The BEST Christmas Present!

Our Home Study is COMPLETE! We have the certified copies dated 12/23/2014! One step closer to our boy... :)

How I spend my nights

Don't mind my supermodel hair here, but this is how I spend many evenings...making little girl's bubblegum necklaces to raise money for our adoption. I am thankful I learned to make jewelry about 9 years ago and it is allowing me to grow our adoption fund little by little! I am opening a Storenvy shop soon. I'll be sure to post the link when it's live!

Home Study Draft - done!

Just a quick post - the draft of our home study was sent to us by our Social Worker. We reviewed it and made changes and sent it back to him this evening. He'll make corrections and then send it off to MAA for review. We're excited! One step closer to our boy...

With anticipation,
The Knueppels

T-shirts part 2

Hello everyone! The response to our shirts has been fantastic and we've been asked if we are ever going to sell them again. The answer is: YES! We are going to have our shirts on sale for 2 weeks - Oct. 30 through Nov. 13. We are hoping to sell 20 - 25 shirts in this time.

Here are the details: Shirts are Adult sizes XS-XL for $20 and XXL-XXXL for $25. This price includes shipping! To pay, please send payment via PayPal to thethomps@gmail.com (make sure to mark as a gift so we don't incur any fees) and please include your shirt size, name, and address in the note section. Or you can donate to our GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/knueppeladoption and then email me the shirt size, name, and address at thethomps@gmail.com. These shirts are SUPER soft and are seriously my go-to t-shirts. They can run a little small because of the fabric and the printer recommends you order one size up if you're unsure. They're unisex shirts, so keep that in mind.

The order for the shirts will be sent in on Nov. 14. It takes 7-9 business days for the shirts to be printed and then a few more days for the shirts to arrive at our house. We will get them packed up and shipped out as quickly as we can once we receive them.

We thank everyone for their interest and for helping support our adoption!

Much love,
The Knueppels

Home Study - final visit!

Whew! We had our final home study visit yesterday and, man, there's nothing like laying your life story on the table for scrutiny by a social worker. We had to write an autobiography to submit with our home study application, but we had to answer so many probing questions yesterday. Of course, they were all relevant in terms of our histories and how that would affect our ability to parent, our emotional well-being, possible triggers, etc., but it was definitely nerve-wracking. Thankfully, our social worker is very positive and, even though there were some difficult questions, I never felt judged for my answers. Daniel and I each had to do an interview with the social worker and then we had to do an interview together. Thankfully, my parents took Miss Bibs to get ice cream and to The Park at our church, so she had a great Grammy and Granddad date and we didn't have to worry about her trying to be in the middle of everything while we were trying to get the interviews done (not that 4-year-olds ever want to be in the middle of everything!). We did order in some BBQ afterward because I was a little too drained to cook.

So, now we wait for the home study to be written up. Our social worker said we should have it within the next month. That means we have to finish our online adoption training classes prior to that point, so we have 2 classes a week on our calendar until that's done! After our home study is written up, we'll have to review it to make sure everything is written correctly and our agency will also have to review and request any changes.

I had my adoption physical this week, which was loads of fun (ha). Buddy had to go with me and had the best time flirting with the nurses and the doctor. I had to get blood drawn and almost passed out. I can somehow give birth to two kids drug-free, but blood draws make me woozy. I remembered to bring a lollipop with me and I popped that in my mouth as soon as the draw was done. Buddy got a couple of stickers for being so good and he was happy with that. He was saying, "Bye! Byyyyye!" at the end of the visit. I guess it was a big hint that he was ready to go.

Things are moving along! We are close to having the home study checked off and getting ready to start on our dossier!

With anticipation,
The Knueppels

Home study visit - done!

Yesterday was our first home study visit. I was really nervous about it. I imagined the social worker sitting there with a checklist asking yes/no questions and writing comments about every wrong answer we gave. You know, like a job interview but a million times worse. ;) Thankfully, my mental images were completely wrong. We did have to answer questions about why we were adopting and how we chose China, about our family and children, and preferences for the child we are going to adopt. The social worker was very personable and put us at ease quickly. I think Buddy having Down syndrome was beneficial because we have already dealt with First Steps, we have therapists' names, and we know how to get started if the child we adopt needs any sort of PT/OT/ST services. Our social worker seemed relieved that we already had these resources and are already in the realm of having a child with special needs. Miss Bibs woke up from her nap during the question period, so she was dancing around the table and peppering the social worker with her own questions (ha!). He gave her a pen and piece of paper and she proceeded to draw a picture of herself (circles and scribbles). He then gave her another piece and asked her to draw a picture of her new brother. Instead she drew a fish and an "ock." We finally figured out it was supposed to be an ostrich and the ostrich was going to eat the fish she drew. Hm...so new brother is still an abstract concept for her.

After the questions, he had to check out our house. We tried to tidy up as much as possible with 2 toddlers who are bent on taking out every toy and piece of tupperware daily. He checked to make sure we had working faucets/plumbing/toilets, a working stove, a working refrigerator with food in it, child-proofing on outlets and cabinets with cleaners, all the bedrooms (I guess to make sure the kids had beds?). Miss Bibs got to flush the upstairs toilet in the kids' bathroom to show it worked and she said, "We like to flush the toilet because it makes the pee pee and poop go bye-bye!" Obviously, she's very shy around people she just met. ;)

We felt very good about the visit and are looking forward to the next (and final) visit in a couple of weeks!

Fingerprints

We had to go get fingerprinted yesterday as part of our home study and state background check. Daniel went first and was out within 5 or so minutes. I have been fingerprinted once before to be a substitute teacher, but it was paper and ink back then (does that make me sound old?!). Now they use a touchpad and digital images. I think I preferred the ink and paper. I either have abnormally long middle fingers or ridiculously short pinky fingers, but we couldn't get all my fingers to show up on the touchpad. I asked if I could bend my fingers to bring my pinky up and the lady doing the fingerprints freaked and said, "No! Your fingers have to be flat!!!" Well, alright. So we tried repeatedly to get my stinking pinky fingerprints. She would press my fingers down and tell me to stop wiggling them (again, I had no idea I was wiggling my fingers!). And then the lady told me my fingertips were too sweaty. Hm...I'm not sure I have much control over that. After about 20 minutes, we finally had all the fingerprints that were digitally acceptable except for 1. She said that she could have 2 that were not "passed," so we could send them. This definitely makes me look forward to the next fingerprinting session we have to do for the federal government. I hope their system is better! :)

With anticipation,
The Knueppels

We are not alone!

In the past few weeks, we have found out that some of our online friends (Instagram buddies) are adopting from China and then on Sunday we found out a couple in our neighborhood that attends the same church we do is adopting from China, too! We are thankful to have friends who have gone through this process before us cheering us on and are thankful to be finding friends who will be walking along with us (mostly) at the same time. I have been saying prayers of thanks for these little blessings of knowing that we have a community on this journey. :)

With anticipation,
The Knueppels

Home study paperwork - check!

We sent ALL of our home study paperwork off today, which included an autobiography for Daniel and me (it is HARD to write about myself!), financial statements, CPS checks for each family member, FBI background check paperwork, information about our family and extended family, and lots of other vital records. Thankfully Daniel is very organized and we had all of our vital records in one place and easily copied and we plugged away on getting everything else done quickly. I think it took about a week to get everything ready to go...which meant a lot of frantic typing and writing in the evenings after the kids went to bed. So, tonight we rest. Fitting for a Sunday, right? OK, so I might do some Just Dance on the Wii instead of resting, but we rest from paperwork at least! :)

With anticipation,
The Knueppels

All the details

We have been working at a hurried pace to get our home study packet completed so we can get the information to our social worker and get this part completed! Daniel and I both had to write an autobiography as part of the home study packet...and I'll be the first to say that writing about myself is difficult. I am not always a details person and they want A LOT of detail! (This thrills my scientist husband to no end, let me tell you.) Anyway, the autobiographies are complete, the CPS forms are filled in, the FBI background check forms are almost done, and the 20+ additional pages have a few details missing, but are almost ready to go. We are aiming to have this all in the mail by Monday! And then the fun begins with even more details, I'm sure. ;) I think we are going to have a fantastic relationship with paperwork by the end of our journey.

With anticipation,
The Knueppels

T-shirt Fundraiser

We are doing a fundraiser to help defray some of the adoption costs. These t-shirts are being printed through Fund the Nations. We LOVE the design and have picked the option of it being printed on a super-soft shirt. The shirts truly are super-soft, but can run a little smaller than normal shirts, so if you are unsure on size, definitely size up. I have one of this type of shirt from a friend's fundraiser and it's my go-to shirt in my closet because it's really comfortable (and because I love the message on it!). The shirts are $20 and all proceeds will support our adoption!

How it works: 1. Decide what size shirt you need - the shirts are available in Adult XS - XXXL (XXL and XXXL are $2 more per shirt); 2. Send your payment to thethomps@gmail.com at PayPal - please include your name, address, and shirt size in the note section (and please select the payment to family/friend option and please make sure you incur any additional PayPal fees on your end); 3. If you decide to order an XXL or XXXL shirt, the cost is $22; 4. The fundraiser will end Thursday, September 25. At that time, I'll send the final numbers to be printed. The shirts will ship directly to us and we'll get them out to you!

Our goal for this fundraiser is 50 shirts. Please feel free to share this post, any pictures of our shirts with the ordering information, re-Gram, Tweet, Facebook share, you name it. We would love to see people from all over wearing these shirts to spread this amazing message!

Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts!

The Knueppels

Us

I guess I should introduce our family so you have a better idea of who we are! We are: Daniel - Chemist, soccer enthusiast, German (so guess how much of the World Cup we watched this year given the two previous facts?), and ultimate DIYer (sometimes much to my chagrin); Amy - SAHM, former trademark/copyright/domain name paralegal, bibliophile (I have a feeling my free time for reading is about to be significantly reduced), and wanna-be gourmet chef; Miss Bibs - caught in-between toddler and little girl age, fiercely independent and sassy, tender-hearted, loves all things Dora and unicorns, and fantastic big sister; Buddy - little man, maker of the best funny faces, loves giving hugs and kisses, soaks up everything (and gets into everything!), our new-perspective-giver who rocks his extra chromosome. (We also have two dachshunds who think they're people. They're crazy, particular, big on licking faces, and they hate snow and rain.) I'm including a picture of us taken last year. If you want more up-to-date pictures, please follow our family on Instagram! User name is thethomps. I'll be honest - I'm much better about snapping a picture of our everyday life on my phone than I am about busting out a real camera to capture things. It's not a great trait, but it is what it is right now.

I've asked Miss Bibs if she would like a new brother and she said, "A new brother? I think that's a GREAT idea!" I'm not sure she really understands what we're saying, but she adjusted pretty well to her little brother, so I think her response is pretty spot-on. Buddy has no idea what we're talking about if we ask about a new brother, but I think he'd love to have an additional playmate in the house.

That's us in a nutshell! Here is our family one year ago. I'll post more updated family pictures soon.

Big pile of paperwork #1

We sent off our official application for adoption today, along with the addendum for adopting from China, and many other legal pages (it's a good thing I used to be in the legal field and am used to reading contracts!). Whew! 

Now we're on to filling out paperwork for the home study and getting things ready for all of the required background checks. We also got some books in from Amazon that we'll need to start reading as part of our pre-adoption education requirements.

Here's a picture of some of the paperwork we sent off today!

With anticipation,
The Knueppels

I can't believe it

After months of praying and discussing and praying some more, we have decided to start the adoption process. I will try to chronicle our journey as best I can, realizing that we have lots of paperwork ahead of us, fundraising to do, and keeping life as normal as possible for our kids. I am excited, nervous, scared (hello list of fees open on our computer!), and anxious to know who our son will be. We will be adopting from the Waiting Child program in China, which means we have to have our home study and dossier completed and logged in with the Chinese government before we can be matched with a child. In the meantime, we are covering our future son in prayer. If you would commit to pray for our family during this process, we would greatly appreciate it. I know we will need to be covered in prayer as much as we can be!

With anticipation,
The Knueppels