Final Home Study!

Yay! On Tuesday, November 15th, 2011, we met up with our social worker for the 3rd and final time! We drove down to Gilbert and met up with Trina again at the library. Brandon and I weren't sure what to expect for this home study. We knew that at some point she would interview us separately. We were trying to think of all the possible tricky questions she would ask. But no matter what she asked, through this whole process we have been at peace with all of our interviews because we never had anything to hide. Anyway, it was SO easy! The 3 of us met up in a study room and we answered a few more questions than we split up. Brandon left and she interviewed me first. She just asked about my childhood and my work background. I don't really understand why we had to be split up for these questions. I probably went into too much detail about my life hahah. But overall, I had a great childhood and am thankful to my parents and siblings for the childhood I had! After my questions, I left and Brandon came in and she asked him the same questions. He was a lot more brief about his childhood. After we was done with his interview, I joined them and we were done. We were probably there for only 45 min. So easy!

So, everything on our part of the home study is complete! Trina just has to finish writing up and putting together our home study. She might have it all done by the end of this month. After that, our completed home study will get reviewed by us and our family coordinator with our adoption agency. Once it's finalized, it will get notarized and submitted to Maricopa County for approval. It has until the middle of January to be approved. That approved home study will than go into our dossier (paper work that will go to Ethiopia). For the dossier, we have pretty much all of our documents compiled for that. We just have to get a few more letters of recommendation and write up a cover letter for the dossier. So we should have ALL of our paper work done and approved by January 2012! Yay!

It's crazy to think that this stage of the adoption process is almost complete and that we're looking onto the next stage! Brandon and I are still trying to understand what this next step looks like. As far as we know, it looks like our paperwork will be translated and be submitted to Ethiopia. Than after that we wait! We wait for a referral of a child or children that meet our criteria. This waiting time could be a few months to over a year. We are praying and hoping that this time will be short! Or that if it is long, that we will be able to take advantage of this waiting time to prepare in whatever ways we can.

Please continue to pray that things in our paper work go smoothly and quickly. And be praying for our children (and the parents and families they come from). I'm ready to met our kids, bring them home and to start our lives with them! But our lives and this process is and has always been in God's timing. I will rejoice in the peace that that brings! Isaiah 55:8-9- "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Brandon and I just love this verse and find rest in it.