tiny steps toward adoption

As Mr. M mentioned in our last post, we're planning to start the adoption process officially this year. That feels like a big deal, and I guess it is a big deal! Here's what we've been doing related to that:

• Setting up a fundraising/update blog (public) where people can donate to us and read how things are going - more on that to come!
• Compiling a list of addresses of people we'll send a fundraising letter to
• Writing our fundraising letter - that actually came together much quicker than I thought it would, thank you Holy Spirit!
• Reading books about parenting in general and parenting adopted kids specifically: I just finished "Parenting From the Inside Out" which was okay, but I liked "The Connected Child" better; I'm now reading "Parenting the Hurt Child"
• We set up an adoption budget: how much we anticipate spending, plus how much we anticipate saving from our jobs + fundraising, to calculate when we'll be in a good position to adopt, then work backwards to see when would be a good time to start the process - whew!
• Saving, saving, saving - We decided that February is going to be a no-spend month, meaning that we're going to try not to buy pretty much anything above and beyond our necessities. This means nothing in these categories of our budget: clothing, entertainment, haircut, home supplies (except essentials), books, gifts, and misc. I have $50 of "blow money," and that's it. It's not meant as a long term thing, just a "boost" to see our savings add up and our adoption budget grow. 

Finally, the thing that has meant the most to me emotionally: we're actually seriously prepping our house as if we're going to have a child here someday. Meaning, yesterday I moved all our cleaning supplies from the bottom of one closet to the top of another closet. And we went to Target and bought two tubs with lids to put all our medicines in, to child-proof them. And I am actually reading through a book called "Your Baby's First Year" to try and catch up on mom-knowledge and figure out what you actually do with an infant! And I measured stuff in our bedroom to figure out where a crib could fit....

......all of which feels completely surreal. First because we are still months (likely over a year) away from even having an infant, let alone a toddler, in our home! But I figured why not get a head start :) And it has been incredibly therapeutic to do these simple things. Basically for me it means taking a leap of faith and saying (at least in my heart) "I am going to be a mother." I still doubt it, but even acting like it's going to happen is a way of trusting, right? 

+EcceFiat+