Hi AJ - and everyone else!
We're in the waiting mode too, so greetings from a different row of the same boat.
Our story: I'm an adoptee (closed adoption, found bmom 6 yrs ago, no reunion w/ bdad) and my husband and I have been married almost 8 years. We did all the "right" things - waited 'til we were financially stable, got the house, the minivan, etc. etc. etc. ..... funny how you can plan all you want and things don't follow the way you think they will, eh? Two years and a trip 'round the infertility merry-go-round later, and we're officially diagnosed as infertile and wholeheartedly into the adoption process. We're trying for an open, domestic, independent adoption. We've got a TERRIFIC lawyer and completed the homestudy and precertification process required by NY for independent adoptions. We did our "adoptive parent resume" which we also posted online and created adoption cards (y'know, like business cards) and have been passing the cards out all over creation. We set up the "baby phone" second line in the house, which forwards to my cell phone when we're not home.
We also "outed" ourselves, reproductively speaking
, by sending a letter to all our family and friends (Christmas card list, etc) explaining our situation, how we're hoping to adopt, and including a few cards for each. The response we got from that letter was very positive; some people have even called to ask for more cards to pass out!
I guess we were kinda hoping that a baby or two would fall right in our lap (yeah, I know, more of that wishful thinking) from doing the above, because we hesitated before placing ads in papers. Well, we've had a few contacts with birthmothers, including one that seemed really positive for a while, but nothing panned out. (The call that came in the most random spot so far - we were at the La Brea Tar Pits Museum in Los Angeles while on vacation last week and my cell phone rang! We took the call while sitting on the floor in front of the sabre tooth tiger fossils, with piped in mastadon cries screaming above us!
)
So, we've taken the leap - we just placed our adoption ad in papers in 4 states around the country (including NY), to start running, appropriately enough, on Thursday - the thing we would be most grateful for on Thanksgiving!
Yikes - I'm rambling. Sorry, I'm just so excited about the whole adoption thing, and I'm driving all my friends, family and coworkers crazy with my constant adoption chatter.
It's nice to have a place like this where people know what you're going through, you know?
Oh - as for the nursery - hubby is dead set against doing ANYTHING for setting up the nursery until we're well on the way to having an actual baby. He is afraid of "jinxing" anything, so our nursery is not even started yet. If it were up to me, it would be DONE already of course!
Okay, enough rambling. I ought to be doing housework now anyhow - inlaws arrive for Turkey Day in 2 days and I've got cat hair all over the place! Well, the CATS have cat hair all over the place - I've just got to vacuum it up!
Take care, good luck to everyone, and if anyone wants an e-pal, please drop me a line!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
Cheers,
Heather
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adoptee/hope to soon be an adoptive mom