Big news, everyone!
(does anyone NOT hear Professor Farmsworth when I say that? Because you can be excused now, if so...)
We officially have our signed, notarized copy of our completed adoption homestudy. 4 1/2 months after we received our packet full of forms to sign and huuugggggeeee biographies to fill out and clearances to receive and classes to take, we are done (with that part.) Just a note: They told us it would take 6-8 months, so... :)
Yay! Happy Dance!
We are so thankful to all of you who have supported us financially and spiritually with your prayers and encouragement so far. Keep those prayers coming--- as I told Jordan yesterday, we are doing something that is going to make the devil very angry, and we need as many warriors on our side as we can get!
Side note (wouldn't it be awesome if I could actually make this a "note" on the "side"? Alas...) It's a very odd experience reading about your life in a third person narrative that sums up everything about you. Our worker did such a good job capturing "us" in the study, but it was still very weird to read our own biographies!
So... what's next?
Well, it's kind of like applying for a job. There are a lot of listing sites where adoption workers post profiles of children in their caseload that are free (or almost free) for adoption. This means that their parents have no more legal rights to them and they have no family that is willing to take them (or, if they are not yet "legally free," that they are checking into the last few family members but they anticipate they will be ready to be adopted very soon).
We read the profiles, try to sift through the jargon to figure out who these kids really are, and then submit our homestudy to their worker if we feel they will be a good match. Our study approves us for one child ages 6-17. While we initially wanted siblings, our worker felt it was best for us to only take one child at this time. We are focusing on girls aged 10-17, but we will see where the Lord leads us.
THEN their worker reads our homestudy and decides if we are a potentially good match. Depending on the state and listing site, they either send us or our worker more detailed information, or we get put on a "maybe" pile which then gets sent to an adoption team of therapists, workers, foster families, community resource members, etc, who THEN decide who the "top picks" are, and THEN they send out more detailed information.
Are you exhausted yet?
THEN we read their file, try to get all the information we need, and decide if we still want to pursue that child based on all the information we have. If we decide they will be a good match,
THEN the worker and/or committee takes all the "finalists" (people who they like who also said yes to the child's more detailed file) and decides who they are going to choose to adopt them.
THEN we go through all the contract specifics--- costs that need to be covered, travel expenses, visits (if there will be any), etc,
THEN they come live with us, and there may or may not be a waiting period before they are "legally" our children where we have more visits.
Yeah, it's a little insane. It is complicated by the fact that the "profiles" on which we are making submissions vary from coded to EXTREMELY vague (think--- likes purple, dogs, and PB&J, dislikes sauerkraut and country music) so it is hard to decide who to even pursue.
By the way--- I hope we aren't scaring anyone thinking of adopting away with all this info. It sounds like a lot, but most of it (on our part) is waiting for things to be done. It has been actually really non-invasive and simple, just very **detailed** and **specific**
So that is "what's next." We have been told it could take 9-12 months to be chosen, finalized, and placed. But, as our mantra has been through this whole process, we are on God's time and we know He doesn't follow a bureaucratic model and timeline. We are excited to see, yet again, how he gets things moving and shaking and the testimony we will be able to have to our workers and the people we meet :)
If you missed my post about praying for orphans, I urge you to read it here and pick a prayer child--- prayer works! 3 of the children/sibling sets that were being prayed for were adopted VERY quickly (and those are only the ones I know about!).
Stay tuned for more exciting adoption news SOON! How's that for speaking (blogging?) in faith!
Love from the gorgeous Inland Northwest!!!
