Yay, our next milestone is complete! Tuesday night we welcomed our social worker into our home for the home visit. We had asked a lot of friends that have been through this what to expect and all said the same thing...Don't go on a cleaning spree. They aren't going to do the "white glove" test.
At first, we began that deep cleaning anyway...you know, just to be sure. Then we realized, we have four children. If we deep clean Saturday, by Tuesday afternoon it is sure to be worse than when we started. SO, we focused our efforts on making sure that we were "safe". Everyone told us they would check for fire extinguishers, check the smoke detectors, etc. We were a little concerned about what they would say about the pool and wondered if they would fault us for not having a fenced yard.
So, we bought an extra fire extinguisher, tested the smoke detectors...a few times, made sure the pool door was locked, etc. I did have a plan for a quick run through to straighten up. I teach at the tutorial on Tuesdays so I knew no one would be there to mess up too much. Monday was CRAZY and there was no way we could work cleaning into the mix so my plan was to straighten up as much as possible before tutorial on Tuesday morning and then when we got home, have everyone pitch in to vacuum, dust, etc.
She was scheduled to come sometime Tuesday afternoon or evening after a visit with another family in town. I figured we had two or three hours after we got home to get it all arranged. SO, imagine my surprise (and panic) when at 12:30, while I was still at Tutorial, she called and said she was about an hour away and would be at our house at 1:30! I was very calm and level headed...or not! I began running around like a chicken with its head cut off rounding up kids and bags and heading for the door!
My precious MIL had kept Coop that day and had texted saying she had made pizzas for the kids at her house. We flew to Nana's where I made the kids inhale their pizza and even forbade them from eating the required bowl of ice cream (a Nana necessity). We got home and I ordered the kids to straighten their rooms, and we vacuumed the kitchen...that is as good as it got!
Our social worker arrived and completely put us at ease. She really is very sweet. We talked for a long time, she interviewed the kids and then we began our house tour...where she didn't even ask to see our safety stuff...we just volunteered it like a preschooler who is proud of their art picture! "See, see our fire extinguisher!" "Look, our smoke detector works!"
By the time we got upstairs, Coop figured out what was going on. He took over as tour guide from there and proudly showed her his bed, his hippie, Sissie's room, the bathtub, the pot AND the toilet paper...He is nothing if not thorough!
Anyway, I think all went well. We will have our final interview on the 7th and HOPEFULLY we will have passed our water test by then (we are re treating this weekend) and will have our fingerprints. If so, we will just have to wait for the completed write up and final copy of the home study and will be one step closer to our sweet little girl!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
Baby Steps
A little progress this week! After a couple of weeks of just waiting and not much going on, we have made a little progress this week! We have sent off for our passports and are hoping to have them back in four to six weeks. We have a little bit of trepidation about this because apparently the laws changed in 2011 and they want your parent's full names on your birth certificates. Idaho...back in my day, didn't put the full middle name, just the middle initial. Getting this changed is a MAJOR project and the lady at the records department acted like that was complete new information to her and said that they had no thad any influx of people needing their certificates revised...so, we took a risk and just used the original, here is hoping we don't have to go back and redo everything!
We also had our first home study meeting this week! We met our social worker in Corinth at Subway...Chris is totally accusing me of making the plans because I am the only one in the house that truly appreciates the deliciousness of a good Veggie sub...or any other sub for that matter. Anyway, I had nothing to do with it...but I didn't complain! :) I totally meant to take pictures, but I guess nerves got the best of me and I forgot. The meeting went well. We met our social worker in person for the first time and she is a little bitty, sweet, talker! We talked for about 2 1/2 hours and it was not at all nerve wracking, more like just talking to an old friend! Our next visit will probably be our home visit...would love that to be next week but we haven't heard back from her yet so not sure about that yet.
Thursday we got our local fingerprinting done...that will probably take the longest and, in hindsight, we wish we would have gotten on that a little earlier because that will probably take several weeks and our home study can't be completed without them...live and learn! We talked to a very sweet lady who did the fingerprinting AND we will soon know if Brooks has a criminal past we don't know about! (I kid!)
Finally, we got our well tested. We had no idea you were supposed to get your well water tested (apparently once a year....ours was last tested in 2001)! We got the results back today and we have no bacteria...but we do have high levels of chloroform...REALLY, chloroform...I had no idea. ***Update, Chris just called with a revision of this report, he misread and we do NOT have chloroform...we have coliform, which is totally normal and harmless! Makes me think back to a certain court case I was obsessed with this summer, but I digress. Anyway, we now have to use some bleach to treat the water and retest in 7-10 days, simple enough I guess...except for the whole no access to water for bathing, drinking, cooking, etc.
We are now, once again just at a waiting point. Hopefully we will talk to the social worker today to get our next meeting scheduled and get our education set up.
Please pray that my passport application will be accepted, that we can get our water up to standard and that we can continue to keep things moving along. We are still committed to getting everything on our end in as quickly as possible. We also talked to our stateside representative for the orphanage and they have received all of our "stuff" so they are just waiting for our completed home study to proceed! Every day brings us a little closer to our sweet girl! Thanks for the prayers!
We also had our first home study meeting this week! We met our social worker in Corinth at Subway...Chris is totally accusing me of making the plans because I am the only one in the house that truly appreciates the deliciousness of a good Veggie sub...or any other sub for that matter. Anyway, I had nothing to do with it...but I didn't complain! :) I totally meant to take pictures, but I guess nerves got the best of me and I forgot. The meeting went well. We met our social worker in person for the first time and she is a little bitty, sweet, talker! We talked for about 2 1/2 hours and it was not at all nerve wracking, more like just talking to an old friend! Our next visit will probably be our home visit...would love that to be next week but we haven't heard back from her yet so not sure about that yet.
Thursday we got our local fingerprinting done...that will probably take the longest and, in hindsight, we wish we would have gotten on that a little earlier because that will probably take several weeks and our home study can't be completed without them...live and learn! We talked to a very sweet lady who did the fingerprinting AND we will soon know if Brooks has a criminal past we don't know about! (I kid!)
Finally, we got our well tested. We had no idea you were supposed to get your well water tested (apparently once a year....ours was last tested in 2001)! We got the results back today and we have no bacteria...but we do have high levels of chloroform...REALLY, chloroform...I had no idea. ***Update, Chris just called with a revision of this report, he misread and we do NOT have chloroform...we have coliform, which is totally normal and harmless! Makes me think back to a certain court case I was obsessed with this summer, but I digress. Anyway, we now have to use some bleach to treat the water and retest in 7-10 days, simple enough I guess...except for the whole no access to water for bathing, drinking, cooking, etc.
We are now, once again just at a waiting point. Hopefully we will talk to the social worker today to get our next meeting scheduled and get our education set up.
Please pray that my passport application will be accepted, that we can get our water up to standard and that we can continue to keep things moving along. We are still committed to getting everything on our end in as quickly as possible. We also talked to our stateside representative for the orphanage and they have received all of our "stuff" so they are just waiting for our completed home study to proceed! Every day brings us a little closer to our sweet girl! Thanks for the prayers!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
A Bump in the Road
They said this process would be a roller coaster. They were right! Last night we had a great time at our first fundraiser! A dear friend from church opened her home to several families in the process of adoption. We each set up a table and were able to raise a little money for each of our adoptions. We have now sold our whole first batch of paper bead necklaces, Yay! But even better was the sweet fellowship!
Today, has been a bit of a downer. We contacted our stateside representative that we are working with for a very simple question. We received some unwelcome news. In a nutshell, he told us that the adoption process in Uganda is very up in the air. Due to a lot of corruption, etc. the laws are changing...at some point; we just do not know when or what that will mean. In all likelihood, one thing it will mean is Uganda will probably become an agency only country. We are not using an agency because we are working directly with a specific orphanage. Our heart is really with this orphanage and we would prefer to continue working with them. However, if we continue on the with the process we are currently using we run a fairly high risk of the laws changing and not being able to proceed. If we change now and go with an agency, we will no longer be able to work specifically with the orphanage that we have been using and currently sponsor a child at. It is also fairly certain that things will slow down quite a bit regardless.
After talking to a few people today and thinking about things, we have decided to proceed as we have been but with much more determination...we have been told the quicker we can get everything in and processed, the better. I have also contacted an agency that will be willing to work with us and transfer our information in the event that the laws change mid-stream. We are feeling a bit discouraged and a bit frustrated, but we were warned that this journey would be full of ups and downs so I guess we are not totally surprised.
We have our first home study interview next week and I am hoping that we can fit all of the meetings in fairly quickly and get the ball rolling as much as possible. So much is out of our control right now, but we can at least try to tie up all the loose ends on our side!
Anyway, for those curious for updates, that is where we are right now. When you think of us, please pray that we will be able to clearly see the direction that we should be going and that we would make decisions wisely. Pray that our faith would be strengthened and that we would use this entire process...including the down days, to just glorify the Father. Thanks friends!
Today, has been a bit of a downer. We contacted our stateside representative that we are working with for a very simple question. We received some unwelcome news. In a nutshell, he told us that the adoption process in Uganda is very up in the air. Due to a lot of corruption, etc. the laws are changing...at some point; we just do not know when or what that will mean. In all likelihood, one thing it will mean is Uganda will probably become an agency only country. We are not using an agency because we are working directly with a specific orphanage. Our heart is really with this orphanage and we would prefer to continue working with them. However, if we continue on the with the process we are currently using we run a fairly high risk of the laws changing and not being able to proceed. If we change now and go with an agency, we will no longer be able to work specifically with the orphanage that we have been using and currently sponsor a child at. It is also fairly certain that things will slow down quite a bit regardless.
After talking to a few people today and thinking about things, we have decided to proceed as we have been but with much more determination...we have been told the quicker we can get everything in and processed, the better. I have also contacted an agency that will be willing to work with us and transfer our information in the event that the laws change mid-stream. We are feeling a bit discouraged and a bit frustrated, but we were warned that this journey would be full of ups and downs so I guess we are not totally surprised.
We have our first home study interview next week and I am hoping that we can fit all of the meetings in fairly quickly and get the ball rolling as much as possible. So much is out of our control right now, but we can at least try to tie up all the loose ends on our side!
Anyway, for those curious for updates, that is where we are right now. When you think of us, please pray that we will be able to clearly see the direction that we should be going and that we would make decisions wisely. Pray that our faith would be strengthened and that we would use this entire process...including the down days, to just glorify the Father. Thanks friends!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Welcome to Our Journey
Almost five years ago, you could have swept me up off the floor when a late night run to the grocery store for a test confirmed what we suspected...we were expecting child number four.
It wasn't in our plans. We had a fine little family. I finally had my little girl and we were finally in a place where we could breathe a little. I could run up and take a little nap without fear of what would happen to the house in my absence. Home schooling was going along okay. Things were good.
Our first blog (One More Equals Four) started as I began to record our life as our family size increased! NEVER, EVER, EVER did I ever expect to be making such a change again...and my husband has the surgery record to prove it! We were done. Our family was perfect. While our littlest was unexpected, he was welcomed and loved and has made quite a splash in our little world!
Then, a couple of summers ago, I was introduced to the book "Radical" by David Platt.
It was life changing. I began to look at our Americanized christianity and saw that the life we were living was not the life God had called us to. We looked good. We went to church every time the doors were opened, we taught Sunday School and attended Bible Study, we had Christian friends and said Christian things and even home schooled our kids. However, we weren't doing a lot outside of our church. We were comfortable. We read our Bibles and said our prayers and lived our life in the traditional, American way.
But what we have learned over the past couple of years is this...the traditional American way is not necessarily God's way. God doesn't call us to a life of comfort. He doesn't call us to an easy life or a quiet life or even a good life. He calls us to serve Him, to love His people, to live a life that looks different.
And so, we began to make small changes. We began volunteering at a ministry of our church to a low income apartment complex. We made friends with a precious, naughty, beautiful little girl being raised by her grandmother and brought her and her sister into our home when possible. My husband began to consider going into the ministry in some way...we began searching for what our life should look like.
And then, we began to sponsor a little girl in an orphanage in Uganda. A precious two year old who lost her mother to breast cancer. A sweet, smiling little girl with a father and six siblings who cannot care for her. She touched our hearts.
One day, my husband came home and suggested to our only daughter that we just adopt that precious girl. Of course, our daughter was ecstatic and happily bounded down the stairs to announce what a great idea that was. I quickly bounded back up the stairs to let my husband know that flippant remarks like that were NOT a good idea. Our daughter was desperate for a sister and her feelings would be so hurt to find out that he was just kidding. However, it was me that was shocked when he announced that he really wasn't kidding...he thought we should pray about it.
And so began the months of praying and talking and praying some more, researching to find out about the possibility of adopting and then praying and talking some more. We had many discussions about what adopting would mean to our family and our finances. We had many discussions about what our families would say and think. We talked to our other children and found that not all of them thought it was such a great idea!
Finally, this November...we decided that this is what God was calling us to do. The finances are impossible, the logistics are equally so, and yet, we know that somehow, God will provide. We know that somehow, our son's heart will be softened and he will accept this precious girl as his sister. We do not know who our little girl is, but we know that she is in an orphanage in Uganda right now waiting for her forever family. We know that there are millions more like her. Precious, innocent children that desire a home and desperately need to know the love of a savior.
As we have embarked on this journey, our eyes have been opened to the desperate need all around us. People are starving to death or dying of preventable disease. Children are suffering from illnesses that could be cured with medicine that costs just a few cents. Boys are being taken and forced into military services and girls are sold into unimaginable conditions. We cannot save them all, but we can no longer close our eyes and pretend that life in America is normal.
So, we invite you to join us on this journey. We know it will be full of ups and downs and lots of waiting. We also know that it will be a learning and growing experience that I am not willing to miss. We know that there will be bumps along the way but that there will also be rejoicing and in the end, Lord willing, we will welcome a little girl into our home and become her Mommy and Daddy, her sisters and brothers, her forever family.
It wasn't in our plans. We had a fine little family. I finally had my little girl and we were finally in a place where we could breathe a little. I could run up and take a little nap without fear of what would happen to the house in my absence. Home schooling was going along okay. Things were good.
Our first blog (One More Equals Four) started as I began to record our life as our family size increased! NEVER, EVER, EVER did I ever expect to be making such a change again...and my husband has the surgery record to prove it! We were done. Our family was perfect. While our littlest was unexpected, he was welcomed and loved and has made quite a splash in our little world!
Then, a couple of summers ago, I was introduced to the book "Radical" by David Platt.
It was life changing. I began to look at our Americanized christianity and saw that the life we were living was not the life God had called us to. We looked good. We went to church every time the doors were opened, we taught Sunday School and attended Bible Study, we had Christian friends and said Christian things and even home schooled our kids. However, we weren't doing a lot outside of our church. We were comfortable. We read our Bibles and said our prayers and lived our life in the traditional, American way.
But what we have learned over the past couple of years is this...the traditional American way is not necessarily God's way. God doesn't call us to a life of comfort. He doesn't call us to an easy life or a quiet life or even a good life. He calls us to serve Him, to love His people, to live a life that looks different.
And so, we began to make small changes. We began volunteering at a ministry of our church to a low income apartment complex. We made friends with a precious, naughty, beautiful little girl being raised by her grandmother and brought her and her sister into our home when possible. My husband began to consider going into the ministry in some way...we began searching for what our life should look like.
And then, we began to sponsor a little girl in an orphanage in Uganda. A precious two year old who lost her mother to breast cancer. A sweet, smiling little girl with a father and six siblings who cannot care for her. She touched our hearts.
One day, my husband came home and suggested to our only daughter that we just adopt that precious girl. Of course, our daughter was ecstatic and happily bounded down the stairs to announce what a great idea that was. I quickly bounded back up the stairs to let my husband know that flippant remarks like that were NOT a good idea. Our daughter was desperate for a sister and her feelings would be so hurt to find out that he was just kidding. However, it was me that was shocked when he announced that he really wasn't kidding...he thought we should pray about it.
And so began the months of praying and talking and praying some more, researching to find out about the possibility of adopting and then praying and talking some more. We had many discussions about what adopting would mean to our family and our finances. We had many discussions about what our families would say and think. We talked to our other children and found that not all of them thought it was such a great idea!
Finally, this November...we decided that this is what God was calling us to do. The finances are impossible, the logistics are equally so, and yet, we know that somehow, God will provide. We know that somehow, our son's heart will be softened and he will accept this precious girl as his sister. We do not know who our little girl is, but we know that she is in an orphanage in Uganda right now waiting for her forever family. We know that there are millions more like her. Precious, innocent children that desire a home and desperately need to know the love of a savior.
As we have embarked on this journey, our eyes have been opened to the desperate need all around us. People are starving to death or dying of preventable disease. Children are suffering from illnesses that could be cured with medicine that costs just a few cents. Boys are being taken and forced into military services and girls are sold into unimaginable conditions. We cannot save them all, but we can no longer close our eyes and pretend that life in America is normal.
So, we invite you to join us on this journey. We know it will be full of ups and downs and lots of waiting. We also know that it will be a learning and growing experience that I am not willing to miss. We know that there will be bumps along the way but that there will also be rejoicing and in the end, Lord willing, we will welcome a little girl into our home and become her Mommy and Daddy, her sisters and brothers, her forever family.
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