Oh, the pressure!

Well, this is the First Entry. Yikes! I feel like I should have something particularly clever or witty to say to introduce all of this. But I don't. =)

Basically, this blog will be a place for us to record anything and everything about our adoption experience. We will be able to share this time in our life with our family and friends AND it'll be fun for us to look back on. Especially once this is all in the past and we have half-naked little ones running around our house, tugging on Cody's ears and tail! I can see it now. (I think Cody might be starting to rethink this whole wanting-a-brother-or-sister thing...)

Here's a quick update to get everybody up to speed:

* We are interested in domestic infant adoption. This means that we will connect with a woman or couple who are pregnant and considering adoption. (We could meet a couple of different ways: the expectant couple could find us through the "Waiting Family Book" of an adoption agency we choose to work with, or a friend, family member, or acquaintance (that's you guys!=) could pass along our contact information to someone they know who is considering adoption). If this expectant mom or couple decides that they would like us to parent their child, then we have "a match"!

* There are several different ways to go about adopting a baby. We narrowed it down to either 1) working with an adoption agency who will basically hold our hand through the entire process or 2) working with an adoption attorney, who does only the legal side of things. In this scenario, we would be mostly on our own when it came to finding an expectant mom or couple, setting up counseling for them, and basically being an expert on everything adoption-related.

* We've decided to go with an agency. We foresee this being an emotional (and sometimes very stressful!) process, and don't want the added pressure of having to KNOW everything. In early March we went to visit a large adoption agency here in the Twin Cities called Children's Home Society and Family Services. They were extremely helpful. Oh, AND the building was just gorgeous (brick and wood exterior with sitting rooms, fireplaces, and comfy furniture inside). Jonathan had to keep reminding me that we can't choose an adoption agency based on their architecture. =) There is a smaller agency that we are planning to check into in the next few weeks. They do the most domestic infant adoptions in Minnesota.

So- that's pretty much it so far! There's a lot of other stuff swirling around in our heads, but these are the only concrete steps we've taken so far and even though we have a long way to go, it's exciting!