Adoption Update

Recently, while talking with the social worker at our agency, I got confirmation that we were indeed #2 on the list.  We have never gotten a definite confirmation as to what number we were, up until now.  Many times we thought we were a certain number just to have a mystery family appear or a family get added back in line because their process that was on hold, came off hold.  But we are #2 and quite possibly #1. I don't know if we will even know when the family ahead of us gets a referral, after all, we didn't even know they existed until recently.  They may be a family that doesn't participate in the agency's online forum group, if that's the case, there will be no announcement of referral given and accepted.

Last week, a baby boy referral was given.....this folks, is after over 7 months without a baby boy referral going out. Now, I'm talking about referrals that help the baby boy list keep moving.  There possibly were a certain number of baby boys referred that had to go to families that needed a new referral because their first referred child couldn't become paper ready.  But you can bet that the "boy list" families were celebrating to see the list moving a bit!

So far this week, only a family that is adopting a waiting sibling set of 4 has made a referral acceptance announcement.  But we did recently learn that the baby boy that was just referred is from an orphanage that is new to our agency. This little one was only the 4th child placed from there through our agency.  Also, we have heard that there is a possibility that our agency has another new orphanage that they will begin working with!  This means that things should start picking up in the referral department and also means that some children who need homes will be making their way to their new families!

We also recently spoke with our social worker here and discussed our options for changing what our child request is currently set at.  We are having to update our homestudy right now so it's a perfect time to make any changes that we feel are necessary.  So after talking with her, Todd and I had a discussion as to what direction we should head in with this and what may be best for our family.  So we have officially changed our request for what age/gender child we would feel comfortable adding to our family.

Our new request goes something like this:

1-2 children with at least one child being a girl up to 2 years old.  Will accept a sibling up to 4 years old, either gender.

So we really didn't change our original request, we just added to it.  I feel really good about this.  So it will be a surprise as to whether we will be blessed with one, or two, children!  After we made this decision to continue to wait for a baby but to add the possibility of a sibling, I almost felt like we were starting from the beginning again. Not in a bad way, in a good way.  I felt like all of those months and months of waiting had just faded away and as I looked to the possible wait we had left, it seemed so easy.  I mean, what's another month, or two......even a bit longer seemed like nothing compared to knowing that when we finally get to see that precious little face....or faces....we will know in an instant that this is our child/children and the waiting will have been so worth it!

So will it be......One.......or.......Two?  That is the question!

Long story short, I am in a good place right now.  The bottomless pit that I was in a couple of weeks ago is but a mere memory.  I have been refreshed and renewed.....life is good!

I am now looking toward the coming weekend.  We have an Open House scheduled for our home on Sunday and we have only two more days to prepare!  It would be an answer to prayer if we were to find a buyer for our house through this!  If we were able to sell now, we would still have time to get moved into a new home and settled before having to travel to Ethiopia for the first time.....this would be wonderful!

Have a great weekend.......