Waiting, Waiting, Waiting…

When we first began the adoption process, we were told that we should get used to waiting. Adoption is a lengthy process, especially when you are adopting a younger child. Most of that process involves waiting. We took our time finding an adoption agency. Not necessarily because I wanted to, but there are so many to pick from and they all have different characteristics. We knew that the agency we went with was a huge decision. Each agency works with different orphanages and our child is in a specific orphanage. It was important for us to take time to listen to what God wanted for us.

We actually began the application process with a different adoption agency than the one we chose. After hearing some not so favorable things, we had to step back and reevaluate that agency. I think it was God’s way of making me give up control (something that I obviously struggle with).

After we decided on our agency, we began the paperwork. Oh my, the paperwork. It is ALOT. We have different sets of paperwork for our homestudy, dossier, and our adoption agency! We had to send off for birth certificates, a marriage certificate, police checks, TBI checks, and so on and so on. And then we wait to get those in the mail. Because we lived in Australia, we had to get a police check from there. Australia is not like America. They do not do everything online. So getting a police check is not so simple. We are still waiting for those to clear and be sent to us.

I contacted our social worker today to schedule our first home visit because we have most of that paperwork complete. Then I find out that our social worker is out of office until the beginning of April. Now we get to wait to start our homestudy.

I am guessing that God is using all of these initial “wait times” to try and build my patience for the massive amount of waiting I will be doing during this entire process.

Here are the binders we keep for each set of paperwork (yes we are both Type A personalities). Got to keep it organized somehow!

This next picture has nothing to do with our adoption, I just think it is funny. On Tuesday mornings we do a “preschool” with 2 friends. Their little ones are the same age as Taylor and Noah so it works perfectly. When we meet at my house, I put Sophie (our dog) upstairs. She is kind of crazy with company and not all of the kids love her as much as we do :) Sophie mainly stays by the baby gate and waits for someone to show her attention. This morning all 6 kids stood in the stairway to hang out with Sophie. I felt like she was a zoo attraction!