for information about different agencies that we may want to go with. I looked up several on the internet and now we just have to wait for the info to come.
August 12, 2003 We went to a meeting with an agency tonight, but we don't think that we are going to go with them for a couple of reasons. We will still continue to search for "the" agency. We have information for about 15 agencies so we will continue to talk to them and go to meetings until we find it.
August 30, 2003 We went to a meeting with Welcome House adoption agency and we decided to go with them. It felt right at the meeting and they have everything that we are looking for. She said the next step is to send in the preapplication with the fee and we will be doing that soon.
September 10, 2003 We sent out our face sheet for our application today with the application fee!!! Spoke with Cheryl from the agency yesterday and she said that Welcome House will send us a letter when they receive it and tell us when our home visit is and when the application will be sent. We're just so glad to be starting this process. Every small step is one step closer to the big picture!!!
October 21, 2003 We just thought that we would write a little note to say that there isn't much going on, but we did find out that we will not get our final application packet until July of 2004. We were kind of bummed about that because we thought that we would get it sooner, but the Lord works in mysterious ways. So until then we will be fixing up the house as much as we can and saving money for the adoption and when the baby comes. Grandma Doney has set up a little store in Missouri and she is selling things that she has made, this is her way of raising money for the "adoption fund." What a great idea!!! The rest of the family is saving all of their change....every penny counts!!! We are so blessed to have the family and friends that we do and their support of this adoption. We don't know what we would do without you!!! We love you very much!!!
November 28, 2003 Well we still don't have anything to report. We have good days and bad days. Somedays the waiting feels like it is eternal and others it feels as if the time is flying by. Yesterday was Thanksgiving and Jamie and I put up our Christmas tree. We were talking about how there would only be 1 more time that we would do that until we had the baby. How exciting!!! Anyway with the holidays coming I think that it may be harder at times, but then again I hope that we might be so busy that we won't think about it that much. Well we hope that you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving and we hope that you keep us in your prayers. We will talk to you soon. God Bless!
February 1, 2004 Happy New Year! Sorry it has been so long since we have last written, but we thought that we would drop a line to let everyone know what was going on in our lives. We received our newsletter from the adoption agency yesterday and I spoke with our social worker and we found out that due to some people dropping out of the program and more babies avaiable for adoption in the year 2004, we have now moved up to #2 on the waiting list instead of #15!!!! We are so happy! This means that we may be able to get our application packet and get this thing moving faster than July as was expected. The sw said that we may still receive the packet in July but now there is at least a chance to get it sooner. We are anxious to get this started. This is going to be an exciting year and we are looking forward to each baby step...literally. Talk to you all soon...God Bless!!!
March 14, 2004 Well today we went to a Welcome House gathering for people that may want to adopt, people on the waiting list (like us) and people that have already adopted. It was so great to see all of the babies, toddlers and their parents. All of the children were from the korean program and the parents were so great. Jamie and I got a lot of questions answered and learned a lot of things that we didn't know before that time. We also found out some good news...several families said that the time that we are going through right now is the hardest and that once you get the application packet things really start to move and the waiting isn't so hard. That is something that we definately needed to hear. We also met some couples that are in the waiting process like us and we got to talk to them about the feelings that we have and they were able to identify with us as well as us identifying with them. That helps so much to have someone know exactly how you are feeling. So all-in-all the gathering was great!!! We will keep you all up-to-date if anything else happens. Please continue to pray for us...some days are harder than others, but we can feel your prayers and they are so appreciated!!!
