Dear Birthmother Letter approved!!!

After 21 edits and a hard copy proof, our Dear Birthmother has been officially approved.  The copies are ordered and will arrive on November 7.  As of later today, all other paperwork will be in.  That means that in just a matter of days, we will be officially in the pool and we could make a match at any time.  The average time from joining the pool to match is 14.8 months, so we are still probably in for a long wait, but we are excited that any time my phone rings, we could be meeting the mother of our child!

Oktoberfest fundraiser

We are overwhelmed by the amount of love and support that our friends have shown us yesterday at our Oktoberfest fundraiser.  It was a lot of fun to have so many important people in our lives at our house eating, drinking, and watching the fight.  A special thank you to Scott for driving down from Sacramento, Lili and Freddy for dog sitting for the weekend, and all of our friends and family that brought food.

Jenny and I with our Oktoberfest spirit

Jenny, Beth, and I

By the time we cleaned up and counted money, we were happy to learn that we raised $939 after expenses toward the goal of starting a family.  I was in tears to realize that so many people believe in our ability to parent and are willing to help our dream of being parents come true.

Esteban cooking up the brats

Scott makes a pretty beer maiden

Our next fundraiser is on November 3.  We are holding a yard sale.  If you have any items that you are able to donate to our sale, please let us know.  I am not parking in my garage between now and then, so we can store it here.  We can also come pick anything up you have.  Thank you again to everyone for your help!!

Kaylin and I are shirt twins

The Ramirez family, freshly back from Hawaii

Didn't like the letter / I love my mom!

So, I got a call back from the adoption agency.  After three edits, they have decided that they don't like the way that our letter and pictures fit into any of their free templates.  This was discouraging because the only other option was to pay a designer $500 to create our Dear Birthmother Letter (brochure). . . or so I thought.

I got this news when I was in Arizona visiting my family for my Grammy's 90th (!!!) birthday.  When I showed my mom what they didn't like about each template, she said that she thought she could do something custom on Publisher at work.  So, we went in after hours and spent two fun days editing it.  We took the best of the templates, were able to brighten pictures, and make it fit our desired pictures.

I am not sure what the agency thinks yet, as I just emailed it over yesterday.  But at least now, we can make the changes and hopefully get in the system soon.  I am so thankful to have a mom so skilled with Publisher who was willing to spend her off-hours at work.  My mom is incredible!