-Chris' doctor to finish his health report

-health department inspection

-fire department inspection

And then we can submit our finished home study packet (and $1,150). After that, we have two more visits with our social worker, and then she writes up the home study!

I can't believe how much we've accomplished in just 2 weeks. Most people take 2-3 months to get this all done. Of course, most people don't have a match before they even start the adoption process...but I'm certainly not complaining :). As stressful as this all is, it's so much easier to handle knowing we don't have a 2 year wait for a match ahead of us.

We had our adoption education class yesterday. It wasn't the parenting prep class I thought it was going to be - it really focused more on the decisions you have to make in the home study process and preparing you for certain steps along the way. Like deciding what level of drug or alcohol exposure you're comfortable with in the birth mother, how open adoptions work, what it's like to meet with a birth mother, how the families' profiles are shown (those who are using an agency for placement), etc.

Obviously, a lot of that didn't apply to us, since we're already matched and didn't end up going through an agency. It was nice to meet other couples adopting, though! It was especially fun to hear where everyone else was in the adoption process and to have people we don't even know get excited for us :).

As soon as our packet is submitted, I'll be able to breathe a little easier. Then, I can concentrate 100% on trying to raise the money to pay for this whole thing! It's so hard to even think about how much money we need, but I just can't help but believe that this opportunity came to us for a reason...and that somehow it will all come together in time.