Home Inspection Complete!

Holy cow has it been a crazy week at the Harris house!  We have been doing lots of things to get the house ready for our home visit and I am seriously sleep deprived.  I had invisioned the worst of course but it actually was very pleasant and calming.  My biggest fear was our Great Dane, Diesel...I wasn't sure how our social worker would accept him and how would she feel about him being around babies.  We know he is really good with kids but you never know what a complete stranger may feel.  Fortunately, Julie is an animal lover and has two dogs and two cats at her home.  She instantly fell in love with Diesel and Belle (our chihuahua).  They were great ice breakers to say the least.

 Anyway, after she interviewed both of us - she inspected our home.  And no she didn't have on a white glove!  Thank goodness!  I was worried to death about every little detail.  I even went out and bought electric outlet covers and fire extinguishers =)  After that she sat down with me privately and interviewed me - she asked about my childhood, life experiences, goals, parenting styles, etc.  Julie was very "real" and easy to talk to.  I never felt nervous nor did I feel hesistant about my responses.  I think we hit it off pretty well.

When we were concluding the visit, she made the comment "you and Dan are going to be great parents".  This made me smile =D   We have our final visit with her on Saturday at 9am in her office in Charlotte.  Dan will have his personal interview then.  After that she has to type up a report on the home study. 

Our sister in law, Natalie, is working on getting our adoption profile printed -it looks amazing by the way!  Once it is finalized I will try to post it on here so you guys can see it too!  The profile will be handed out to birthmothers/fathers that contact our adoption agency looking for placement of their soon to be born baby. 

I cannot express enough gratitude at the overwhelming amount of support we have received from you guys.  It is humbling to know that we have such wonderful, loving people in our lives.  We are so lucky to have each and every one of you guys to share this with. 

Homestudy Received!

We received word yesterday from our agency that our homestudy packet was received on Monday and was "excellent"!  Yay!   I guess that means that we had everything in order.  The only thing that we need to do is get our marriage certificate from Mexico translated and notarized - which I intend on consulting with a friend of mine today at work that is a Spanish Interpreter to see if he will do it for us.  Also, our cousin, Andee has gladly agreed to notarize it for us!  Thanks Andee!  At first we were paranoid that we may not be "really" married but were reassured we indeed are.  We were ready to go to the courthouse and get "remarried" haha!  We were greatly relieved to know that that wasn't a problem - the problem was with the lawyer not being able to read it!

We worked yesterday all day trying to get our house ready for the social worker to come visit and most importantly getting ready for a baby!  Dan picked out the nursery color - "garden shed green".  It is absolutely gorgeous!  Our hallway is a whipped mocha and it looks yummy!  Our floors should be delivered tomorrow and the Harris gang will come over this weekend to start that process.  Our house looks like a tornado has hit it but we know it will be worth it in the end.  Is this what nesting feels like?  =)

Whew! Paperwork complete!

We FINALLY finished up all of the adoption homestudy paperwork and mailed it off today.  When I went to the post office this afternoon - I became a little tearful. I know we still have to see if we are "fit" to be parents in the eyes of social workers but it just felt so real...like this is really happening.  I can't explain it but it was an overwhelming feeling.  The old lady behind the counter at the post office asked me what was wrong and I explained to her the contents of the package and she became so excited!  Then two other women came up front from the back to hear the news.  hahahaha!  We were quite a spectacle I imagine but it was awesome having support in that little post office this afternoon.  The lady made me promise that I would come in there when we get our bundle of joy so that she can watch he or she grow up being that she played a part in the process of course ;)  How sweet is that?

Home study application almost complete

We are finally wrapping up the last few things left on our homestudy application.  Hopefully by tomorrow we will have everything completed and in the mail by the end of the week.  Oh my goodness it was a doozy to complete!  We both had to get physicals, fingerprinted, criminal background checks, write an autobiography, take photos...the list goes on forever!  But it will be well worth it in the end when we get to welcome a little bundle of joy into our lives.  Once the paperwork gets back to the agency, they will contact us to set up an appointment to have a home visit with a social worker.  We are not sure exactly what all that will entail but we are ready to get this started.

We have a ton of stuff to get done at the house to get ready for the visit - Diesel hasn't been so kind to our decor =).  Anyway, we ordered new flooring for our upstairs and we will start painting this coming week.  We have started looking at different decor ideas for the nursery...so far we know we want a tree with an owl or something like that.  Any ideas are certainly welcome! 

We will keep you guys posted on the progress and again we are so very thankful for all of the prayers and support!