How we got here

Hoping to Grow our Family by at Least Two Feet

 

For those of you that don't know us, Steve and I met in 2008.  We quickly went from a year of dating, to a year of living together, to a year of engagement and then we married in August 2011.
 We always knew that we wanted kids and to have a family of our own so after a year of marriage we bought a house and began trying to start our family.
After two long years of crushing disappointment month after month we decided to seek the help of fertility doctors.  Long story short, after three years of tests, procedures, surgeries, medication, three different doctors, multiple rounds of IUI and IVF that were all unsuccessful we were diagnosed with unexplained infertility.
It was then that we really started to consider adoption.  We of course had our fears.  Everyone has fears of the unknown.  But after talking with our friends that have adopted, our family that has adopted, and our friends and family that were adopted any hesitation we once had was wiped away and so we printed, filled out and sent our application in to the same agency that Steve's cousin and his wife used and are using again for their second child.
Two days went by and then I received a call from the agency.  The woman told me that we would have to wait two months until we could start the process.  This was devastating at first because we were so ready to start our family but then we thought, well we have been waiting five years, what is another two months?
However, the very next day the agency contacted us again and said that we were ready to go and wanted to get us scheduled for our initial orientation meeting and our first home study with our social worker.  We were over the moon.  It finally felt like the stars were aligning and all the pieces were falling into place.
Our first visit was just a couple of days after the phone call and we met with a woman named Sheryl.  In the meeting we talked about our journey that led us there, what to expect during the process and also we got to know each other.  We both instantly felt comfortable with her and for the first time in five years we relaxed.  We finally felt we were exactly where we were meant to be.
The very next day our social worker came to our home to do our first home study.  Of course we cleaned like crazy!  We cleaned and reorganized 3 bedrooms, 5 closets and the laundry room.  We built shoe racks and a bookshelf.  We changed all the light bulbs in the house, we vacuumed, dusted, cleaned bathrooms, and mowed the lawn and pulled the weeds.  I made two dozen cookies and we set out pitchers of lemon water, had the tea kettle on and coffee brewing when she came in.  She walked in, we went straight to the table, she wasn't hungry or thirsty nor did she even use the restroom while she was there! All that anxiety ridden frantic cleaning for nothing, lol.
The first home visit was relatively short.  She just gave us a packet of paperwork and further explained what all we would need to get done in the coming weeks to complete the process.  On the checklist of things to do were:
1. Get fingerprinted for a background check
2. Have the fire department do a fire inspection on our house
3. Gather our utility bills for the last 3 months, our pay stubs for the past two and last year's tax returns
4. Have our family doctor fill out health status and recommendation forms
5. Have four non family members complete recommendation letters
6. Read three different books and fill out the worksheets that correlate with them
7. Make a 20 page book about us and our life that will be given to birth mothers to look at and basically be the only thing that they will use to pick a family for their child (no pressure there)
8. Fill out a 5 page will consider/won't consider form as to race, number of children, physical traits, behavioral traits, etc.
9. Take multiple classes that are legally mandated by the state of Ohio including inter racial adoption awareness, child safety, infant CPR, and infant/child care.
10. Have a safety inspection done on our house.
11. Draw a floor plan of our house with escape routes, have a list of emergency numbers posted, have a schedule for family fire drills at least once a month, and buy a fire extinguisher.
12. Have a copy of our dogs licenses and updated shots and vet records.
13. Show proof of Ohio residency for the past five years.
14. Complete 2 more home studies.

After her detailed explanation of what we needed to do she scheduled our next home study that she said may be longer depending on what all we could get done in that time.  Steve and I are highly motivated, get it done kind of people so we were ready to get started.

On my next post  I'll let you all know how the second home study went!

Thank you all for following us on this journey and for all the love and support we are already receiving from all of our friends and family!

Bri and Steve