Adoption Update

Hello. 

So far this January my posts have been more frequent. New year. Near blogging leaf turned over. Also, thanks to the Top Photos of 2013 blog hop. 

But now that is over and regular posts can resume since I sort of put them on the back burner during the blog hop. So I thought it would be great to offer an update on our adoption process. People frequently as us about it. A timeline. What's going on. What's next. 

Well, January has been quite busy because every Tuesday and Thursday we have been attending nightly classes as part of the pre-adoption stage. It's not been as bad as we'd feared at first because the classes, albeit at night, don't run as late as scheduled. Also, the childcare available at the Methodist church where the classes are held has been great and the kids love it. So those things have definitely been a blessing at this stage. But it still means that twice weekly we have late nights. 

Amy's been fantastic at planning, organizing, and bringing meals. She's done a combination of fast food/restaurant gift cards and food from home. So that is also going better than we originally expected. We only have 2 more classes left, tomorrow and next Tuesday, and then we will be finished!  We a quite ready. 

Once we have finished our classes we will be assigned a caseworker from DePelchin and will move into the Home Study phase. This is somewhat familiar to us from when we went through the process for Margaux a few years ago. But things have changed since then and adopting via CPS rather than an international adoption are polar opposites. Still though. We have a general idea of what to expect.

To prepare for the Home Study we have been getting the house ready. Cleaned, tidied, rules and regulations met and followed. For example, having a 2-story house means that we have to have an escape route from the upstairs other than the stairs in the event of a fire. So we bought a fire ladder. Also, all medication (ALL) must be locked up where tiny hands cannot access it. 

We're not sure how long the Home Study phase will last or how many visits from our caseworker it will entail. But we are more or less ready for that. Truth be told, we are ready for the process to be totally done. To have our daughter here with us. To be finished. The fatigue from planning, coupled with the excitement of bringing our daughter home, make waiting even more difficult for me, an already impatient person.  But waiting is the name of the game so I play along. 

That about sums it up for now. Hopefully I'll be able to have a Home Study post ready to roll soon!  But until then we have classes to do, a bit more paperwork to fill out and submit, and many more prayers to say. Oh. And the waiting of course!

All is well, ready for the next stage, in Drosche Land.