Last weekend was our homestudy. I found myself more stressed about this than I thought I would be. Overall, I think everything went fine. Maddie, in all her honesty, told the social worker that the positives of adopting included having another sibling to boss around. She also informed the social worker that the negatives of adopting including her parents being even bossier if there are 3 kids in the house. The social worker seemed to take this in good humor. She was also very nice about letting Dylan show her every toy from him room, including his favorite; a personal concert on his drum set. We are now waiting for the social worker to finish writing up the homestudy. It will then be sent to the Department of Homeland Security so the U.S. government can process our request to adopt. After we finish up a bit more paperwork, most of our materials will be ready to be translated and sent to Russia. I'm hoping this can all take place before the summer!
We are very blessed by special people in our lives who support us and love us as we travel this journey. We are very excited and feel a lot of peace about the process. At the same time, there are understandably moments when I ask myself if we are crazy! In these moments I am reminded of how God brought us to this path, and of the child waiting for us in Russia. We cannot wait to hold him or her in our arms!
I ran across an article a few months ago in the Wall Street Journal about the church and adoption. We found it interesting that our calling seems to be part of a larger movement in the church. Here is a link to a Wall Street Journal article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703743504575494263102089970.html
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
The Home Study!
After spending the last month gathering a lot of paperwork, getting examined by doctors, and obtaining reference letters, we found out today that our social worker will be coming out next week for our home study. I have to admit that I am a little nervous about this. There is quite a bit of vulnerability in having a stranger in my home to assess if our home is a good place to raise children! However, the lady seems very nice and excited to help us in our adoption journey.
I recieved a list of safety issues that the state of Texas requires us to address for our home to be safe for children. Apparently, my home is not currently safe for my 2 existing children because our glass doors don't have a sign on them to protect a child from crashing into them ("Warning: Running Into A Glass Door Hurts"), and we don't have regularly scheduled family fire drills including a bell or chime to alert our children to the presence of fire in the home (as if my screaming and the blaring of smoke alarms aren't enough). Anyway, needless to say, our weekend ahead is going to full of making our house "safer" for the social worker's visit. Also, as part of the home study, each of us will be interviewed by the social worker (including the kids...by themselves...alone...enough said). She estimates this will all take about 5 hours. Yikes.
We appreciate your prayers as we have this done. She will be at our house for about 3 hours on Thursday, the 10th, and again for about 2 hours on Sunday the 13th. We will update later on how that goes!
I recieved a list of safety issues that the state of Texas requires us to address for our home to be safe for children. Apparently, my home is not currently safe for my 2 existing children because our glass doors don't have a sign on them to protect a child from crashing into them ("Warning: Running Into A Glass Door Hurts"), and we don't have regularly scheduled family fire drills including a bell or chime to alert our children to the presence of fire in the home (as if my screaming and the blaring of smoke alarms aren't enough). Anyway, needless to say, our weekend ahead is going to full of making our house "safer" for the social worker's visit. Also, as part of the home study, each of us will be interviewed by the social worker (including the kids...by themselves...alone...enough said). She estimates this will all take about 5 hours. Yikes.
We appreciate your prayers as we have this done. She will be at our house for about 3 hours on Thursday, the 10th, and again for about 2 hours on Sunday the 13th. We will update later on how that goes!
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