We are moving on up!!!

Almost every other week we get email updates from our social worker Sara. She sends everyone emails letting them know where they are on the waiting list and of any new referrals or waiting children. Today we find out they we are # 140 on the list. We can't believe that we moved up 13 spots in less than a month.

Our friends Renee and Kyle are leaving for Vietnam today. They are so excited and anxious to finally see their son in person. Hopefully they will keep updating their blog. We look at it everyday in excitement for them because we know we will be there soon. They have been really helpful with information regarding the process. We hope to be able to learn from them the do's and don't of the process and the Country. The blogs and journey's have been very helpful. I find myself looking at them daily, just waiting for the day that we will get to meet our son.

We are on "The List"

We are so excited, we found our we are # 153 on the waiting list. The last couple that received their referral took about 9 1/2 months . We are hoping by January we will have a referral. It's hard because we find ourselves wanting to buy things for John. We are planning to start painting his room soon. I already have his bedding and cannot wait to get his room finished.

We have our approval!!!

Today we received our I-171. It only took about 4 1/2 weeks. We were not expecting for a few more weeks. It can take up to 10 weeks. It's Friday afternoon so first thing on Monday I will fax to Sara. Monday morning we will officially be on "The List". This is one step closer to bringing our son home.

Our First Gift!

We have just received our first gift for our son (Thanks Aunt Debbie and Uncle Jeff!). As you can see from the picture, we have decided to name him John Edward Maynard. We are in the process of picking out colors and furniture to put in his bedroom. Man, there are a million ideas that we have and it is so hard to settle on one. Maybe we will just do them all! In all seriousness, we will post pictures of his room and everything as soon as we are able to get it completed. We'll keep you posted.

The Homestudy is Back!

Today we picked up our completed Homestudy from CHI. Looks like they have decided that we may be alright after all - haha. We had to take our Homestudy, along with our Invitation to be fingerprinted, to the Citizen and Immigration Services Office in Nashville. They are checking to see if we are convicted felons! As, we sat in the Office to get fingerprinted, we talked to two other couples who were there to do the same thing. It is really amazing the number of people that we have talked to that either are adopting or know someone adopting. Seems like there are a bunch of us out there. After we finished with our Fingerprinting, we had to go get our Passports done. Walgreens messed up one of the pictures, so we had to have them retaken. That wasn't fun, but we had to do it. We sent off our Fingerprints and Passports at the same time. Supposedly, we will have them back in about 10 weeks (Assuming we are not felons - haha.) We will keep you posted and let you know. Keep our family in your prayers.

In Person Home Study - "Here comes Sara"

It's February 28, 2007. Today is the day! The day that we have really been anticipating and I actually think that we are a little nervous. Sara, our Social Worker, has schedule to come out to our home to interview us and Hannah. Hopefully Hannah isn't too shy. We really didn't know what to expect. The whole process took about an hour and it really wasn't as bad as we thought. Luckily we had talked to a couple of friends that had just recently went through the process and they kind of prepared us. The end result - We passed with flying colors!!! Praise the Lord!!! Now we are waiting on the actual documentation from CHI to go get fingerprinted by Citizen and Immigration Services.

Application Approved! - "Here we go!!!"

On January 23, 2007 we received a letter stating that our application has been approved. Now comes the hard part.....telling everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - about ourselves so we can work toward our Homestudy. Man, we can't believe that there is so much stuff that they need! Pictures of every room of our house, Police Records, Birth Records, Health Records and even at least a 5 page Autobiography. How in the world are we going to we limit it to ONLY 5 pages??????? And 7 reference letters???? Luckily we know 5 people that will write something nice. Maybe we can get the other 2 to lie - haha! In all seriousness, we have alot of work to do to pull this stuff together. CHI has been great through the whole process and have really held our hands the whole way. We have been keeping in our minds that if we feel like we are getting overwhelmed, that God has granted us the opportunity to adopt a precious little baby boy! We are so blessed.