Last week we experienced some answered prayers! In my last post I was feeling down about the lack of progress we have made thus far in our adoption. I can't tell you how many times people have asked me, "So, how's the adoption going? What part of the process are you in now? My answer for months has been, "Well, it's going....slowly...we're still working on completing our home study."
I'm pleased to say that we are almost completely finished with our home study! We were able to review the draft last Thursday night and it was perfect! Our social worker was able to submit it to court on Tuesday morning (since Monday was a holiday)! Now we wait for the final approval!
It's amazing what a small step forward in the process can do for your soul. I know that we still have a LONG road ahead, but I am doing my best to rest in God's provision thus far. In this season of my life God is teaching me patience. I'm extremely patient when it comes to my children, but my patience is terrible when it comes to waiting for events (like, for example I'm already getting antsy about getting home study approval!) I'm guessing that through this adoption process my patience will be tested and stretched in ways that I never thought possible.
If I needed any confirmation of the fact that the Lord was trying to teach me patience, today's devotional was just that.
Ephesians 4:1-2 "I therefore a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
Jesus was the perfect model of patience. He endured negative circumstances, coped with difficult people (and prayed for them), he showed willingness to accept his Father's plan, and suffered on the cross because he knew it was God's will.
My prayer is that I could follow Christ's perfect example and work towards patience in ALL circumstances.
Here's to practicing patience and a cheerful attitude while I wait!
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Monday, January 5, 2015
garage sale, home study, and some thoughts...
I've neglected the blog, but I want to update you all on what's been going on with our adoption!
Our fundraiser garage sale in October was a HUGE success! So many people were beyond generous with their donations, and we had a great turn out! By God's grace, we were able to raise $2,026!! Yes, you read correctly! Isn't God amazing?! That money really helped us to take care of our home study fees.
It was not an easy task, but we know our sweet girl will be worth it! Sooo many hours were spent sorting, organizing, and pricing all the wonderful donations.We really couldn't have pulled off such a successful sale without the help of our amazing family and friends.
I really want to keep you all informed when it comes to our adoption journey. I've gone to write a blog post several times and just ended up not being able to find the words to say. I think I was struggling with the fact that NOTHING was happening. Documents were submitted, forms were filled out, paper was chased, but we just weren't able to make any progress on our home study since mid October. Home studies do NOT need to take this long, but from some reason ours is.
The problem is, I have this sense of urgency to get our daughter home (what adoptive mama doesn't?!). She needs a mommy and daddy to love her and care for her. She needs her big brothers to protect her. She needs the support of an extended family and friends who wants nothing but the best for her. But we are so. far. away. from getting to bring our girl home. I know we don't know her yet, or have a picture of her, but that still doesn't change the fact that there is an orphan somewhere in Ind*a who belongs in our family. I was frustrated when meetings were delayed and pushed out. Annoyed that meetings wouldn't get to happen until DECEMBER (which seemed so far away at the time). But even with all those feelings, I kept telling myself that God had a plan and I needed to trust him.
Well, December came and went and we had our individual interviews with our social worker on the 5th and our joint interviews on the 13th! It was nice to feel like we were actually making progress with our home study because I was starting to feel so disconnected from the whole process!
The dreaded home study really wasn't as scary as I had thought that it was going to be. The interviews were just going over a lot of what we had already written in our autobiographies. It was a lot about our childhood, our families, and some questions about parenting our marriage, and discussion about special needs we feel prepared to handle. Super easy! The home inspection was even easier. We walked though our house and she made sure everything was safe, we had a space for our daughter, and chemicals and medicine were out of reach from little hands. I of course went a little overboard with the cleaning and decorating to make sure our house had that "homey" feeling. The one thing that surprised us was that she wanted to check out our refrigerator to make sure we actually had food. Too bad it was due for a cleaning and re-organizing...oh well! The joint interview went great. Mark and I really enjoyed just talking to our social worker and letting her get to know us!
Now we are just waiting for her to finish writing our draft so it can be reviewed by our family coordinator and then by us. Once we review it, it will be submitted to the court for final approval. Originally, we were told that we should be complete with our home study and ready to move on to the next step by the end of January, but now due to some delays we're looking at February.
We expected delays going into this adoption...just not this early in the process. We're so antsy get to the point of waiting to be matched with our daughter. We are trusting in God that our time will be soon. I know in my heart that God is writing the most perfect adoption story, but head just wants in on the details now! ;)
Please pray with us that our home study will be finalized and approved so that we can move forward with our adoption! And you can also pray for a little patience, I know we'll need it!
It was not an easy task, but we know our sweet girl will be worth it! Sooo many hours were spent sorting, organizing, and pricing all the wonderful donations.We really couldn't have pulled off such a successful sale without the help of our amazing family and friends.
I really want to keep you all informed when it comes to our adoption journey. I've gone to write a blog post several times and just ended up not being able to find the words to say. I think I was struggling with the fact that NOTHING was happening. Documents were submitted, forms were filled out, paper was chased, but we just weren't able to make any progress on our home study since mid October. Home studies do NOT need to take this long, but from some reason ours is.
The problem is, I have this sense of urgency to get our daughter home (what adoptive mama doesn't?!). She needs a mommy and daddy to love her and care for her. She needs her big brothers to protect her. She needs the support of an extended family and friends who wants nothing but the best for her. But we are so. far. away. from getting to bring our girl home. I know we don't know her yet, or have a picture of her, but that still doesn't change the fact that there is an orphan somewhere in Ind*a who belongs in our family. I was frustrated when meetings were delayed and pushed out. Annoyed that meetings wouldn't get to happen until DECEMBER (which seemed so far away at the time). But even with all those feelings, I kept telling myself that God had a plan and I needed to trust him.
Well, December came and went and we had our individual interviews with our social worker on the 5th and our joint interviews on the 13th! It was nice to feel like we were actually making progress with our home study because I was starting to feel so disconnected from the whole process!
The dreaded home study really wasn't as scary as I had thought that it was going to be. The interviews were just going over a lot of what we had already written in our autobiographies. It was a lot about our childhood, our families, and some questions about parenting our marriage, and discussion about special needs we feel prepared to handle. Super easy! The home inspection was even easier. We walked though our house and she made sure everything was safe, we had a space for our daughter, and chemicals and medicine were out of reach from little hands. I of course went a little overboard with the cleaning and decorating to make sure our house had that "homey" feeling. The one thing that surprised us was that she wanted to check out our refrigerator to make sure we actually had food. Too bad it was due for a cleaning and re-organizing...oh well! The joint interview went great. Mark and I really enjoyed just talking to our social worker and letting her get to know us!
Now we are just waiting for her to finish writing our draft so it can be reviewed by our family coordinator and then by us. Once we review it, it will be submitted to the court for final approval. Originally, we were told that we should be complete with our home study and ready to move on to the next step by the end of January, but now due to some delays we're looking at February.
We expected delays going into this adoption...just not this early in the process. We're so antsy get to the point of waiting to be matched with our daughter. We are trusting in God that our time will be soon. I know in my heart that God is writing the most perfect adoption story, but head just wants in on the details now! ;)
Please pray with us that our home study will be finalized and approved so that we can move forward with our adoption! And you can also pray for a little patience, I know we'll need it!
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