Hey, Y'all! Happy Wednesday. We're already in the middle of March? This year is already flying by...

As you may recall, this past weekend was going to be a busy one. We had our individual interviews on Friday, each lasting 2 hours in our home. Then that evening we had our Wine & Design fundraiser. All of that fun was then followed by a 2 day vendor event at Don't Buy New, a Vintage Flea Market, who was kinda enough to ask us to put up a table to sell our cake balls. We weren't sure how to even prepare for al those cake balls, much less mentally prep for the interviews. But all went well. And actually, we sold out of our cake balls at DBN by the end of the day on Saturday, so we did not return on Sunday!

Our interview got VERY personal. Thankfully, we both adore our social worker, and are 100% comfy with her. She asked us each questions for 2 hours that basically gave a summary of our entire life. How relationships were with family as a child? What was your average day as a elementary school child, middle school child, and high schooler? What type of discipline do you plan to use for your child? What kind do you not like? What's your ideal parenting style? What kind do you not approve of? What age did you first try alcohol? How often did you drink it underage? And basically any question in between.. but I will say, the 2 hours flew by for each of us, and it was another BIG check off our list. Next time we see our social worker is less than a week away.. at our Home Study! That's taking place next Tuesday, March 22nd. She'll do another interview with us both, about 45 minutes long. And then walk through our home. She's mainly checking to make sure any medicines are up and out of reach of little hands, making sure the same for cleaning products and alcohol, and making sure guns are properly stored and secure. She also will take a peak into our nursery.. It doesn't have to be a "nursery" yet, but she needs to see an empty space where the baby will call home. So we're planning on setting that up this weekend! We've got a crib (thanks to my amazing best friend, Christine), a rocker, a dresser, a changing table, so we're set on the basics! We also have the travel system/car seat, diapers, wipes, bottles , a handful of clothing and a high chair. All we'll soon be waiting for is our baby :)

Now, onto our fundraising... This weekend was BY FAR the most successful weekend we've had yet! We had the 2 events + cake ball orders + personal checks as donations written to us from amazing family and friends. All in all, we brought in an additional $ 2,279  in ONE weekend! How incredible is that? We are so blessed with such an amazing circle of friends and family, and a great community! Because of this successful weekend, we're now at 88% of our goal! We've only got about $3300 left to go until we've met our fundraising goal. I have no doubt that with cake ball orders and some more vendor events, we'll be there JUST in time to bring home our baby.

Another fun check got checked off our list on Sunday. We completed our adoption book portfolio. This is the 20 page book that is a summary of us. Full of pictures, who we are, and what our life is like. This book is shown to the birth parents who are making adoption plans for their children. If their checklist of what they want in a adoptive family meets our checklist of what we want in a birth family, our book will be shown to them. They look at all the books that meet their criteria, and then pick the family they want to raise their child based on the book. So it was a tad stressful creating this book, knowing this is THE ticket to getting picked. But we're happy with how it turned out, and cannot wait for them to come in!

I believe that's about it for this week... Next weeks update will be posted after we do our home study, so that we can be sure to fill you all in on the details of how that went!  Thank you all SO much for all your kind words, well wishes, donations, prayers and support. We couldn't be where we are without you all!

PS.. One last thing.... We're 99% sure we've settled on names! We've always had a boy name picked out, but we're 99% sure we've decided on a girls name now. Of course, once we see our baby, we'll then know if the name fits or not,  but it's exciting to be able to use their names when talking and brainstorming about what we're planning.

Love, Daniel & Brandy