Cloth Diapers

I've thought a lot about ways we can save some money, once a second child joins our lives. We'll have two kids in daycare, and that's pretty darn expensive. So, I thought, what is one of the biggest expendatures for an infant? Diapers. I started researching cloth diapers, and was pleasantly surprised by what I discovered; these are not your grandmother's cloth diapers. No more diaper pins, or folding diaper flats (unless you elect to go that route); today's cloth diapers have velcro & snaps! I purchased some bumGenius diapers, as those seem to be the most popular (not to mention easiest) ones to use. I've been test driving them at night on our three year old, and I love them! I feel great about not throwing any more disposible diapers in a landfill, and the money we're saving doesn't hurt, either. :) While I have some bumGenius diapers, I will definitely need more once we have a new baby in the house. Right now, KellyWels is having a bumGenius sweepstakes, where you can win the following:

bumGenius One-Size Cloth Diaper Kit valued at $370.

The bumGenius 4.0 One-Size Cloth Diaper Kit includes:

* 18- bumGenius 4.0 One Size with inserts

* 1 –bumGenius Sprayer

* 1 – bumGenius Pail Liner

What a great way to start cloth diapering, or add to your cloth diaper stash! Click here for the entry form. Good luck, and let me know if you win!

The Beginning of The End

Today, February 11th, marks the anniversary of what I think of as "The beginning of the end." Three years ago, today, I was standing in my kitchen, making dinner, while my sister-in-law held my 5 week old son. One minute I was happily chatting, the next I had started hemorrhaging. So fast...it happened so fast. Unfortunately, a diagnosis wasn't as quick, as it took my doctors almost a month to decide what was causing these repeat episodes, and by that time, it was too late for any treatment but the most radical. I spent more time in the hospital that February, than out of it; three weeks in all. February, for me, will always represent a downward spiral, each date of a hemorrhaging episode branded in my memory, leading inexorably toward The End. While the hysterectomy undoubtedly saved my life (along with a 10 pint blood transfusion), it also ended our dreams of becoming pregnant again. I am so incredibly grateful, every day, to have my beautiful, healthy son, and to have been given the chance to experience pregnancy once...and I know, one day soon, we will be parents again through the miracle of adoption.

The Profile

Now that we had a consultant, our next step was to complete our profile. An adoption profile is basically a scrapbook of your life (where you live, your values/beliefs, what you enjoy doing, etc.) that a birthmom would look at to choose a family for her child. The profile book is a relatively new concept; I know people who adopted 15 years ago who have never heard of such a thing. It has evolved from the "dear birthmom" letter of the past, and will often incorporate a letter to the birthmom in the profile itself. Most people opt to digitally scrapbook their profiles, as you need several copies and it can be expensive (not to mention time consuming) to exactly replicate 6+ scrapbooks. There are several software options out there, as well as websites, to help you digitally scrapbook a profile. I liked the idea of a website for several reasons: 1) If anything happened to my computer, the profile would still exist, 2) I could work on the profile from any computer, and 3) I could email the link to the profile-in-progress to other people to get their opinions. After some searching, I came across the website Mixbook and it was just what I was looking for. They offer either a softcover or hardcover option, several different sized books, tons of embellisments, lots of space to write (a problem I found with other digital scrapbooking/photography sites), and it was free to join. I highly recommend ordering an 8.5"x11" size profile book in softcover. The hardcover version is a nice keepsake for yourself, but it's more expensive to both purchase and to ship; the 8.5"x11" size books are the easiest to ship to an agency. Mixbook has a 20-page minimum on any book, which sounded like too much at first, but was much easier to fill than I initially thought. The softcover books start at $20 for a 20-page book, which seems like a lot until you consider that there's no way to actually scrapbook an entire 20 page book for $20. Plus, we received a 30% off a first purchase coupon, which really helped offset the cost. The only catch was that I had to use the 30% off within a week of joining the website! It was tough, but I managed to complete our profile and order it within the time frame. I am very happy with the quality of the final product, and would definitely order from Mixbook again.

Writing a profile can be rather daunting. You are basically "selling" yourself as if you were a product, trying to make your profile stand out to a birthmom, but still staying true to who you are. I had serious writer's block, so I started by gathering pictures. I knew basically what types of pictures I wanted--our house, a playground nearby, family, traveling, hobbies, pets--and once I had those together, I found it much easier to write a paragraph based on a few photos. I also searched the web for adoption profiles and used those examples to help me write. Once we received our completed profiles from Mixbook, our consultant started searching for situations for us, and we were ready to "hurry up and wait!"

Adoption Consultants

A lot was going on this past fall, and as a consequence I've fallen WAY behind on posting here. I have so many ideas for posts and they're just piling up! My New Year's resolution is to post more regularly on here, so we'll see how long that lasts. ;)

Once we finished our home study, we started looking for an adoption consultant. This is sort of a new niche in the adoption field, and they're becoming very popular. What exactly is an adoption consultant? Well, they're like a wedding planner for adoptions. Which is just funny to me, because I never in a million years even considered hiring a wedding planner when I got married. But, then again, weddings are much more commonplace, and there aren't a lot of confusing legal issues with getting married-it's pretty straight forward. In any rate, a consultant works as a middle man between you and an agency or attorney. Basically, you discuss with your consultant what kind of child you would like to adopt (domestic/international, girl/boy, ethnicity, age, etc.), as well as your adoption budget, and your consultant starts screening adoption situations for you. They have connections with many agencies and attorneys across the country, and are constantly getting adoption situations. When they hear of one that matches what you have discussed with them, they will call and present you with a potential situation. If you agree to the situation, your profile is submitted to the original agency/attorney, and the birthmom will then view your profile, along with several others. What really appealed to me about an adoption consultant is that you are not locked into one specific agency or attorney until a match is made. It really expands your potential exposure to birthmoms, which helps you bring your child home faster. Consultants also offer a range of services such as help creating/editing your adoption profile, adoption classes, opportunities to talk to financial advisors, and even birthmoms who have already been through the adoption process. Not every consultant offers the same services, of course, so do your research and pick the one that works best for you and your budget. An average adoption consultant cost is $2,500-$3,000.

Our social worker gave us a list of three consultants that she had worked with and recommended, and we pretty much just researched those three. We narrowed it down to two, but in the end decided to go with A Step Ahead Adoption. Although they are based in Colorado, they have consultants in many states, including one just a half hour from our house, which is wonderful. One step closer to our baby!