WHOOP, there it is

Please forgive the title of this blog entry. While the 1992 group Tag Team would later be classified under the title of one-hit wonders, they did give us the anthem of the summer in "Whoop, There It Is." Classic. We've been watching a lot of VH1's "I Love The 90's." So sue us.

Today, we reached yet another milestone. We had our joint home study meeting with a representative from Christian Family Services to talk more about our marriage, view of parenting, views on adoption and to look at the house to make sure we have the stability to provide a loving and protected environment for a child. It went quite well.

And now for lack of a better phrase, we've been approved. We're of course sharing a mixture of joy and being a little more scared as things begin to heat up even more bringing us closer to our son or daughter.

God continues to watch over us and provide. We recently received an unexpected donation to go towards our homestudy fees from some great friends, and another family has blessed us with some tax help (adoption-specific help) for the upcoming tax season. Thank you, thank you!!! (Yes, three exclamation points are necessary.)

Last weekend, we we were both off Friday, Monday and Tuesday and spent Christmas Eve with Marc's family. We also caught up on a few movies we had been wanting to see. This weekend we are looking forward to heading up to Iowa to visit with Kim's family. Thanks to my best friend (and the best insurance provider in the known universe), Matt, we'll be riding in gas-effiency style in one of these: www.edmunds.com/media/seo/500/2006.ford.focus.jpg

Specific prayer requests we have:
- Spiritual strength and direction
- Time to put together our book about us that will be shown to mothers-to-be
- Financial advice
- Work/priorities stability: We are both extremely stressed with our jobs. (Who isn't right?) It's hard because we both love what we do, but right now our positions are more demanding than ever.

We hope this blog entry finds you doing well after the Christmas hype. It's hard to believe we're so close to 2007. It seems like yesterday we were planning for our July trip to Hawai'i. Thanks again for the continued prayer and support.

Oh yeah, and Happy New Year!

Laying it all out

We wanted to give you an update on how things went last week. Marc had his interview Monday and it went very well. He had a great conversation with the folks from Christian Family Services and felt they most likely learned more than they bargained for, haha.

Kim had a great interview as well and was able to really focus on some things she hadn't thought about yet. It was a great experience for her and she's now even more excited to go on to the next steps.

On Friday, December 29, we will have our final homestudy and this time it will actually be in our house. They will walk through and make sure we can provide a quality environment for our son or daughter. We're planning on putting the fire pole and water park in after the new year, haha.

It might not be until the first of the year before we have another post with Christmas and New Years coming fast. We will be heading to Marc's parents' house for Christmas Eve, followed by catching a couple of movies together on Christmas Day. The following weekend we will head to Kim's parents' house to see both sides of her family.

This year we're planning on spending a quiet New Year's at home reflecting on the great things God has put into our lives as well as the amazing year that is on it's way.

May God continue to bless you this Christmas and thanks for your prayer and support.

Interview with the future

As many of you know, we have been antsy about moving things forward and we've got a touch of paranoia. After our first packet being lost in the mail and hoping people who received perspective reference letters got them, didn't throw them away, filled them out and sent them back, we're all for being proactive.

This past week, we contacted our agency contact to find that our reference letters have been coming back in quickly, and they would like to go ahead and begin scheduling our individual interviews.

Marc's interview will take place tomorrow morning and Kim's will take place Wednesday.

With things progressing, Kim decided it would be a GREAT idea to head to Babies R' Us to look the place over and pre-shop. Marc found his way to the toys quickly and while overall he felt most of them were a bit too feminine (a lack of Star Wars, monster trucks and Batman things were a sure sign), he was able to find a few things that could very well make the cut. Although it's a bit out of our price range, Kim has fallen in love with the Wendy Bellissimo Starlight™ Nursery Collection.

We looked at potential car seats, toys, cribs, toys, books and clothing and couldn't help but dream a bit ourselves. Closed, sleeping little eyes. Feeding and needs throughout the day and night. Crawling then walking. Introductions to Raiders football and XBOX. Talks about green frogs, God and girls (hopefully in that order). Telling him/her he's/she's the most amazing thing in the whole, wide world.

This week should be interesting and it's proving to be almost like another story that happened this time of year to two parents who wondered how they would raise a child they weren't ready to be accountable to. We just hope God gives us the tools to raise the son or daughter He sees fit to bless us with, come what may. That's probably all any parent could ask.

We'll be sure to update you this coming weekend with news on how things went. Until then, thanks for your continued prayer and support. We couldn't do it without you guys.

Also, for those of you who haven't seen our Christmas letter, but would like to, please log on to www.marcvasquezonline.com/xmas06.html for more information.