Seattle Trip

Hey all! 

We spent the weekend in Seattle for our adoption training class. We chose the cheapest places possible to stay (and it showed!) but it was really a GREAT weekend. We left Thursday night after our home study interview and went to my mom's house. We all spent the night there Thursday night, then Austin and I took off for Seattle on Friday afternoon. Ryder had a BLAST staying at "mimi's an grandpa marks!" My grandparents also went up there for a night to spend time with him. He had a house full of attention I am sure. My mom took a TON of pictures and I'm so grateful seeing all the fun he had with them. 

Seattle was an experience. I am NOT a big city, lots of people, crowds type of person and WOW there was a lot of people and a LOT going on up there! We spent the entire day Saturday in our class and it was good. Went by quickly and was very interesting and informative.

This week we really don't have a whole lot going on in regards to the adoption. I am working on finishing up our profile book ( it is coming together and i'm loving it!) We took some pictures at my moms for our photo book which was good. We have two hours of training left that we can do whatever we want for, so we have a movie we are going to watch and write a summary on. Austin asked our caseworker if we could watch Juno ! ha that guy. (laughing she actually said we could) 

PUZZLE UPDATE: I finally sat down and added up how many puzzle pieces have been adopted and 297 pieces have been adopted! I am in SHOCK! It is so amazing. There still are piece left (205 to be exact!) Here is the puzzle blog post HERE!

I didn't take too many pictures in Seattle, but here are a few: 

Update!

HOME STUDY!!!

We are in the "home study" phase of our adoption process. We have had 1 of 3 interviews so far. The first interview went GREAT. Our case worker is the BEST. She is laid back, funny, easy going.. if for some reason she can see this, well, know that you "K" are more than we could ever have asked for! 

Anyways, our first interview was full of questions about the time we were born until now. One good thing about being young and going through this process is there isn't as much "history" as someone who is in their 40's. Our next home study interview is TOMORROW at our HOUSE.. ahhhh! Can you say nervous. I'm borderline going crazy wanting my house to be as clean as a museum. My house is clean, very very very clean, for that matter and I am happy. Tomorrow the plan is to stay OUT of the house haha Our appointment is at 2pm wish us luck ;)

so..

Since before we ever made our first payment to our agency I started working on our profile book. I have spent HOURS on this book. Do you know how hard it is to express who you are as a family to someone you've never met? hard. and you know what is even harder? our birth parents letters. Having to write a letter to the woman that will be trusting us with her child, to raise as our own and love unconditionally is no easy task. Especially since we haven't met her yet! I'm hoping to have our book completed and ordered by the end of next week. I will be so happy when it's in my hands :)

Puzzle pieces are being adopted like crazy and I'm loving it. If you want to adopt a piece or pieces its not too late! Click the "donate" button to the right! OR check out our puzzle fundraiser post HERE! I will post a picture of the puzzle soon, promise. We feel so blessed and overwhelmed by all the love and support from everyone. We can't thank you all enough!

love, Erika

GARAGE SALE UPDATE!

Oh my gosh you guys! At our garage sale this weekend we were able to raise $2,593.00!!!!! I am in SHOCK, utter disbelief that we sold SO much stuff and raised some much money. I about cried when Austin told me the final number. A few nights ago I was starting to doubt if we would be able to come up with the money we needed for the next step of our adoption. But God provides and he provides in a BIG way.

We have to give a HUGE thank you to EVERYONE that donated stuff to our garage sale. I was blown away at how many people reached out to us with donations. With that being said, we are planning another garage sale in October with our neighborhood and will be continuing to collect items.. I know there are a few people we weren't able to get donations from in time for this sale! 

Now to be honest I am not a garage sale queen. Austin and I have never had enough to have our own sale so have always just donated our old and unneeded items. Pricing was a nightmare! I had no clue what I was doing. Luckily my good friend Tara was a big help and I was texting her quite a bit with questions.. and every time we picked up donations I was asking their opinions on pricing. I needed some guidance. 

Austin and I were up till 2:30am friday night.. well I guess technically that would be Saturday morning then up at 6am to open by 8am. (I think next time we will open at 9!!) But we did it. We were all set up and ready and I was nervous. I was nervous about people not showing up, nervous about not selling anything, and nervous about the whole thing! But we prayed the night before that God would bless our sale. And let me tell you, he blessed us. Not only with people coming and buying things but by bring people to us that said they would be praying for us and our journey, people that donated money on top of stuff they were buying to support our journey, people that shared their journey's of adoption with us and people that were so curious as to our future plans and wished us luck! We met some wonderful people and had some great conversations. 

We couldn't have done it without all the help from our family and friends. This journey so far has been simply amazing, we have been so blessed and God has really provided. Please bare with me as I haven't been very quick to get as many "thank" you's out as I would have liked, please know how grateful and THANKFUL we are for each and every one of you!  I have been so busy but they are a comin! ;) Below are just a few of the sale!

UPDATE: Our Adoption Journey

FIRST OFF: WOW! We are blown away at all the love and support we have received since announcing that we are adopting! In less than 24 hours 30 puzzle pieces were "adopted!" and we have had tons of people tell us they are planning too. We are so blessed, and so very thankful for you all! If you haven't "adopted" your piece yet don't be shy ;)

*as of right now around 150 pieces have been adopted!*

This journey is exactly that.. a journey. If you know me you know I have little patience when it comes to waiting around and I like things done like yesterday. But as I already knew and expected this process is greatly dependent on other people. That my friends is HARD for me. The day we got our humungous home study packet it was a Friday. Ain't nothin getting done on a Friday (seriously my grammar isn't that bad). So I knew I couldn't get anything accomplished until Monday. Don't be fooled though, I created an official adoption binder and got all of our paperwork organized!

Naturally I didn't sleep well Sunday night!  I was just so anxious. First thing first was to make Bruce (the dog) a vet appointment (they opened first). Yep. He needs a physical, updated shots, vaccination report and a LETTER from his Vet stating he is acceptable to be around children. Luckily his vet had an opening the next day. So to the vet we went :)

Next up was to schedule mine and Austins physicals. Now, I am not a fan of the doctors. The pure fact that I have been pregnant four times and have had to have 3 surgeries in less than a year and half and am not in a looney bin is simply amazing. I was seriously sweating making the dreaded phone call. Ridiculous I know. Of course neither Austin or I have primary care physicians so I had to go through the entire new patient stuff before I could even schedule an appointment. Then it came down to choosing a DR. I told the lady to pick someone who would have the quickest openings (later I realized that probably would be the worst dr in the entire office that nobody wants haha) We also have to get a TB test.. THAT is not something I'm looking forward to. But since talking to a nurse friend I feel a tiny bit better. gah. When this stuff is all over maybe then I can breath ;)

Are you still with me? Next on the list of "to dos"-which is a mile long- was fingerprinting. So Ryder and I picked up Austin at work and headed down to the Oregon State Police ID center and got our prints taken. EASIEST thing ever.

It's been a whirlwind the last week! We have already finished a two night Pediatric CPR and first aid class. Completed mounds of paper work, sat on the phone with our insurances finding out what is exactly covered, signed my name a million times and Austin has had an open line of communication with his HR department I swear.

 Of course I am remembering to breath and relax (do I have you fooled?) during this process. I know there will be a ton of waiting time and right now I have "stuff" to do to keep me busy.  Friday I got an email from our case worker that our first home study interview will be next week. AHHH can you say nervous?!? It's about to get real personal with a lady we've only ever met once. I will keep you all posted.

Will you pray for us to remember to keep a good balance of adoption work and keeping up with our normal life/routine? Its easy to get lost in the paperwork, literally, but we need to remember to embrace everyday and enjoy this journey! Tomorrow I am mailing in most of our paperwork and it's going to feel SOOOO good!