Thirty-One Debut Party and Yard Sale

I am having my Thirty-One Debut Party on August 5th.  I hope those of you who are in town can make it, but if you are out of town, you can still hostess a catalog/virtual party or you can just choose to shop the website if you are interested.  www.mythirtyone.com/LindseyOlinda

Thank you for your support in helping me kick-off this business, as all commissions will go towards adoption expenses!

We are also planning on having a yard sale mid-August, so if you have any items to donate, we would appreciate taking it off your hands!  I will post more once we start to plan and advertise it.  

Meanwhile, we are beginning to work on our profile, looking through pictures, trying to find the words that  will give the potential birth parents a realistic picture of what our lives are like....which is more difficult than one would think.

Great Home Visit!

Our home visit went very well this morning!  We had a mini profile meeting first.  Our DD, by the way, did awesome entertaining herself while we met with our case worker and the student intern.  We were so proud of her!  The mini profile meeting was basically going over our profile key, which is the form the social workers use when selecting which profiles would be most compatible to show birth mothers.  She also went over how to create a profile and briefly described situations that would come up during placement.  Then she took a tour of our house, which she describes as her just getting decoration ideas.  Love it!
She says the rest of the information will be shared at our Educational Course in August.  She can't approve us for home study completion until after the course, but said she would do it right after our Ed class.  That means we should be "in the books" waiting for a baby by September!!!  This is exciting and scary because it could mean a very short wait, like the following week or next day....or in 6 months...or in 2 years...who knows?!!!  Hopefully it won't be 2 years, but we definitely aren't in control.

Interview and Home Visit Scheduled

I had my interview today and it went well!  My case worker and her student intern have a way of making you feel comfortable, so it wasn't bad at all.  She was impressed with our autobiographies because they were so detailed and we did them in record time!  It helps when you're off for the summer and when DD went to Vacation Bible School, we were able to work on it for a few hours.  She said she wants to clone DH because he is such a positive person and family man.
Our home visit is next on the list and it is scheduled for....tomorrow morning!!!  Our case worker doesn't mess around!  I love that!  After the home visit, we will work on our profile (this is what the birth mother will look at to choose a family for her child) and take the Educational Course at the end of August.  Exciting!
Just so you know...I consider myself more of a "private" person.  It's uncomfortable for me to share personal things about myself, so letting everyone in to this new journey is really stepping out of my comfort zone.  However, it is such a learning experience for both of us and having everyone's moral support is just awesome.  We thank you so much!  We couldn't do it without you.

Interviews

DH had his interview for the home study this morning.  He said it went very well.  Our case worker is very impressed with our autobiographies and said we completed them "in record time!"  She asked a few questions and DH said it was a great meeting.  Our case worker sent him home with some homework for us to do...books to read and our profile key to fill out.  My interview is set for Monday morning.  I hope it goes as well as his!

Thirty One!

Just received an email from Thirty-One that I can start as a consultant sooner than I thought!  I will (hopefully) be up and running on Friday and then I can start booking parties!  This is so exciting to me because not only do I love the thirty-one products, I will be able to sell them and all of the income will go towards the adoption expenses.  It is a great way to help offset the cost.  If anyone is interested in setting a date to host a party, please let me know.
Also, we are looking to do a yard sale in August.  Everything will go towards the adoption.  We don't have the details ironed out yet, but will have more information as we start to plan it.
We are about 95% finished with our paperwork.  We will submit everything to the agency by the end of the week.  After that, we have our home study interviews together, individually, and at our home.  Then we take the educational course at the end of August.  One step at a time!

Home Study Process Has Started!

We met with our agency today to get all the paperwork that is involved in the home study process.  There is SO much to do, including 10 pages of just questions for our autobiographies (so you can imagine how many pages for us times two!) and all of the background check forms, etc.  Most of it sounds like fun, though, for me. I think I'm weird like that, though.
What's even more exciting, though, is that our case worker said it will probably be around the end of August when will will be "in the books" if we get approved after the home study and educational course.  Off to wade through some of the paperwork...