Shadowing on Saturday

Our state social worker has connected us with a local seasoned foster family that we are shadowing on Saturday (Dec. 3) afternoon. We will be with them for a couple of hours. We will be evaluating/observing them and they will be
doing the same for us.Yay for another step
closer to having our
home study complete! :-)

Second State Home Visit - Successful!

 

We are praising the Lord that our 2nd home visit went well this morning! This one was longer than the first -- about 2.5 hours. There was more paperwork and it was more "interview" style. We really like our worker. He is easy to talk to and work with. We may end up with a different worker eventually, but we have this one for now. :-)

Next steps:
1) Do some online training sessions
2) Shadow a seasoned foster/adoptive family
3) Have another home study by the end of the year.

Thank you for your prayers!

Second Home Visit

Monday, Nov. 21 at 10am is our 2nd home visit with our state worker. We would sure appreciate your prayers that all would go well!

Wait No More Conference

 

On Saturday, Nov. 14, we had the opportunity to attend the Wait No More conference in Lousiville, KY. This is sponsored by Focus on the Family.The conference is designed to encourage families to begin the foster care and adoption process, and help them get started. There were agencies there who could answer your questions, motivational speakers, reading resources supplied for us, and the opportunity to get fingerprinting done. 

We discovered fairly quickly that we are further along in the process than what the conference is designed to help you with. However, we were thankful to learn that we are on the right track! We did get to get our fingerprinting done for our private agency (we had already completed the fingerprints for the state). :-) And to top it all off, they provided Chick-fil-a for lunch! :-) 

We are thankful for how God is leading us in this process. When we were trying to decide whether or not to begin the state training (several months ago), we had contemplated waiting until we had attended this conference. Looking back, we are so glad that we didn't wait! They would have told us to do exactly what we've just done. Anyway, we're thankful for how God leads ... especially when we are basically clueless. :-)

First State Home Visit - Successful!

-

We successfully completed our first state home visit last Friday! We had to complete some paperwork separately and then our social worker reviewed our answers and checked for a compatibility in answers between us. 

Our worker then took a tour of our home and checked to be sure that everything was safe. He reminded us of a couple of things that we need to get to make our home more child-ready. We purchased those things and will have them ready when he comes again. :-) 

We will have 2-3 more home visits. They will probably be before the end of the year. 

We are celebrating 1 down! :-)

First Home Visit

We will be having our first home visit with our state social worker tomorrow (Friday) morning. This is first of at least 3 that we will have with the state before being eligible to adopt. We would appreciate your prayers!

I will update you on how it goes. :-)

Pursuing a state adoption

As mentioned previously, we are interested in locating a birthmom who plans to put her child up for adoption. If God leads in this way, it would probably be an independent adoption (through a private agency and social worker). We have a private agency and social worker that we are working with and collecting paperwork for to prepare for this option. We would very much love to adopt a newborn and are still keeping our eyes and ears open for this opportunity.

However, in an effort to keep the doors open and be ready for whoever God would like to send to us, we are simultaneously pursuing the possibility of adopting through the state. At this point, we aren't looking to do foster care, but rather to adopt a child where parental rights have been terminated and they are waiting to be adopted.

In order to be qualified, we had to attend 6 weeks of initial training, do online training, and have home visits done with our assigned social worker.

I am happy to report that we completed our last week of state training on Tuesday!!! We were so happy to complete that!

We have also moved to a different home on campus that will better accommodate children. If you have your home visits done in one home and then move, you have to have another set of home studies done in your new place. We thought it best to move at the beginning so that we would only need 1 set of initial home visits.  :-)

Decisions and Prayers for Direction

Discovering God's will isn't always easy and simple, is it? Life can feel like this:   

We desperately want to know and follow God's direction in adoption. This journey so far has been about following open doors and trusting the Lord to close the doors He doesn't want us walking through (which He has done).

The decisions when beginning adoption have felt overwhelming ... which agency? which country? what type of adoption?

One day I was working on exploring our options. I had taken a break to switch some laundry, but was still thinking about all that I was reading and, honestly, feeling overwhelmed and anxious. In that moment, God spoke to me very clearly with this Scripture: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." Philippians 4:6. Wow ... exactly what I needed to hear and be reminded of that day! I have since sought to do just that.

 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

To Our Friends and Family

We wanted to share with you some recent happenings and changes in our lives. We found out this Spring we are unable to have children. This conclusion came after about a year and a half of tests and doctor visits. We were referred to one of the best doctors of infertility in the state, but he concluded that there was no possible way for pregnancy. We were very devastated and very confused. We had both desired to be parents one day, even from the time we were young. Through all of the tears, grief, and pain we were very thankful to have a loving and faithful Heavenly Father. He understood our pain and gave peace and comfort that is beyond our comprehension.

Since this Spring, God has been turning our thoughts and hearts toward adoption. We still have a strong desire to be parents, but it may come about in a different way than we had originally planned. We are currently in the beginning stages of the adoption process. Honestly, we are overwhelmed by the amount of decisions and paperwork that must be done. However, we feel that this is the door that is currently open to us right now, so we are trusting God to work out the details and lead us to the right decisions to make. We have been blessed to have some excellent people in our lives who have been invaluable resources for us. We have made friends with several adoptive families who have been very gracious to share their story and answer our questions.

We are currently looking into the possibility of a newborn adoption in the United States. We are interested in other possibilities also (like international adoption), but domestic adoption seems like the direction we should pursue right now. We are looking to find an expectant birthmom who wants to place her child up for adoption. If you know of anybody in that situation, would you please let us know? Even if we are unable to adopt that child, we would be very happy to put her in connection with the agency we are working with. They have more families who want to adopt than they have children to place.

We thank you for your help in this endeavor. We want to find the child that God has for us. :-)

We love you and would appreciate your prayers.

David & Deanna