Our homestudy is less than 2 weeks away. We have all our reference letters ready for the homestudy, and now we’re just waiting for October 11 to come.
We have almost everything out of the nursery now. We’ll leave the loveseat in there, and maybe the trunk and shelf. I’m not sure. We haven’t talked a lot about it. I’ll start painting the mural on the wall probably after our homestudy.
We also got the last few pictures we needed for the Picture Pages; so when I get a chance, I’ll finish those and have them photocopied for Link. I may just drive everything up there myself – I’d feel better knowing they got there safely. I’m not exactly sure, since I don’t know how long it’ll take for June (our caseworker) to finish our homestudy report.
We’re supposed to be getting a bunch of baby things from someone that a family from church works with. They’ll bring the things to us so we can look at them, then we’ll keep what we like. I’m really excited about it, because there’s a bassinet and a stroller that we’ll be getting. We weren’t going to buy a lot of baby things, but these are so inexpensive that we’re going to get them. I can’t justify waiting to get them, and then spending twice as much on those same things.
Hobby Lobby also had patterns on sale this week, so I bought some nursery bedding patterns. I’m going with Charlotte (another sweet lady from church) to a fabric store Saturday to get the material so I can make the sheets and bumpers and stuff. I’m wanting to finish my big quilt first, but we’ll see if I have the discipline to wait!

We have our homestudy date set! It’s October 11. Over a month away! AARRGGHH! But it’s ok, because it gives us a chance to do some things around the house we were meaning to do.
We started moving things out of the nursery last night…what a pain! But now Stephen’s desk is in my studio, and his computer is out on the desk in the living room. The desk is a lot bigger than the one I had in there before, but I’ll get used to it. It’s nice to actually have a desk in there now, instead of a table! I guess I didn’t think of how much work it would be to get the room ready, but it’s started for now.
Stephen also has a physical scheduled for the adoption on Thursday. My doctor has already written her letter of consent, and has mailed it to the house. I should get it probably on Wednesday or Thursday.
So that basically leaves our reference letters, and I think all our paperwork is done for the homestudy. I need to proofread it, and then I’ll mail our general questionnaire back to Ms. Bond so she has it for our appointment. Now, if I can just not get nervous!

Well, I think we have all our paperwork done! It’s been crazy, with form after form after form….But I really do think it’s all done. We’ve also finished almost all our registration material for Link too. The birthmother letter, the parent profile, even the Picture Pages are almost done! I need to find (or shoot) a few more pictures, so I’m waiting to completely finish it until I have the remaining photos for it. But then, all we have to do after that are the networking cards and the Dear Friend letter. I think we HAVE to do them, but I was going to ask Amy about it, and I haven’t had a chance to yet. But that’s the only thing we haven’t started. We even had our 800 number installed this week.
We also started buying things for the nursery, a little bit at a time. So far, all we’ve bought is a diaper bag and a package of cloth diapers. Not much, but we figure it won’t be so much of a shock if we buy it a little at a time. We looked at some carseats and travel systems/strollers, and I think we’ve found one we like. Since it’s so expensive, though, we’re waiting for a little while to get it. Maybe next month or something. I don’t know yet.

We have paperwork everywhere! Our caseworker says that she can have our homestudy complete in a week or so after we submit our papers to her. We’re almost done with the application for her, but we need to get our doctor’s papers and reference letters together as well.
I’ve also begun working on our Picture Pages (Parent Profile) for our birthmother. In a way, it’s like a mini scrapbook about us, with our dear birthmother letter and profile information in it as well. Stephen has filled out the “All About Me” pages, so all I need to do with those is type them into the form to print. We’re doing a quilt theme for the scrapbook part, and I have the cover done. I think I’ve pirated pictures from just about every scrapbook in the house! Right now they’re laying all over the kitchen table, but they’ll get moved soon. It’s a lot of work, but it’s been fun. We’re hoping to have all our paperwork complete and submitted by the first of October. That gives us a month.