First Steps towards a family of Four

After collecting and collecting lots of yellowed papers, we were able to complete the first of 4 steps toward completing our home study! Our scavenger hunt included many personal documents but also signing forms. The fun part was finger prints. Its kind-of cool (new to me) the GBI fingerprinting is done inkless. They have this 'box' that they press your fingers on to capture each of your finger prints and no black finger prints! FBI is a different story :)

We met with our assigned social worker (further refereed as SW) on Feb 3rd, and talked about our families, dating life, married life, parenting, etc...
Note: NO privacy when going through an adoption. :)

SW was very pleasant to work with and really stressed that her goal is not to eliminate applicants but to help in areas of need. Marriage problems before an adoption = MORE marriage problems after.

SW got to meet Austin, observe our interactions with him, and tour our home. I have really enjoyed working with an organization that focuses on education, family unity and God.

February 28th we will be meeting with SW to have individual interviews and again to observe our interactions with Austin. This is also when our autobiography's are due.

In the meantime we are reading our required text: The Connected Child: Bringing hope and healing to our adoptive family by Karyn B. Purvis, David R. Cross, and Wendy Lyons Sunshine.

Please pray for:
The workers at the orphanage taking care of our son
Gods protection over our son
Continued success in completing tasks and requests
Focus on receiving our son 

Onward and forward!

Well our first phone interview is complete and now we beginning the process of the home study- We have been told that this could take 3-4 months to complete and that there will be a couple more face to face interviews along with a home visit to our house. If you don't hear about the adoption for a while we are knee deep in looking for long lost certificates and proof that we exist :)

If you pray we specifically ask that you pray:
1- First and foremost for our child's safety, protection, and well-being as he will already be born.
2- For those taking care of him.
3- For strength and endurance in this long process.
4- Make financially good decisions now as it is easy to think of today and not next year.
5- Parenting growth for Tony and I as we prepare to bring home an orphan.

Adoption

I know it might sound silly but it is always been awkward announcing big news. Like getting married, having a child, getting my masters. Its not that I feel like I'm being prideful but that it is scary to just put big things 'out there' where others are going to ask about it, your progress, and look at you to see what your reaction is. When all I am trying to do is take it one-day-at-a-time. I have never been great with words and this blog does stretch  me quite a bit. (I'll give it a go AGAIN this year!)

All that to say...

We are adopting! I know this might come as a shock to you because it really isn't something we have openly discussed (see first paragraph) and to be honest I really didn't want others opinions to weigh in on our decision. So let me start from the beginning...

Austin was conceived quite quickly and to be honest with you, when we decided to try for a second we both agreed that we had to be ready since we thought it would be just as quick. When that didn't happen it became overtaking. It overtook my every thought and daily activity wondering if I was pregnant or not and should I do this or not. It is really hard to understand until you have been there. I never truthfully understood how mentally overwhelming it would be until it happened to us. We were advised to just keep trying and after a while I felt I needed to get a second opinion. This time I was told that at our age we really should seek fertility assistance.  Both Tony and I agreed that going beyond diagnosing the problem and minimal assistance neither of us we wanting to go through infertility options. So be both got checked out and were given a clean bill of heath. The only issue was age. I took Clomid with no success. This is when we decided we were done trying. Soon God removed the desire to bare another child but not to raise and nurture another child. 

[This is a great article on the pain of infertility. I really felt peace knowing my emotions and feelings of trying to have another child weren't just me going 'crazy'. A good article if you or someone you know is challenged by infertility. God is good and "all things work together for the good” (Rom. 8:28)]

After much praying and seeking others who have gone this route we started attending informational meetings for some adoption organizations. 

After one meeting about foster-to-adopt we realized we didn't feel God leading us into the labyrinth of the U.S. foster care system.  

Then after attending a meeting with Lifeline Children's Services we both felt God lead us to this group. We felt their goals and ours were aligned and we would be well taken care of through the entire process of this journey. 

So let me bring you up to speed-

September 22, 2013 we submitted our application- we then needed to decide what country to adopt from, we didn't feel God was leading us to a specific country so until he did we started the most rational approach. We literally started black lining countries from the spreadsheet that wouldn't work for us. 
1- The length of stay in the country. Since both of us work it would be difficult to be out of the country for more than a month. 
2- Cost- lets be honest it's not cheap.
3- Length of time for adoption to be complete. 

In the end we have chosen to adopt a little boy age 2-5 from Southeastern Europe. (per request we are not identifying specific country on this blog until adoption as complete.)

November 2, 2013 we signed our papers to begin our home study  but had some complications getting some bonds that we earmarked for the home study cashed so it was frustrating to have to wait so long to begin. 

December 18, 2013 January 3rd, 2014-Finally able to make a date for our first interview! 

One question you might have is- What does Austin think? He is very excited and at the beginning wanted a blow by blow for everything we have to do. As time moves on he will forget about it for a week or so then say as he did about a week ago, 'I wish my brother would get here soon'. BOY so do I!!

Well now you are in the loop! I hope you follow our journey and I will share as much as I can.