New Tradition and an Update

Thursday night, Alicia and I started a new tradition.

We loved making the adoption profile scrapbook so much, we decided

to take up scrap booking for fun too. We came up with a time

once a month when we can get together, just us without the men

and boys, and scrapbook, talk, vent, and just enjoy each other's company. My mom actually says I won't follow through with this, as I am kind of ADD/ADHD and can't concentrate or finish much that I started, so I told her, I was glad she said that, as that gives me a reason to try to really stick with this. :) Mom is my biggest fan and I know she'll be proud when I am done! :)

This is our "supply table." Never have a fun night with

girls without Sparkling Grape Juice and chocolates (which I am

proud to say, we didn't eat any!) We have bought

so many scrap booking items that we spent a lot of time going

through everything we bought and oohing and awing!

This is Alicia's page. She's doing a few Christmas

pages. We're doing 1-2 pages a night when we are

together and then doing at least one on our own before

our next "meeting." :)

Here is my page. I am working on a vacation

scrapbook. This is one of the New York pages I am

working on from my trip with Allie and Neesa over

fall break. Such GREAT memories!!

The Update: The adoption agency received our

forms, profile and BIG OL' CHECK! So far, so good... no

emails or calls saying we left something out yet! So, when the

background checks come in next week, we're officially really

ELEPHANT PREGNANT! :) I told Allie today there's a song that

says "Let it go, let it roll right off your shoulders, don't you know,

the hardest part is over..." and that describes me for sure. I know

the waiting will be hard, but I feel that the past two years have been

harder than anyone can imagine and this part is going to be great.

I feel that a weight is lifted and my life is actually working the way

God has intended. What a great feeling! It's been so long since I have

felt that way. Thanks to all for listening!

Short Post... Big Day

So, this will be a short blog without pics, but every little step we take toward our dream makes me want to share with my friends!

Tomorrow will be a BIG DAY for us. We are going to the post office in the morning to mail our big check, profile, and all the last of the paperwork to the adoption agency! We are still waiting for the fingerprints/background checks to be sent to the agency, but that is out of our hands. Therefore... as of tomorrow we will be 1 step closer to getting baby Cassady! I know this could take a while, but the fact that we have gotten this far, considering where we started, this is HUGE for us!

Anyway, just wanted to update everyone on what's going on. I am sure just like in the past we'll have a couple more forms to fill out, but the big stuff is in and we'll be able to be considered by a birth family soon!

Profiling Our Lives (and a Neosporin comment too)

Alicia came over last night to help me put together our profile for the adoption agency, since Adam isn't a help in this situation :) We have to show our home, us, and our family. No pressure to look pretty in a picture since the birth families will be looking at this to see if they choose us or not!
OK... the Neosporin comment. When Anne was here, she had to check the expiration date (yes there is one) on our Neosporin. So, if I am at anyone's house soon, I will be checking the expiration dates and reporting you if they are expired! :) LOL

This is the pile of pics and paper we stared with. We had such a good time doing this that when Baby Cassady comes, I think we will start scrapbooking as we need a hobby since we are both on a budget with building our homes!

This is the beginning of the Adam & Emily page. We have lots of pages with our families, all our sweet nieces, in-laws, siblings, etc. I can say we are so blessed with such a great family. Also, thanks to Stephanie who bought a lot of these pics for me (she said it's her first present for our baby) :) as I am not a photographer and needed family pics from her!

This is the "Drew" page. Drew lives in our basement and he is such a great blessing to our home. We love having someone else here as Adam and I get kind of tired of looking at only each other! :) He's good practice for us as we worry about him when he's gone and so I am going through the teenage years with a kid before the infant stages. :)

I'll have to share the whole book when we are finished. We are so excited to be at this point. Anne emailed me today with 4-5 more things we need to finish that she forgot to tell us... so needless to say we have more to do, luckily they aren't extensive, but just another thing to stress me out! We will just patiently wait, as we have for so long now, for Carter Daniel or Ava Kinser (or both) to arrive!