Happy Holidays!

I can not believe that I still have a week left on my holiday break! Woohoo! I love having time off to just veg around and not do anything that I don't want to do. How often does that ever happen? I did have a great time with my family over Christmas. It was great watching Cooper, Katherine and Bella open their Christmas presents. I don't think they need to get any more toys for the next year. Bella was so cute. She is two so this is really the first Christmas she has been able to really participate in. One Christmas morning, she opened one present then saw a bear. After I opened the bear, she would not open any more presents. She was done! She didn't need anything else. I ended up opening the rest of her presents. I'm sure as the year goes on she will enjoy the rest of her toys.

I also can not believe that we have snow. I did the brave and drove home in the snow today. The roads were safe and the snow was pretty all along I-20. I can't believe we have had snow two years in a row. I'm glad it came during the break so that we don 't have to make up snow days!

I hope you all had a great Christmas and are enjoying a break from work! Remember that we celebrate because of Jesus' birth. I think I lose sight of that sometimes. Enjoy the time you have with your family!

Oh, I have my first home study meeting on the 30th. I'll update about that later this week! Nervous!

Elizabeth

Fostering!

For the past week I have been fostering two puppies. You thought I was going to say kids, didn't you? I have figured out thought that kids are very similar to puppies except that I won't have to take a baby outside to use the bathroom. These puppies whine when they are hungry/thirsty. They whine when they want to be held. They whine when they want to use the bathroom and then just whine to whine. They get me up before I am ready to and then sometimes they let me sleep in. What's up with that? The puppies are cute but I think I would much rather have a baby crying then a puppy. They both show love but a baby is what I want.


On the adoption front, I am having my first homestudy visit on the 30th of December. I am so excited! I talked with the social worker and she actually has a child in my friend's husband's class. It's nice to have something else to talk about. She seemed really nice and made me feel at ease on the phone. I hope that I feel that way when we meet at person. Please pray for a successful meeting.

Neices and Nephews as Elves!

I got this idea from my friend Melissa's blog. It is too funny! Try this it made me laugh out loud! :)

The Birthmother letter has been started!

So, I finally sat down today and started writing my birthmother letter. I am not a great writer and do not like writing about myself but that's what I had to do. It's a little like selling yourself but what a great reason to be trying to sell yourself! I just look at this as one step closer to my baby. I am never quite sure what to put or how to phrase the words. The agency wants concrete examples and that's what I tried to do. I hope I did. Luckily, I have some friends who are good with words and I have sent it to them to check it out. It's kind of like having your paper edited. I am okay with that if it helps me get my letter submitted and accepted.

Ponderings!

I haven't written in awhile and thought I needed to write. I don't have much to say about the adoption so I thought I would just write down some things I am wondering about right now.

* Why do bad things always happen to people who seem to have the greatest faith and why do they come when other bad things are happening in your life?

* Why do I have to go through so much paperwork to be able to have a child to love? In my heart, I know the agency wants to make sure the child will be with a family that is loving and healthy but then how do those bad foster parents slip through the cracks? How does that happen? It is too much work to do if it is not something you truly want.

* Why does the weather in SC go from hot to cold in 24 hours? Can it pick a temperature and stay that way?

* Why does the heat in my classroom go out on the coldest days?

*How come talking to your mom seems to make everything better?

*Why do we find friends in unexpected places? I have found some great friends in a place where I did not expect to?

* Everyone loves cupcakes and funfetti is the best type of cake mix! It's just so FUN! Ha,Ha

* Can you believe Christmas is almost here? I can't believe I only have ten more days of school until break! WooHoo!

Sorry if my ponderings are a little down but it's been a week with some disappointments. Let me know what you all are pondering! I am interested to here anyone's thoughts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and took some time to think about what we all have to be thankful for everyday. I know I do not always do that. Enjoy the time with your family!

Cute Wrapping Paper and Gift Cards!

If you are looking for wrapping paper that is different from the rest, then go to expressionables.com. You can personalize your wrapping paper, gift cards and more. Put in the code ElizabethM and 25% of the proceeds will go towards my homestudy costs.

Thanks!

Book Reports!

This weekend I was told that I had to read two books about adoption. I was given one and was able to chose the other one. This will be part of passing my home study. The second book I chose was "Secret Thoughts of an Adoptive Mother" by Jana Wolff.



This is a great book! It was a quick read but it hits all of the questions and thoughts that an adoptive mother may have with an open adoption. It discusses the feelings the adoptive mother has while waiting for the birth mother to give birth.

Will she decide to keep the baby after she seems him? Am I doing an injustice to a child if I am of a different race? What types of pictures to send the birth mom? Do you want the baby to look happy or just content? Will she want him back?

This is a book I would suggest to anyone who is thinking of adopting or who has adopted. I loved reading it and can say that I got a little teary eyed in some parts. If you want to borrow my copy let me know. You can go to tapestrybooks.com to find books about adoption. It is a great sources for adoptive parents and has many books for kids about adoption.

I am completely overwhelmed!

On Thursday, I headed off to Atlanta with my mom for a weekend intensive session on with the Independent Adoption Center. This is the center that I am using for the adoption. I arrived at the center at 9 o'clock in the morning to sit until 4:30. While I was learning, my mom got the opportunity to enjoy the Marriott in Norcross. Fun right? On Friday, I learned everything about designing my birth mother letter. When I saw one, I thought, "Piece of Cake!" Wow, was I wrong! There is so much that goes into designing and writing this letter. There are guidelines for pictures and the wording you use. It's a little crazy but it is all to help make this process easy for us and the birth moms.

During lunch we watched the show Adoption Diaries. This is a show on WE and it shops the adoption process with the Independent Adoption Center (IAC). They showed us one that went through the roller coaster of emotions. I think there was barely a dry eye in the room. It was great to get to watch what will happen. I am definitely going to try to watch the show more.

While Friday was very overwhelming, I learned a lot of information and was able to find answers to my questions. Saturday we were able to talk about the home study and all of the information and paperwork (yes, more paperwork) that has to be filled out. There is so much information to take in an absorb at one time. I am going to take this weekend and just think about the information that was given to me and then take the Thanksgiving break to start working on my birth mother letter.

Now it truly starts . . .

I am heading out Thursday night to go to Atlanta to sign my adoption contract. This is scary for me. I am excited to sign the contract but it also is the start of it all. I am going to have to check what is acceptable to me in a child and their family and what is not. THIS IS HUGE! or at least it is to me. What do I say yes to? What do I say no to? These are big, forever decisions that scare me. I hope I make the right decisions. The only thing I know is to go with my instincts. I know that God will help me make the right decisions. I can't imagine Him giving me more than I can handle.

While that is scary, it is still exciting. I am going to get to work on the birth mother letter and make myself as lovable as possible. :) I look forward to writing the letter to the woman who will soon be handing over their child for me to love and raise. Wow! What do you say to that person? What words can express the gratitude I feel for this act of ultimate generosity?

Enter to win $100 of Pampered Chef Product!

In order to raise funds for my adoption, I am going to use PayPal to allow some lucky person to get $100 of free Pampered Chef product. You choose the products that you want. All of the money that is donated will go towards my adoption funds. Any extra money will be donated to the adoption agency that I am using in order to help another family adopt a child. Every dollar that is donated will be a chance for you to win the $100 of PC product. So, $5 = 5 chances. HEre is my website: www.pamperedchef.biz/emarshall

Please let everyone you know about this fundraiser. I am trying different ideas to help raise money to help with the adoption costs. I will run this fundraiser until December 15th. That will still give a lucky person time to get their products before Christmas. SPREAD THE WORD!

Thanks in Advance!
Elizabeth

Paperwork, Paperwork, and more Paperwork!

Oh my goodness! The paperwork is astounding. There is so much paperwork to be done for my home study. It is amazing how much has to be filled out and completed in order to have an adoption be able to happen. First, you have to fill out an autobiography, then a budget and all of the releases from SLED. It just seems to keep coming. The autobiography is a neat thing to feel out. This makes me think about myself as a person and becoming a parent. As interesting as it is, I wish the pile of paperwork would start getting smaller.

Popcorn ceilings: Oh how I hate you!

In order to get everything set up for my home study, I am working on getting the popcorn off the ceiling. Not that they look at the popcorn on the ceiling but some is coming off of my ceiling. I have worked on the part over my bathroom. It is a nasty job. Why was this type of ceiling ever invented? All I have to do now is finish the rest of my room and then paint it. This is a pain but I know it will be well worth it when it is done. Let me know if you guys have any tricks on making this easier.

Phoneraiser

I have found an awesome fundraiser that is eco-friendly and gives me 100 percent profit. It takes the old cell phones and PDA's that we all have hanging around our house and they recycle them. The company pays shipping and handling and then sends me a check. Some phones are worth a good amount of money and some not so much but every little bit helps. Not only do they take phones but home ink cartridges, the kind that fit in your hand. If you have any that you would like to donate, let me know and I'll find a way to get them from you. Thanks for your support!

Starting!

I have decided to start this blog to let friends and family know about my adoption process! Here's the beginning!

A few months ago I decided to look into adopting. It is definitely not a decision that I made lightly. I thought about what it would be like to be a single mother and what my family would think about the decision I have made. I am at a place in my life where I want to be a mother. It is not the norm for single women to adopt but my feelings are that when I am meant to be married, I will be. I believe that I can give a child a safe and loving home. I want my children to be able to play with my nieces and nephews and my cousins' children.

After deciding that this is what I wanted to do, I spent a good bit of my summer break researching and talking with adoption agencies. Some places looked great online but when I spent time on the phone with them, it did not feel comfortable. Then I talked with the Independent Adoption Center in GA. I felt that they were really cared about me and the adoption process. Lauren, my counselor, talked to me for an hour and a half about the whole process. She told me what happens from beginning to end and what I should expect. I just felt that this was who I was supposed to work with through this exciting time.

I ended up waiting to fill in my application until school started. I needed to make sure that I had some money to help start this process. Man, it is amazing how much it costs to adopt a child and how cheap it is to just get pregnant. That still amazes me. Money is definitely the one thing that held back my start date for adoption. Once I knew I would be able to make the payments like I needed then I filled out my application. I knew that on a certain day they would be looking at my application in order to decide if I was accepted. I know so much more about myself and my finances now then I did before. This is a process I think everyone should have to go through before having or adopting children. It really makes you take stock of how you can care for a child.

So the Wednesday they were looking at my application, I kept checking my phone and my email and nothing. Then at about 4:50 p.m. while I was working in the after school program, I got a phone call. I answered it and was told that I was ACCEPTED! Lauren just did not have time to send my email out and wanted to make sure that I knew they accepted my application. I can now start the whole complete process. That was such a great day! I can only imagine it is similar to being told that you are pregnant. My wait may just be longer then the 9 months.

While that was an exciting day, now I am just in the waiting stages. I am getting my home study set up to be completed and will go Nov. 19th to sign the contract and make decisions to what type of child I want. This is exciting and a little nerve wracking. I am glad that it is something I get to do instead of waiting. I am trying to prepare myself for the waiting.