Our Last Adoption Class

Josh and I are officially done with our adoption classes -- woohoo for milestones!

On 8/20, our last class was about infant care. Admittedly, I was annoyed that we had to go to this class ... seeing as we are not strangers to caring for an infant. It was actually helpful, though; Phoenix isn't a little baby anymore, so it was nice to have a little refresher on the things that lie ahead for us. And I forgot how much Phoenix's NICU stayed changed our newborn parenting experience. I never had to take care of an umbilical cord, for example. And she was already on schedule of sorts when she came home. So there is new and exciting territory for us to explore ... and it gave me the new-mommy-scared-to-death feelings that I described HERE. And I can't wait to be in over my head with another baby!

I have had lots of questions about our timeline, so I will let you know our best guess.
This Friday (8/31), Josh and I start the homestudy process with our first joint interview. After that, we each have individual interviews and then a home visit. The timing of that totally depends on our timeliness in filling out paperwork and the availability of our social worker. Most likely, it will be around mid-October when we are done with all of that. After all our documents are submitted, our social worker has 45 days to write up our official home study. During that 45 days, my free time will be devoted to making our profile book. After our homestudy is officially complete, our profile can be shown to birthmoms (probably early December)! And the waiting officially begins ... though my heart would argue the waiting began years ago.

The average wait? 9 months. So if everything about our adoption is perfectly average, we are looking at a placement about a year from now. Though it could be much sooner (at the VERY EXTREME earliest, December), or much later.

So here's how you can pray for us in the coming weeks:
1. We have a LOT of paperwork to fill out. Every detail of our lives (childhood, mental and physical health, finances, marriage, etc) gets put down on paper. Pray diligence and endurance for us, and that we would find the right words to describe ourselves, our family, what we believe, what we want to pursue, and how we parent.
2. When we have our homevisit, we owe Bethany $1,500 for the homestudy and $2,000 for "networking fees" (meaning we pay them in advance to find a birthmother for us). We are saving for the homestudy cost, but will be asking for help with the networking fees. More on that in the future. But just pray God's provision for us!

Love you all!