February 21st - Creative Beginnings

       If the first couple weeks of our trip to Indiana was about traveling, meetings and interviews this third week was not about those aspects. In our last meeting with our specialist in Kouts we were informed about the family profile project that needs to be accomplished. We were under the assumption that this 'project' was a letter to expectant mothers, and while it used to be now it is much more robust than a letter. This means that it is like a scrapbook or for those of you that know Creative Memories, it is a book like that of us as prospective parents. That is a great idea to have one of these books, to be ultra-creative with the content, pictures, etc... A couple of factors that we had to take into account though, we found out that we need to have this profile done by the 1st of March, that's about a week and half, and we also need to have 10 copies of the book. So we're not talking one beautiful scrapbook with stickers, backgrounds and original pics, rather a reproducible booklet, not the easiest task in about a week's span. When we started to think about it we had about 3-4 days to do the whole thing if we were to get them printed in time.
      This meant that the last couple of days have been designing, looking for pics, creating, and to be honest it has been really fun. While we love to work together, doing that in this kind of context is not the easiest for us, but on this occasion it has gone quite swimmingly.  How will the booklet turn out, we'll have to wait to see the final product, we are very pleased with how it looks on the computer, thanks to facebook and the pics we have on the computer we have been able to do the whole project from the comfort of our home away from home here in Goshen. What a great week it has been to not be traveling here and there across the highways of Indiana.
     I wish that we had a dime for each time somebody has asked when we will get a child, unfortunately that is not an answer that we can offer. It's not one we can give now, and not one that we can give even after being approved. Speaking of being approved it looks as though the last of the requirements are going to be met quite soon and after a couple more meetings at the end of the month we should reach the approved status. That seems hard to believe considering that what we have done in a three-four week span is usually accomplished in 3-4 months instead. Once the approval is granted we are then on the list as ones who can adopt. I think it will be a huge change as we go about living our lives in England, we'll move house, do the regular activities of leading West, planning for this and that, all the while knowing that a phone call or email which will change our lives dramatically could come at any time. So the approval process is truly only the beginning, but without it there can't be another chapter written into the story, so that's what this trip is all about, beginnings, not always the most exciting stuff, but all needed and part of the bigger picture.