August 13, 2013
Luke and I are beyond grateful for everyone’s support in this
adoption process, and we feel beyond blessed to have all the support and
encouragement from everyone. You are all are a blessing to Luke and I and we are
so thrilled to share our amazing journey of adoption with you!! With that being
said…I keep on hearing, “so where are you guys in the process now?” since I
have been back dating everything. Well after this post, it will certainly speed
everyone up to where we are currently in our adoption journey. I am going to
share what we were up to in the summer months of June, July, and August! J
- At the end of May Luke and I finished up our last homestudy meeting with Barb. After the meeting she informed us that we had “passed” the homestudy portion! She shared with us that it would take her up till the first of August to finish her portion of the homestudy, writing it all up to be finalized and submitted to Bethany.
- Luke and I completed our eight hours of adoption training, primarily focusing on the Domestic Infant Program; four of those hours we had to complete by reading and listening to Domestic Adoption books and webinars.
- Luke and I filled out and completed more background checks for every place each of us have lived in the past five years…not going to lie…that was a real pain!!
- Luke and I wrote our birthmother letter. This is what the birthmothers will read through to get to know us better and this is what they will make their decision off of, if they would like us to be their child’s adoptive parents…..no pressure…right? J We also read a birthmother book on things you should say and not say in your letter. This was a HUGE deal!! We had to be very careful on what to say and what not to say to a birthmother and also make sure we shared subjects that would be interesting to the birthmothers to get a better understanding about ourselves and what is important to us as a couple and as prospective parents.
- Luke and I put our “family profile” together with the help of my close friend, Whitney. She is amazingly artistic and COULD NOT have completed it without her amazing expertise!! Our family profile consisted of pictures of us, both sides of our families, nieces and nephews, our friends, our church family, our house, our cat Sammi, and what we enjoy doing; compiled with, all the writing from our birthmother letter which we made into a Shutterfly booklet. It was like a story book of our lives together, how we met, why we decided to adopt, about us, what we enjoy, about our families, house and community, church family, and friends, how we would parent our child, etc. It was pretty much explaining what our lives looked like as a couple.
- Luke and I filled out our “preference sheet” and turned it in. This is what the birthmother counselor’s look at to decide what adoptive families match up to what the mother is looking for and what the adoptive family is willing to accept. Then the birthmothers will get a number of family profiles to decide from whom they want their baby’s adoptive parents to be.
- In the beginning of August, Luke and I got all TEN copies of our family profile from Shutterfly and sent them over to Bethany Christian Services, which was a very exciting day!!! A couple days later we found out that our homestudy will be COMPLETELY completed by the beginning of September. That was a little later than what we first heard, but we will take it! Then our profiles will be in the hands of the birthmother counselors and will be open to be seen and possibly get picked!!! We are almost there!!! J By the end of August we completed everything we needed to except for our online profile. This online profile will be on Bethany Christian’s website for other birthmothers to look at in other states. The profile will be a lot like our family profile book just condensed a little bit and with a slideshow of pictures.
So that is what has been going on in a nutshell for the summer
months…no big deal…J This
summer was a very busy, hectic, exciting, growing in our lives individually and
together as a couple kind of summer! We have seen the rollercoaster ride
through the adoption process already, but are very happy and excited on where
we are at in the process and how far we have already come! Plus it is that much
closer to getting our child! There have been a ton of hoops we have had to go
through this past summer while continually being reminded by our circumstances
that practically everything is out of our control. However, EVERYTHING has been
worth it even though it hasn’t been easy! This process truly makes our perfect miracle and blessing that much more special with all the invested
time, effort, and prayers we have put into our child that we do not even know
yet!! Plus we have grown a deeper dependence and trust in the Lord which makes
this journey so incredibly amazing! We both have so much love for our child
already and it just keeps growing and growing the further along we go. We know
that is the work of the Holy Spirit softening our hearts, which is truly
amazing!! God has blessed us so much through this process in so many different
ways and we don’t even have our child yet!! God is SOOO GOOD!! We praise Him
for helping us come this far along in the process!! He has given us strength
for every step thus far in the process and I know He will continue to be
faithful, so we will trust Him and praise Him for his majestic sovereignty!! As for now, Luke and I patiently put our trust
in the Lord’s timing and put our hope in Him and what Christ has done for us!! J
“Find rest, O my
soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.”
Psalm 62:5
Here are a few pics. of our first
adoption photo shoot this past summer. Luke and I had a great time with one
another as our friend Whitney took them!! She did such an amazing job and these
pics. will be forever cherished!!!
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