I'm pretty sure that I'm the only person on the earth who reads this blog but here we go. Even if I am the only one reading it, I still want to document our family's adoption process and be able to look back and see how I was feeling at certain points in the process. So here we go.
We had our home study officially approved May of 2014 and were ready to go but after submitting our names for over 10 sibling sets we were not getting chosen for any of them. This started to become hard to take after each time they said they picked a different family. I mean, how many times can we possibly be passed up. It started to feel like maybe God was closing the door to our desire to adopt. But thank goodness God allowed us to get a new social worker who is really proactive and likes us lots. She wrote us a few weeks ago and recommended that we attend a little meeting where adoptive parents can attend and meet social workers from each of the Southern California counties and see which kids they have available. We were both so nervous and I thought this could very possibly be the most awkward thing we would ever go to. And I was partly correct.
We walked into this office and waited for our social worker to get there and then walked in and were told we could go to each table the county had and meet the social workers and any kids we were interested in we could ask questions and submit our home study whenever we want. After it was all over, we submitted our home study for 1 sibling set of 2 boys for San Bernardino county and 3 sibling sets for Riverside county (1 sib set of 2, and 2 sib sets of 3). Each set of kiddos we felt really good about and made good connections with the social workers from those counties so that is great. They said that we should hear news in about 2 weeks. Great, more waiting.
I don't do well with waiting...
One week and one day later I wrote our social worker and asked her if she has heard anything and thanked her for inviting and encouraging us to go to that little meeting. She wrote me the next day and said that she heard from Riverside county and they though one of the sib sets we submitted for would be great for us and they will meet Monday and let us know which kids. More waiting...
We found out late that Monday night that we were matched with a sibling set of 3 from Riverside county. A 10 year old girl, and 2 boys ages 6 and 4. They are amazing and gorgeous and we will be doubling our family as well as becoming a multi-ethnic family as they kids are hispanic/african american. Good thing we go to a church where families look unique around every corner!
So what is next?
This Friday at 10am, Mike and I will attend a meeting with the social worker and our social worker to discuss the kids and we can ask any questions we have about them. This meeting is called a full disclosure meeting. After this, we will give our final answer about whether we want to move forward to bring these kids home. And to be honest, it would have to take a biggie to make us say no to these 2 kids.
Ways to be praying... Oh man. Where do I begin!?!?! For peace as I have felt Satan attacking my insecurities and fears already about this. For our time as a family of 3 to be sweet. For Mike and I to connect well in the next couple weeks and months before life really changes. For all to come to light about these sweet kids at the meeting. And most importantly that we prepare ourselves to parent older kids who we want to raise to love the Lord!
Big changes for us....but so exciting!
