Adoption Update!

bubba and i were able to get a few more forms completed yesterday.

 

the guardianship form (for who will take over if anything were to happen to both of us) and our open adoption assignment from our open adoption training class.

 

yay! it always feels amazing to get another thing checked off the list and turned in. another step closer.

 

i also sent a few questions over to our caseworker and she replied quickly, as usual! she was able to answer my questions and in a nutshell:

 

-we are waiting for the clearances to come back (roughly takes 4-6 weeks)

 

-she said she is far enough along in our home study that she feels good about scheduling our home inspection as soon as the clearances come back!!!!

 

-our photo books for birth families, photo collage for state caseworkers, and our online photo profile isn't "due" for a completed home study or home inspection.

a relief, however, she said we want to get them in within a week or two after the home inspection so that once everything is completed if their are families waiting then they can hand out our photo books ASAP.

so our goal is to have all photo projects done by the time of home inspection, so we can hand them off to our caseworker then!

 

-this means it's coming QUICK! and the house has to be ready SOON. and our pile of paperwork is dwindling!!

 

i know that this is going to be a bit of a whirlwind here at the end, with all the last minute to-dos, but i'm so excited! I can't wait to be officially done with the majority of the paperwork process and in the waiting process.

 

busy, busy, busy now.... and then lots of waiting later.

 

Love & Support!

WOW!

 

these past 2 weeks have been crazy.

 

we go to disneyland, come back, mail out announcement letters, rowan gets sick, received great responses from our announcement, share the news on fb, more awesome support from amazing friends and family and then i get sick. with the flu. still amazing support from everyone. and yet, still sick. boo!

 

we are so happy, thrilled to get the reactions from people that we have about our adoption announcement. we are so appreciative that people are happy for us and see adoption as such a positive life change. it's the awesome encouragement that we get from the people who matter that make this process so much easier and exciting. just knowing how excited people are for us.

 

i love it.

 

We have already been receiving financial support from people who believe in us and expanding our family! Seriously, awesome and wonderful, beautiful people! we are so grateful to anyone who helps us through this process in any way! we still need lots of prayer!

 

 

so here is one of our fundraisers that we are going through: Just Love Coffee.

This coupon code is good through May 27th for 10% off!

 

 

 

 

thanks to everyone for the encouragment, support, love, financial help, prayers and for embracing us.

THANK YOU.

Adoption Announcement

I've decided to post our letter that we mailed out to everyone. This way some questions can be answered and I'm not constantly repeating myself. :) 

I would love for anyone to ask questions if they have any about the process. 

But hopefully this letter will cover a lot of it!

Here it is: 

Greetings Family & Friends!

           

We are thrilled to announce that we are expanding our family through domestic adoption!!

Our journey began August 2011, when we made the decision to adopt; however, was briefly halted while Bubba deployed, but even thousands of miles separating our little family couldn’t hinder our desire to expand our family. In April, while Bubba was home on leave, we completed the application forms and were accepted through Amara, a Seattle-based non-profit adoption agency.

Throughout the deployment, we worked filling out several mandatory forms, and within two months of Bubba’s return, we had finished up all of our mandatory training and informational classes, classes such as: open adoption, transracial adoption, and CPR/first aid. We’ve also completed our interviews in Seattle with our case worker. We’ve completed our fingerprinting for our background clearances and our final major step will be our home inspection (expected to be completed in June) and of course MORE PAPERWORK. 

Those of you who are nearby will notice a lot of changes around our house as we get ready to receive our new addition. As we prepare our house for our new child, we must be flexible as the child may be as young as a relinquished infant, to a 2 year old toddler from foster care. Along with the age range, we are also welcoming to any race.

We are all very excited about this decision to adopt, especially Rowan, who has been kept in the dark until recently, when we told her she was going to be a big sister. She is a very smart girl and is very understanding of the situation. She cannot wait to be a big sister and shares our desire to expand our family. She too, is doing her own training in preparation for becoming a big sister, such as, trying to feed us with the ‘airplane’ spoon.

Jessica started a blog back in April 2012 that includes some of our journey to and through adoption. You can find it at: www.jessicaseverydaymoments.blogspot.com

We ask that you please pray for us, for patience, understanding, guidance, and a healthy child. If you feel that you are led to help us financially with our adoption we have set up an account with Just Love Coffee  where we get proceeds from every order: https://justlovecoffee.com/growingtheguerreros

We know that adoption may feel a little scary, especially if you don’t know much about it, which is why we’ve enclosed a list that explains some of the terminology that is now used. You can, of course, find a lot of information about adoption on the Internet. Please feel free to ask us any questions that you may have about how the process works.

Once our home study is completed, comes “the waiting period”. The waiting period is a lot like a pregnancy, except that we have no idea how long it will last. We could be chosen right away or it could take several years for God to find us the right child. In the meantime, your support will mean a lot to us. We’re excited about expanding our family, and hope you’ll welcome our baby with open arms when he or she finally arrives!

Thanks for your support,

            Bubba, Jessica & Rowan                        

“I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you” - John 14:18

FAQ & Terminology:

Birthparents: the people who made an adoption plan for their child because they are unable to care for them, not because they don’t love them

Home study: the process of paperwork, training, background checks, interviews, home inspection and fingerprinting all compiled into a big file

Home Inspection: when our caseworker inspects our house to certify it for our foster care home license.

Transracial: involving two or more races. We are open to being an expanding multicultural family, being as we, of course, are already Mexican-Americans!

Relinquished:  a child whose birthparents arranged an adoption plan.

Foster Care: a system that is put into place for children to go when their parents aren’t capable of caring for them, not because the child did anything wrong

Open adoption: this can range from a letter and pictures once a year to visits and relationships with the birth family. This is so the child has a better understanding with their life story and any questions regarding their identity and background.

Positive Adoption Language:

Positive Language:                                            Negative Language:

Parent                                                                    Adoptive Parent

Birth parent or Biological parent                              Real or natural parent

My child                                                                  My adopted child

Make an adoption plan                                               Gave up their child

Search for birth parents                                           Track down real parents

WAS adopted                                                            Is adopted

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” –Mathew 21:22

Spring Garden Update

i'm thrilled that we have had sun and rain. it's the perfect combo for my garden to grow!

 

here's the latest:

{all pics taken with my iphone}

 

 

my two little strawberry plants.

wondering if i will get to eat any this year before the birds get to them

spinach, carrots, and my chives that are barely coming in.

and for some weird reason only half of my carrots have come up.

i'll be planting some more soon.

my peas!! i'm so very excited about my peas! they have this nice trellis that bubba built and they love it and growing like crazy.

will be harvesting these little buggers in the next few days

 

one tomato plant in the corner.

broccoli plants and carrots

again.. about half didn't come up.

will be planting more of those as well

 

tomato plants and radishes

this is the first year that i'll be growing all of my tomato plants from seeds

a bit nervous, hoping they grow well

our radishes are awesome and most of them are ready to harvest

just need some recipes for radishes now!

 

my asparagus.

i thought for sure that my asparagus were done for. it seemed to take FOREVER for them to sprout.

now they have sprouted and who knows if i'm even doing it right.

but i read that it takes awhile before you can harvest, a few years

(please excuse the weeds. ha}

rowan's sweet pea flowers... their growth has stunted a bit. but her one sugar snap pea plant is growing well. she grew some from seed at school that she brought home a bit ago and i think i will have her plant those peas soon as well.

more tomato and broccoli plants.

i plan on adding onions and cauliflower to this spot when they are ready.

 

i didn't include the pic of my beets because well.. the weeds are bigger than the beet starts.

she picked her first radish this morning! this one looks like maybe a french breakfast.

i planted a variety pack, so each pick is a surprise!

 

i'm off to pull weeds and plant this rainy, cloudy friday evening!

Adoption Announcement photos

we had our pictures done, FINALLY, on the 5th!

 

and by the 8th I had ordered our announcement cards.

 

we took off to disneyland and came home late monday.

 

tuesday we wrote our announcement letter and i was up late addressing all the envelopes and stuffing them.

 

it's official. no turning back now.

 

they are officially mailed -- as of today!

 

here's some pics from our photo session with urlife photos

 

 

I took some pictures of rowan in her BIG SIS shirt to add to the announcement:

 

 

 

And this is our announcement:

 

Fingerprinting

when we returned from disneyland we had a fat envelope from our agency! YAY!

our clearances went through and we got our forms for our fingerprinting.

 

 it only took about 2 weeks, as opposed to some friends who took 7 weeks to get their fingerprinting forms. I'm not sure why it went through so quickly, but i'm super excited.

 

so we made an appointment right away and we went down and had our fingerprints taken.

 

it went really quick and was easy.

i always thought that i would go my whole life without getting fingerprinted.

but they only hold onto the fingerprints for 3 months, just to check our background, and then they are erased.

 

we also got our forms to fill out for each state we have lived in, in the past 5 years to get checked through the Department of Human Services. We have to get one of them notarized, so will trying to get that done this week.

 

we are getting so close.. we still have paperwork to do, open adoption homework, foster license forms, and our photobooks, online photo profile, photo sheet for the caseworkers and of course getting the house ready!

 

but compared to everything that we have already done, this list is nothing! we've got this.

 

however, we need to be quick with everything left because some of these forms have a timeline and if everything is submitted with that timeline then we would have to redo them.

 

we picked up our required fire extinguisher and medication lock box today! we will be working on the house and getting it ready for the rest of the month.

 

i don't think we can get our home inspection until our fingerprints come through, which i was told takes about 6 weeks.

 

so we are hoping for a completed homestudy by the end of june!

 

wish me luck as we prepare for this child!

Surprise Disneyland Trip!

We surprised rowan with a trip to disneyland!

 

she had no idea that we were going until the morning that we woke her up!

 

We took off on Friday and came back late Monday!

We had an amazing time!!!

 

a few pics from my iphone..

plane ride there!

 

 

plane ride!

 

3D Toy Story Mania ride in California Adventure!

 

Huntington Beach ( a pit stop before we got to Disneyland)

Radiator Springs in Cars Land!

with my mom and her hubby

toy story

 

 

rudy's diner at the huntington beach pier!

 

more pics to come later...

The day we told Rowan.

May 1st.

The day we told Rowan.

 

Little did she know that a few hours after I took these pictures that she would be finding out that she is going to be a big sister.

 

we decided to tell her at dinner, while we were eating.

 

it was a bit conflicting at the beginning, but ended with being VERY excited!

we were honest with her and tried to explain in 5 year old terms what it means to adopt through foster care. and that's where the tears came in.

she was crying and then she was excited.

and then she cried again. because she wanted the baby to come TOMORROW.

if only, my sweet child, if only.

 

now she's back to being very happy and very excited

and of course telling everyone.

it's a little awkward with her telling people because she says i'm going to be a big sister

or saying i'm going to have a little brother or sister!

and then they automatically think i'm pregnant.

 

i have thought about this multiple times before.

my body will get scrutiny before and after the baby.

because people will automatically assume that i am pregnant

or just gave birth (if the baby looks like us)

 

so i'm trying to prepare myself.

i'm confident and comfortable with my body most of the time.

but don't we all get days where we are self conscious?

hoping that's not a day where someone asks me how i'm going to loose the baby weight! ha!

 

on that note.. rowan is thrilled to become a big sister.

and she's so caring and nurturing that i know she's going to be FABULOUS at it!

 

 

 

 

BIG SIS shirt!

I finally got my shirt that i had made through etsy at harper's house!

 

so cute!

Homemade Horchata

So it's been awhile since i posted.. but we were getting ready for disneyland and had a million things going on.. and i have quite a few draft posts.. so here they come.. in full force.

 

rowan made horchata! she picked this recipe out from a Dora cookbook that we checked out from the library.

she helped with almost every step and did awesome.

 

the results:

 

delicious!

Rowan runs her first race!

rowan had her first race. it was the cutest thing i've ever seen.

a 1/2 mile.

she was AH-MAZING.

she ran the entire time and even paced herself like her daddy taught her.

she only complained of side pain one time.

she never slowed down. she never stopped. and she didn't quit.

she crossed that finish line!

 

 

i was so proud.

like seriously.

thank goodness i was wearing sunglasses

even though it cold and gray and cloudy... and the only one wearing them.

but i still have a cut on the inside of my lip from biting it so hard.

just so i wouldn't be that mom.

you know the one...

bawling her eyes out at the finish line.

or the starting line.. whatev.

 

that was me.

uber proud!