Our first two out of three Home Study visits are finished. We’ve never been asked so many personal questions regarding life, love, longings or finances, faith and fears, and that was just the first half of the interview. Our wonderful social worker has stated that her final report should be done within 2-3 weeks after our final visit. That visit is scheduled for this coming Tuesday evening, May 29, and will include interviews of Hudson (age 7) and Zach (age 5), so that should be fun!
So, where does this put us in this wonderfully, long and complicated process?
We can start thinking about applying for adoption grants as 99.9% of them require you to have a successfully finished Home Study before you can even apply. Many families apply for these, so we are not guaranteed the funds, but we have some good leads and will try anyway.
We are also getting ready to launch a t-shirt fundraiser that will hopefully bring in the needed funds for our paperwork-for-India-stage of this process (also known as the Dossier), and friends and family can now give directly to our adoption through a special Paypal link (both of theses are explained more under the Want to Help? tab with a sneak peak at the t-shirt design posted too).
Oh yes…there is more paperwork…much more paperwork. We still have to gather birth certificates, health forms and blood tests, two new reference letters, letter from our bank regarding our bank accounts, passports, police letters of reference, employment verification, personal letters on why we want to adopt from Frank, me, Hudson & Zach, complete more financial record information, and more. Then, we have to get it all notarized and then apostilled (meaning all notarized documents need to go to the Secretary of State’s office in the state where the document was notarized for an additional authentication that the notary is authentic). So, it’s a notary for the notary, I guess.
We still have at least 12-18 months before we get to meet our daughter in person.
So, yes, just writing all of that makes our heads spin, and if you were thinking of adopting and just changed your mind…please, keep reading!
When we think about the many, MANY little details involved in this process, it’s very easy to get overwhelmed by it all…but then, we stop and pray, and the Lord graciously reminds us why we are doing this. There is a wonderful, sweet end to all of this–we will be able to show a little girl that she is loved, valued and adored by a loving Savior who desires to have a relationship with her.
He loves her already.
He knows her name.
He loves much more than we can hope to ever love her.
It’s in HIM that we trust in this lengthy process that is teaching us more about the words “flexibility” and “patience” than we even knew we wanted to know.
We are claiming Philippians 1:6 at this stage, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” This process is not just about us bringing home a new member of our family, but it is also about God changing us to be more like His precious Son–this is the “good work” He has begun, and we are far from finished!
Please continue to pray for us in this process–for strength to press on, humility in letting God change us and for our daughter’s health and safety as we continue to wait to bring her home! Thank you, dear friends and family!
Abounding in Steadfast Love 