Instant parents!

The last 48 hours have just been amazing. Thursday, we went to the last education meeting to finish our home study. On the drive home, we get a call from our social worker. We were just thinking it was a call about how the class went and a congrats about having our home study done/next steps to get our profile up and stuff. 

Well, she also told us about a little 13 day old baby that needed a forever home. We were the only family that met the criteria the birth mom requested for her baby's family. We were just in shock. We never expected to get a call to adopt our baby only hours after having our home study complete. We were expecting to wait at least 6 months to a year. 

We thought long and hard about this life changing decision on the way home. We prayed and spoke with family, friends, and our work. We soon realized that we had overwhelming support and love from our family and friends. This crazy idea of being parents with only a 12 hour notice started to feel right. 

So at 3pm on July 25, we got to meet our little Zoe. We fell in love instantly. She just fits in our family and was born to be a Thomas. We feel truly blessed to have her in our lives. 

Thanks so much to everyone for the love and support. We truly appreciate it and love all of y'all for it! 

Holy crap, we are parents!!! :)

Our Adoption Profile Book

Throughout the home study process, we have worked on our adoption profile book. Now that we are just waiting on signatures to finalize our home study, we can finally post our profile book!

This book has taken many months to create... many months of us re-writing pages, choosing which pictures to include, and praying that our personalities, our love, and our lives shine through each page. We hope this book sums up our lives well and speaks to the parents that will bless us with the greatest gift anyone could give us.

We can see the Home Study finish line!

Things have been a bit quiet on this blog. This is mainly because we are wrapping up the home study. We have a meeting to attend later this month, then we are done! After that, we work on our online profile, get our profile books printed, and our adoption profile goes live!

We are so excited to be at this stage. We cannot wait until our home study is complete and approved. The home study process, while long and tedious at times, has served as an insightful tool at looking at our lives, our marriage, what we envision our family to be, and what we envision our parental style to be. Sometimes I think this four year process of trying to build our family has given us an opportunity to prepare for parenthood more than if we were able to get pregnant soon and just have 9 months to figure it all out. 

I've spent many, many hours and days and years researching different parenting styles, types of diapers, the best cribs, the best carseats, the best day cares, and the best foods for babies. I've had a chance to watch my friends and family raise their children and learn from what they've done. We've been able to go ahead and purchase items for our future family member.

I know that no amount of research and preperation can truly prepare you for the chaos that parenthood can be. I do think that it helps to have these ideas handy to help in creating the most loving, caring, and nurturing environment to raise a little one. 

I just cannot wait! I am looking forward to our little family and all of the memories we will create!