Our family has been so blessed by the most precious little girl. Her birthday is today and, instead of gifts, she has selflessly asked for donations for our adoption fund instead. We are so thankful for her willingness to help our family grow!
It's amazing how God works. She is so beautiful, inside and out. When I was her age, I would never have thought to do this for someone else. I hope that we can raise our child to love like she loves.
A beautiful example of Christ's love for His children.
We are forever grateful for you, Kyah. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Sorry we haven't posted in quite some time! There are points within the adoption process where we're just doing paperwork (lots and lots of it!) and that's not very exciting to read about :)
But today was a big day! Our social worker, the lovely Sarah, came over today to do our home tour and the first interview of our home study. I had been nervous about this meeting all week long! Since we had never gone through a home study before, I wasn't sure what to expect, so, we made sure to cover all our bases. Last week, we developed a cleaning schedule so that we could tackle the task of cleaning our house in a less overwhelming way. So, everyday, we cleaned/organized/weeded-out a different part of our home. That made the entire process less daunting.
We also did lots of paperwork/answering questions to prepare for the interview portion of today's meeting. Hours and hours of answering questions like "What memories do you have of your mother from your childhood?" to "If the adopted child is of a different race, will you try and persuade them to date a person of your race/culture when the time comes?" to "What are areas of growth within your marriage?". All these questions deserved lengthy responses, and therefore required a lengthy amount of time.
ANYWAYS - today went much better than my pessimistic mind was anticipating. Our pup, who is much bigger than his age makes you believe (7months old at 90lbs and still growing....) is an intimidating sight for a non-dog lover. But he did great, and she loves dogs - Ammo didn't tackle her and Sarah loved him.
She came in, asked us lots of questions about our marriage, how we handle disagreements, good/bad memories within our marriage, etc. We chatted about how we've grown together, what we love about eachother, what we do in our free time, and how excited we are to jump into parenting! She's so easy to talk to (I probably talked her ear off!) and she is super relatable, making you feel like even the most awkward questions are harmless. She helped make a daunting amount of personal questions and concerns seem like a cake walk.
Then, she walked through our home. We have enough rooms to be considered for 1 (or 2) adopted children; our chemicals/medication/knives were secured with locks and child-proofing technology; our firearms were locked with ammunition locked up in a different location; we have a fire extinguisher; we have smoke detectors in the perfect places; and our backyard is awesome... seriously. So, all of our planning and methodical preparation paid off - we have no alterations to do on our home for her next visit! Home tour: COMPLETE.
Now that the big walk-through and first interview is over, we have quite a few things to accomplish within the next few weeks. Adoption is never boring! - we always have things to do, papers to sign, or people to see. So, we will be getting copies of all types of marital/financial/personal paperwork to her (including Ammo's rabies vaccination). We will be working on more paperwork that we need to finish before the next meeting. We need to create a will, and begin our "education". We have classes (a 2 day workshop in November), a book to read, plus parenting/adoption videos (over 10 hours) that we will be watching/participating in. We will get certifications that they will include in our home study. Some of these educational videos/meetings are required by our agency, some are required by Bulgaria. Either way- there is a lot to do!
So, we will be very busy within the next few weeks, paper pushing and video watching. We applied for our first grant today, and will hear about that in January. We did learn recently that Bulgaria does not have any children on their "waiting children" list that meets our requests. Although that was hard to hear, and slightly disheartening, we are trusting in the Lord and thankful that He walks with us through the battles. Even when we are overwhelmed, He is taking our worries and blessing us in ways we couldn't even imagine. Even when we are told "no", He tells us to be patient. Even when the paper pile seems to grow with every passing moment, He tells us to be persistent. He knows our struggles, and He knows our pain. He knows our hearts and guides our ways. If I've learned anything through this process, it's that adoption isn't easy. And that, when Christ died on the cross for us and we were adopted into His family, that wasn't easy. Adoption takes sacrifice, and Christ was sacrificed for us. But now we have a family. We have a Father that listens to us when we're hurting, gives us grace when we do wrong, and loves us til the end of time. The Bible provides us with the most difficult, yet, most beautiful adoption story of all time. And even though it wasn't easy, it was oh so worth it.
And even though things are hard, it will be oh so worth it. Thankful for an example to guide us, thankful for a Lord that listens, and thankful for blessings in disguise.
