HOMESTUDY TIME:)

Hi Friends:) Can you believe school has started back?! Where did summer go? Here at the Caputo's we've been some BUSY people!! I haven't posted in a while ( I really need to work on that) and well... A LOT has happened since my last post!! Yippee! 

Family UPDATE: Ryan was born today!!!!!!

PRECIOUS!!!!!!!!!!



I am one proud aunt!!! Ryan Zachary Winsett was born weighing 7.23lbs and 19in long

Both Mommy and baby are doing fine. This past weekend we found out that Paul's sister (Anna) is having a girl due December 8, 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                        Baby Girl:)

We are going through some pretty exciting times in our family...it almost feels surreal. We are truly being blessed and are so thankful for our new additions:)

Paul and I are doing well and of course our adoption is still in the works. I saw that the last post I stated that Ursala would be our caseworker..NOT!! I got a phone call from work from a GODSEND named Emily who introduced herself as our new caseworker..i was confused..but ran with it. At that point I would take ANYONE!!! Just give me SOMEBODY!!! Emily quickly told me that she lived here in Augusta...just a small lil perk!!! Since that phone call we have started our homestudy...CAN I GET AN AMEN!! The first time I saw Emily I have to admit...I was in shock...NOT what I expected. I opened my front door and there in my doorway stood this petite VERY PREGNANT WOMAN. My initial reaction was not something I'm not proud of...I was just in shock. When I pictured our caseworker I never had a pregnant woman in mind. It was almost comical to me. Not only was every other woman around me pregnant...but MY CASEWORKER TOO!?!?!? My inner thought was..."how the HECK is a pregnant woman gonna help me with my adoption?" "What happens when she is going to pop and where is that going to leave us?" "how is a pregnant woman going to relate to me who can't get pregnant and has fertility issues?" All these thoughts AND MORE were running in my head in a split second when I opened the door. And of course I pulled a "Christie" (i'm not the most tactful person). I did say hello, but then I just blurted out the obvious without introducing myself..."Your PREGNANT" In my "UNBELIEVALBE" voice. I couldn't pull back the words quick enough...they were out. ...awkward...thankfully she has a sense of humor and laughed and introduced herself. I'm sure she thought I was going to have some kind of reaction. I felt terrible...and tried to recover as best I could.

That night was our first homestudy meeting. We were stoked. It went great! She talked to us together and separatley. We then had a second meeting with her in home the following week. She completed our home assessment (so easy) and then councelled Paul and I together. It was a long meeting and some tough questions...some being quite personal...but that's part of it...i've gotten over that. This past week we worked on our personal autobiographies and turned them in. Tomorrow I am meeting up with her again to go over my autobiography. Paul will meet with her seperately at some point.

Ok back to the  pregnancy part! This pregnancy is going to be to our advantage!!! She is due at the end of the month so we have to have our homestudy and profile done by then!!! Which means we are moving FAST! By the end of the month we will be done and our profile will be getting showed to birth mothers<3

We will also be traveling to Birmingham, Alabama this month to attend a meeting at Lifeline's main office...I'm am so excited!!!! God has not only given us a ball..but has set it in motion. Everything seems to be coming together. So between all this and new babies entering our family we have been BUSY!!!!

Hopefully tomorrow will go smoothly and I can move forward to the next event. :)

God's Lifeline

Hello Friends! 

 It's been a while since I last updated our adoption blog and YES you have missed out on a lot of things that have taken place. So...I'm going to step back and take a minute to catch you up on the Caputo Adoption Story.
 As many of you know we had chosen Covenant Care (our 2nd adoption agency) a few months ago and everything seemed to go "okay."  I never really felt 100% that we were meant to use them as our agency...but all other choices had fallen through...so I went went with them hoping things would work out. We had our application filled out and sent in, our GBI clearances completed, and our FBI clearances completed. We were on our way...or so we thought. A few weeks ago, On a Friday, we received a letter in the mail from Covenant Care that devastated us. We were told that because of the increase in applicants that not only did they cancel the August Meeting (that we were promised 1st seats to) but that they also canceled their October meeting. Covenant Care stated that the earliest they could work with us would be Feb. 2013! They went further and encouraged us to please seek out other agencies since it would be such a long waiting period, and that they would have all our paperwork sent to the agency of our choosing. We COULD NOT believe the news!!! What now GOD????? WWHHYY??? Can't anything (SOMETHING) work out for us? To say that I was mad, sad, depressed, angry, and let down would be an understatement. However, I knew that we were called to adoption and that there would be a way...we just haven't figured out God's plan yet...
  So that following week I decided that I was not going to let all our time and efforts go to waste. Sometimes you have to dig deep for the things that matter most in life...and boy does this matter to us. I spent countless hours researching online and calling agency after agency after agency. I contacted every single agency in the state of Georgia. I was texting, emailing, and calling caseworkers interrupting them in meetings, hospital visits, and in-between court visits. When I called I was known as "The girl from Augusta." You would've thought I was getting somewhere, but door after door after door was closing in my face!! I was told that we were not married long enough (7 yrs tommorow), some told me it would cost over $35,000 to use them, and I was surpirsed when an agency from Atlanta wouldn't work with us simply because we were BAPTIST!!!!!...but that they would love to do our home study for us...HA! I threw up my hands and said "Well God I'm at a Loss! I've done EVERYTHING I can do!! What elese is there??? Are we not supposed to have kids??? Is that Your Plan??? If so...I DON'T LIKE YOUR PLAN!!!" I begged with God...I said..."I need a lifeline...I don't care what it is or where it comes from but I can't do this own my own you have GOT to HELP ME!!" After praying that prayer I sat on the couch, turned on my laptop, and I gave it one more shot...and before my eyes a miracle happened.
 When I pulled up the list of adoption websites the first one to appear...Lifeline Christian Services. I thought I had just lost my mind and needed to check myself in somewhere. Are you serious??? I'm sorry but that's alittle scary that I just asked God (OUT LOUD) for a "LIFELINE" and THIS appears before my eyes????? I mean I've heard of answered prays and the power of prayer and God showing His will to you...but...WOW!!!! I was in shock! And of course skeptical. I mean....we are the Caputo's...things just don't work themselves out for us. Skepticism aside I put my faith and trust in God that this wasn't just some random occurance...but this was all part of his mighty plan in our life. So, I started looking up and down their website, reading detail by detail about their ministry and how they have helped so many orphans in this world. From the USA to 9 other differenct countries. How they have safe home for Birthmothers where they can live, eat, get clothing, get jobs, and find the love of Jesus Christ. I mean ....Really?? This sounds WAY to good to be true. So I called...there had to be a catch...I just had to find it..."Ma'am we are located in Alabama"...HA! There's the Catch!!! I Knew IT!!!! "However Ma'am we have an office located in Columbus, Ga." Wait WHAT??? "You need to call URSALA in the Columbus office." THERE IT IS!! The Woman's name is URSALA!!!! There is only ONE URSALA I know and that's the URSALA from THE LITTLE MERMAID!!!! I mean...I shouldn't even call...she might bite my head off or sting me with a tentacle. BUT!!! God did not lead me all this way for a woman named URSALA to stand in my way. So I called, scared what was waiting on the other side of the line.
 When the lady picked up I was in S H O C K!!! (again) It was the most sweetest, prettiest, southern voice I had ever heard. She stayed on the phone with me for not one, but TWO hours explaining their ministry, how they would love to work with us, what our options were, and how to get started. All I could do was throw my hands up in the air and give God all the praise!!! To this day they have been nothing but impressive. They call me often to check in on me, and this week we will be getting assigned our caseworker, and setting up our meeting dates!!!! God has done nothing less but pave the road with Lifeline. To say it has been a smooth ride does NOT do it justice. I KNOW we are meant to work with this agency and I KNOW we are in the Will of GOD! I am so at peace and happy right now. God has renewed my strength and faith.
 I encourage everyone that is following us to look them up and see what their ministry is all about; even if you don't plan on adopting. It is nothing less than awesome! www.lifelinechild.org/ Please keep Paul, Me, Baby Caputo, and our Birthmother in your prayers. Please pray for Guidance, Peace and Wisdom over the next few months. I can feel a change coming from the inside; I know it's upon us. And I know it's going to blow us away!!!!

   They are also on Facebook:) www.facebook.com/lifelineadoption 

Fingerprints for Baby

We have been fingerprinted!!! It took a few hours and several gallons of gas but we did it:) It kinda felt like we were on a treasure hunt and only got bits of pieces to the clues along the way..when it was all said and done I got to go to 2 jails and a package store that does digital fingerprints for adoptions(wait what?!) since our journey ended at the North Augusta Safety Office we decided to end it on a good note...SNO-CAP!!! Root beer float? Yes please!!! I have to say...it's kinda hitting me now that we are diving into the legalities of the adoption. This is really happening!!! We will be parents soon and have a baby to call our own:) I got the idea to take pictures us getting fingerprinted from a couple that had done so when they were going thru the process. She said that expecting adoptive parents don't get sonograms of their little one, but that our fingerprints are out sonogram that we have a bun in the oven:) so here are a few pics of us getting our "sonograms":)

Papercuts

I haven't blogged in a while and its not because we haven't had anything going on in our adoption world...honestly we have. The reason I didn't blog about what we were going thru was because it was happening so fast and changing everyday that I myself had trouble keeping up. Bottom line, in the last few months we have had two adoption opportunities that fell through. Both kids were from Knoxville, TN and it was two complete circumstances. They both would've  been private adoptions that we found out through word of mouth. I'm not going into any juicy details that everyone is wanting, but I will say that we are okay with not adopting either of these kids. The first child was due in March, and the second child will be 11 months this April. Thankful both adoption opportunities fell through before we got financially and emotionally involved. There is a lot to learn about the adoption process and it's not easy. The last adoption opportunity actually did get close and we really thought the little girl (both were girls) was going to be ours. It got so close in fact we picked out cute girl baby bedding, I cleaned out my bosses house (THANKS AARON!!!!), and we had the nursery painted and ready to go...well since it ended up not working out (which we are thankful) I then had to take down and re-pack all the cute girlie things that were bought and return them to the store. It was heart breaking but boy did I learn a lesson (one of many). STICK WITH NEUTRAL EVERYTHING!!!!  I do not want to go through that again and won't if I just get everything neutral colors...it's not easy doing this when they are telling you the sex of the child because you can't help but get excited and want to have girl/boy stuff. I have just had to grasp that with adoption...you don't get that luxury.
        So where are we now???? We never stopped our process with Covenant Care Services. THANK GOODNESS!!  So we are right on track with them. Tonight we filled out our FBI/GBI Clearance paperwork and on Saturday we plan on getting our fingerprints at our Sheriffs office:) After this is done and sent off we will be getting private home studies done over the summer. This August we have our first Covenant Care Meeting and a second one in October. This summer we plan on hanging out, enjoying our time together and focusing on what we need to do and FUNDRAISING!!!!adoptionbug.com/caputo  God has been pouring down His blessings on us and we are feeling uplifted. We are Blessed!
      We will have an exciting fall with our meetings and the expected birth of our nephew!!! We have many reasons to smile:)

                                               Our FBI/GBI Clearances Ready to be sent!!!!

A Time to wait and a time to Fundraise

Wow, time has passed since the last time I blogged. We have had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Alot of changes are happening in our family, and we started the New Year off with Zach and Ashley's announcement that they are expecting their first is August 2012!! We are very happy and excited about this little one joining our family:)

As far as our adoption is concerned we are still moving forward with CCS. Things are slow...but they are still MOVING:) We hit a road bump (I'm sure there are more to come) and missed out on the Feb. 2012 meeting that we are required to attend before we can adopt. Apparently there is limited seats available and we didn't get on the list  in time. The next meeting is in August....which yes...is a while away. So instead of being upset and down we are focusing on what we CAN do now to prepare for our future child. And well we have some work to do over the summer.

We will be working on our FBI/GBI clearances that are also required and take several weeks to accomplish. So let the paperwork and fingerprinting begin! We also have something else that we will be focusing on during this season of the process.......FUNDRAISING!!!!!

Adoption isn't cheap and they certainly don't give children away for free. CCS has given us a detailed breakdown of all of the costs/fees that are due before we get the child. So Paul being the wonderful accountant that he is sat down and did the math. Our adoption will cost us around $20,000. Yes all those zeros are correct...I of course thought I might fall out when I saw the expense the adoption will cost us. I began wondering how we would come up with it bc we don't have half that amount. But, the GREAT NEWS is that God has this adoption in his hands. Thank goodness it is not in mine. He WILL provide and we trust in him. But, we can't just sit down and expect it to fall in our lap.....SO We sat down and completely turned our finances upside down. To say we are frugal is an understatement. But, we feel that we can't expect others to give and help us if we don't do everything we can to help ourselves first. So yes pinching pennies is one way we plan to save. The other way is fundraising. I believe that "Where there is a will there is a way"...and I HAVE A WAY!
I came across an AMAZING website a few weeks ago that's sole purpose is to help families raise money for their adoptions. It costs us not one penny to do! All we had to do was fill out an application, send a pic of us and pick out some shirts...they take care of the rest and we make a certain percentage of commission off each shirt and it will go straight into our adoption fund!!!!!!! We are so excited!!! SO! If you would like to purchase a T-shirt to help us raise money for our precious child go to adoptionbug.com/caputo and pick out what you want. There are 6 shirts to choose from. They come in Adult Tee, Women's fitted, and youth sizes. All of the shirts that say Show Hope help support the Show Hope Foundation created Steven Curtis Chapman to help support families of adoptive children. For every Show Hope Shirt purchased a dollar is given to Show Hope. Here are a few pics of the shirts!

Adoption costs cover much | The Augusta Chronicle

Adoption costs cover much The Augusta Chronicle

My husband recently submitted a letter to Augusta Chronicle regarding how much adoption cost and they Published it:) Check it out!

Paper time

Tonight Paul and I filled out a pre-application packet for Covenant Care. It was not as easy as we thought it would be...really made us answer questions that we did not feel prepared to answer. It made me realize that there are going to be times in our life when we don't know the answers, but thank goodness we can run to the One who does. All we need now is to fill out our church evaluation form and send it all in!