Rooted in Trefoil to Rooted in Sand

As most of you know, we were hosting a fundraiser/raffle through Lola's Brush. Well this past Saturday we had to cancel because we simply did not sell enough tickets to our event. So, I decided that instead of rallying for another date right away, I'd go get a pedicure and use that gift card I had received from my mother-in law. It was sooo needed. I was feeling relaxed and calm about everything. I was a tad sad about having to cancel the party, but the leg massage took all that away. While I was sitting back relaxing, Mandy from Lola's Brush called me and texted me so quickly that I barely had a chance to pick up the phone. She had received an inquiry from WCIA News Channel 3 about our party and that even though it was cancelled they wanted to report our story. While we discussed this, I mentioned let's get a new date for our party in case they want to proceed with an interview. That way we can launch the new day and use this as serious publicity. When I got off the...

On May 10th 2017, Tyler and I officially became "paper pregnant"!!!! Too bad it's not guaranteed to be 9 months long. So what actually occurs at this point!?!!??! We welcome our social worker into our home for 3 to 4 visits that include an overview of the house, and interviews of myself and Tyler together and separately. The paper portion is a collection of items that we must gather slowly and during specified times throughout the process. We'll have to gather information about our finances, employment, background checks, and much more. There will be conversations about our readiness and reasons about wanting to adopt, potentially a walk-through of our neighborhood, outline of our social life, parenting experiences, and daily life routines. The home study has been called the "most invasive" or "lengthy" portion of the adoption process. It is hard to let a complete  stranger into your home to essentially judge you in a good way. After all, pr...

I cannot speak for other's experiences, heart, or choices. Tyler and I sat down last night to go through an extensive list of disabilities that were correctable and some that were not. It was pretty rough to realize that potentially any future matches may or may not have issues that would need extensive care. It's a little scary too. We are open to common issues because we need to be. Those include, malnourishment during pregnancy, no information about birth parents, unknown/estimated age, prematurity 32-36 weeks, low birth weight 3.5-5.5lbs, Mongolian spots, crossed eyes, TB inactive/active, developmental delay - mild, experienced neglect, experienced multiple placements/caregivers, albinism, and ineffective vaccinations. Some items that we have a choice of considering that we will consider are indiscriminate attachments/affections, withdrawn, experienced physical abuse, difficulty understanding cause and effect, needs therapy, hyperactivity - mild, learning disability - m...

Well, it's 6:45pm on Thursday and I'm feeling mighty accomplished! Just applied for our homestudy through Illini Christian Ministries. Such great people!!! When I was on my search for a Hague Accredited homestudy agency, ICM kept popping up. I read pretty much everything on their website and started correspondence with Dayna, who's their Adoption Specialist. She truly eased my fears, answered all my questions, and provided tons of support - and we weren't even her clients yet!!! So ICM and the Schmidts are going head first into this adoption together, and I couldn't be more excited!!! One step closer to Baby Schmidt!!!! Thankfully, ICM has a 6 month waiting list for home studies...so we probably won't begin ours until Nov/Dec of this year. If we're lucky, we'll get a tax season behind us to assist with the costs. Tyler and I have a lot of paperwork upon us though. Fingerprinting, adoption education, getting certified copies of things.....just a lot a...