Homestudying...

HERE WE GO! Last Monday was our first official homestudy with the adoption agency - the first of three - and I'm pretty sure we passed! I have to admit that I was a bit nervous when we first sat down with our social worker and she started talking about what would happen if we didn't pass... but after she started asking questions, I relaxed a little bit. Her questions were really not as in depth as I thought they would be - they were actually pretty basic - I'd almost say easy! I think the worst part about the whole thing was worrying that she didn't think we were being real with her, but we just tried to be ourselves, so hopefully she knew we weren't just trying to say what she wanted to hear. So we've got 2 more to go now... the next one will be individual interviews of Troy and I, so I'm a little nervous about that, too - I think that they may do a little more digging as we progress, but I'm sure it won't be anything we can't handle. It's scheduled for Dec. 4th - next week! - and we're still hoping that we'll be all done with everything and paper pregnant by Christmas!!! Yay! 

I have to admit that now that we're ACTUALLY DOING this, I've been a little bit obsessed with baby thoughts. The nursery, names, the cute little clothes, baby stores! - I feel like I can actually go into stores like Babies R Us and not feel like an impostor!

We are SO excited. But now I have to keep reminding myself that once we ARE paper pregnant, I'm going to have to hold back and remember that it could be a long wait. But it's such a wonderful feeling that we're actually DOING this! I get more and more excited about it the closer we get! And we are surrounded by such supportive people! I was afraid that most of the reactions we would get throughout the process would be like the ones we got initially... about as much excitement as announcing that we had cancer or something... but now that we are going forward, most people are truly EXCITED for us. Of course there's the occasional "Oh. We thought you had some REAL news for us" comments (yes, someone really said that when we told them we were adopting), but for the most part, it has been great to see people's excitement about it. 

*Sigh* God is SOOO good. We are SO blessed in so many ways, and this year at Thanksgiving I'm reminded that I have so MUCH to be thankful for. We're feeling more hopeful about our prospects of having a family than we have in quite a few years. We're hoping and praying that next year at this time we'll have a little baby "B" to hold and love and let grandparents spoil. I can't wait!!!