Becoming a Family of 3: Our Adoption Journey: June 2015

Progress Update:

My goodness! Another month has passes since our last update. We have been so busy preparing for future baby Watson. The love, support, donations, prayers...AMAZING! We cannot thank each of you enough. We are both so humbled....'thank you' simply is not enough.

Here is a bit of what we have been up to...

May 22: We were approved to start working on our profile. We completed this just last week. The profile is an online intro to Scott and I...along with our friends, family, and support system. This allows expectant mothers to find us online if they happen to be searching. It also is a tool for us to share and let others share to spread the word. We also began working (and have now completed) our "Birth-mom Book"...

What is a Birth-mom Book?

This book serves as the main tool for Scott and I to become parents! This 20 page book, created with Shutterfly, has pictures, quotes, traditions, our home, and other various subjects to help an expectant mother (and father) determine if they feel their baby would fit well into our lifestyle. That's where YOUR pictures were very much appreciated!! Those pictures will help expectant parents see the love and support our baby will have...which is very important to them. I would love to share our book with you. Keep in mind; this book is 8x11 so if a picture seems small or hard to read in areas, it will be printed larger. Click here to see our book (make sure you click on 'View Photo Book' then click on 'Full Screen') Scott and Lindsay's Adoption Book Once our profile page is live (Early August) I will share that with you!

The Homestudy...

The homestudy has been a long process! Nearly 3 months in the works and we are DONE! And by done...I mean done with our part. We have sent in enough documents to fill a 2 inch binder, completed 36 hours of training, had a home inspection, fire inspection, background checks, answered some fun questions...and some really deep questions...the list goes on. However, now we wait for our awesome social worker to type and complete the report, which we are told takes about 3 weeks. After that, our agency will get a copy and the state will get a copy. Once those groups approve it, we are officially DONE and approved. That means we will be able to start submitting our profile and book to expectant mothers...sometime in August, pending nothing strange comes up. The matching process can take weeks, or years. That's the start of the scary part. Once we have a match, let me tell you a little about that process....

The Match...

Once Scott and I are selected by the expectant mother (and father if he is in the picture) we learn more about the birth-mother's hospital plan. Maybe this would be easier if I gave you an example.

Let's say we are matched with a baby September 1st. The due date of the baby is December 22. It's up to the birth-mother if Scott and I are able to attend doctor's appointment until the due date. On the day of the baby's birth, Scott and I will go to the hospital and stay in a separate hospital room. It again, is up to the birth-mother if I or both of us get to be in the room while the baby is being born...that does happen! Scott MAY even get to cut the cord! Depending on the birth-mom's wishes, we may get to hold and feed the baby...OR we may have to stay in our hospital room until the birth-mother is discharged. In the state of Ohio, we do not obtain the care and rights to the baby until at least 72 hours after birth. The birth-mother may change her mind at any point prior to signing the papers. We have been told this is (for lack of better words) the worst Hell we will go through. It's scary and we have literally no rights to anything or anyone at this point. Our hope is that we will get an opportunity to build a relationship with the birth-mother so that by the time the baby is born, she will fully trust us, and any potential issues will lessen.

After we get to leave the hospital WITH the baby, our social worker will visit us within 7 days at our home to make sure everything is going well. She will continue to visit us at our home once a month (for 6 months) until the finalization process...the time when the court adds our names to the new birth certificate and we no longer have to have home visits! The baby will be in our care after that roughly 72 hours after birth...and the birth family cannot "take it back" after that...at least not without proving Scott and I are abusing or neglecting the baby...so no worries there!

THANK YOU

Thank you for EVERYTHING you all have been doing! With all the fundraisers and private donations, we have been blessed to have raised $6200 for baby Watson! Thank you SO much! We have been able to pay off our first loan. We will be taking out our second loan once we are matched, as payment in full is due shortly after. (Roughly another $10,000-$15,000 if we are able to stay in the state of Ohio...which is our hope.) A savings account has been set up for any incoming funds as well as our own savings to go towards the second loan.

Your prayers and kind words mean so much to Scott and I, and ultimately will be what makes the biggest difference for us and our future baby(ies)...yes we are open to multiples!

If you would like to keep up with more current progress in our adoption (1-2 posts per week) you can join our Facebook group. Scott and Lindsay's Facebook Group

As we learn more about our own process, we will update the this blog!

Much love to you all,

Scott and Lindsay