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Hello friends! We hope this finds you all well! We are doing fabulous and are excited to share some recent updates with you all.
First, we had our second home study meeting this past Tuesday. We had to reschedule it from the 28th because Steve was violently ill. He spent his 35th birthday being very sick. Fortunately, he was only sick for a few days, but he was out of work for almost a week and was severely dehydrated and couldn't quite shake it. He's pretty certain that it was food poisioning from eating at Tossed.
Anyway, Cathy made Steve a cake for his birthday and that was good enough for him.
We went to Clayton on Tuesday to meet with Walt. This second visit was when he was going to meet with us both separately. He said it would take roughly two hours, so we went into it expecting to be grilled. Steve went first and was back to get Cathy after about 30 minutes. Then Cathy went in and met with him and was done in 20 minutes. We were on our way home in an hour from the time that we arrived.
He asked us questions about our parents and siblings, he also asked a few questions about our previous marriages. It was really easy and surprised us both that there wasn't more to it than that. Walt told Cathy that he thinks that we're a delightful couple and that he thinks we're very transparent. He likes that what you see is what you get and we're not trying to be something that we're not. He said he bets our home is a lot of fun. :)
We have our final home study this Thursday. Cathy tracks back in and then we have Walt coming over to the house around 6:30. We don't know how long this visit will be, but we're not expecting it to last any more than two hours at the most.
We've been recieving so many wonderful gifts for Tadpole Walker. We received the diaper bag that Cathy really wanted from her hair stylist Shannon. She also gave us four books that we wanted that are children's books on adoption. We also got a froggy johnny jumper from Kim (Cathy works with her) and then we also got a toy bag, froggy towels and another children's book on adoption from Mindy and Jason (Mindy is Cathy's little sister in AGD). Sue Ann sent us a cute frog blanket (pictured in the slide show) and some onesies. We're so lucky to have such great friends and family who are supporting us.
This week we decided to "save our marriage" and hire a cleaning service. Steve is having a hard time with the idea of paying someone to clean our house, but thanks to his coworker Christie, he decided to just give in. Cathy is very excited because we'll have someone coming every other week and they'll do all the dirty work. We'll just have to pick up and maintain, but it'll be so nice to have it vacuumed and clean!!
Cathy goes back to work on Thursday. She is going to go into work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and get some work done, so her vacation is pretty much over. She is going to be going to NYC at the end of the month for a wonderful opportunity with Scholastic. She's excited-- you can read more about it on her blog.
Well, we'll be sure to post something next weekend about the final home study visit. Pray for us that we're called by Doris soon and able to get put on the waiting list! Cathy (and her mom) has a good feeling about March. Her psychic said that March would bring a lot of change for us... so maybe that means placement!
Wishing you well,
The Walkers
Posted by
Cat's Litterbox
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Adoption
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3:15 PM
Well... we were contacted by CAS two weeks ago (January 7th) and went on the 14th for our first home study meeting. Cathy was SO nervous!! We met at the Clayton Public Library and our case manager's name is Walt. Walt is the supervisor for all the CAS case workers and he's the one that signs off on their home study reports. Because he's the supervisor, his (our) home study report will be signed off by Jim (co-founder of CAS).
Walt told us that he was pleasantly surprised by the amount of information that we provided in our formal application paperwork. He said that the average couple will submit anywhere from 5-8 pages for their autobiographies, and Steve submitted 22 and Cathy submitted 28. We officially hold the record for the most information provided!! Whoo hoo!!
Because we submitted so much information, Walt contacted Jim and asked him what he should be talking with us about since everything he would have asked us was already answered in our paperwork. As a result, our meeting didn't last the typical two hours, it was actually a little more than one hour. He said he doesn't think our process will take very long and he's anticipating a quick placement for us. He said he'd be surprised if we had to wait longer than June for a baby!! YAY!!
So... we ended up scheduling our next meeting for the 28th. We'll be going back to Clayton to meet with Walt and this time he'll meet with Steve for 45 minutes and then with Cathy for 45 minutes. After that, we'll schedule our home visit where he'll come to our house and do our final meeting.
After the final meeting, Walt will write up his home study report and it'll go before a committee and they'll either approve us or deny us as a waiting family. We'll (hopefully) get a call from Doris (Jim's wife and co-founder of CAS) and we'll take our three Adoptive Family Albums, and our pictures for the website, and our Dear Birthmother letter and we'll give it all to her. At that point we'll be on the waiting list and just wait to be matched with a birth mother!
So when Cathy's dad was here he and Steve built shelves in the FROG. Last weekend we moved books from the plastic shelves that we had onto the new book shelves and the FROG practically doubled in size! We'll be adding items from the spare bedroom this weekend (Cathy's C4 desk) and then that room will be the nursery. We are going to put the crib together this weekend and put it in there.
This week Cathy discovered Craig's List and we actually bought just about everything that we need for our little tadpole! We have a frog theme, and we found "Sir Leapsalot" bedding-- it's super cute. It's a frog prince and princess and it's lavender, yellow, celery, and cream (very gender neutral) and then it came with a cute lamp, a diaper holder thingy, a changing pad, a really pretty picture of the two frogs, and then we also got two valances for the windows.
We also got two strollers-- one for easy trips, and then one that is our travel system, we also got a changing table, a high chair, an exersaucer, some toys, and then the car seat. We're super excited!!
We'll keep you posted on everything as it comes about... until the next posting please keep us in your prayers!!
:)
The Walkers
Happy New Year!!
We welcomed 2010 with Cathy's mom and dad and some delicious snacks! Cathy's parents arrived in Holly Springs on Sunday, December 27th and they've been with us for almost a week. They're planning on going back to Michigan Saturday morning. :(
Our Christmas was fabulous! Cathy was well-spoiled with a Kindle, a Nintendo DSi, and a Flip camera. She also got the accessories that go with the Kindle, some DSi games, books for her Kindle, a beautiful bracelet, a beautiful ring, some shoes, 90210 season eight, and some other books. Steve got a personalized Bengals jersey with Walker on the back, a Carson Palmer Bengals jersey, some books, a Bengals grill cover, a Keurg coffee grinder thingy for the K-Cup maker, and then some shirts, a pair of shoes, and everything else that was on his wish list!
We figure it's our last Christmas to go all out on each other (hopefully) and so we went a little over-board, but that's okay.
While Cathy's parents have been here, we asked her dad if he'd be willing to help us by making some shelves for the FROG (front room over the garage). He was more than happy to help, and he and Steve have spent the entire week working on building shelves. We're so excited because with the shelves in there, Cathy can put all her classroom books on the shelves, and then we'll be able to take the plastic shelves out. It makes for more room and makes the FROG so much more useful! We are super excited too because we'll have the room cleaned and looking nice for when we have the home study. That room is the main room that we've been stressed about, and it's so nice to know that it's almost ready to be used!
Cathy is going to move her desk for C4 in there, and then she can also do scrapbooking in there. We're also going to move our love seat from our bedroom into the FROG and we'll have a television in there as well. It'll be a nice "get-away" room.
The last of our four CAS reference letters has been sent out and is being worked on. We had a minor blip because one of the people that we had asked to write a letter for us was not able to commit, and so CAS has had to use another person. Once they get their letter (she said she's going to mail it Monday), then CAS will contact us and we can schedule the home study. We'll post more when we have more details!
We hope that everyone had a nice Christmas and a fantastic New Years!! We're really praying that 2010 is a blessed year for us. We hope that this time next year, we have a family and we can post about what wonderful things our little baby is doing!!
Love to all!
The Walkers
Posted by
Cat's Litterbox
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Adoption
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4:02 PM
Well we attended our informational meeting yesterday in Matthews. We have been quite busy this week with preparations for adoption! On Tuesday we went downtown Raleigh and got our fingerprints and criminal background checks done. Then while we were out and about, we decided to get the physicals completed and out of the way.
It ended up being a long day, but we were able to get a lot of really big items finished. On Thursday we headed to Matthews for the CAS informational meeting. We are so glad that we went! It was very informative and got us really excited and motivated.
This morning, Cathy went to the bank to get the last of our mandatory documents and then she dropped off our formal application packet at the post office! It's in the mail and out of our hands at this point. We're praying that everything moves smoothly and all works out as it's meant to.
Last weekend we created a registry on amazon.com. Feel free to go on and start buying us things for our nursery (lol). We picked a frog theme because it's gender neutral and Cathy has a special love of frogs and we have an abundance of frog-themed items from her classroom that can go into the room when the baby gets older.
We will be sending out cards for the registry as soon as we're finished with the home study.
Speaking of the home study... that's the next step in the process. We should hear from someone at CAS in the next two weeks (just before Christmas) and they will assign us a case worker and then we'll make appointments for them to meet with us together, us separately, and then at our house. Then when that's done, we go back to Matthews and meet with Doris (she and her husband Jim are the co-founders of CAS) and then we give her our book and get put on their website and go onto the waiting list!
It's exciting and stressful all at the same time. We don't know how long/soon it will be before we get a baby. It could be a few months, could be more than a year. So we're going to try and get the nursery ready and get items now so that when we do get a baby-- we're ready to roll.
Cathy has been referring the the baby as "Tadpole Walker" because we have a frog theme and it's a baby (like a baby frog). So... when will our little tadpole arrive??? We'll definitely keep you posted! In the meantime, keep us in your prayers!!
Can you believe it's two weeks until Christmas??? Cathy's parents are supposed to be coming down for a week and we're eagerly anticipating their arrival. It's been so long since we saw them... it'll be so nice to see them and maybe even take a trip to the beach!!
Ho! Ho! Ho!
The Walkers
Let's see... it's been a month since we last wrote and there have been a few new developments with our lives.As most of our friends and family knows already, we're actively pursuing domestic adoption. We have talked about it for a while and have gone back and forth about when the time would be right to actually do something, and that time has come! We submitted an initial application back on November 5th and then waited for two weeks before hearing if we were accepted or not. Well, we were accepted and asked to complete a formal application. It's a monster- we have to have physicals, references, criminal background checks, fingerprints, and submit a bunch of legal documents. We also had to complete an "Autobiography" which was a beast. Cathy's was 26 pages and Steve's was 19. We worked on our autobiographies all day Friday and spent over six hours total working on them.We will be going to an information session in December and then submitting all of our paperwork before December 20th. Then we wait... and hopefully they'll assign us a social worker to complete a home-study. Once that's finished we have to complete a family album and then an online album and write letters to the expectant mothers and hope that someone picks us!It's a process that can be as short as four months (March) or as long as 18 months. It just depends on fate and what's meant to happen. We ask that everyone keep us in their prayers as we go through this adventure! In the end, having a baby be ours makes it all worth while, but it's still grueling and stressful!On another note, Steve had a great trip to New Mexico. He's still loving his job and enjoys going to work each day (which is a wonderful blessing). Cathy was just named Teacher of the Year at her elementary school and we're very excited for that! She was nominated by her fellow teachers and then they voted. She's very humbled by the award.This weekend was Thanksgiving and we spent it together. We were invited by a few different friends to join them for dinner, but decided that it might be our last Thanksgiving as just us (let's hope), so we stayed home and enjoyed a feast for two. Cathy made a turkey, delicious greenbean casserole, and stuffing and Steve made mashed potatoes from scratch. Cathy made Magic Cookie Bars for dessert and it was just enough food for the two of us.We are getting ready for the holiday season. We're hoping to have Cathy's mom and dad come for a visit from the 27th-2nd (they came down during that time last year as well). We plan on going back to Michigan/Indiana in May for the wedding of Cathy's brother Scott and his fiance Christie.That's about it from us. We'll keep you posted on the adoption information. In the meantime, keep us in your prayers!:)
The Walkers
We are back from our trip to the north!! We left on Saturday, October 17th and arrived in Indiana to visit Steve's dad and Sue Ann. We had a nice visit with them and enjoyed a bonfire while there. It was a little colder than NC, but not too bad. We also went on a nice hike through the woods near their farm. We also went to Lumpy's for breakfast with Steve's dad on Sunday, and then on Monday we went to breakfast with some of his friends from Verizon.We headed over to the old house (where Steve grew up) and met his dad's realtor. He's trying to sell the house and there are a few people interested in buying it. We hope it all works out for him!!We had dinner at a nice Amish-like buffet on Tuesday night and then we headed out on Wednesday, October 21st and drove the four hours up to Michigan.On the way, we stopped at a Meijer and Steve was able to get a ton of Cincinatti Bengals stuff and a couple UD shirts. He got a zip-up hoodie and a polar fleese jacket, and then a couple t-shirts.We arrived at Cathy's twin's house around 3:00 and we were able to meet our new niece Lilyanne Opal (aka LOG). Cathy was so excited to finally hold her and we took a lot of pictures of LOG. Scott headed off for work and we headed to Cathy's parents house. They all played Guitar Hero and then also had fun singing on our two American Idol Karaoke games that we brought down with us. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Canton. We were able to do some shopping and drove around and saw how the area has changed (and in a lot of cases, not changed). Cathy got an Elvis wig and glasses from the Halloween store and then she also got a skeleton hoodie costume. Instant costume. :)We went to dinner at BD's Mongolian BBQ and it was absolutely delicious. We wish we had a Mongolian BBQ near us!! We spent every night at her parents playing on the Wii; either singing or playing on the Guitar Hero/Rock Band.On Friday, Cathy and her mom went to see a psychic. She's going to write a blog about it on her other blog (be sure to read it if you're curious as to what the psychic said).On Saturday, we had LOG's Baptism. Alex was also being Baptized. It was at St. Richard's and Fr. Terry performed the sacrament. We went to Buddy's Pizza for lunch after the ceremony. We actually went back to the hotel and changed before heading over to Buddy's. After Buddy's, we went to Parmenter's Cider Mill and enjoyed their famous cider slushes. Steve had plain cider, but Cathy enjoyed the slush (it's as close to a Slurpee that you can get)! It was raining and got very cold while we were there, so we didn't get to explore the mill much, but it was a cute little place. Scott, Christie, Alex, and LOG were there so it was great!We went back to Cathy's parents house for one last jam session and then we had N&N Coney Island for dinner before saying our goodbyes and heading back to the hotel.We headed back to NC around 6am (we had to stop and pick up Ned). It was a pretty uneventful drive back, it was LONG, but not bad. We arrived in Holly Springs around 7ish. The cats were VERY excited to see us. We let them come upstairs last night and they all slept in the bed with us. Steve leaves tomorrow for a conference in New Mexico and Cathy gets to enjoy her track out for the remaining two weeks. Check out our Facebook accounts to see pictures of our trip!!:)
The Walkers
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