Saturday, April 06, 2013

Adoption updates and how this started

Well we are two more interviews down, two physicals, a few more forms and $1000 to go on our home study. What is a home study you ask? Well, I am so glad you asked so that I can let you know how benign and un-scary it really has been thus far.

2011
Aug 2011- Matt tells me he is ready to start talking about an adoption

2012
March 2012- Matt attends an adoption informational meeting with an agency and also finds out about other agencies in our area for domestic infant adoption
Rest of 2012- We talked about, prayed about, thought about, debated about and finally decided to partner with Catholic Charities to begin our adoption journey

2013
January 24, 2013- God was changing my heart in a big way. He was moving to get us off of our plan and onto his. You can read more about that towards the bottom of this post.
January 25, 2013- We meet the social worker and have our first interview. During the interview, she told us that 5 months ago they had no waiting families. Now they have thirteen and they did 6 placements last year. The math for that figures out to about a 2.5 year wait! Because we also have biological children, it would probably make it longer than that. Later that day, I received more confirmation that The Lord had other plans for us. You can find more about that on this post.
January 31, 2013- submitted our child abuse and background check. Also were fingerprinted, so I guess we are in the system now- ha!
February- March 2013- researching more about international adoptions and filling out the
ENORMOUS paperwork packet...ok so it was only about 20 pages long...but still... Also, sometime in this timeline, I heard Matt tell one of our friends we were adopting from Uganda! My heart lept. He had never actually said it. I was so excited!
March 13, 2013- Matt and I had our individual interviews. We still need to have our physicals done. Both of the kids medical paperwork is in. Our background checks came back. Also, emailed agency that we found out about that does Ugandan adoptions.
March 21, 2013- Spoke to the agent at Florida Home Studies and Adoptions (FHSA). You can visit their site for more stats on Uganda and some information to think about concerning the orphans of Uganda. We met their first criteria and then we got a copy of their fee schedule. It was comparable to everything I had researched about adopting from Uganda. We decided to go with this agency.
April 2, 2013- Agent from FHSA called back. We are placed on a waiting list. She also tells me about Ruth. A four year old girl who has been through her first failed adoption by a family who felt they could not finish. She has a clean medical history and has been left. Broke my heart!

We don't know if Ruth is ours or not, but will you please be praying about our adoption and that the journey would be a clear and precise one? We know we are called to adopt, we just don't know who...








3 comments:

The Williams family said...

I know this whole post already but it still gives me chills reading it. What an awesome journey you have been given and excepted from God!!

Whitlocks said...

So excited for you guys and glad things are moving a long. Looking forward to the day we hear that you get to go pick up your new little one.

Heather and Her Guys said...

Thanks for continuing to share your journey! This was a neat post. We continue to pray for you. Finally got our cell phone switched over and internet/home phone up and running, so I'll call you soon :)