November News

Just wanted to quickly update everyone that there was once again some movement. I inquired to our local agency - Adoption Services, Inc. - about any potential birthmothers and surprisingly, they were working with two. Our profile was shown, but not selected by either. One birthomother chose a couple where the woman was adopted and recently met her own birthmother. Can't compete against that. The other chose to meet three couples, but we were not one of them. I'm going to have to take a long, hard look at our profile.

We did make some updates to our profile that the law office in Florida will receive. We had more freedom there and used snapfish.com to create a photobook. I'm waiting for the first one to deliver but it seems to be backed up because of holiday orders. Other than that ... we're set.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
-Jodi

November update

It's been an entire month since the last post and things have been busy for Dan and I. My Busia had a terrible fall and was never able to recover. After several weeks, she passed away and I found myself thinking - a lot - that she was never going to meet my son or daughter. That makes me so sad, because she was such a supporter of our decision to adopt. She always had questions and wanted to know how it was going. But I know that if there is ANYTHING she can do from up above ... then it will only be a matter of time before Dan and I are parents.

We are officially renewed for another year. We've received the updated foster care license. We're signed with Adoption Services, Inc. and The Law Office of Madonna Finney. The wait continues, but I really feel like it won't be long. Can't explain why, it's just a feeling.

Take care everyone and thanks for your continuing support. It helps during this long wait to have such great friends and family. -Jodi

Tough Call

Late last week, I received a call at work from our new adoption partner - Madonna H. Finney's office. They had a situation in Florida and since it wasn't a "normal situation," they wanted to check in and see if we'd be interested in pursuing. WHAT?!?!? Movement so quickly. This was so foreign to us, but so exciting. Without going into a ton of detail to respect everyone involved, Dan and I decided the situation wasn't the right fit for us. It wasn't an easy decision and I still think about it, but deep down I know it was the right decision.

The good news is that we feel we definitely made the right call by signing up with the law office. They obviously have movement and we really feel it's only a matter of time before we're parents. -Jodi

Decisions, Decisions

It's been a whole month since an update, so I apologize and hope you all haven't fallen off the blog. Dan and I have decided to move forward with the Law Office of Madonna H. Finney in Tallahassee, FL. We had a conference call a couple of weeks ago and really liked what we heard. So, we're moving forward. Sometimes you just a gut and for the first time, I finally feel like things are going to happen for us. We will actually adopt in Florida and so we'll be following their adoption laws. Many are the same, but there are few differences. I'll post some of those later.

We have a homestudy meeting with the local agency this afternoon at our house. Then we'll be set for another year. We'll continue to be listed with Adoption Services, Inc. and we'll also use them for our post-placement visits.

There you have it. The most recent news in the adoption saga. -Jodi

Florida Adoption Law Firm

We have our consultation meeting set for late September with the adoption law firm in Florida. We're both very excited about it. We did get clarification that we can be listed with both our current agency as well as the law firm. In the meantime, we need to get our homestudy renewed. Believe it or not, it's been a whole year of waiting. So, that's what we're doing now. We need to go back and get employment, health, background checks, etc. done again. Hopefully it won't take too long to pull together since we did it once before. I've also joined a couple of adoption groups on Yahoo. One is for domestic agencies and the other is adoption scams. You can never be too careful. Dan and I are also reworking our profile that gets shared with prospective birthparents. The law firm doesn't need a whole binder, so we can play with the format a bit.
So, that's that for now. Until later ... -Jodi

Still there?

Anyone, anyone ... Bueller? Just checking.

The latest update for Dan and I and our adoption journey includes expanding our search a bit. Based on a referral from a friend (of a friend), we are considering working with a law office out of Florida. We have sent in our initial application and are awaiting a phone consultation. That should happen some time in September and then we'll let you all know if we decide to sign with them. I've done lots of online research on the firm, been to chat rooms and message boards and have only seen good things about the firm. Wish us luck with our expanded search. We'll let you know how that progresses.
-Jodi

Friend of a Friend of a Friend ...

A couple of weeks ago we heard about a little girl who may be placed for adoption. We haven't heard much recently, but hope that if the situation is still open, that we will be given the opportunity to meet and discuss the possibility of an adoption plan. If we meet, we may or may not feel comfortable with each other. You just never know. We struggle, because it takes someone's unfortunate circumstance for us to have this opportunity. All we can promise is that we'd love, support and nuture this little girl or any child that we can call our own.

Thanks to everyone who is still checking in. Sorry there aren't more exciting updates, but this is a long process. Someday the payoff will be huge!

Enjoy your summer! -Jodi