Paperwork Part I

We are celebrating the send off of our first set of paperwork on Wednesday July 20, 2011!!  We had to sign and initial a boat load of papers and send in our first fee.  What a relief to have that simple step done.  Now we wait (anxiously) for the call to inform us of when the home study will begin!!  Until then, the house will be ransacked.........closets will be organized and anything that hasn't been touched in 3 months is outta here.  Yes, I understand that the social worker will not be investigating the state of our closets, but our kids (who will be helping) don't really need to know that do they?  =D  Every crack and crevice will be cleaned, dusted, scrubbed and sanitized.  Again, I do realize that all this isn't necessary, it's just that all this will keep me busy and prevent my mind from fixating on the long wait ahead.  Plus, my house desperately needs this deep cleaning.  We will post as soon as we hear from AWAA about the home study.  Thanks, as always, for your prayers!

Course Complete!

Nate and I both received our certificates for completing the Hague-certified Inter-country Adoption Course! 

We are both excited and relieved (we had NO idea the amount of reading that was required).  We are glad that we had to do this because we both learned a lot of helpful things and were given ideas on how to handle some potential problems along the way.  Now we prepare for the home study which should begin in about 2 weeks..........yikes!  We have been told that with the home study you don't need to make sure your home is in perfect shape.......HA!  Lets see if I can really be relaxed about that when the time comes! :) Anyway, that's all we have for an update, sorry it's been a couple of weeks, just not a whole lot to say!  Thanks for your prayers!

Preparation

Tonight Nate and I continued our adoption course and this module was about the issues that come with institutionalized children in foreign countries.  Let me just say that I knew that orphans come with problems......health, disabilities, mental problems and such, but when you read stories about specific children and the horrendous situations they have faced or are facing, it's even more eye opening.  While it's worrisome for us as we imagine parenting a child with such needs we are more concerned than ever about what our little boy is enduring right now.   I know that he is in Gods hands and God loves him more than we ever could, for that I'm thankful.  I just hope and pray that God can protect him and give him strength to continue on until we can wrap our arms around him and love him.  Please pray for us, to be prepared mentally and physically to parent this child and for wisdom to know how to help him in any area he may struggle.  Pray for our three kids that God will prepare their hearts as well.  We are all very excited to one day bring him home, but we know and understand that so much learning and getting ready needs to be done.