Paper Work

I've always sort of enjoyed filling out forms...I like to write in block letters very neatly on forms...I like that for the most part they don't take much thought...just time and then a sense of completion. Hopefully that will come back to me again one day because now I am just totally worn out by all the PAPERWORK! Wowza! However, I have thought multiple times how thankful I am that we have the time to work on all of this in a timely manner, without kids or many other responsibilities holding us back. No big news in the process. We've sent off for our FBI checks, finished our home study "initial paperwork", ordered our birth certificates and marriage license, scheduled our physicals, and set up our first appointment with our social worker (February 29th). We plan to knock out the remainder of our home study paperwork tomorrow as well as get started on our training. I've been really overwhelmed with the process lately. I'm both dreading and looking forward to the day we get a "match". Looking forward to it because we'll have a face and a soul to go along with all of this work. Dreading it because I know that's when the wait will become painful. God is teaching us more about faith....being sure of something you can't see yet.

New Perspective

So today I was reading a blog that I really enjoy here. She and her husband are amazing foster parents. She shared that they started this journey through pursuing adoption and made these comments as they still wait for what child God will have them adopt:

"Our new child won't look like us. Our new child may not be "healthy." Our new child could be any color or race. It could be a boy or a girl. And our new child will never know a day where he doesn't know his mother's name, where he doesn't hear that name prayed for, hoped for, fought for....Adoption is about someone fighting for you, pursuing you, calling hope out in you, when you never even knew it was possible.So, for as much as adoption is about our new little one who we long for more than words can express...there's also a mother, a father, we long to join in the fight of hope for."

So far my heart has been praying intently for our little one's protection, care, health, rest, having someone's love and attention. However, this has given me a new perspective that God has also given me the ministry of praying for the mother and father of our child....for hope for them in the Gospel of Christ. It has given me eyes to see how God might use me in His plan to restore a soul I may never meet until heaven, but they will always be so dear to my heart for their sacrifice.

Other news (mostly for my records): We've started our Home Study initial paperwork. Honestly, if this is the "initial paperwork" I'm frightened by the "main paperwork". :) The initial portion is 17 documents, one being 10 pages long! We're hoping to send off our fingerprints for our FBI check this week as the results take about 8-12 weeks. We scheduled our dossier run through phone call with our agency for February 9th.