Adoption Update: The end of the paperwork

Three months.  The amount of time since my last post about our adoption process.  I had another post written at some point in that time period that I decided to delete.  It felt too raw at the time to actually share, & as time and paperwork have passed it feels like a new hopeful season.

A nut shell version of the deleted post: As we worked through hours & hours of paperwork, saw the 18 1/2 hours of training we had to have, not that we chose, & thinking through how to represent who we are to a birth mom in a book & video which feels impossible & overwhelming, let's just say a large feeling of bitterness took over in the month of April.  Answering questions detailing every aspect of your life as you "applied" to be a parent & tried to prove you would be a capable person to take care of a child in the midst of remembering the hard cancer journey to even get to the paperwork can take a toll on a person.  Thoughts of "Other people just get pregnant. They don't have to apply to be a parent & have a State or organization give them permission to be one" ran rampant.  Those are tricky, bitter filled thoughts that can only lead to dark places my friends.  Let's just say it was a battle in my head to remember truth...to remember the big picture...to trust the Lord as this is His journey for us...a good, beautiful journey...filled with so many people in it with us that love us & support us...to remember no one has a picture perfect easy journey...everyone has their own individual story, & the Lord is in control of each of those as He is with ours.

I'm thankful April is over to say the least.  I think when we pressed submit for our last form to fill out, a huge burden went away.  The end of our part felt so much closer, & the big picture of why we were doing what we were doing flooded back in!!!

So, here is what we've done so far, & where we currently are in the process.

This adoption timeline sheet helps explain more of what each step means.

• Initial form to agency to ask for information - end of February
• Meet with agency representative to find out more - end of February
• Fill out initial basic application - March
• 3 hour orientation meeting in Waco (agency headquarters) - April
• Work on hours of Home Study paper work - March, April, May
• 8 hour educational training meeting - May
• Finish additional 9 1/2 hours of training material - June
• Home Study visit - June 15
• Make online profile, profile book & video - hopefully by the end of June
• Raise Funds - continual process - katiesflowershop.us has been so blessed!!!  Thank you for all of your orders! With each payment we have had to do so far, the Lord has given us exactly what we need.
• Wait - until the Lord matches us with a birth mom

I will try to update this more often with more details about our agency that we love, about how our adoption will be an open adoption, just sharing things we have been learning along the way.  So thank you for being in this journey with us. During my cancer journey (which really recovery still has me in & I'm sure will always be a part of my life journey), I used to say we had a global village praying for & caring for us.  Little Cake Pop Aist is so blessed to have that same global village care & love him/her before even knowing them.  So thank you!