GOOD news... with a dose of reality

We completed our final home study visit one week ago and it, once again, went well. I can't say enough how much I adore our HS social worker. She really is very understanding and sweet with a fabulous personality. Overall I felt great about the entire process.


The following day she called me to discuss some things she'd meant to ask about the night before and while on the phone, she gave us the official verdict on our home study:

APPROVED!

While this honestly doesn't come as a surprise, we are still choosing to be celebratory of even the seemingly "small" victories within the adoption process. It's such a roller coaster that you really do have to choose to be joyful in particular moments, even if it kind of just feels like another task checked off the gargantuan to-do list. So now that we're officially done with the interviews, we wait for our social worker to write up the home study report. She told me she's hopeful that it will be finished in three weeks from the final interview (which was a week ago, so two weeks at this point), but it could possibly be four weeks. Once finished, she sends it to our home study agency (which is separate from our adoption agency) for review, and from there they send it to our adoption agency for review. Typically at that point our adoption agency will review it and ask for some type of revision to tidy it up so as to be more in line with our daughter's country's stipulations. So then the revision is made and it is resent for review. If no further revisions are required, we can then formally move on to the next step: USCIS approval. I am expectant that the home study will be fully completed no later than mid-June, but quite possibly before.


While the report is being written up and we await it's overall completion, Robby and I have dove into some required adoption education. Currently we are reading The Connected Child together. We also have lots of other material to read prior to the home study phase coming to a final close. I am confident that we will get it all accomplished.


On Saturday we have family portraits lined up with Simply Bliss Photography for our dossier. She offered me a great deal on portraits because these pictures are primarily for our adoption (although I also plan to use them to finally update the very old photos on this blog, praise the Lord!). I'm grateful for each and every person who wants to help us out. It means so much to Robby and I. We aren't in the mindset of asking for handouts- and we won't ever be- but we do take note of everyone who has been supportive of us both financially and otherwise and we're deeply appreciative. For our case in particular, we have found that the typical ways of support haven't been a reality. Certainly we have had some familial and friend support, but mostly we have had more support from strangers and unknown sources than any other way and it has been magnificent. Thank you to every loved one and anonymous person and/or stranger who has prayed for us, supported us with donations, encouraged us with heartfelt words, helped with fundraisers, and so on. We hope to give back to you in equally as significant ways. We desire to be a blessing to others just as others have been a major blessing to us.


On a different note, sometimes adoption is hard in more ways than one. It causes you to stand back and take a look at the entire picture that is your life. Sometimes you realize that not everyone is as happy about your adoption as you are. And that hurts. Sometimes people can be outwardly disapproving and other times their silence speaks volumes about what they think of how God is building your family. While I find it exasperating to fathom how anyone could view adoption as anything other than a fascinating act of love, I see that there are indeed people who choose not to see it in the same light. And, yes, I do believe that it is a choice. Mine and Robby's future-adopted child(ren) is no less important to us than our biological children and we choose to surround ourselves with people who are going to be encouraging to us. Robby and I have both very firmly decided that we will not accept anything less when it comes to our adopted daughter; regardless of who it is. If there is any type of unsupportive, unloving, or negative temperament from family and/or friends, we have chosen to cut that out of our life. That may sound harsh or it may not- regardless, it is reality. We cannot afford to allow toxicity into this beautiful family and we won't permit the ugliness that can be projected from others to have a place in our midst. We certainly hope that this won't be an issue, but we can see that it is possible and we are prepared to do- in and with as much love as we can muster- whatever it takes to protect what we have built.