Picture this...

This month Kensington's school did class photos. While the quality of the prints were what you'd expect from LifeTouch, so was the time investment from the photographer. Unlike the other photoshoots Kensington has gone to that range from 30-90 minutes a setting, this was more of a "sit, snap, next" experience - which meant no room for errors, or lack of smiling. Needless to say we didn't purchase the entire kit, but as any good parents would do, we purchase one of each print for scrapbook purposes.

Here they are for your viewing pleasure. [note... she's not wearing eye shadow, it's the way the scan came out]

Meet Melanie & Matt

Over the past six months, we have received many inspiring notes and emails from a wonderful mix of individuals: friends & family members, new and 'seasoned' adoptive parents, expecting parents, birth moms/parents that have placed a child up for adoption, as well as women who are pregnant and wondering if choosing adoption is right for them. Please know that while we may not have the opportunity to answer all of them in a timely fashion, we do read them and talk about them together - and each one of them touches us. Many make us laugh... some make us cry... and some make us laugh and cry. All of them make us thankful for what we have, and thankful that we have so many caring people in our lives.

With that being said, we realized that we have a wonderful venue to share stories, memories and opportunities with our followers, as well as those doing searches on the web.

If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times. I believe everything happens for a reason. the good. the bad. the indifferent. It may take me weeks - months - even years to realize it, but there is a plan in place (and even if I don't agree with it 'in the moment'), and everything works out in the end.

I feel very strongly that we made the perfect choice when choosing Creative & Sons to create our adoption portfolio / adoption profile. Adam did such a wonderful job showing the true sides of "Paul & Chris" and through the process of creating it, a great friendship has formed. Adam shared with me his latest adoption portfolio/profile, and I would like to introduce to you, Melanie & Matt. This cute couple have been together for eight years and would like to start a family.

As I've heard from many of the adoptive parents out there, word of mouth is the key in finding the right placement. Chris and I were lucky enough to find a wonderful agency, Friends In Adoption, that helped us in finding S&S, our bio parents. While Melanie & Matt are using a different venue (being from Charleston, SC), I wanted to share with you their story in hopes of making their journey to a match a short one. To learn more about them, you can visit www.wishforfamily.com

Introducing Us... Again

TADA!

Thanks to the amazing work of our designer, Adam, at Creative & Sons, our portfolio is finally completed. And just think, we only made him go through 23 revisions (or was it 24?!?)

Click on the link and you can download a copy for yourself.

We hope you all enjoy it as much as we enjoyed putting it together! If you don't like the photo of you in the portfolio - Blame Adam. If your photo didn't make it into the portfolio, also Blame Adam. That's what you get when you hire a professional ~ someone who refuses your sugesstions because of creative differences. That's not always a bad thing. Smile Adam!!

P.S. Thanks to Cathy and Kyle for taking 100+ photos in order to get our cover shot. I just couldn't smile for the life of me. The weekend was great... several hours of Wii track and field, tons of Taco Bell (Cathy, what were we thinking?), and ended with us designing their nursery. Hahahhaha. Love you both!

One down... two more to go.

Wow… I have so much to catch you all up on. Last Saturday, we had the first of our three “Homestudy” reviews take place. We made arrangements to meet with our social worker, Justine, at Starbucks located within a Barnes & Nobel just outside of the city. We were extremely nervous but were calmed when we were informed that this would be more of an informational type of meeting. What to expect from the agency, the forms that needed to filled out, what we need to put in our autobiography, etc. No biggie… right?

We arrived at the bookstore early than planned, so we headed to the adoption/parenting section to browse through some books. That’s when we found “ And Tango Makes Three” [see posting below].

Once it was time for our appointment, we headed to the semi-crowded coffee shop and instantly knew whom we were to meet. There sat Justine with a smile on her face and an expression of shear joy for the work that she does.

After we got introductions out of the way, and the logistical issues that we needed to collect/take care of, the conversation flowed to how we met, why we chose adoption as the route to start a family (versus surrogacy), what our individual strengths and weaknesses are, what the strengths and weaknesses of our relationship are, discussions about our families and the overall views of adoption, our stance on parenting and religion, and anything else that you may find on a episode of “In Treatment” on HBO. About halfway through the conversation, we could sense that everyone in the coffee shop realize what the three of us were discussing and the room seemed to go silent… which was slightly embarrassing when at one point the subject got a little emotional and tears started running down our faces. Thank God for crying children (that will be the one and only time that I say that) because its broke up the attention on our, and placed it on the table behind us.

All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon. We’ll be doing our home inspection towards the end of April / beginning of May, and spending the next couple weeks getting our portfolio ready.

Postcards From The Edge...

As you can tell, it's been a slow blogging week.
As stated in the beginning, there will be lulls in the process, and being that this is our official "adoption" blog, and not our personal day-to-day happenings, there will be some days that nothing will be captured on here. I know, I know - a tear is falling from my eye as well.

Being that today is President's Day, I've decided to catch up on some work and minor tasks that have been haunting me for weeks now, all while being comfy in my PJ’s, drinking my ump-teen cup of coffee, laying by the fire. It’s such a hard life to live.

Not to entirely happy with the initial artwork that Chris and I put up on this page, I decided to get artistic and update it. Walla! What you see above is the latest creation. Now that I was able to check that off of my to-do list, I went ahead and ordered our “portfolio postcards”. These cards get attached to each of our 50 portfolios (the story of our lives), and when a case-worker shares one with a potential birthmother, we get updated.

Some people just attach a generic postcard, or regular index card to be updated, but not us. We had to special order ours and on the back, we made it simple (and fun) for the case-workers to fill out.

Paul & Chris,
We are excited to inform you that a portfolio went to a perspective birthmother

from __________(state) on _________(date).
She is ________________ months/weeks along in her pregnancy.
At this time, the sex of the baby is unknown / a boy / a girl.
We'll be in touch,
________________________________