Photo Collages

As mentioned in my previous post, after the birth parents narrow down their list of candidates to two or three based on the Family Introduction Letters, they receive a copy of our dossier.  This dossier will be essentially be the story of our lives, our believes, our discipline methods, and every other little piece of info that was documented in this lengthy process.  They will also receive the following pictures as part of our dossier.  These photo collages are intended to give them a glimpse into our lives. 

Family and friends, please do not be offended if you do not see yourself in our collages.  These collages represent LONG hours and LATE nights of adding in pictures, taking them out, reformatting, receiving suggestion of what should stay and what should go.  It is very possible that at some point you were in the collage and then possibly out again.  If you do not appear in our collage, it doesn't mean that we  don't love you....it means that due to the limited space, it was physically impossible to include everyone. 

This is the order they would appear in our dossier.  Please enjoy (click on the collage to enlarge if desired).....

Family Introduction Letter

I have explained in the past the importance of our Family Introduction Letter.  Well, it has been done for a couple of months, but we were just waiting on the mass printing of the letter and shipping to our West Coast adoption agency before we let any one read it.  How much would you think 500 copies of this letter would cost?  If you're like me, I bet your guess is probably no where near what it actually cost.  How does $427 sound?  It sounds crazy doesn't it.  My knees almost buckled at Kinko's when I heard the total. 

So, just as a quick recap....the Family Introduction Letter is the ONLY thing that will set Jon and I apart from the other 60-70 candidates in the pool.  Normally what happens is that the birth parents will read through the Family Introduction Letters and pick out 3 that they like the best.  They will then be given a dossier of basically our entire life which includes pictures (see next post). 

It is from these dossiers that they will make their final decision.  As you can see, the Family Introduction Letter is the single most important thing Jon and I have done in this process. 

Here is our Family Introduction Letter.

I'm Not Slacking....Just No Good Updates!!

Well baby, we are reaching the "light at the end of the tunnel."  Unfortunately, we have been in a holding pattern for over a month and half now.  We originally proposed that we would be in the pool of candidates by November 1st.  Well, as you can see that date has come and gone and then some.  We have been finished with EVERYTHING required of us a long time ago.  We are just waiting on our MN and West Coast agencies to get on the same page, get the paperwork in order, and give us the official word. 

Well, we received our final home study from our MN agency and are just waiting on the final version of our West Coast home study.  We were told by our West Coast adoption agency to be prepared to be in the pool around mid-January which feels way more real than the timeline Jon and I "thought up" when we began the process so many months ago. 

So, roughly three weeks and our lives are going to change in a way I cannot even describe in words.  Just being constantly aware that at any minute the phone could ring and it could be THE call.  I am also terribly afraid this is going to put Jon and I in a state of constant emotional panic every time the phone rings.  We will have to think of ways to overcome this or it might put us in the loony bin.