Mother's Day

Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is always a little bit bittersweet for me. On the positive side, I am beyond blessed to have the most incredible mom in the world. She has always been an example of what selfless and unconditional love looks like. She is courageous, an absolute inspiration, and is easily the best grandma to her grandkids (in our biased opinion). I am so lucky to be able to hug her, spend time with her, talk to her on the phone almost every day, and laugh with her. I also have been blessed beyond words with a little boy that has changed every aspect of how I live my life. He isn’t my biological son, but I sure love him like he is. I love being Jacob’s step mom. He brings so much joy to my life and I can only hope that I make him feel the same. Mother’s Day is also, however, a day that I am reminded of the struggles I have faced in becoming a mom. I hope and pray that I get to look back on this post next Mother’s Day with a baby in my arms that calls me “mom.”  Until then, I will continue to focus on the many many MANY blessings in my life.

We are still “anxiously” waiting for our home study date.

Puzzle Update

Week 6

$9,000

WE ARE $1,000 FROM OUR GOAL…SO INCREDIBLE!

(If you would like to make a donation, click the donate button on the top right side of our blog. If you would like to learn more about our fundraiser and our adoption story, please see our March 30 post)

Patiently Waiting

Snooze Button

This past week has been pretty uneventful. We still haven’t heard from our social worker about a home study date, but we have been told that it can be close to a month before receiving the date. Until then, we wait patiently and take the extra time to practice our fire drill.

We are also still working with our consultant as she pieces together our family portfolio photo book. This is the book that is given to birth moms to look at. The written portion is complete and the majority of the photos are in place, but we are still searching our pictures for several more active/candid photos of Ryan by himself, me by myself, and/or Ryan and I together (again candid/active). If any of you have any pictures like that of us, please send them our way.

Puzzle Update

Total after week 5

$7,820

We are getting so close to our $10,000 goal. Thank you all so much!

(if you would like to donate and become a piece(s) of our puzzle, please click the “donate” button on the top right side of our blog. To learn more about our fundraiser, see our March 30^th post “Adoption Announcement”)

We've got a Family Fire Drill in our future!...And Week 4 Puzzle Update!

Someone Call A Fireman

This week has flown by. Not much to report on the home study front, other than receiving a two page list of things we need to make sure our house has in place by the time our social worker arrives. Some of the things are: fire extinguisher, working fire alarms, a room for the baby, etc…BUT, my favorite thing on the list is that we are supposed to have a family fire drill every six months and a posted evacuation plan. Now I’m not going to say if we do or do not already do this, but I’m certain that our new neighbors are going to be giving us some strange looks on “drill day.”

We have also been working with our adoption consultant on creating our family profile book. This is the book that is presented to birth moms about our family. They look at our life as a family and decide if they want to be “matched” with us. I have been busy collecting about 100 pictures of our family consisting of various events and also writing about our family. Everything I write just doesn’t seem good enough. How do you put into words how much you love your family or how much we would love this woman’s baby? I want the words to be perfect, but I also just want to skip all the writing and put “We promise we will love your baby and give them an amazing life….We promise we will love your baby and give them an amazing life” over and over again! Either way, the book is coming together.

Other than that, the only other update is our Puzzle!

Puzzle Update

Week 4

At the end of Week 4, our total is:

$7,500

WOW!!!

(If you want to learn more about our fundraiser, see our March 30^th post “Adoption Reveal”. If you are wanting to donate, just click the donate button on the top right hand corner of our blog. You do not need to have a PayPal account to donate)

Check out the families that because “pieces” of our puzzle this week! Thank you ALL!

Look What Happened This Week...And Puzzle Update Week 3

Our Home Study Paperwork Packet Has Been Sent Off! 

If you’ve ever been curious as to what it takes to gather paperwork for a home study in order to foster or adopt a child, here’s the rundown. It has taken us a little under 2 months to do the following (it might take others a lot less time, but we both work full time and have a child involved in sports, so 2 months was our turnaround time):

Apply to an agency (4 pages of basic information) & pay app fee, parent info sheet (both parents 4 pages each), Autobiography (of every detail of Ryan, Jacob, and my life from birth until now…26 page single spaced document…this took the most time), background checks, fingerprints, 4 non family member references to complete statements on our behalf, Tax forms from the past two years, a financial statement, a monthly income and expense worksheet, a physician’s report on our health and mental state (each member of the family), copy of birth certificates, driver’s license, marriage certificate, proof of medical insurance, copies of medical cards, proof of automobile insurance, guardianship form (who will care for our child if something happened to us), release of info form, proof of pet vaccination for any pet in the household, completion of 10 hours of adoption classes/training, agency fee worksheet, client right form, and home study payment.

It feels so good to have this packet sent off. Now we wait to receive the dates when the social worker comes to our home to start our home study.

Puzzle Update!!!

After week 3, our total is $6, 810!!!

Our goal is $10,000. We are almost there!

 (To learn more about the puzzle fundraiser, see our March 30, 2014 post “Adoption Reveal” or click the DONATE button at the top right side of our blog. You don't need to have a Paypal account)

A few new families became a piece(s) of our puzzle this week! Enjoy finding your name and thank you so much for helping us bring our baby home.

Home Study & Puzzle Update

Home Study AND Puzzle Update

After a LONG couple of months gathering and filling out our home study paperwork, we will be sending in our completed packet this week!!! Our paperwork could have been sent in faster, but Ryan went and changed jobs (LOL) meaning all of his information needs to be re-done (insurance switch so all insurance information needs to be recollected and done, salary change which effects our financial statement so financial statements need to be re-done, blah blah, etc). Basically, a lot of paperwork needs to be re-done. He accepted a position with SAIF. He will be doing workman comp claims instead of auto claims like he was doing at State Farm. He starts his new position on April 22. Ryan has been with State Farm for 13 years, so the transition is very bittersweet for him. I am so excited and proud of him. Needless to say, there is still information from his new employer that we will need to gather over the next few months in order for our home study to be complete. Lucky for us, our social worker is awesome and is letting us turn Ryan’s information in at the tail end of our report being written. That way we can move forward with scheduling our home study. Once our social worker has our information, it takes around a month to a month and a half until she comes to our home for two separate 6-8 hour visits. I’m not 100% sure what specifically goes on during those visits, but I’m sure it will consist of many questions about our family, our motivation to adopt, and watching a day in the life of the Mikesh’s. The adoption consultant that we hired (separate from our social worker) will help prepare us for what to expect. It is a bit nerve wracking to have someone come into your home and then write a report about what you are and are not doing right as parents and what we are and aren’t prepared for as adoptive parents. All we can do is be ourselves and try not to be nervous. Once our two home studies are complete, it takes about another month for the social worker to write the report. If we are “approved,” then we’ve got the green light and can apply to agencies and be “matched” any time after that. This process is lengthy and we have and will continue to practice patience along the way. And as always, we promise to keep you posted.

Puzzle Update Week 2

Check out the new “pieces” we added this week!!! Thanks you to so many more families that became a “piece/pieces” of our puzzle.

Our combined total after week 2 is $5,850!!! We are so blessed!

(If you are wanting to become a "piece of our puzzle", just click the donate button at the top right hand corner of our blog. Also, the puzzle description and our adoption announcement are archived under the "March" tab on the right side of our blog if you didn't get a chance to read it).