[gangof4]

Hi Ladies,
We just had our first part of our home study completed yesterday. It went well. We went over a bunch of questions of what we were willing to except in a child based on illnesses and emotional/ behavior issues. Our house was examined for running water and safety issues and such. And now we have to complete some criminal clearances (Even my 14.yr old daughter has to get hers done!) and the whole family has to get dr.s clearances.
Plus we have to take some classes. I think we should be all done by August/September!

[IslandGirl]

Welcome Merzl! Good luck in your journey! We're just in the beginning stages of researching as well.

Gangof4 Congrats on getting the homestudy complete! That must be exciting!

I think the topic of why to birthparents choose certain couples is interesting. I don't think we'll ever know because each is so different.

Hope everyone is having a great week! We're waiting for the end of June for our meeting with the agency!

[kristyr41982]

Went to our adoption counseling session yesterday. It was mainly focused on infertility treatments and being ready to move on. We turned in our application and got all of the other paperwork for our homestudy. We have classes June 11-13th and hope to have all the paperwork and homestudy complete by the end of the summer.

[sarah16]

How exciting Kristy! I'm thinking of you!

[gangof4]

Hello Ladies

I was wondering if anyone got stuck on writing their bio? I am having a hard time getting started on it. I'm afraid I'm going to say the wrong thing. Did any of you feel that way? Maybe it's just me.. I always feel like I might say the wrong thing. Even on here, whenever I'm making a post I worry I might say something wrong. Maybe I'm just being silly.

Anywho, just wondering how long it took to get thru your bio's? Getting all the paperwork is the easy part

[kristyr41982]

I agree. It is very hard. I was just open and honest. It has been really hard for me to do our scrapbook. I can't decide which pictures I want to use and it's really hard not to put too much of our son in there. I want it to be about us more than him and that's hard considering he is our world.

[sarah16]

It was hard for me as well. I also tried to be as honest as possible. Like we have said before, who knows what a birthmom is looking for!

[jf5505]

Hey..it took me forever to write my Profile and find the right pictures, there are places you can go to have them proofread, give suggestions and just kind of look over, I did this after I was completely done and got some feedback for like $100.00...but really our birthmom was looking at ours and picked us right away for something I wouldn't of thought she would of picked us for, so its so hard to say other than being yourself..I will email you mine if you want to see what I did..just PM me.

[gangof4]

Thanks so much for your replies!

I guess the hardest part is trying to figure out how in depth I should be. It seems like they want so much information. I'm working on my childhood right now and I'm trying to be honest about the bad stuff without making it seem like it was all bad. If that makes any sense.

I've only just gotten started and I've already written a few pages. It's going to be a novel by the time I'm done

[Kari]

I spent quite a few days on my autobiography before I read the part in the directions that it should be less than 5 pages! And then we learned that emoms would not be reading them. Our agency uses them to get to know the adoptive couple, incorporate pieces into the homestudy, and possibly as a reference to verbally answer a question an emom might have prior to the match meeting. If only I knew that before stressing about it for a couple weeks .

I'm sure every agency is different though.

Good luck!

[IslandGirl]

Just thinking about the biography makes me nervous! I guess we'll get there one step at a time! I figure if I can make it through an IVF and FET and still be sane, I can make it through this!

Lots of exciting things going on!

[kristyr41982]

Our references got their letters yesterday. Of course my mom told me what the questions are and some of them are quite nosey. Alot of them are social questions, involvements in organizations, clubs, church. The rest were about our interaction with children. Got all our TB skin tests done this week, fingerprinting on Monday, classes next Thursday-Saturday and CPR/First Aid for DH and First Aid for me the following week. We may have every bit of paperwork for our homestudy submitted by July 1st. Then the homestudy will begin. Having a little bit of a hard time today. My best friend told me last night she is pregnant with #2 on birth control shot. The pregnancy may not be viable as they didn't see a sac on ultrasound and by her calculations she is 8 weeks. But they think her dates are off so she has another ultrasound in 2 weeks. She doesn't think it is going to be viable. She's had multiple miscarriages in the past. I don't know what to think, but it is a little upsetting that she hid it from me for over a week.

[gangof4]

Kristy- I'm sorry to hear about your friend. It must be hard on her.
It must feel weird to have to have such personal questions asked of you. I don't think my references got their letters yet but I'm sure I'm going to cringe when I find out what the questions are.

So my bio is coming along-my husband is a professional writer/creative directer and has been very helpful- and I'm about half way done. By the way Thanks JF550 for the advise! But as you can see I lucked out on having to hire out an editor. He takes smooches as payment.

Ha ha thats funny Kari. I slashed some of my epic writings to a bearable few pages.

Well, I was mostly just checking in. I hope everyone's doing well

[kristyr41982]

We had family pics taken yesterday and had fingerprints done today. Our classes are Thursday through Saturday. Everything is moving forward. We have set a paperwork submission goal for ourselves of July 15th so then we can schedule our homestudy and get final approval.

[gangof4]

Wow Kristy! Thats exciting!

I took the first class last week. And my husband is talking the second one this Saturday. Then next month I'll take the second class and my husband will take the first one. I hope that makes sense.
We have are second homestudy in two weeks. It's in 3 parts.
We've also decided to lower our age range to under 3 yr.s. Our youngest is 3 and she'll be 4 in Sept. She wants to be a big sister. And I just think it will be better.