We passed our safety audit today!!! I also turned in all of the paperwork that I was able to. Feels so nice to have more things checked off of the list!!! Only a few things left to complete. We both need to get fingerprints and background checks done, I need to wait for two more utility bills to come in September and Todd needs a few more classes. Then we will be finished!! I see a light at the end of the tunnel!!!
More VERY exciting news!!! We found a house!!! This is a huge stress relief for both of us! The duplex we live in now was fine for the two of us, but once we get kids in there I know we would be pretty cramped. Plus there isn't a dining room for us to all eat together as a family. The new house has everything we have been looking for! I big kitchen, compared to what we have now. It has very nice, very cabinets and real hard wood floors. Also has a dishwasher which I haven't had for a long time now so that's exciting! It has a very nice bathroom that was renovated a few years ago. A nice sized dining room and living room. A master bedroom on the first floor and 2 other bedrooms upstairs. There is also another room upstairs that will be used as the play room. There is a very nice, rustic, country style finished basement with a wood burning stove and a pantry type place for all my canning stuff to go. Todd is in love with the entire basement! He wanted it to be his "man cave." (HAHAHA!!!) That will be the family room. There is an attached garage, which we have never had before. Very exciting! Plus there is central air which we have missed!! There is a very nice back porch which will be nice for sitting watching the kiddos play in the yard which is a little over 1 acre!! We will be renting the house for now but in a few years there is the potential to buy it.We won't be able to move in until probably the beginning of December which works out fine for us. That way I can wait for my garden to finish producing vegetation. :)
Everything seems to be falling into place all at once. It was very frustrating trying to find a house to move into. All of them were out of our price range, too small, wouldn't pass inspection, or they wouldn't take our cats. We knew God had a plan for us though. We thought it was just to stay put for another few years. Then I got a text asking if we were still looking. And that's how everything happened. We are just so thankful to God for His timing and for all His blessings! We don't deserve any of them but we are so grateful to know that there are more on the way...that would be the kids!!
As always, thanks for the continued prayers for everything to continue going smoothly!!
Megan
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Almost Done!!!
Finally, I feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel!! There's only a few items left to mark off of our checklist. I was able to accomplish a lot last week. I found our marriage license, which is a good thing to have any ways, we passed our fire inspection, we got mattress covers for the 2 beds (which is required), and we bought a safe for our gun and a separate lock box for the bullets. The people we chose to be the gaurdians of our children, if something should happen to us, gave us their answer this morning (yes you have to have named gaurdians before you can get your license!). I also made a scaled drawing of our house, made copies, and used highlighters to map out the fire escape plan and tornado safety route and I have them posted in each room of the house. I'm not sure if they have to be posted in each room, but it looks much nicer this way! :) We also had to put locks on the cabinet doors where we have our cleaning supplies. We have been very busy with all of this lately!!
What's left on the checklist you ask? We have our safety audit next Wednesday. You have to show two months of paid utility bills and who ever keeps those? Not this girl! So we have one month of bills to give them, but I have to wait for the September bills to come in. We also have to show proof of residency in Ohio for the past five years for each of us. Again, who keeps their utility bills that long? "Not I" said the wife! I called Verizon and requested one bill from each of the past 5 years be sent to us but only Todd's name is on those. So I called our electric company and they are sending a paper telling what addresses they provided service for us and which dates we had service through them, which has been for a while now. Those will have only my name on them. As soon as that comes in I can check that off the list! We both need to get finger printed and have the doctor fill out a paper for each of us saything that we are physically able to be good parents. There is one more thing on the list that I can't remember right now. And lastly, but maybe most important of all, Todd has a few more classes to take STILL!!! He was supposed to take them in July but they got cancelled because not enough people signed up for them. The next set of classes aren't offered again until October, however, we don't want to wait that long since we will be finished with everything else long before that. So CCHO has agreed to do the classes one on one with Todd so we can get things finished up and turned into the State of Ohio. Then all we have to do is wait for our license to come in the mail!!
Here is some big news...a few months ago when first started this process, we heard about these two little girls that were available for adoption. They are with a foster family now, but the family wants to foster other kids so they don't want to adopt. We didn't really think much of it because we were just getting started. Well, they are still available! They are sisters, ages 5 years old and about 6 or 7 months old. Best of all, they have red hair and the 5 year old has glasses! :) We are hoping to adopt these little ones. Once we get our license, we will start going through the matching process to make sure they are a good fit for our home and that they are going to adjust well with us. So far, I have surprised myself. I'm very chill about the whole thing, even though it is exciting to think about the possibility of an instant family. If they are still available when we are done with our licensing, then great! Hopefully we will be a good fit for them. However, if they have already been placed with an adopting family or if we aren't a match, then obviously God has different children that will be a better fit for us.
Well, that's it for this time! Hopefully sometime in September we will be back on to tell you that we are licensed!!!
Until then, continued prayers are always greatly apprectiated!!!
Megan
What's left on the checklist you ask? We have our safety audit next Wednesday. You have to show two months of paid utility bills and who ever keeps those? Not this girl! So we have one month of bills to give them, but I have to wait for the September bills to come in. We also have to show proof of residency in Ohio for the past five years for each of us. Again, who keeps their utility bills that long? "Not I" said the wife! I called Verizon and requested one bill from each of the past 5 years be sent to us but only Todd's name is on those. So I called our electric company and they are sending a paper telling what addresses they provided service for us and which dates we had service through them, which has been for a while now. Those will have only my name on them. As soon as that comes in I can check that off the list! We both need to get finger printed and have the doctor fill out a paper for each of us saything that we are physically able to be good parents. There is one more thing on the list that I can't remember right now. And lastly, but maybe most important of all, Todd has a few more classes to take STILL!!! He was supposed to take them in July but they got cancelled because not enough people signed up for them. The next set of classes aren't offered again until October, however, we don't want to wait that long since we will be finished with everything else long before that. So CCHO has agreed to do the classes one on one with Todd so we can get things finished up and turned into the State of Ohio. Then all we have to do is wait for our license to come in the mail!!
Here is some big news...a few months ago when first started this process, we heard about these two little girls that were available for adoption. They are with a foster family now, but the family wants to foster other kids so they don't want to adopt. We didn't really think much of it because we were just getting started. Well, they are still available! They are sisters, ages 5 years old and about 6 or 7 months old. Best of all, they have red hair and the 5 year old has glasses! :) We are hoping to adopt these little ones. Once we get our license, we will start going through the matching process to make sure they are a good fit for our home and that they are going to adjust well with us. So far, I have surprised myself. I'm very chill about the whole thing, even though it is exciting to think about the possibility of an instant family. If they are still available when we are done with our licensing, then great! Hopefully we will be a good fit for them. However, if they have already been placed with an adopting family or if we aren't a match, then obviously God has different children that will be a better fit for us.
Well, that's it for this time! Hopefully sometime in September we will be back on to tell you that we are licensed!!!
Until then, continued prayers are always greatly apprectiated!!!
Megan
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Second Home Visit
On Friday, June 21st we had our second home study visit! It was much shorter this time. Alicia was probably only there for 30 minutes maybe. Once again, I cleaned the house from top to bottom and she didn't leave the living room. :) I know that one of these days I will clean the house for a good reason!!!
We have also scheduled 2 of the 4 classes that Todd has to make up and those are both in July. We are hoping to be finished with everything and have our license by August or September. We are so excited to be moving along in the process!!
We are still looking for another house to rent. We thought we had found one but that might not work out after all. We are still waiting to hear more about that. Prayers that we will be able to find something with plenty of space for our soon to be growing family at a price that fits into our budget would be greatly appreciated!
We also would appreciate all your prayers that we will get through the licensing process quickly!
We will keep you posted on any updates!!!
Megan
We have also scheduled 2 of the 4 classes that Todd has to make up and those are both in July. We are hoping to be finished with everything and have our license by August or September. We are so excited to be moving along in the process!!
We are still looking for another house to rent. We thought we had found one but that might not work out after all. We are still waiting to hear more about that. Prayers that we will be able to find something with plenty of space for our soon to be growing family at a price that fits into our budget would be greatly appreciated!
We also would appreciate all your prayers that we will get through the licensing process quickly!
We will keep you posted on any updates!!!
Megan
Sunday, June 9, 2013
First Home Visit
Well we are happy to say that we have started our home study process!! We had our first meeting with our home study assessor, Alicia, on Wednesday, May 29th. Luckily Todd was able to make it home, literally, just in time! He arrived about 5 minutes before Alicia did. But we were glad he was able to make it! That's one less thing he has to make up later.
We were really nervous going into the meeting. We really weren't sure what to expect. I spent the entire week prior deep cleaning the house! We also changed our office into the nursery the weekend before. That was an adventure!! Todd managed to break our desk. (mental eye roll!) Other then that, the transformation was pretty much smooth sailing and now we have a nursery! Anyways, after all that hard work, of course, she didn't leave the living room!! We just sat there and answered 2 1/2 hours worth of questions! It was very invasive and personal. As much as I love talking, I HATE talking about myself!!! But I made it through. Todd lucked out big time. She asked me all the questions first so he had a chance to think about his answers ahead of time. We have scheduled our next home study visit for June 21st which will be the safety check.
We are really excited to be moving forward and making progress in the adoption process!!! Thanks for all the prayers so far and as always, continued prayers are always welcome and greatly appreciated!!! We will keep you all posted about the next meeting!!
Megan
We were really nervous going into the meeting. We really weren't sure what to expect. I spent the entire week prior deep cleaning the house! We also changed our office into the nursery the weekend before. That was an adventure!! Todd managed to break our desk. (mental eye roll!) Other then that, the transformation was pretty much smooth sailing and now we have a nursery! Anyways, after all that hard work, of course, she didn't leave the living room!! We just sat there and answered 2 1/2 hours worth of questions! It was very invasive and personal. As much as I love talking, I HATE talking about myself!!! But I made it through. Todd lucked out big time. She asked me all the questions first so he had a chance to think about his answers ahead of time. We have scheduled our next home study visit for June 21st which will be the safety check.
We are really excited to be moving forward and making progress in the adoption process!!! Thanks for all the prayers so far and as always, continued prayers are always welcome and greatly appreciated!!! We will keep you all posted about the next meeting!!
Megan
Friday, March 15, 2013
Progress!
GOOD NEWS! We are moving in the right direction!!! Actually, I'm just excited that we are moving in the process at all! I feel like we have been on hold for the last couple years, starting from when we were trying to get pregnant so it just feels good to be taking some steps forward in expanding our family! I am half way done with the pre-service training classes that we have to take! We each need a total of 36 hours of training and I've got 18 hours done so far! I have tomorrow, next Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and next Saturday to go yet and then I will be finished! Can't wait to add a check mark to our long list of things we have to get done! On the other hand...Todd only has 9 hours done so far. He will not be able to make it tomorrow and won't be there again until next Saturday (hopefully!). It's very frustrating that his boss isn't willing to work with us so he can be here for at least most of the classes! It's very upsetting for me because he doesn't understand that this is the only way we can have children and these are the steps we HAVE to take to get them...not like it's an option, it's a requirement! So anyways, he will have to make up the classes he is missing over the next few months when they are offered on Saturdays in the surrounding counties.
All of this baby stuff is very emotional for me. I'm very excited that we have adoption that we can turn to but that doesn't make dealing with infertility any less emotional and painful for me, especially since the reason we can't get pregnant is because of me. As blessed as we are to be able to travel down this road of adoption, I still have a deep desire and longing to have our own natural child and be able to experience pregnancy and child birth. I've really been struggling with this lately! If you've never gone through infertility before you won't understand this, but not being able to get pregnant, emotionally feels like a loss. Sometimes I feel like I've moved past that and I'm only focused on the adoption. At other times, however, like the last few weeks, something triggers it for me and I have to deal with it all over again. I think what triggered it this time, may have been starting the pre-service classes because I feel like it's completely closing the door for me to ever be able to get pregnant because once we adopt, we won't have a need for our own natural children. As I'm sitting here writing this, crying uncontrollably, I feel ungrateful to God for giving us this blessing of being able to start our family through adoption, and selfish because I still want our own kids, along with our adopted kids. I go back and forth so much! I don't do well with not feeling in control of my emotions and the things we have going on in our lives. Like I said in an earlier post, I'm a control freak! I would appreciate anyone who is willing to pray for me and my emotions in trying to get through this. To make it worse I'm "nesting" like crazy! I've been working very hard to get the office, soon to be nursery, cleaned out so we can have another check mark on our to-do list. It's quite a chore to get all this accomplished without any help from my husband. Since he is gone all week long, the last thing he wants to do when he is home for 34 hours is help me organize and I want him to have time to relax! I have mostly everything organized, but now I have to figure out where I can move my office to. I've been having so much fun looking on Pinterest to get decorating ideas for the nursery!! :) Also, we have decided not to move unless we find something really great in price that's at least 3 bedrooms. It's just so much of a hassle to have to move so we will stay here for now.
To end, I wanted to put the link to a song that I've been hearing on the radio a lot lately. It's called "Strangely Dim" by Francesca Battistelli. It really hits home for me. God always puts the perfect song in my life right when I need it! When I heard this song a few weeks ago, it just reminded me that even though my emotions are going crazy right now, God has a plan for us...a PERFECT plan!! I don't know what it is, but He does! My favorite part of the song is towards the end where she says, " I don't know what tomorrow may hold. But I know, but I know, that You're holding it all." I need to fix my eyes on the Lord and put all my energy into growing in my walk with Him and trust that He will give us children in His perfect time, not mine. Anyways, here's the link...LOVE THIS SONG!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DG9NeP0CLc&noredirect=1
(if you scroll down, the lyrics are typed out under this video!)
Thanks for reading and for all your continued prayers and words of encouragement for us!
Megan
All of this baby stuff is very emotional for me. I'm very excited that we have adoption that we can turn to but that doesn't make dealing with infertility any less emotional and painful for me, especially since the reason we can't get pregnant is because of me. As blessed as we are to be able to travel down this road of adoption, I still have a deep desire and longing to have our own natural child and be able to experience pregnancy and child birth. I've really been struggling with this lately! If you've never gone through infertility before you won't understand this, but not being able to get pregnant, emotionally feels like a loss. Sometimes I feel like I've moved past that and I'm only focused on the adoption. At other times, however, like the last few weeks, something triggers it for me and I have to deal with it all over again. I think what triggered it this time, may have been starting the pre-service classes because I feel like it's completely closing the door for me to ever be able to get pregnant because once we adopt, we won't have a need for our own natural children. As I'm sitting here writing this, crying uncontrollably, I feel ungrateful to God for giving us this blessing of being able to start our family through adoption, and selfish because I still want our own kids, along with our adopted kids. I go back and forth so much! I don't do well with not feeling in control of my emotions and the things we have going on in our lives. Like I said in an earlier post, I'm a control freak! I would appreciate anyone who is willing to pray for me and my emotions in trying to get through this. To make it worse I'm "nesting" like crazy! I've been working very hard to get the office, soon to be nursery, cleaned out so we can have another check mark on our to-do list. It's quite a chore to get all this accomplished without any help from my husband. Since he is gone all week long, the last thing he wants to do when he is home for 34 hours is help me organize and I want him to have time to relax! I have mostly everything organized, but now I have to figure out where I can move my office to. I've been having so much fun looking on Pinterest to get decorating ideas for the nursery!! :) Also, we have decided not to move unless we find something really great in price that's at least 3 bedrooms. It's just so much of a hassle to have to move so we will stay here for now.
To end, I wanted to put the link to a song that I've been hearing on the radio a lot lately. It's called "Strangely Dim" by Francesca Battistelli. It really hits home for me. God always puts the perfect song in my life right when I need it! When I heard this song a few weeks ago, it just reminded me that even though my emotions are going crazy right now, God has a plan for us...a PERFECT plan!! I don't know what it is, but He does! My favorite part of the song is towards the end where she says, " I don't know what tomorrow may hold. But I know, but I know, that You're holding it all." I need to fix my eyes on the Lord and put all my energy into growing in my walk with Him and trust that He will give us children in His perfect time, not mine. Anyways, here's the link...LOVE THIS SONG!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DG9NeP0CLc&noredirect=1
(if you scroll down, the lyrics are typed out under this video!)
Thanks for reading and for all your continued prayers and words of encouragement for us!
Megan
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Yesterdays Meeting...
So we met with Rhonda at the CCH yesterday afternoon. The meeting went so well!! She said they don't get very many moms that come in to make an adoption plan, but they do on occasion so that could be a possibility. She is going to get us approved for adoption and at the same time we are going to get qualified for foster-to-adopt. When we looked into Summit County for foster-to-adopt, there was a minimum age range of 0-5 years that we had to be ready for (buying beds for the different ages, etc), and they were kind of rude. We just didn't feel that Summit County was a right fit for us, which is why we were sort of glad that we weren't able to take the classes through them last year. For CCH, there is no minimum age range that we are obligated to choose. We can select the age range that we are comfortable with and when they receive a child that fits what we are looking for, they will call us. Of course, the greater age range we are able to accept, the more quickly we will get a call.
On our way home we talked about what we were both comfortable with and we decided that we would be willing to accept sibling groups, up to 2 children, no older then 4 years old. That way we have a greater chance of getting called sooner, but they are still young. We can also request that one of the siblings is still an infant. So maybe we will be going from 0 to 2 kids in the same year...that would be exciting! :)
Since we might be taking on more then one child, we are looking for a bigger place! We only have 2 bedrooms right now, which is ok, but if we can get moved before we have to do the home study, that would be better. Otherwise, there are parts of the home study we would have to repeat. We would like to have at least 3 bedrooms and a dining room, so we can all eat together as a family, instead of on the couch in front of the boob tube. We are looking in Wooster (preferably), but we are open to Orrville, Smithville, or Dalton as well. Please let us know if you know of anything that would fit our needs!!
We will be starting our pre-service classes in march, then we will move on to the home study. We both feel that this is where God wants us to be right now. We are continuing to pray for his guidance through this whole process and that he will lead us to the child or children he has already chosen for us! Your continued prayers are always appreciated too!
Todd and Megan
On our way home we talked about what we were both comfortable with and we decided that we would be willing to accept sibling groups, up to 2 children, no older then 4 years old. That way we have a greater chance of getting called sooner, but they are still young. We can also request that one of the siblings is still an infant. So maybe we will be going from 0 to 2 kids in the same year...that would be exciting! :)
Since we might be taking on more then one child, we are looking for a bigger place! We only have 2 bedrooms right now, which is ok, but if we can get moved before we have to do the home study, that would be better. Otherwise, there are parts of the home study we would have to repeat. We would like to have at least 3 bedrooms and a dining room, so we can all eat together as a family, instead of on the couch in front of the boob tube. We are looking in Wooster (preferably), but we are open to Orrville, Smithville, or Dalton as well. Please let us know if you know of anything that would fit our needs!!
We will be starting our pre-service classes in march, then we will move on to the home study. We both feel that this is where God wants us to be right now. We are continuing to pray for his guidance through this whole process and that he will lead us to the child or children he has already chosen for us! Your continued prayers are always appreciated too!
Todd and Megan
Monday, February 11, 2013
Update...
Well, sorry we haven't updated for a while but we have sort of been on hold for the last few months. As I said in our last post, we were getting ready to start the foster-to-adopt training classes. Well we never did get a chance to start for a few reasons. I was going to start them without Todd, but my car wouldn't start and I missed the first class. Something else happened (I don't remember) and I missed the second class. Then we had a conflict with Todd's work schedule. We were told that he would be able to be home for the Saturday classes, but when it came down to it, they made him leave on Saturday afternoon and he would have missed the class. So we haven't been moving forward at all.
Last week, I was looking on the Christian Children's Home (CCH) website to see when their next foster-to-adopt classes started again, since no one has gotten back with me yet. I happened to stumble upon something that said they have a private infant adoption program. I was so excited! I knew they had an adoption program (without having to foster first), but I didn't know that adopting privately and being able to choose just an infant was an option.I sent an email right away to the person in charge of that. Surprisingly she got back with me the same day. She sent me some information and we set up a meeting with her for this coming Friday at 3:00 so she can answer any of our questions and talk to us a little bit more about the program. We are so excited! Maybe God didn't have "public adoption" in His plans for us at all. Maybe He only led us in that direction so we would discover this program at CCH. I don't know, but we are praying that this might be what He has in mind for us, and if it's still not it, that He will light the way and guide us to where His plans are taking us.
We appreciate all your prayers as we continue down this long, frustrating, and emotional road to add a child to our family!
Megan
Last week, I was looking on the Christian Children's Home (CCH) website to see when their next foster-to-adopt classes started again, since no one has gotten back with me yet. I happened to stumble upon something that said they have a private infant adoption program. I was so excited! I knew they had an adoption program (without having to foster first), but I didn't know that adopting privately and being able to choose just an infant was an option.I sent an email right away to the person in charge of that. Surprisingly she got back with me the same day. She sent me some information and we set up a meeting with her for this coming Friday at 3:00 so she can answer any of our questions and talk to us a little bit more about the program. We are so excited! Maybe God didn't have "public adoption" in His plans for us at all. Maybe He only led us in that direction so we would discover this program at CCH. I don't know, but we are praying that this might be what He has in mind for us, and if it's still not it, that He will light the way and guide us to where His plans are taking us.
We appreciate all your prayers as we continue down this long, frustrating, and emotional road to add a child to our family!
Megan
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