The Last Few Months

On May 17^th we turned in our first application to our adoption agency. We were told it would be about 2-4 weeks until we found out if they accepted us as a potential adoptive family. About 4 ½ weeks later we were traveling back from a continuing education course in Columbia, Missouri. We pulled up to our house a little after midnight and I went to the mailbox to get our mail from the weekend.  To my excitement there was a package from our adoption agency! We had been accepted by their agency and it was time for Application #2 and what felt like a million other documents to get signed. We were so pumped it was hard to sleep that night! We realized it was Fathers Day and thought that was rather fitting! The next morning we woke up just praising the Lord for getting us to this next step in the process. Our last month has definitely been one of the busiest we have ever had. It definitely compares to the semester when I was planning our wedding, starting Occupational Therapy school, living in a freshmen dorm, and training for a marathon. I’ve never seen so much paperwork but in a crazy way I feel like I was born for this kind of thing (Really-ask my parents/siblings)! I am such a planner and it has been fun to make my calendar, get an accordion organizer, and begin a long To-Do list.  At first the process was very overwhelming but as we have checked things off the list it is becoming much more manageable.  This part of the process includes things like giving blood, getting physicals, reading books, completing on-line training, contacting personal, relative, and pastoral references to get letters written, writing autobiographies, putting together pictorial essays, completing psych evaluations, retrieving certified copies of birth certificates/marriage license, and so much more.