Home Study Visit #1

Our visit is done! We weren't sure what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised at the ease of this  morning's visit. Shannon, our adoption specialist, spent the morning in our home. She met Sophie and loved how friendly she was. Sophie was a big show-off and kept wanting Shannon to play with her tennis ball. Shannon looked around the house and commented on the large dehumidifier in our bathroom. She seemed understanding of our predicament with the water damage, and was glad that our builder was taking care of fixing the damage.

We spent a little over an hour going through general questions about our family dynamics, support network, work schedules, perceived parenting style, motivation to adopt, and types of children we're willing to adopt. This visit seemed like an introductory visit and getting to know us better.

Next week (on Kevin's birthday-June 18), Shannon will come back to the house to do a second interview with us separately. She will talk with us each individually to talk about family history, experience in childhood, educational background, and more specific personal information.

Our background checks have still not come through. :( PLEASE keep praying. The home study can not be approved until the background check comes in. This is our biggest obstacle at this point.

The large dehumidifier in our bathroom after finding water damage under our bathroom cabinets on Friday morning. Not the perfect timing in our minds, but God's timing is perfect even when it appears chaotic to us.

Finally Progress!

Well, the background checks are still not back. Boooo! But we did get the approval to start the home study. Yay!!

Shannon, our family adoption specialist, was so wonderful to advocate for us to move along in the process. God answered our prayers. Her supervisor had an open mind for us to complete the home study without the background checks. As soon as we got approval to move along with the home study, Shannon emailed us, and we set the two dates for the home study.

June 11th and June 18th are the days to be praying. Shannon will come out to our house two different times to meet with us and interview us. In the first interview, we will be interviewed together to talk about our family and reasons for choosing to adopt along with the types of children we are interested in adopting. The second home study visit is when we will be interviewed separately.

We're not completely sure of everything that home study will entail, but we trust God prepared us for anything we face in the home study. The rest of the week will be filled with cleaning the house and making sure we're presentable for Shannon's visit.

Please keep praying that the background checks to come through. Our home study will not be approved and finalized until the background checks come in.

Pray! Pray! Pray!

Progress...We Think!

We know the blog has been silent for a long while. It's because things on the adoption front have been very quiet. It's been three months today that we submitted our finger prints for national background checks. What was a 8 week wait turned into a 10 week wait and now 12 weeks. Needless to say, we're going crazy with the waiting. We guess the Lord figured that we need to learned some patience because our faith has certainly been worked and tried. James 1:3, For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow (NLT). So we'll just consider these 3 long months a growing time. We can not proceed any further in the home study and adoption process until our backgrounds come back clear. 


Mallory has been doing much of the email correspondence with our adoption specialist, Shannon. She received some "good news"...we think. Shannon will be approaching her boss on Monday to get permission to continue in the home study process without the background checks. She hopes to start the home study and while we are going through that the backgrounds will FINALLY come in. The home study will be pending approval until the background checks come in. 


Please be in prayer. Pray for three things: 1). Shannon's supervisor would be open and willing to let us start the home study without the background checks. 2.) The back ground checks would come in quickly! 3.) That the process would proceed without any more hold ups throughout the summer. Mallory will be off of school for 8 weeks during the summer, and we will be able to prepare more fully with a lighter summer schedule. 


Our hearts are ready for our child/children, and the hard part is waiting. The Lord's timeline is best. We're trusting in His perfect plan. Thank you to all of our prayer warriors out there!

Still Waiting...

Just updating the blog to let all know that we are still waiting....

We are being held up by the federal background checks. We had the fingerprints completed on March 1, and they are still not back yet. :( Shannon says that background checks have been taking 6-8 weeks lately. So we have our minds set that we probably won't hear anything until around May 1st. We are hopeful that we will complete our home study in the month of May.

We are patiently waiting. The Lord is teaching us a great deal about His perfect timing. He knows best, and we place our lives in His hands.

Thank you for all of the kind words of encouragement sent to us and the prayers brought before the Lord on our behalf. All we can say is thank you and keep praying.