TheEnglishes

I'll let our SW worker know all about this today and forward the link!

Congratulations to the entire new family! GO Fools!!!!!!!! Can't wait to see photos!

That's a great idea Laurie! Thanks for sharing! I was trying to figure out how to include it! Donna

We did ours double sided also. The paper work said you can do that to save money on copies! I like the look of the doubled sided as well because then you can have a "full spread" between two pages if you need to, like a booklet! Have fun!!!!!!!

Amanda, I just have to say thank you for sharing this. You and the Longs are an inspiration to me! Baby Cliff is one lucky little boy to have ALL of this love in his life!

Ella Lauren has the most beautiful family! Congratulations to all three of you!!!!

Congratulations! How exciting!!!!!!!!!

It never hurts to try, right? I totally agree with you about not counting out out-of-state couples. I think it really all depends on the individuals more than the geographical distance, although I do see the logic. I suppose because I have lived in so many different cities, we both have traveled extensively with our jobs and the fact that Bart and I LOVE to travel, distance really isn't an issue for us. I hope all of us beginning this journey, BPs & APs, can be open minded and really communicate our expectations ~~ it would be a shame to miss an incredible match because of assumptions!

I USED to live in Houston....does that count?

YAY for getting into orientation!!!! That's awesome! We are waiting to hear from Angela if we got in... we're praying we will be there! Congrats again and we hope to see you there! Donna

This is fun! My little brother is 5 yrs younger than me and I remember when he was a baby we would put him in his swing that you had to "crank"! He loved that swing and it would put him to sleep immediately BUT if it quit swinging he woke up crying to swing some more! So, I can remember every few minutes my mom saying "someone go crank Craig's swing!" I LOVED to wind it up real good so it would swing real fast at first! What great memories!

Welcome Jenn & Dave! We are new as well! Just sent in our application and waiting to hear if we got in the July orientation. This forum is amazing! I have learned so much from just reading through the history of posts! Good luck to you and I hope we get to meet in San Antonio in July! Donna PS We live in Memphis but I was raised in Lake Charles and moved here from New Orleans! Small world!

Congratulations Linda & Tony! I know you must be over the moon right now! Little Andrew, your family and your birth family are in our prayers! Donna

Welcome Amanda! Baby Cliff sure is one lucky little guy! It is so incredible to hear how much love this little boy has in his life! Thank you for posting! Donna

Elaine! I felt the same way! We had had no real knowledge of open adoption until we heard that Brooke & Claudia's adoption of Miles was open. We were a little afraid because we didn't understand. After hearing them being so positve about their experience and being such advocates we knew we had to educate ourselves! After I started reading this forum (and passing along all my new found knowledge to Bart) and read a couple of really good books on open adoption there is no way we would do it any other way on our end. We hope that the BP we match with will feel the same way. But if she doesn't then we will honor her boundaries and hope that one day she is open to reuniting! The possibilites are so comforting to me. I know that this path id God's will!!!! Here's to happy beginnings!

Welcome to the forum! We are new as well and just finishing up our application and homestudy! It is a very exciting place to be! Donna

OK, if this is what it takes we're booking a cruise TOMORROW! Congrats to the blessed new family!!!!!!!!! Donna & Bart

Congratulations on your new little angel!

Thanks again!

We asked friends in our city who they had used and if they would recommend her. We got the same name from about three different people and found out that she does a great many of the Memphis area Abrazo homestudies. This gave us a sigh of relief as I know the guidelines are different from state to state. As of this morning Bart and I have finished our entire packet of forms for our homestudy and we have our first meeting this afternoon with our social worker! We are soooo excited! We have our physicals scheduled for next week and then we will have completed all that she has asked for (so far)! Now we are anxiously awaiting an application from Abrazo! It feels so good to be working towards a goal with real HOPE! We have faith that we are on the right track and it's amazing how happy our lives are right now! Have a great week! Donna

You can't get a much better recommendation than that of a proud grandpa! Good for him! And thanks for the warm welcome! Donna

Thank you so much Heather, Elaine & Stephanie! I was very fortunate to find a forum for infertility and pregnancy loss when we were going through the journey of TTC and having multiple miscarriages and IVF and it was a life saver. As you all are well aware, sometimes you just don't have many local friends that have travelled that path and REALLY understand. So when we kept being lead in the direction of Abrazo I was so EXCITED to see that they actually have a FORUM!!!!!! This meant so much to us! Support means everything to us in this journey and I hope to be able to be of support to everyone else as well! Happy Saturday! Donna

Well, it has been one week since we mailed the initial inquiry and I noticed on my online banking statement that the Abrazo processing fee cleared my account! WOO HOO!!! I am taking this as a big positive sign that an application is on the way! (I know, it doesn't take much to excite me!) We have our first meeting with a therpist for the homestudy on Monday and two more scheduled for next week as well! One together, then two separate ones later that week. We have also finished two of the recommended open adoption books! This is such an exciting time in our lives and it is so wonderful to have a forum like this to learn from! We're on our way! Have a great weekend! Donna

Thank you so much Claudia & Mandy! I'm sure we will have MANY questions once (IF) we get an application! (We are being very hopeful!) Donna

Donna and Bart, Welcome to Abrazo and to the forum - and congrats on getting your inquiry in! You are so right to be excited - get ready for the ride of your life! 45823[/snapback] Thanks Stephanie! I am almost through reading nearly EVERY post on this forum! lol It is amazing the education I have gotten from this forum alone! Bart and I are now reading "The Open Adoption Experience" and thoroughly enjoying it! I guess you could say we are very goal oriented and really want as much education about the journey as possible! Ok, and I'm also spending way too much time on ebay bidding on baby stuff! Thanks for the welcome! Donna