Homestudy

We met with our social worker last Wed. to proof read the home study. It was ALL about us. We had to make any corrections needed. The only other piece she needed was Dave's physical report. When we went in for our physicals a while back he forgot to go back in 48 hours later to have his BP test checked. He just kept forgetting but finally got it all done last week. Once she gets that she can send the HS to the state for approval.

Now there are other pieces we need for Bethany Christian Services to be able to send the HS onto US Citizen Imigration Services. So, we are cramming on our training which is the last step. Once it's off to USCIS it could take them 2 months to approve it. While we wait we will work on our dossier documents which will be sent to Ethiopia after USCIS approves us. We're getting there. . . YEAH!

Two days of training in Idaho Springs

We're home from two 8 hour days of adoption training. We were nervous about it cause he had to take Gabriel with us. He's fairly high maintenance compared to Liam at this age. He doesn't always nap well in other places. SO, we just didn't know how the weekend would go. Gabriel did fabulously well!! He napped in his pak'n'play in a little office during our training and never even cried before falling asleep. All the other couples loved him. He was a very good boy. We went back to the hotel and got A LOT of rest. We were all asleep by 9:45. I know, we are old fogies now. LOL We had a long week this past week with house sitting for some people and taking care of their three teenagers and 6 year old. We NEEDED the sleep.

The training was great. A lot of it wasn't very applicable to us as it was about domestic adoption and about getting a baby at birth. Things are very different when it's a domestic adoption vs. adoption international like us.

One big difference is whether or not you can meet the birth mom. With domestic you get to choose if you want it an "open adoption", "semi-open adoption" or "closed adoption". These terms refer to the level of involvement the birth mother will have in the life of the child. We learned that in a lot of ways it's a GOOD thing to allow some involvement. This minimizes your child growing up with hard questions and someday going to search for their birth mother. I think most of the other couples in this training came thinking they would want it as closed as possible but they left today feeling like openess is the best choice.

After this training I realized that it will be difficult that we may not know anything about our baby's birth parents. We may never know what they looked like, health history, their story. We may have no answers to the questions our little one might have. I know the Lord will work through those things and offer healing to our baby in other ways. He is good! He is in control!

We are SOOOO close to being able to finish our home study. We need to finish our online training (we should get it done this week), Dave needs to get back to the doctor for his BP test so his physical can be complete, we need to meet with our social worker one more time, and we need to read a book and write a short paper on it.

Email we received from our pastor

Greetings,
Came across this passage this morning in my sermon prep. Thought of you guys.

Rob

Ps 68:4-6

4 Sing to God, sing praise to his name,
extol him who rides on the clouds —
his name is the LORD —
and rejoice before him.
5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
6 God sets the lonely in families,
he leads forth the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.
NIV