Just a suggestion..go to YouTube and watch some adoption videos. I search Ethiopia Adoption. Watching some of these families as they go to meet their children for the first time is unbelievable! Some of these will give you a better idea of why we are going through this process. We feel so blessed to be embarking on this journey to our children.

The Home study has begun..

One out of four visits down 3 more to go!! We travel to Rochester next Tuesday for our individual visits. The last two visits will be to interview the kids and then to finalize all the paperwork. It feels so good to have things moving, not just paperwork. We have a few more documents to gather but for the most part we are pretty organized. Hopefully this process will go smoothly and quickly!

Frustrating!!!

This process tests us in many ways..especially our patience! I have been overly organized..to the point of annoying but, I get things done! Two key people in our process are NEW...and are unfortunately learning right along with us. I am trying to be understanding because of it but..Its HARD! As long as we do everything we are supposed to do I'm sure everyone else will catch up..

Our other frustration is trying to understand those who do not understand us! Our decision to adopt was a huge one but one we prayed about for a long time. Most individuals have faith right along with us, others..well they think we are crazy! Faith sometimes makes you do things that others just don't understand. There is no way to explain to people what is in our hearts and how we feel God has led us down this path. We don't expect everyone to agree..just have an open mind and a open heart! Our hope is with time everyone will see what a blessing these children will be!

The Phone Call...

Finally we heard from the social worker! We will have to have four visits for our Home Study.Our first is Monday August 24th! We have been at a stand still until this point. Without the Home study approval we can't move forward. So our prayer is that after the four visits we will be approved. Then we can wrap up the paperwork and hopefully send it to Ethiopia! This makes it feel like it is starting to happen! When you are pregnant your first trimester you are careful who you tell and then after month 3 you tell everyone! After we are approved...I Will Tell EVERYONE!!! It will still be a long wait at that point but at least we will know for sure it is finally happening! So for now... continued prayers appreciated!