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Trick-or-Treat!

This was my 1st Halloween. Not sure what the whole concept is all about, but from what I can see is that you dress up in costumes and walk around and get candy. 

TRICK-OR-TREAT !!

Here I am with my cousin Molly (she was a pumpkin) and my cousin Anna (she was a spider)

And here I am with mommy and daddy. I am dressed in a very warm sleeper that looks like a Cheetah!

FOOTBALL!!

Daddy 

and 

I 

Say

DA BEARS!!

Ah, Fall is in the Air....

Mommy, Daddy and I all went to this park near our house and it was filled with so many beautiful colors in the trees. 

It was so pretty and the weather was just a little chilly but nice.

We went for a walk over a bridge and saw a small river.

 The water was very still.

This is mommy and I at the park.

And all 3 of us.

Bath Time is So Much Fun!

Hey Everybody! 
Here is daddy giving me a bath. I love bath-time. 

Rubber Duckie you’re the one,

You make Bath-time lots of fun,

Rubber Duckie I’m awfully fond of you……

This is a towel that my mommy and daddy bought for me that I wear when I am in my bath tub. It keeps me warm when taking a bath. Mommy and Daddy pour water on top of it and it keeps me very warm and I NEVER want to get out.

My Prayers have been answered...

Sent straight from Heaven 

up above

Came an Angel 

for me to Love.

To Hold & Rock and Kiss

Good night

To Wrap my arms around 

really really tight.

Kensi Lynn- 

When you looked into my eyes, and we had that father/daughter connection I knew that everything I had been  praying for had finally come true. GOD  heard my prayers. My heart is filled with so much Love, Joy and Happiness.

I love you so much Baby Girl.

Love-

Daddy

Who knew???????

Who knew we would have a beautiful baby girl at home with us and that mommy could NEVER find time to blog....I should have seen it coming!! Well, better late than never!
Here she is!!!!
Kensi Lynn Hansen
August 3, 2012, 7:15PM
6 lbs and possibly one ounce .... they didn't weigh her until we got there and she had a few wet diapers before then!
19 inches
Happiest Baby in the World!!

We got to the hospital only 45 minutes after she was born, so we didn't miss much. They actually saved doing a lot of things until we got there and we got to participate in everything.
We stayed in the hospital for 2 days (arrived late Friday night and went home Sunday afternoon).

We even had a beautiful view from our room!

The hospital staff was great. They gave us our own room, with "two" beds! And they fed us three meals a day. They were very kind and helped out with everything.

Hospital

Click here to view these pictures larger

We have BIG news!!!

Hello there! I have flown ALL the way from NEW ZEALAND (thanks Remy!!) to share some BIG NEWS!!!!
Erik and Melanie have been MATCHED!!
Matched? What does that even mean??
It means that a birthmother has chosen Erik and Melanie to be the parents of her child!


We are very excited to have been presented with this adoption opportunity. We have spoken to the birthmother and she seems to be all in. A lot of people have asked a LOT of questions so I will try and answer some of the more common ones (and ones we actually know the answer to) here.


1. When is the baby due? Sometime in August, she is due at the end but usually delivers early.
2. What do you know about the birthmother? We know she is healthy and is receiving limited prenatal care. She is Caucasian as is the birthfather. We are choosing not to reveal too much so we can protect her privacy as much as possible.
3. Where is she? She is only a couple of hours from us in Wisconsin! This makes travel and coming home much easier for us.
4. Is this a done deal? We all have to go to court within 30 days of the birth for her to terminate her parental rights. Until then she technically has custody of the baby. We are expecting to come home shortly after the baby is born but will know more when we speak with our lawyer.
5. Do you know the sex yet? YES!!!

We are very excited!! If you have any other questions please let us know and we will answer them the best that we can.

We are asking for prayers for a healthy baby girl and that things keep going well. 

A Few Words From Winnie the Pooh...

Pooh here, just wanted to give you an update on all things baby related in the Hansen household. Erik and Melanie bought a changing table...good thing too, I was worried that my squishy qualities might make me a good replacement! The room is now complete!!

Their online profile is doing great, 86 hits last month. Their adoption consultant called and said that a good number to hit is 40-60 so they are doing very well. Their agency sent out 11 hard copies of their "resume" (pictures and text about E&M) to potential birth mothers in both December AND January. These are mothers that are looking for similar qualities that Erik and Melanie have to offer. Usually they like to see 1-2 go out per month, so 11 is GREAT!!

Erik and Melanie made some big changes to their "adoption profile" and what kind of potential situation they are willing to accept. This does include some conditions that may (or hopefully may not) be risky to the health of the baby. Please continue all your prayers and good thoughts for a healthy baby. That's all for now!!
Erik and Melanie wanted to let everyone know that they appreciate all the prayers and well wishes. If you have any questions PLEASE feel free to ask, email, blog, etc. Hugs to ALL!!!

The "New" Dresser

Originally (30+ years ago) the dresser looked like this. Note the other things hanging on the wall too!! (more of those later!)

The dresser stayed in my room at my Mom and Dad's for 18 or so years, including one move.
Then I took it to college. The poor dresser made it through countless moves, a leaky fish tank on top and then a move all the way across the country!
Erik and I thought it was time for a little t.l.c.

 We people from California (or those who lived there for a while) enjoy our wine while we work!!

 Original honey pine.

TAAA DAAAA!!!! Looks pretty good. We saved the original hardware. The color matches the rest of the baby's room (crib, rocker, and soon changing table).

Still Waiting..............................................

Erik Here: 
Yup that's right! We are still waiting to be matched. Keep those prayers coming.

Home Study APPROVED!!!!!

Our official approved home study came in the mail today!! This means that on our profile it will no longer say "Home Study in Progress" and we have been approved by the State of Wisconsin (and anyone else who cares) to adopt. This was the last official step before we could "officially" bring a baby home. Fingers crossed!!

Baby Shower, September 11, 2011

Click here to view these pictures larger

Thank you to everyone who made our baby shower a success. It was perfect and beyond anything I ever could have imagined. Thanks also to those who couldn't make it but sent such thoughtful gifts. Now all we really need is the baby!! 

A place to sit and a new slideshow

Yay!! We have our rocking chair/glider. It's very nice and comfy, and we have both spent time rocking in it already. Thank you Mom and Spence for your wonderful gift!

This was the chair before...my oh my did I have a time putting it together!! But with a little patience and a lot of luck....TA DA...

One beautiful chair ready for rocking. If you're in the area you should stop by and try it out!!

On another note our Media Department has made a slideshow that is view-able on YouTube and our profile page. I have included the YouTube link here so that everyone can see it. It's a compilation of pictures we sent to them and text from our Dear Birthmother letter. Enjoy.
Erik and Melanie on YouTube

New Stuff...Now all we need is the baby

We are very fortunate to have so many good friends and family. We are already getting ready for baby, just in case he or she decides to arrive unannounced! Our theme is Winnie the Pooh for the Baby's room. I (Melanie) saved (or my mom did!) several items from my room when I was small: lamp, switch plate, pictures and a music box. These are the basis for the new room. With some brand new add ins it is really starting to come together!

Thanks to Mom and Dad (Judy and Frank) we have a crib with super cute Winnie the Pooh bedding. As my mom said, "All you need is the baby!" The crib converts to a toddler daybed and then to a full so we are set for many years. THANK YOU!!

When little babies grow up Erik and Melanie get their car seat!! Thanks to our very good friends Joey and Cherissa we have a car seat to use when we are in California. The twins are growing so fast and they graciously gave us this beautiful seat when we were back for a visit. This is great because now we won't have to bring one on the plane every time we travel back and forth. THANK YOU!!

Ok, so I know what my fellow Niner fans are thinking...but it was just so cute I had to buy it!! (Just shows how much I really love Erik!) I'm sure our child will grow up very confused as to what teams to root for, but at least we all agree that we love sports.

Up and Running

Our other three website profiles are up! This completes the next phase. Birthmothers can now access our profiles from four websites and gain more insight to us and our plan for adoption. We really now just sit back and wait. The average wait time to be matched, for Adoption Network Law Center, is four months. This means that it could be soon that we are matched with a birthmother. Depending on how far along she is, will determine when we welcome our little one home. There will be lots more details to tell after we are matched, but that's all for now. Enjoy!!

http://courageouschoice.com/album.php?id=8193

http://www.adoptionspacebook.com/view_photos.html?id=8193

http://www.theadoptionfoundation.com/adoption-unplanned-pregnancy-waiting-families-profile.html?id=8193&action=photos

Moving Forward

Our next set of pictures is in and they have been approved. We should be up online on three additional websites by the end of next week! This will allow more birth mothers to potentially see us and make a match. The links to those sites will be posted here as soon as we get them.
Our current profile has 180 hits for the month of July. I am thinking that this is largely due to the fact that we have shown just about everyone we know our profile! August should give us a better picture of how many people that we don't know are looking at us.
Our home study is nearly complete. It's just the last few bits of paper that are taking the longest. We hope to have everything turned in by the time we leave for California next week.
As soon as everything is in and we are fully up online it will just be a waiting game (which we are very good at!).

WE ARE LIVE!!

We are live and online. This means that we are now searchable for birthmothers looking for permanent homes for their babies. They can look online now and see our cute little faces! We now wait for "the call." As soon as someone picks our profile we will have our first meeting. After the first meeting we (us and the birthmother) each get to decide if we like each other. If everything goes well we will be officially matched and will wait for the baby to be born.
http://www.adoptionnetwork.com/waitingfamilies/show.html/8193
This is our link to our first profile. We sent in more pics so we should be on other sites in the next month or so.

Trying to catch up...

A brief rundown of the process...

1- Choose place to handle adoption. Done: Adoption Network Law Center

2- Send in "pre-approval" paperwork (and one photo-I guess so they know we are not weirdos!!) Done: They said we were "Oh so cute" and would have no trouble finding a match.

3- Apply for loan to fund this super cheap project. Done: Now if the magic loan fairy would come and pay it off...

4- Send in official legal paperwork and promise to pay them. STOP!! This is where we got to a few years ago and then I lost my job and we were not able to continue. So we waited and waited for the right time and now we are here!! So.... Done: We signed on the dotted line and got the process rolling.

5- Home Study- The process where you are interviewed for hours and they come to your house and ask you lots more questions and then write a report that says if you are fit to be parents or not. It's a federal regulation so we have to do it. Pretty much done. The social worker came to our house and we chatted for a while. We are both working on finishing our autobiographies and the other paper work that goes along with it.

6- Gather pictures for our profile that have:

     NO sunglasses, NO hats, NO alcoholic beverages, NO swimsuits....Hmmm....well that eliminated almost all of our good action shots. So thankfully we have a few really good friends and family that agreed to do photo shoots with us so we could get the required number of pics. Done.

7- WAIT, and wait and wait. We are now waiting for our profile to be put up online so that we can be matched.