One down, two to go!

Well we had our first visit today. It lasted about 2 hours and we made it through just fine. They don't think we are crazy yet, so we are still good to go! ha! We really enjoyed talking with our case worker, Vickie, she is very nice. She did ask a lot of questions and write a lot of information down. We had to go through everything in detail. It was kind of exhausting, but well worth it.

Our next meeting will be after Thanksgiving. That meeting will be with us individually. She is going to try and do that visit with us individually, but on the same day. I am anxious to do all of the the visits and get on with the rest of the process, but this all takes time. She is very understanding through, because she and her husband adopted a little girl from China, so she has sat on the other side of the table and knows how it feels to be on this side. That is extremely comforting.

We had lots of phone calls and messages wishing us good luck, and we just wanted to say thank you so very much. Having all of this support definitely makes this process easier.

It was also a special day because it was our first meeting, on Marks birthday! Mark turned 28 today. He got his Dale and Thomas Popcorn that he wanted this morning along with his Vanderbilt car flags. Tonight we are celebrating by cooking fondue at home. Our favorite restaurant is the Melting Pot, but it is even more fun to cook your own fondue at home...cheaper too! ha! Hope everyone enjoys the weekend.

First Visit!!!

Hey! Well, we got a call yesterday from our case worker, Vickie. She was calling to set up our first meeting. We scheduled it for November 7, which is next Friday...also Marks birthday! She explained that the first meeting was about hour and half too two hours long. She only comes to the house on the third meeting. The first meeting will be a joint meeting with both Mark and I.

She will meet with us in a conference room here at Elon. We are nervous and excited at the same time. She told us that the interviews will be very in depth and that they can be stressful. But, that we should be fine. We are anxious to get this started. After our meeting we will write another post to let everyone know how it went. Have a great week everyone!

NEWS! NEWS! NEWS!

Well, I know some of you are visiting the site often looking for new news. This is a slow process and it is a lot of waiting. But, we did get an e-mail from our case worker today! She received all of our paperwork yesterday and she will be contacting us early next week to schedule our first visit.

How exciting!!!! We are very anxious to get this ball rolling. So, thank you to all of you who visit the site often and for being patient with us. We promise to post news as we hear it. We love and miss all of you!

Hope everyone enjoys the weekend. We will write soon!

Home Study Bound!

We received an e-mail yesterday from the adoption agency stating that they were just waiting on 1 more reference letter and once it was received that we would be assigned a caseworker. WOW! We are getting closer. The home study date will be determined when we are assigned a case worker. We are anxious to get this process started since this is the first "big" step to getting all of this underway.

We hope all of you are doing well, and when we are assigned our caseworker we will post again! Have a great weekend!

Adoption Update!

Hello everyone! We received a letter yesterday from CAS telling us that they received our paperwork. They mailed letters to our references requesting letters from them with some information about Mark and I. They told us that once they receive all of the letters that we would be assigned a social worker and then the home study process would begin. Once it was started we would be looking at 6-8 weeks before completion.

So, the next step is really waiting. We will wait to be contacted by a social worker to set up our home study. As we hear more information we will let you know.

Mark and I want to give a special thank you to our family members who have helped us with every aspect of this adoption process. Without a loving family like ours, this would not be possible. Each of you has a special place in our hearts and our lives and we will forever be grateful for all you have done. Mark and I could not travel along this journey without our family, and we just want to say thank you and we love you!