Happy Anniversary + our part of the Home Study is COMPLETE!

We just celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary yesterday.... we had our final "Pre-Placement" Home Study visit.  While the social worker was here, she "interviewed" Mercer.  The question of the hour:  does he want a baby brother or sister?  Eventually, after being shy, he said no - he wanted a big brother.  Ha!  

After we handed her all of our final paperwork that we had to take care of, she told us that we were done.  (That was so wonderful to hear!)  We are 100% complete on our end.  She's compiling the data & writing the report.  YAY!  This is a HUGE hurdle crossed.  This means that - once she finishes her paperwork - we are eligible to adopt a baby.  Now we need to find the *right* opportunity.

Our next step -- start seeking out agencies, adoption lawyers who place babies, and possibly "advertise" outside of our network (such as write letters to OBGYNs / hospitals / etc) that we are hoping to adopt a baby girl this year.  We have done pretty well so far on selling baklava, cookies, and selling "yard sale" items.  We have also been honored by some friends, neighbors, social worker, and even a stranger from the other side of the country!  It is VERY touching how willing people are to help.  We will begin to apply for a couple of grants soon as well to see if we can secure some additional funding. 


We are trying to be aggressive & proactive on this!

Todd's mom was here this past weekend.  We didn't really go out / do much... just go out to eat / cook meals at home / bake baklava.  It seemed to be a food-centric weekend.  We were happy to hang out and spend some time together, though.  

Enclosed are some photos from Mercer's party at the Chattahoochee Nature Center from the previous weekend that were not posted on the last blog entry.  Mercer had a good time with his friends and I like to think that they learned some things.  (My friend Sara and I learned about how birds mate - so that's something!)  They played with animal puppets until the majority of the kids arrived.  Then the naturalist pulled out a Gopher Tortoise and did a lesson on the reptile.  Afterwards, everyone went on a hike where we got to see the rescue animals that are kept at the nature center.  Once back inside, the group sang happy birthday and ate a slice of the cookie cake the nature center provided (after washing their hands, of course).  The kids then played animal charades and finally a game of duck-duck-goose.  Some of the kids stuck around and we all explored the interpretive center together.    When asking Mercer what his favorite part was, he said duck-duck-goose.  
 

The naturalist who was our "host" for the birthday party is someone who I did some work several years ago, as we developed a website for greening Georgia schools. (check out http://greenandhealthy.org/ for great resources and lessons for children on sustainability topics) ~~cool~~

A couple of things to report: 
Mercer - a few days before he turned 4 - decided that he no longer needed to wear diapers overnight.  There have been a few accidents, but for the most part he's doing well.  He also told me - when I was trying to open something:  mom, let me do it.  I'm 4 now.  (Of course he couldn't open it either so Todd had to do it.)  He's learning "yes ma'am" and "yes sir" at school as well as his days of the weeks and the different months.    


He keeps wishing away his 4th year.  "Next, I'll be 5 then 6 then 7 then 8."  ~sigh~