It's beginning to look a lot like...

....a nursery!

We have been blessed by several gifts in the past few months - not only financially, but also materially. Our baby's room is really beginning to come together!

My Mom is getting Grandma fever, I think :)...and she bought us this adorable wall cling with birdies on it! There are 2 pink and 2 blue, so we can adjust them once we know whether it's a boy or a girl! :)



This may not look any different, but our crib finally has sheets and a mattress cover!! Yay! No more bare mattress showing through! :)

Joe's sister graciously gave us her Fisher-Price Papasan chair, as she is no longer needing it. It's in great condition and looks so comfy for our little one someday!

I have recently been signing up on various sites so that I can receive coupons for baby related items: diapers, clothing, formula, bottles, etc. I was shocked a few weeks ago when I received these three samples in the mail, plus several coupons and vouchers for up to $11 off of name brand products! What a blessing! Thankfully they don't expire until February or later, so I'm praying that we become a family of three before then!

And there's even more - though I don't have pictures to show them. Things like bottles, baby spoons, receiving blankets, changing pads, extra crib sheets, towels, and so on. We have been so blessed! Not to mention the financial support we've received from several dear friends....our words could never convey our thankfulness! God is so good :)

And, since I know you're all probably wondering....there hasn't been any more "news" from LSS. We are still waiting to get a phone call. For some reason, the fact that Christmas is around the corner is making me more impatient, but I'm trusting the Lord's timing and waiting for Him to write the ending to this exciting journey. If there's any news, I'll definitely be posting it here!!

Rock-a-bye Baby

Our "nest" is looking more and more ready for a baby birdy to fly in! :) Today Joe tackled the job of locating screws for the crib we've had sitting in the nursery. And now it's finally put together!! My heart skipped for joy when I walked into the baby's room and saw this:

Isn't it beautiful?? :)

You can also see a glimpse of our bassinett on the floor in front of it. I might share more on that in a future post... :) But for now, I'm just content seeing our child's bed completed and ready for him/her to come home!

Now all I need is to find some sheets!

Preparing the Nest

Most of you have probably noticed the little adoption countdown I placed at the top of the page. Since we're going with a birdie theme in the nursery, I thought it would be a cute way to represent our waiting period.

And no, we haven't heard anything yet. :)

Though I've had a nagging and urgent feeling since this past weekend that we're going to receive a call any day now. Kind of weird since I haven't felt terribly impatient or anxious since getting all of our stuff turned in to LSS. Who knows, maybe we'll get a call this week! We'll just have to see.

It could also be related to the fact that I did a LOT of housework last weekend. The only way I can describe it is that I feel like I'm nesting. If you know me, you know that I'm not the type who needs to have clean windows, an organized junk drawer, or all the dust bunnies in the house to be vaccuumed up. But that's pretty much how I was over the weekend, and I still feel an urgent sense to clean, well, everything!

Who knows. Maybe there will be some news by the end of this week! Now that would be incredible.... And if we don't hear anything by the end of this month, I'll be checking in with Laura (our social worker) to see if our portfolio has gone out at all. But I would love it if I didn't even have to make that call... :)

Home Study

So I'm sure you're dying to hear how our home study went. That is, those of you that I haven't seen in the past 2 days. :) So here we go...

Laura (our social worker) showed up half an hour early...haha...not intentionally! But it did cause me to run around a little bit like a chicken with my head cut off, but it was all good. When she arrived, we finished up all the little bits of paperwork we had left to do...mostly just giving her what we had already filled out. Joe was at the computer, frantically trying to finish his autobiography so she could take it with her, and she was very understanding of that, which was nice.

After collecting our paperwork, she had me show her around the house, and she just pretty much walked into the rooms to see what it looked like, but she wasn't down on her hands and knees and "inspecting" or anything like that. So....I felt kind of silly doing all the hard work we had to clean our house - but at the same time, I was grateful that it was clean. And it's a huge load off my shoulders since I'd need to clean/organize in the future anyway.

After seeing our house, we sat and chatted for a bit and she asked if we had any questions. One main question we had was whether or not we would be able to adopt privately if someone we knew connected us with a birthmom who happened to live outside of our state. The answer is yes -- in fact, the fees drop considerably and LSS continues to work with us and the agency in the other state to make everything run smoothly. That was very encouraging!

Then, Joe finished his autobiography, and she took it hot off the printer! ;) My fabulous sister-in-law (who took our pictures with Quincy for our portfolio) had finished editing the pics the morning before Laura arrived, and so I was able to go and order prints in town quick so that Laura could take them back with her. I didn't plan on having those done by Friday originally, but it was such a relief to have that part finished!!

Now all that is left is for the rest of our references to be submitted (only 2 left - yea!), mail our finalized "Dear Birthmother Letter", and finish our portfolio (the scrapbook of our lives). Yay!! We're hoping to have all that finished in the next week or two, and then at that point, we will officially be in "the book" for birthmothers to look through. Crazy! And very cool... :)

And, as many people have been asking, here are the long awaited pics of the nursery -- painted and everything! :) Enjoy!!

We plan to have the crib where the fan and basket are now. 

And, unfortunately, I think we're going to have to trade the corner bookshelves in for something more space efficient...

 

See the lovely shag carpet on the floor of the closet? 

That's what originally covered ALL of the floor. 

Lovely, isn't it? 

We hope to get a rug to help muffle sound in the future...