Week 1

We made it through week one. The initial excitment has died down from first becoming an active family in the agency and now we are more calm and accepting of what is to be. At this point, only God knows what the timeline is for us to welcome our baby into our family. It's not easy, but I'm trying not to think about it too much.

I have too much to do! That is what I keep telling myself anyway. I have too much to get done on my To-Do list before a baby comes!! I have been working hard at the spare bedroom. I can say that 40% of the magazines are gone and in the recycle bin.

The newest fabric that I bought for my upcoming projects is washed and dried. Since I am using different fabrics on each side, I thought it would not be good for one side to shrink up more than the other. Now they are pre-shrunk and ready to go! I need to finish Jon's slipcover project first. I'm half done and I told him I would have them finished the next time he sees us. I am going to get out my bin of extra fabric and see if I can use any of that in these projects too. The rocking chair needs some slipcovers, at least on the foot stool.

I have been doing well at keeping up with the journal that I purchased for Little Roo. It has been very helpful too look up specific dates for certain milestones. Bill ordered me a book from Amazon about creating adoption lifebooks and reading through that, it looks like I have a head start in that arena! The other book that came is "Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew" by Sherrie Eldridge.

An email showed up today from the NRDC about cloth diapers! How funny since I was writing about that yesterday!! If anyone wants it, I will forward it to you.

Cloth Diapering

Cloth Diapers - yep, we're thinking about doing it. We're both willing to do the work and we feel it is the best choice, at least for when we are at home. Most daycares won't deal with anything other than disposables and that's fine. I'm really hoping to find someone that already has some young children and wants to stay home and will take a few more kids to supplement their income. Especially with a young infant, I think this is a better option. Maybe they will be willing to deal with cloth diapers... I'm still researching this whole arena.

My brother and myself were both cloth diapered. Diapers have come a long way in the last 30 years! Pins have been replaced by snaps, stretchy tabs, and velcro. No more loud plastic pants, they have been replaced with customized embroidered covers and print fabrics! I might even be adventurous to try sewing some of my own! No longer is a "wet pail" recommended, especially if you have a method to pre-wash the diapers. Using a pail liner or wet bag, you can pretty much get all the dirty diapers in the wash without smelling or touching. This I can do!

Here's the front runner so far - bumGenius 2.0 One-Size Cloth Diaper

They are one size, so no buying an assortment of sizes. There is a snap-down rise to fit on smaller babies. I love the colors! They are really pocket diapers, so you can stuff the diaper with different liners depending on the absorbancy needed. I also really like the wipes they make out of bamboo fiber.

This is a pretty cool concept as well - The Potty Pail for pre-washing diapers.

Here are some of my favorite cloth diapering links right now:
Cotton Babies
PinStripes and PolkaDots
Diaper Pin

Bill and I are becoming more conscious about our footprint on the planet. We try to think about what our impact is. While we are not the most "granola crunchy" people you will ever meet, we believe that our efforts, no matter how small, do make a difference. I already use Lunapads so why would I not use cloth diapers?? This is not a foreign concept. More work - possibly. Better for our baby - absolutely.

Jon bought slipcovers for his sofa and loveseat. He asked me to make covers for the pillows and of course, I said yes! We picked some fleece to make what our family calls "Magic Pillows" (because you tend to fall asleep!) that matched the colors of the slipcovers. So far I have finished 4 tonight and I have 4 more left to go. I think they are turning out very well. We ended up buying more fleece than we needed but I will probably finish the project by making a blanket for Jon to use while watching TV.

Being in a fabric store, I couldn't resist looking at the fabric and of course I HAD to buy some great baby prints that I found! Once I get the pillows done for Jon, I'll start making some burp pads and lap pads with the fabrics I bought. I couldn't buy just one print.... this is exactly why I have so much craft stuff. BUT I know exactly what I am going to do with it and I'm using it instead of storing it. I can't wait to start! I have some new flannel, micro fleece, and terry cloth. I'll certainly post pictures of my masterpieces when I'm done!

I'm curling up to watch the Oscars tonight! Have I said how much I LOVE movies? This weekend we saw "Ghost Rider" and "Reno 911". Both were great! Once the baby comes, we'll be firing up the Netflix subscription...

Thursday

Nothing new.... nothing exciting....

The agency sent us a notarized copy of our homestudy and a printed copy of our family profile. Got some more cleaning done last night. Slowly but surely I will conquer the room! I think it is official that I have too much craft stuff. Who do I think I am - Martha Stewart??

Can I have some of this please???

The Big Cleanout

The official cleanout has begun!

First I have been cleaning my office. Ugh! At times, you would think a bomb has gone off in there. When I work from home, I have to get it straighted out or I'd go nuts! I haven't been very good at keeping up with filing old bills and such. I had to create new folders for all our adoption paperwork and 2006 taxes. Yep - it's tax time. I can't complain as we owe very little money this year once I started itemizing our deductions. Hopefully we will have a new dependent to claim! Usually I am very quick to start filing, but since we owe money this year, I will probably let it sit a little longer.

I also started rearranging the books on the library shelves to make room for some of my scrapbook materials. It is all contained very well, it just happens to be in the baby's room closet with all my craft things. I really don't have anywhere else to put it. On the shelves, it doesn't look too bad and since I can get to all the paper and stickers easily, I might actually use all this stuff more. For the rest of my craft stuff and sewing machine, I think it's going to stay in the baby's closet. Actually we have an empty closet in the work out room but Harley's box is in there so it's not like we can put other stuff in there.

I put away the washed and folded baby clothes that we have ready to go in the dresser. This felt like a huge accomplishment to me. I liked them sitting out on the bed so I could look at them but I don't want Harley laying on it either. I'm also gathering the other items we have and they will go in the dresser too once the last drawer is cleaned out. I'm dreading looking underneath the guest bed. I'm going to have to - the bed has to be moved over to make room for the crib. I know for sure my wedding dress and 2 violins are under there. Who knows what else I will find, including stray dog toys that have rolled under there that Biscuit couldn't reach. I don't want to go through the stack of magazines that I have in there either. Why in the world do I keep them? More importantly, why can I not throw them in the recycle bin??

I'm going to have to get serious about cleaning out that room and keeping the stuff we really want. I'm going to have to do it, but it's going to take a while.There is no reason why 2 people can't live with all their stuff in a 4 bedroom house. I saw Oprah yesterday on designing for small spaces. If they can do it, so can I. Maybe I have too much junk.... It's much more important to me that our child has a safe and inviting space to call their own. We cannot use that room as a catch-all for stuff anymore!

Oh - I remembered what is under the bed! All the stuff that I had up on my walls as a girl! It will be fun to go through that and hang up some of those for the baby. I have a lot of "J" items.... maybe I should think of "J" names so it all still applies!?

We're Official!

I got an email from "S" this morning!

I just wanted to drop you a note and let you know we received your activation agreement. You are now officially active and I am so excited for you! Being set active means that your profile is now being sent out to potential birth parents.

Now that you are active, it may sometimes feel like you are simply waiting and do not know what is happening. This is a normal part of the process and I am glad to review with you what to expect now that you are active.

I look forward to helping you throughout your adoption journey! Congratulations on this first big hurdle!

"S" also told me that our profile has been sent off to the available birthmom situation. We probably won't hear any more about that unless she picks us or wants to meet before making a decision. This is probably going to be the hardest part... the waiting! I pray that I have the patience for all this.

Little Roo - where are you?!

OK, Maybe Tuesday!

I think we have been caught up with the President's Day holiday! No word from the agency yet about us being active today.

We sent the contracts with FedEx and we can see that they were delivered this morning at 9am. We should be getting some kind of email once we are active in the system.... at this point, we're not sweating it! Sometimes you just have to laugh and just say "oh well, we tried!" At least I didn't pay for the fastest delivery as it would have gotten there the same time anyway!! I'm smart about some things...

We'll Be Active On Monday!

We received the contracts for activation yesterday and had them notarized last night. The contract wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be. It protects everyone involved. We can't turn down a match that fits with our preferences because we meet the birthparents and decide that they aren't "good" enough for us. We can't try to find out more information about the birthparents by hiring a private investigator or anything of that nature. We can turn down a match if information arises that changes the situation and we do not feel comfortable moving forward. If we get pregnant, we have to notify them within 30 days. All pretty standard stuff and nothing that concerns me.

This morning, Bill dropped them off in the FedEx envelope so they are on their way! We aren't sure anyone will be in the office tomorrow to sign for the package, so it getting there on Monday is all fine and good. If we "missing" out on any situations, it wasn't meant to be anyway.

Speaking of which, I don't have any clue whether we have been shown yet or not to the birthmom discussed earlier this week. I'm actually guessing not since we technically were not activated yet in the system and the mom is not currently in a distressing situation where she has to have a family today! She is still listed in the available situations. We'll have to see what transpires on Monday and Tuesday of next week.

Now the real "Big Wait" really begins so I really can't get ahead of myself. I pray I have the patience for this.