More for our own sake {and for that future baby book} I’m going to start keeping a little timeline of our adoption process.  Hope you don’t mind indulging me.

January 30th – Announced to the world we were adopting!

January 31st – Sent off our preliminary application and fees to Covenant Care

February 11th – Began our baby bottle {loose change} fundraiser with family and friends ($555 raised so far!)

February 20th – First home study meeting (of three) with A Adoption Advocates of Georgia

February 21st – 25th:  Received five references; Coco’s vaccination records; MM’s vaccination records; Sent off our health evaluation forms to our doctors, log of our 911 calls from the county, birth certificates for everyone, marriage certificate, verification of health insurance/car insurance, collected every financial statement known to man, monthly budget, letter from employers, and a utility bill recognizing we are on city sewer.

February 28th – Sent fingerprints off to the GBI and FBI; had our TB test/Syphilis Test/Drug screen

March 4th – Officially approved by Covenant Care!  {Waiting ’til mid-August for our first meeting with them.}

March 20th – Second home study meeting {individual meetings with C. & I}

April 11th – Heard about a baby boy who had been born & needed a family–sent our application and quickly-made profile book off to Lifeline Children’s Services in Columbus, GA.  Even though this fell through we felt that God put us with this agency for a reason.

April 12th – Received our FBI clearance (in just 43 days–a miracle!)

April 17th- Third home study meeting–the big home inspection one.  Finished with the home study and just waiting on the paperwork to come in the mail.

April 20th- Officially offically (!!) approved with Lifeline.  Now just waiting on them to accept our home study {we did it with another agency and therefore we have to get it approved} so that our profile can be shown to birth mothers.

April 26th – Matched with a caseworker with Lifeline named J. Can’t wait to begin the waiting with her {we have been told to expect to wait 8 – 24 months}.

April 28th – After working at least 20 hours on it, we {okay, okay, *I*} sent our profile book to Blurb to get printed.  We sent five copies to our agency.

May 5th – Attended a wonderful women’s coffee with our adoption agency in Alabama.  I didn’t think it could happen, but I’m even more excited!

May 16th – Received our *approved* home study.  Sent it on to our adoption agency.

May 26th – Our home study was accepted by Lifeline and we are now officially WAITING.  We’re paper pregnant!!

June 6th – We agreed to have our profile shown to birth mother #1 in the near future.

June 7th – We agreed to have our profile shown to birth mothers #2 & #3 in the near future.

June 17th – We agreed to have our profile shown to birth mother #4 in the near future.

July 8th – We agreed to have our profile shown to birth mother #5 in the near future.

July 21st – We agreed to have our profile shown to birth mother #6 in the near future.

July 22nd – We agreed to have our profile shown to birth mother #7 in the near future.

July 25th – We agreed to have our profile shown to birth mother #8 in the near future.

August 23rd – Birth mother #8 narrows it down to a few families {not sure the exact number}, including us!, and asks us to answer some questions along with the other families.

August 30th – We agreed to have our profile shown to birth mother #9 {expecting b/g twins} in the near future.

September 2nd – We agreed to have our profile shown to birth mother #10 in the near future.

September 19th – We agreed to have our profile shown to birth mother #11 in the near future.

October 11th – We were informed we received a matching $4000 grant from promise686!

November 4th – We agreed to have our profile shown to birth mother #12 in the near future.

November 7th – The day of my 15th cancer-free anniversary, but also the day we found out I had ANOTHER very large cyst {and therfore have go get some bloodwork to see if my cancer’s back…a week later we find out it isn’t–thank GOD}, we get an email saying birth mother #12 only wants to look at children-less parents.  Hard day.  Simply devestated emotionally.

November 11th – I get a call while setting up for our church’s chili cook-off from a lady named M. who is a case worker with a small agency in Georgia.  She says she thinks she has a baby we might be interested in.  She tells us the situation…and we are!  It’s a BOY and he’s due March 6-ish.

November 18th – We meet with M. and make arrangements to drive four hours away to meet the birth parents of baby boy.

November 21st – We travel with M. to meet the birth parents.  We spend time getting to know them and we discovered we liked them a lot.  We become an official match and the waiting begins!