It Is Finished

...our homestudy that is. I have in my hand a finalized, notarized homestudy. It's beautiful!!

Haha, man it feels good to have this part of the process complete. Things have kind of been in a holding pattern for a while and now all of the sudden it is moving at lightning speed. Now that our homestudy is complete I need to fill out the I-800a form which is basically a form to determine that we are suitable to adopt a child from a Hague country. While I await approval from United States Immigration I will finish up our dossier which is already close to completion.

We now await the news from America World that we are officially registered in India. At that point we will actually be waiting on a match. I don't even want to say this for fear of jinxing the whole process but...we should be registered in India by next week. That means that India and our organization will be looking through the waiting children list for a child that matches our homestudy specifications.Although the wait for our child has been in my heart for years we are finally so close to that part of our journey. If we get word this week you can bet I will be posting an update. In the meantime I will be diligently working on our immigration paperwork, finishing up an assigned book on adoption and searching out adoption grants. We are one gigantic step closer to our little girl.

Pearl

Let me start this post by saying that I have been blessed with the world's greatest in-laws. I never really understood the in-law jokes you hear on tv and certainly have never joined in when friends speak of horror stories involving their spouse's parents. I am blessed. Not only was I welcomed into a family made up mostly of men (crazy red-heads to be exact) but my mother-in-law has welcomed me as her daughter. I do think she may have been a bit desperate for another female to keep her company.

Well, when Jon and I announced to our parents that we were adopting we knew they would be supportive but were surprised when Jon's mom, Laura, offered up a very sweet gift. Laura is a teacher and an author who loves the Lord. She recently published a book and has generously decided to give the entire proceeds to our adoption. There really are no words.

Here is a short description of the book Laura began to write years ago before Jon and I ever announced our plans.

This is a book about adoption...

and hope.

It's entitled Pearl.

The loss of a son...the memory of a daughter. A search for peace that spans two continents. Mei, a Chinese mother, loses her son in a tragic earthquake, awakening the memory of the daughter she relinquished to adoption years before. China’s One Child Policy robbed her of the infant she called Pearl, and Mei is haunted by loss. The couple learns to survive, finally emigrating to America where Mei sees little Chinese girls everywhere. Could that one be Pearl? Mei's search leads her to a peace she never knew existed. Will she find Pearl? And can she let her go?

Purchase a Copy of Pearl Here

 

Getting Closer

There are times I feel like I am one step away from crazy! The waiting, the phone calls, the red tape, the paperwork...AHHH!! I am struggling to keep my emotions in check.

It seems as if we have been in a holding pattern for quite a while with me saying the same thing over and over again, "waiting for the homestudy to be written." Well now it has been written and Jon and I have finally laid eyes on the 14 page document. We have read and re-read it proofing as we went. The final edits have been sent to our social worker but we are now waiting on a call from our family coordinator to specify some wording in the homestudy. If all goes well our social worker will hopefully be able to email our homestudy to our family coordinator today. Once AWAA's main office receives the homestudy they will take a couple of days to review it and approve it. There is a chance they will ask our social worker to change or add a few things which shouldn't lengthen the process too much. I'm praying that by next week we will have a finalized and approved homestudy. I know that we have made a lot of progress over the past couple of months but right now at this moment progress seems painfully slow. I am SO incredibly ready for the homestudy portion of this journey to be over and done with. Deep breath...

For those following our journey please continue to pray:
- Pray for patience, especially for me. There are moments I feel completely overwhelmed and it has been easy to allow these emotions to affect me throughout the day. I desire for the Lord to grow me through this process but I need to be willing to surrender to His perfect timing.

- Pray for this section of our journey to end soon. Pray with me that by next week we will have a completed and finalized homestudy.

So...

we wait. Here are a few things that we are waiting on at the moment:

- Jon's passport renewal. It has been expedited so hopefully we will get it next week. That is the last piece to our homestudy paperwork. All we need is the 9 digit passport number. Ahhh!!

- Our social worker to write up our homestudy. As far as I know he has already been working on it but it is 14 pages long so it's not like this will happen overnight. Oh how I wish it would.

To temper any irritation over the waiting (which I should get used to) I received some exciting news from our family coordinator with AWAA. She told us that as soon as our homestudy is approved and finalized our family will be registered with CARA (Central Adoption Resource Authority). That basically means that we will be registered with India's online database and will officially be waiting for a match! There is no telling how long we will wait for a match but just the fact that at any point we could receive a phone call is absolutely thrilling.

In light of this news I found that my prayers have shifted a bit. I am praying for wisdom and discernment as the Lord prepares our hearts for this little girl. May the Lord make his will clear concerning what child he has for us and may we step out in faith even if the end result looks different than we imagined. Not only have my prayers shifted but man do I have tons of questions floating around in my head. Will we know without a doubt that she is our daughter when we see her picture? How long will it take for us to be matched with a child? What comes next?

This journey is so crazy. Please continue to lift us and our daughter up in your prayers. For now we could use prayer that our homestudy would be completed soon and that our registration with CARA would go smoothly. We're making progress friends. I can't wait to see what God has in store next.

Bake Sale

We completed our first fundraising activity this past weekend. Our church rallied around us and provided the most amazing spread of baked goods I have ever seen. We had three tables full of food. The tables were so crowded with desserts that we had an overflow table in the back where we kept food until a spot opened up. Honestly as I gazed at the abundance of food I worried a bit and wondered, "How in the world are we going to sell ALL of this food?!?" Remember we live in a small town so our resources here are quite limited.

 

I should have trusted the Lord from the beginning because the rush of people we had from start to finish was phenomenal. We had a few down moments but most of the day was filled with sales. We sold whole pies, cobblers, cakes, cookies, tarts, brownies. You name it we had it. A good number of our brothers and sisters from church stayed the entire day to help out. The second picture was taken near the end of the day but by the time we wrapped things up even more goodies had been sold and we were able to fit the remaining baked goods on one small flat. In 5 hours we raised over $700. Talk about awesome!

As I look back at that day I feel overwhelmed again at the ways God provides and encourages us in this adoption journey. There was one specific moment during the day when I remember hearing a dear friend enthusiastically thank someone for purchasing food. She was genuinely thankful on behalf of us and her gratefulness overwhelmed me. Seeing our small gathering work with us to bring our daughter home is so humbling. 

Next up we are planning a yard sale at the beginning of October. I'll post an update on where we are in the adoption process in the coming days but for now, I'm rejoicing in God's goodness last weekend. 

Adoption Video

Jon's youngest brother Benjamin has worked so hard to put together a short video explaining a little bit about our adoption journey. If you have a few moments take some time to watch our story and pass it on. God continues to work in amazing ways to bring our daughter home.To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Big Step

This whole journey has been a learning process for me. Not only am I becoming very familiar with the paperwork and red tape associated with international adoption but I am learning in small ways more about God and what it looks like to trust Him daily.

We turned in a huge part of our home-study the other night. The information on this particular paper has been prayed over and discussed at length. Just turning it in was huge step of surrender for me. The paperwork I am speaking of is a special needs chart required by India concerning a waiting child adoption. The two page paper consists of a list of needs with spaces where we have to indicate which needs we feel our family can accept. Talk about heart-wrenching. Just the thought of saying no to needs makes me think of some child in India who will remain orphaned. Shew. Thankfully I have a rational half...my handsome hubby who sat down with me and helped me talk and pray through the separate needs. In the end there were some needs we had to say no to, especially considering the rural area in which we live and the resources at our disposal. Even now as I write this my heart feels heavy and every time I think of that chart I have to offer up a prayer of surrender to the Lord. In the end I know that nothing will stand in the way of what God desires for our family. This was a huge step for us and gets us even closer to bringing our daughter home.

Our small family continues to covet your prayers because behind the piles of paperwork and months of waiting there is a little girl somewhere in India who is without a family. My heart yearns for the day when I can hold her and tell her the story of how she came to us and how our great God wove this family together. There are days this mother's heart aches but praise God that he is using this period to refine my faith and  hopefully to show others the amazing love and faithfulness of a personal God. We are one more step closer to meeting our precious daughter.