Cameron's Coffee House

Please visit our first adoption fundraising store.

http://www.justlovecoffee.com/CameronsCoffeeHouse

We receive a portion of the sales from every item in the store.

All of the money we raise will go towards bringing Cameron home.

We appreciate you taking a look at Cameron's Coffee House.

Your morning cup could mean so much more....

Tom and Leah Hogsed

Homestudy Visits Started!

Can you tell this is a long process? I haven't updated since July and that is because this is how long it has taken for us to get all of our paperwork submitted for our homestudy.

We have spent many hours filling out paperwork and getting documents mailed in to our homestudy agency.

Finally, I feel like the ball is rolling. We started our homestudy on Oct. 2, 2009. Our Social Worker is very nice. She spent 3 hours with us at our home on our first visit.

We have a lot of homework to do before homestudy visit #4 which is the last one. We have to have a fireman come and do an inspection of our home for fire safety. I'm sure the kids will enjoy seeing a fireman up close and personal. We have to write an evacuation plan. We have to make sure our home meets the safety requirements for the state of Ohio. We have to watch about 10 DVDs. These are probably good things to do for any parent, not just adopting parents!

We also had to complete a weekend of Adoption classes. We were able to do that the weekend of Oct. 3 & 4. Tom's Dad was nice enough to come up from North Carolina and watch the kids for us, so we could go to these classes. We learned a lot from these classes. I will post what I learned in another post.

Our second homestudy visits are this Thursday, October 8, and Friday, October 9. They are separate interviews for Tom and I at the homestudy office.

We are hoping to get our 4 homestudy visits done as quickly as possible so that our homestudy agency can send all of our paperwork to our adoption agency in Washington.

We also need to start working on our USCIS (Immigration paperwork) which I am familiar with since I just became a U.S. citizen in 2006. We need to get all that paperwork done for Cameron.

I am going to apply for my passport on Friday, Oct. 9. It will be my first American passport! So I will have it for whenever we need to travel.

At this time, we have no idea what the timeframe is for us to travel to Thailand. Our paperwork will go from our adoption agency in Washington to Thailand and then it will be a waiting game.

I have received updated photos of Cameron and he is adorable as ever. We are praying for a smooth and fast process in this adoption. I will keep you updated as we go along.

Peeking out from paperwork to say hello...

I didn't mean for it to be over a month since I posted. I finally feel like my head is peeking out above the mountain of paperwork I have had to complete for our adoption agency and for our homestudy agency.

All of our doctors appts. have been made, all of our references have been given out to people to mail in for us, and I will be mailing the bulk of the paperwork into the agencies next week since it's a holiday weekend coming up.

Shortly after they receive the paperwork, I am hoping we will receive a date to start our homestudy. I am ready to start!

That's all the news I have for now.

I also wanted to wish Cameron a very Happy Birthday (his birthday was between my last post and this one). I thought of you on your special day and I hope that next year we can spend it together as a family.

Overwhelmed by paperwork...

I just found out that I have to have all of my application paperwork completed before I can get a homestudy appt. AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!

That means references from work, friends, and family, doctors visits for us and the kids, medical records, and more.....

The amount of paperwork is so overwhelming. It is these kind of things that scare me and make me think this is not going to happen, but I have to remember that God is in control and He knows what lies ahead for us.

I am praying that Cameron will get to be a part of our family sooner than later, so I guess I need to get off this blog and start filling out some paperwork. :)

Keep us in your prayers!

Welcome to our Adoption Blog!

In March of 2009 we got a video and pictures along with some information about a boy in Thailand from our adoption agency.

In May, after receiving updated video and pictures after our agency traveled to Thailand, we gave the information to our pediatrician for him to look over and discuss with us. Our pediatrician has been a great help to us as we start this adoption process and basically told us to follow our heart on this child.

It was at that moment that I felt like I was expecting again! That is why I have named my blog Not Showing, But Glowing. That's exactly how I feel. :) I may not have a baby growing in my belly (that would be impossible since I have no uterus now), but I have great love for a child growing in my heart.

We are going to be starting the homestudy shortly. This is just the first step on a long journey, but we ask for your prayers as we travel this long road to Thailand.

We will be naming our child Cameron. We chose that name as a family. Our two kids are so excited and can't wait until their brother comes home. This will be a good lesson in patience for all of us, I'm sure.

Cameron, we can't wait to bring you home to be a part of our family forever.