Catching Up

It's been a while since I last posted, and it is because we have been busy!

Last weekend was the big Strassenfest celebration here in Jasper!  We had so much fun!  I don't have too many pictures, but here are a couple.

I also walked the Wettlauf (foot race) 5K race on Saturday morning.  I walked with my sister-in-law, Autumn.  I decided to support my friend (and new cousin!) Lori's Dad, Terry Seitz, in his bid to become the new mayor of Jasper.  A bunch of Lori's friends and family walked in memory of their mother, Ann Seitz, who passed away last Thanksgiving.  It was so sweet to see all of the "We ran 4 Ann because we can" shirts.

Then on Sunday we attended the parade.  Autumn lives on the parade route.  Since she is so awesome, she went and put chairs and their canopy out on the curb at six a.m. so that we all had a place to sit.  Thanks, Autumn!  It was perfect.  

  

As if the parade wasn't enough excitement for one day, we were invited to go swimming at Brady's Dad, Woody's house.  Woody and Marilyn were very nice to let Trevor and Kendall come along.  They had so much fun.

That brings us to a week ago today.  The past week was filled with the usual tasks that come with owning a house.  But today we got to welcome home my cousin, Nathan, home from basic training for the US Marines.  I forgot my camera, but we are so proud of you Nathan!  

Waiting to Get Shelved

Long time, no post.  Sorry about that.  We've just been a little busy with adoption meetings and the Strassenfest!

I just wanted to fill everyone in on our last meeting.  We went up to St. Elizabeth's on Wednesday, and we got a lot of information and homework.

We have some things to do before we can go onto the next step.  They include background checks, physicals, writing autobiographies, making a scrapbook, and a couple of other things.  Our next meeting is September 7.  That meeting is all day long, and it is a training that is required by the state.  At this training we will learn what to put in a letter to a birth mother and a few other things.  After this meeting they will want us to finish our scrapbooks so that we can schedule the HOME portion of the home study.

What we didn't realize was that we were already working on the home study.  Our meeting way back in March was step one of four and this past meeting was step two of four.  The all day training is step three and the home portion of the study is step four.  Once we complete the home portion of the home study, they 'shelf' us.  What that means is they put our scrapbook on the shelf so that a birth mother can see our book and potentially pick us!  That is so exciting!  We didn't realize we were almost to this point.  We hope and pray that a birth mother will see the potential we have to become parents to their child.

We would like to thank all of you for the love, prayers, and support shown to us throughout the process!  We love you all!

PS - If you would like to know which adoption agency we are using, it is St. Elizabeth Coleman.  They are located in Indianapolis.