Newborn & Toddler care class

Monday Matt and I had a newborn and toddler care class. It was at a Giant grocery store in Harrisburg (I found it kinda weird for grocery store to have a community room but hey, whatever).

We headed over right after work even though we knew we'd be very early. We didn't know what the traffic would be like and we wanted to make sure to get there with enough time. Plus, if we went home we'd only be there for about 10 minutes before we had to leave anyway.

So we get there just before 5:30 (an hour before the class starts). We go into the store to look around. I found online that this store is a bit more like a Wegman's, where they have hot food, deli sandwiches and a place to sit down and eat. So we looked around and got some dinner (Matt got pizza, I got a turkey sandwich) and we sat in their little cafe area and ate our dinner. Then at 6 we went upstairs to the community room. We were the first ones there (not really a surprise since we were now 30 min. early!), but no problem, we just sat and played on our phones for a while. Finally people started showing up. One of the couples had a teeeeeny tiiiiiny little girl with them. We later find out that she's only 3 weeks old! Adorable!

Anyway, around 6:30 one of the case workers from our office comes in with the teacher. We all gather around the table in the room and have a seat while the teacher passes out large cloth bags. (I didn't realize we'd be getting goodies, so I was pretty excited!)

We open up our bags to find: A binder with a lot of information and articles regarding what we're going to learn about, a children's book (the book nerd in me went WOOOOHOOOOO at seeing this), a magazine, a boo-boo bunny, and a cooler with two ice packs for bottles (or beer–apparently the cooler holds two beers perfectly). Then we introduce ourselves a little and we start in on the learning.

We got a LOT of great information. The main thing I learned is how to start and keep a routine to get baby to sleep through the night.

We talked and learned for 2 1/2 hours. At the end, we got to chatting with one of the other couples there. They were really nice and we decided to exchange business cards for contacts. It turns out that the woman is actually a wedding and event floral designer! Hopefully we'll get to work with her in a business capacity sometime.

It was a great class and it really made us so excited to become parents! Seeing that little girl just made me want one even more. And of course there is always the excitement and enjoyment of meeting others who are going through the same thing you are. Having a support group of friends really helps out!

More Paperwork

So, we got a letter in the mail from our adoption agency. Apparently, some of our paperwork is expiring soon and we need to get it redone. Things like fingerprinting, physicals, child abuse checks. These things are only good for one year. Its hard to believe that it's been a year since we started our home study and got these things done! I went online to one of the websites to get the clearance done and I filled out all of the information and paid the fee. Then, the website said it timed out and to hit the back button and try again. Well, I hit the back button and nothing happened. So I go to the part where it says to check on a status... It asks me for a specific number... which they never gave me. So I'm pretty frustrated right now! Guess we're going to have to call the help line sometime soon. Just another thing to add to the list.

On a better note, we're planning another fundraiser. This one is going to be a mini photo session fundraiser. We have multiple photographers helping us out with this one and we're pretty darn excited about it. We get to combine our passion for photography with helping to build our family. We're not 100% on all of the details yet but we do know that it will be on Sunday, May 19th. We really hope that we get a good turn out. So if you're interested contact us and I'll give you some more info!