, but you know what I mean! I was expecting it to take a couple more weeks for them to review- Vicki Carter is the most awesome admin ever! We are matched with our caseworker...Jennifer Hart! Now, it's on to creating our profile book and getting prepared for our homestudy.  Too bad I don't have any energy left to think about the book right now. :( School is wiping me out!
I'm sure I'll get into the swing of things in a few weeks and will be able to begin the most daunting task of creating THE BOOK.

Paperwork is complete!!!

whew...I'm tired.  We are now waiting for the paperwork to be reviewed and approved- and then we will schedule a time for our caseworker to come and do our homestudy process.  On to other things...

Why Adoption?

The concept of adoption for me (Danny) has been an eye opener, and one that causes great thankfulness.  I too was once adopted, by Christ through the shedding of His blood and resurrection.  No longer am I dead in sin, but I'm alive in Christ because of His great love for me.  He not only loves me but He also is my provider, comforter, protector and one in whom I can fully trust (lean on).  I (we) have the opportunity to provide this kind of love to one of God's treasured.  There is a great responsibility in being a father and my heavenly Father deems me suitable for this role and I'm honored to be chosen.  I am choosing to take on the role to love, comfort, provide and protect this little one.  As Christ followers we have been grafted into the Kingdom of God, being re-gened into the image of Christ.  Truly it will be a blessing grafting our little one into our earthly family, living out the Gospel of Christ.  Again, a great responsibility but through Christ all things all possible.  Thanks for your listening ear...hopefully not to preachy, just what's on my heart.  Blessings!

My fun new shirt...

My sweet friend Vanessa bought me this adorable shirt!!! I proudly wore it today to Gladney to pay our first payment and turn in a big chunk 'o paperwork. I smiled all day.  We are in the process of getting approved for fundraising by selling our own cute shirts through www.adoptionbug.com- so stay tuned!

Half way done!!!

Believe it or not, but we are about half-way finished with our paperwork in the big notebook! We have been flying through it....maybe because we are excited, or it might be the fact that I just can't get my mind off of it! Well, we still have to knock out a couple more sections in the notebook, and then we will be ready to turn it in completely!

Welcome to our blog!

Well, here goes nothing. We just started the adoption process- so, we thought it would be nice to have a blog for people to follow as we make the journey. It tends to be a long process, so we'll do our best to keep updated on where we are at in the process on our blog. Thanks for checking us out!