Dear Lindsay,

I've been thinking about you a lot lately. I miss you so terribly much. 


I spent some time with your mom last week and it was so nice visiting with her. We went to see your tree and it looks wonderful with lots of new growth. It's strong and beautiful, just like you were when you were here with us on earth. 


It's almost your birthday and I'm sure you'll be celebrating, but not for you but for all the joys in Heaven.


I miss you and I lub you. 

The transformation has started...

We've started decorating the upstairs! It's been the same boring off-white since we moved in. Actually most of the house is this boring color:

But that all changed on Sunday night. Since we WILL have a little one someday (still don't know when) we have started the transformation. We even decided on and agreed upon the design scheme together! Here it is after the paint:

Three walls are the light green and just that half wall is the darker green. The dark green is much lighter in daylight - this picture was taken after we finished around 10pm Sunday. 




And!




And!




And! Since this room overlooks the woods behind our house and all you see is trees...




We'll be building an indoor tree house up here. COMPLETE WITH A SLIDE! We are both ridiculously excited about this. More pics will come as progress is made :)

Tips for Choosing an Agency

Choosing an agency is a daunting task and probably one of the most important decisions you'll ever make! If you're stumped on where to start, here are a few tips I used and should have used!

• Get as much free information as possible. This may mean informational packets, online webinars, free seminars, etc. A lot of agencies give the same info about the process and then only differ in a few ways. 
• Get information from at least 20 agencies. Even if you are set on one in particular - I learned something new from each agency packet about the process or I was given another website, resource, or just awesome quote. 
• Once you've narrowed your search down to your top 5ish, make random phone calls at all times of the day/week to see how phone friendly they are. This was a big deal for us and we found that a lot of agencies had unfriendly phone and business hours. Also, if your married, have your spouse also call to see if you get the same information, tone, and assistance. 
• If they give you definite time-lines, RUN. No one can know for sure when you'll get a referral. 
• Ask for references. The good ones will gladly provide some although it may be after you've paid a small fee (usually a small $50-100 fee)
• Ask for a list of preferred home study agencies if they don't do them in house. 
• If considering domestic adoption, ask about their birth parent care. Make sure you're choosing an agency that properly takes care of (legally, physically, mentally) the birth family. 
• Check online resources - look for agencies with a lot of good reviews, and not just one website. Just because an agency has 5 stars on one website, that doesn't mean they will on all sites and it doesn't mean it's true data. 
• If you have a question, ASK IT! If they don't answer your question, ask again. If they still avoid your question, either confront them a third and final time or move on. 
• Start talking. A lot more people have been touched by adoption than you realize and will be able to give you good (and sometimes horrible!) advice. 
• Ask about financial assistance. That might mean talking to your financial adviser, bank, parent, whoever - just make sure you have a way to pay for things before you start the process. 

I think that's mostly it but I'll come back and add to this if I remember a few more things :)

Radio silence

This will be my last post about our adoption journey until it's all done. 


It makes me sad to do this but it's necessary and I understand the reasons. If you'd like to know the reasons, I'll be happy to share - just not over a public space. And if you have questions - shoot me an email :)


But that doesn't mean I'm done here. I guess I'll shift my focus from our story to informational types of things with random mixed in. 


I will say though that things are going well and I'm still very happy with all of our decisions and the process so far.