Quick Update

Haven't had a chance to update but thought I better just to keep track of my dates. As of the week before last we are officially home study approved! We had our last home study meeting with Cheri (in Cartersville on our way to Dalton) on Saturday 10/16/10 and our home study is dated for 10/18/10 (so I guess technically that is our official date). We got all of our adoption applications and documents mailed to the 5 agencies this past week. The final 2 arrived on Friday. So, now the wait officially begins! Some of the agencies will mail us a letter saying we are approved and can start receiving situations or inquiring on them, others you just wait for a call saying they have a mother to present you to or a mother that has picked you. Three of the five agencies post some available situations online that you can inquire about if interested but otherwise you just wait for them to call you with a situation to see if you are interested. And so, we wait...

Pray that we are matched quickly and ideally with a mom who is due soon! But most of all pray for our future birthmom and child - that they are both healthy and the pregnancy goes well with no complications. We hope that through the process we can also be a testimony of God's love to our birthmom. Oh and pray that the Lord provides financially for all of this (we will be finishing our application for the ABBA fund no interest loan program this week so pray we get the money we need to cover our adoption). Thanks to everyone who is praying and continues to pray!

Homestudy

It's been a while since I've posted (been meaning to for a while now). We have been working on all of our homestudy paperwork and documents lately. But the great thing is we are basically done- yay! We are just waiting on one reference, out of 5, and our FBI fingerprints to come back. Monday will be 6 weeks since they were received for processing. We have been told thats about how long it takes so we are hoping to get them back soon. We had our first homestudy meeting (one of 3) on August 14th- we met the person doing this for us (Cheri) up in Kennesaw for this one, as only one meeting has to be in the home. And then we had our 2nd homestudy meeting (the in home one) yesterday (9/18/10). We cleaned our house spotless, of course, but it probably wasn't necessary (good excuse to clean good though). Cheri was only here for an hour and it was pretty simple- turned in the rest of our paperwork/documents we have finished in the past month and she had to look at the house quickly (basically to make sure it was safe for a child). Please pray that our fingerprints will come back quickly- the quicker we get those back, the quicker we can hopefully get homestudy approved! Once homestudy approved we can begin applying to the 5 adoption agencies Christian Adoption Consultants works with (this should be fairly simple but we will need to be approved by each of them). Hopefully, this will not take long either. Once approved by each of the agencies we can begin following their websites for available situations or wait for them to call with situations to see if we want to be presented to the birth family. Many people have asked how long until we receive a child... we have no idea! We pray that it will be soon. Cheri said the average time is about 6-8 months but you just never know. I've read and heard about adoptive parents getting a child much quicker than that and others its longer than that. We pray that it is not more than a year, as we would have to do much of the paperwork and documents again and pay to update the homestudy. So, please pray that all of these steps are quick and that God leads us to just the right birth family/mother. We will likely travel to another state for the adoption but it could be in Georgia (however, the agencies try to work in states that have a shorter period of time where the birth mother can change her mind). In Georgia, the birth mother has 10 days after placement to change her mind and thats a long time when you're talking about your child. I can not imagine taking a child home and days later the mother changes her mind. It does happen though so please pray that we would not be in a situation like that.
We have started preparing as much as possible since we don't know what the time frame will be. We painted the nursery room and cleaned it out. I have been to two consignment sales this month and got some "layette" type clothes for cheap, onsies, bottles and a toy. And we went to the Baby's Room in Kennesaw this past Saturday for their big one-day sale and I found a car seat I loved and ended up ordering a stroller they showed us. And I am just trying to buy little things along the way as I see them. We also had to take an Infant Care class and CPR class so we took both of those this month. The CPR was good, of course, since it covered adult, child and infant CPR and choking (anyone that is a parent should know how to perform both of these). The infant care class was good, however since I have been working at a pediatricians office for the past 4 years and have been working with kids much longer, I did not learn anything new. But I think it was good for Jarrod.
Well, I guess thats about all for now. Please continue to pray for us on this journey. Pray that the process would be smooth and quick and we would be led quickly to the birth family and child God has picked for us. Please pray with us for our future birth family/birth mother that if nothing else we might be able to share Christ's love with her and pray for her pregnancy and a healthy baby. It is amazing to think that our child could possibly already be out there somewhere. Please pray for me that I would be patient, as I find myself getting very impatient some days. I just can't wait to share our lives with a child!
We are so thankful for all of our family and friends who have been so happy for us and are praying for us- please continue to do so!