Woo Hoo!

After three and a half months of working on piles of paperwork and online forms, our adoption application at LDS Family Services has been officially approved!!!

Let me give you an idea of what was involved in getting our paperwork done. First, we went to an orientation meeting and paid them a bunch of money to start our application. Next, we had to sign a bunch of legal stuff. We filled out the papers giving them references and authorizing criminal background checks to be run on us. Then we had a financial disclosure form, including giving them a 1040 from last year's taxes. And that was all before we left the first meeting!

After that meeting, we were assigned a great caseworker. She met with us for a couple of interviews and a home inspection. We also had to pass an interview with our bishop, and he wrote a reference letter for us. Others of you also wrote reference letters for us (thanks, again!). There were legal forms we turned in copies of, including a marriage certificate, birth certificates, etc. I was going to say that the only thing nobody asked for was a blood test, but we were all required to have physicals, and Wayne had a blood test for it.

Besides that, we also made a photo collage, wrote a letter to potential birth parents, and created an online profile at www.beta.itsaboutlove.org.

As you can see, that's quite a bit of work! And believe it or not, I might have forgotten some of the stuff we had to do. Some people start these applications and never finish, and I met several couples who told me it took them about a year to do it all.

When our caseworker called us this afternoon to tell us that we were official, I was jumping up and down and cheering. After all that work, it is very rewarding to reach this point. Wayne and I celebrated by going to the temple and eating at Tucanos afterward.

What's left? Well, we have adoption classes that we attend once per month, and we have one more to go. After that, we hope and pray that our baby's birth mom will see our profile online or in the LDS Family Services office. Our caseworker has also told us that many people find their birth moms through friends and family who know someone that is considering adoption. So, if any of you have contacts like that, let us know. And show them our blog!