Today we attended out last MAPP class! We learned lots this month and met several families pursuing adoption through the foster care system. We feel better prepared to meet the needs of the child that enters our home.

Through no fault of our own we are having to move out of our apartment building. The good news is that we are able to move into a bigger apartment with an extra bedroom, bigger garage and more storage, on the ground floor. We are both excited and overwhelmed  We move the week of the 4th, so if you have an hour or two after work and want to help the more the merrier, we are off work that whole week so if you are off during the day we would welcome the help then too! My mom called earlier today, and has graciously offered to fly in for the week to help us get organized and help us move/unpack too...which if you know my mom is awesome...she will have us all organized and ready for our home visits no problem!!

We are still unsure where or who our new child is. We still pray she is safe and feeling hope and love, we pray for her protection and her social worker/people involved in her case and life and that the Lord keeps her safe from more harm/neglect, etc.

While we are excited to be done with our MAPP classes, the reality is we still have a ways to go, we have more paperwork, more in home meetings, fire inspection of the apartment, and then the wait to be chosen/picked or start choosing children to be considered for......which could take a couple months or even longer..only God knows at this point. We are trying our best to get our paperwork completed timely and get our stuff in as soon as we get it. We are still targeting a little girl in the 4-8 year old age range, in North Carolina (while cross states is possible,its more unlikely, timely and costly but not 100% out of the question).

Thanks for your support and keep praying! We love you all!

What a month...cant believe its almost over!!! MAPP classes are going well. We have Medication Administration classes tomorrow evening, CPR the 2nd, and one more normal class this coming Saturday and we are D.O.N.E. We have learned lots regarding behavior management, the system, etc. and are eager to be done and move along to the next steps in our adoption journey.

We are so grateful to our friends who have been helping with Makenna late into the evenings as well as all day on Saturdays!

We are probably moving into a bigger apartment in same complex early Feb, due to no fault of our own we are no longer able to live in our current building. We are unable to move prior to Feb 4 per the apartment management, which means no NY trip the first week of Feb now. Words cant express how frustrated we are with the entire situation and sad we wont be able to see family. We told Makenna this morning and she too was sad. I guess God has a plan bigger than we can see...I pray he enlightens us soon because we are feeling very beated down and trampled this past week or so.

Makenna is doing well and officially registered for kindergarten (where does the time go!)..she is thrilled to go to big girl school.

Will write more as I can!

Ready set GO

Its only Tuesday and we have already:

-Met with our social worker for the first time
-received stacks of and started completing paperwork for our home study
-Attended our first MAPP class (parenting classes for foster parents that are also required in our state to adopt from the foster care system)

Our meeting with our social worker went well. She is an intern, so we also met with another one near the end. We were asked lots of questions about our upbrinings, relationship, family, adoption ideals, parenting, etc. We also were able to ask questions and hear about our Agencies process.

MAPP class tonight went well. We are excited to learn how to best help and parent whatever child the Lord brings into our home in His perfect timing, but man after working all day sitting still in class for 3 hours until 930pm is rough ;), luckily I get to sit beside my best friend/hubby! Together we can do anything!

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers! Please continue to pray for our daughter where she is right now!

too long

Sorry its been way too long since I posted on here. Life has been busy, and there wasn't much news to share regarding the adoption. Lots of waiting, praying and waiting some more. So I hope you all had a great holiday season and are as excited about the NEW YEAR as we are! Bring it on 2013!

We FINALLY have an appointment with our caseworker, Jan 7. We also have tentative invitation to join the MAPP classes through the agency that start Jan 8. I say tentatively since they cant officially extend the offer until after initial in person meeting with the case worker. BUT since they start the same week there wasn't time to go through the formalities they said, so they wanted us to RSVP, etc and secure childcare, etc as needed. (MAPP classes are 30 hours of parental training required by the state of NC for foster parents Or in our case parents that wish to adopt children that have been in foster care). We will complete our homestudy along with our MAPP classes throughout the month of Jan.

So if all goes as they say it will #andtheylikeusenoughonthe7thtoallowustogototheclasses we will have a very busy month of January, but Feb 2 will complete our MAPP classes and be on our way to finding the little princess that needs us, to complete our family! Thankfully we have great friends who have agreed to help with Makenna all day every Saturday in Jan, and at least one night a week (sometimes two!) Thanks in advance to Nick and Mary, Tom and Carrie and Amy and George!

So we had been trying to decide what type of bunk beds we wanted, how to afford them, etc..we kept looking online at Craigslist, etc but just weren't ready or able to make the financial leap, not knowing when or how long the process was going to take. I decided to just try posting a wanted ad on a local recycling site I frequently place things for free on that we dont need #gottalovefreecycle and within two hours, yes i said two hours!! I got a response from a woman who had a set of bunk beds she was looking to get rid of, as her daughter wanted to update her room. I accepted and we made plans to go pick them up.....did I mention FREE....also turns out she has adopted 4 children from foster care!!! She was very nice.We were nervous we would have to make several trips since we dont own a truck, but figured it was worth it. We arrived to see the bunk beds (honestly assuming they were going to be cheapy ones but okay with that for the time being until we could afford higher quality ones for the long term)....much to our surprise they were real, solid wood, thick, sturdy bunk beds like the this end up style Id say....not cheapy type at all!!!! WHAT!? Jay and I and Makenna disassembled them and then they FIT INTO OUR CARS in one trip! Can you say WOW...Thanks GOD FOR THE AWESOME bunk beds. We still need to get two twin mattresses at a decent price, but that's much less of an obstacle!! So we now are the proud owners of a beautiful set of quality bunk beds (which sit in the garage waiting to be assembled when the time comes).

So now we patiently wait for Jan. 7 where we will try our best to be ourselves and meet with person who will decide if we are able to continue the adoption process!!

Heres a couple pics of our bunkbed adventure.