We're Certified! A quick update...

It has been a few weeks since I have posted... We have been pretty busy getting ready for the holidays and getting the nursery completed. We also spent a great deal of time finishing up our adoption profiles for potential birthmoms. We really put a lot of time and love in them - coming up with a theme, how we wanted to summarize our life in less than 1300 words (NOT an easy task!!!!) and then trying to find pictures that are less than a year old to fill it with. Once we received final approval, I had them printed the following day and then spent about 5 hours the same night binding them. It was a pretty touching experience putting the profiles together - knowing that our potential birthmom would be reading/reviewing them. They are basically our first impression to our birthmom. (Gee, no pressure!) But we put them all together and we are excited to finally be presented to birthmoms. We also received notification that we are now officially certified to adopt. Our Home Study was approved and we are "official" - we can bring a baby home at anytime now. That is a big relief! Everything is complete - the paperwork, the nursery, the house, the home study - now we just need a baby!

It is a bit tough though, given the time of the year. Christmas is SUCH a big deal in my family and always has been. It is ALL about family and spending time together. Last year was tough for us, being childless, because we want so much to share the joy and magic we felt as a child at Christmas with a child. We ended up flying my mom, dad, sister, brother and his girlfriend out to our place for Christmas. I tried to get my other two brothers and their families to come out too, but they each have large families of their own and couldn't get away or afford the trip at Christmas with so many people. It was SOOO great to have my family here, but we still felt the sting of yet another Christmas without a child.

We had hoped that last Christmas would have been our last childless Christmas, but at this point, it looks as if we will be spending one more without a child. There is always a chance that we could be matched prior to Christmas, but we don't want to get our hopes up only to be disappointed. We know that God has the child intended for us out there and his timing is perfect and we trust in that, but words cannot express the joy we would feel to have a child in our arms for Christmas.

So, we hope that you all had a very blessed Thanksgiving and hope that you all are able to enjoy the holiday season and remember the true meaning of Christmas. I hope you enjoy the time with your family! We will keep you posted as our adoption journey progresses and will hopefully have joyous news soon!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

God Bless You!