May I Take Your Order???

As excited as I am to be a mother, I have to say that I absolutely LOVE being an aunt! This weekend I was showing my niece (Sarah) and nephew (Logan) some of the kids that were available for adoption through some of the online photolistings.

Logan, in all seriousness (though he is inclined to clown around), said, "I like those two. Order them!" :-) Oh, I only wish it was going to be that easy!!! But it will definitely be worth it!

Class, and Forms, and Homework--OH MY! :-)

Well, we had our first class today. It was very interesting! We got fingerprinted in the morning and learned all about the foster/adoption process in West Virginia... There were definitely some things I didn't know about! There were 23 people in our morning class; some were kinship adoptions and some were a lot like us. The one difference in us and most other people there is that when they asked who in the room was willing to foster and/or adopt older children, we were the only ones to say that we were. The others were either getting relatives or hoping for an infant.

Anyway, Matt and I went to Graziano's on our lunch hour for the buffet, which was a bit of a challenge, since I am giving up pizza for Lent. LOL! Then when we returned, we talked a little bit to some of the other couples, which was really interesting. And our instructor, Dr. Berhie (a Marshall professor) began Session 1, which was basically an outline of what we would be learning.

And, as it turns out, it seems like our sessions might only last FOUR WEEKS. We found out that the homestudy can then take 1-3 months to complete, but we have started the process and that is just plain exciting!!!

Enjoy your Sunday! I'll be doing paperwork and homework from class after church! :-)

First post...an explanation

Well, there is exciting news on our end of things! Matt and I will begin classes on Saturday that will (hopefully) lead to us adopting a child or children!!! I'm pretty sure that it's going to be an interesting journey and all of your prayers and friendship will be greatly appreciated along the way... This blog will be hard for me, because I'm not really great at writing serious blogs. But I'll give it a shot! :-)

I've always been interested in adoption--probably because I've always loved kids. And I have a cousin who my aunt and uncle adopted as a baby when I was about 12 or 13 and I've always just loved her (Valerie) so much! Honestly, when I was about 21 years old, there was a little boy at my Aunt Paula's school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania that I wanted to adopt (his parents were both dying of AIDS and he actually asked me to adopt him). I didn't have a "real job" and couldn't have supported him. But it still broke my heart to leave him that week. I cried the whole way back to West Virginia...

And now my husband Matt has said the four best words since he said, "Will you marry me?": "Let's think about adopting." In spite of the fact that we haven't given up on having our own children, this is something that we're so excited and passionate about!!!

So our classes start on Saturday--they're meant to show people the "worst case scenario". And I do realize that things won't always be sunshine and roses, but I'm ready for whatever this exciting road has to offer. And for now, I kind of get misty-eyed when I think of "Somewhere Out There", the song from An American Tail. This is the song I dedicate to the children who we will be blessed to have one day:

Somewhere out there,

Beneath the pale moonlight,

Someone's thinking of me,

And loving me tonight.

Somewhere out there,

Someone's saying a prayer,

That we'll find one another,

In that big somewhere out there.

And even though I know how very far apart we are,

It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star,

And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby,

It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky!

Somewhere out there,

If love can see us through,

Then we'll be together,

Somewhere out there,

Out where dreams,

Come true