Who, What, When and Why!

   Let me start out by saying a big "THANK YOU" to everyone for the support and encouragement we have received since announcing our adoption plans. This process is not an easy or quick one, as you will see in this post, and it makes a huge difference to have people praying and loving on us as we walk this journey.

   Many questions have been asked regarding when and how we will be adopting.  So I thought this would be a good place to answer those questions and try to explain the process as a whole for anyone who has given thought to adoption.

Who are we adopting?

It is our desire to adopt a little boy, two years old or younger, from India. At this time we have limited information about the children, or what part of India he will be from. The "matching" process will begin once our home study has been uploaded to India's network.  Our case worker will be identifying children in India's database that our family would be a good match for.  India is a special needs program, so our little guy could have mild to moderate special needs.

Why India?

We have always felt called to international adoption. Before deciding on India, we did a lot of research which included looking at several countries, including the United States.  About 5 years ago, Dustin went to India and saw first hand the devastation and hopelessness there. The Gospel isn't spreading and they still have a caste system in which an orphan is at the very lowest level, with little chance to rise out of it. Not to mention, India has the largest orphan population of any other country. Those factors, along with some logistical ones such as requiring the shortest in country stay, led us to choose India. 

When will you go get him?

We are currently in the last stage of our home study, which is the first big milestone of adoption. We applied with our agency the beginning of September, started our home study the beginning of October, and will have our last meeting the end of November.  We are on track to have our home study completed and ready by the end of the year. That being said, there is still a lot of paperwork that will need to be done both in the U.S. and in India.  So the wait time depends greatly on how quickly both governing bodies work through the paperwork. India has recently streamlined a lot of their paperwork process in efforts to speed up the process.  It is our hope that we will be bringing our little guy home by the end of 2018!

What is a home study?

The home study consist of a series of three meetings with your assigned social worker, in which he or she determines your ability and capacity to adopt.  It is based on your marital relationship, parenting skills, family life, and upbringing.  It is also a time where you receive a lot of education on adoption itself, such as things to expect once you bring your child home. We met with our social worker at her office for two meetings.  The first one being a joint meeting with me and Dustin, and the second one for individual interviews. The last one will be in our home, where she will assess our living conditions and ensure it is a safe and suitable environment. There has been a lot of paperwork that we have had to gather and complete, such as financial and health insurance information.  We were required to have physicals, be fingerprinted and have taken an online education course, along with some required reading about adoption.
There have been a lot of things to do the past couple of months.  I have joked that I should be cleared to work for the President after all of this, however, I completely understand the reason behind all of these requirements and wouldn't hesitate to do it all over again. Our social worker and adoption agency (Lifeline) have been wonderful in walking us through this process and making sure we get the right things done at the right time, without getting too overwhelmed.  To be honest, I think it would be very hard not feel a little overwhelmed from time to time.

   That about sums up where we are at this time in the process.  Looking back, it's hard to believe that it really has only been about 2 months since we started this journey.  I feel like we have accomplished a lot and it felt like it was taking longer than it actually did.  We've been so busy up to this point that it doesn't really feel like we've been waiting.  I'm anticipating that the next phase is where the waiting will take place, so I am trying to prepare myself for that.  You don't really think about it while you're so busy taking care of the adoption requirements, but I know it's going to be harder once we aren't in the midst of doing "adoption stuff" and are just waiting for everyone else to do their part.

   God has already been growing me in this process, and I am going to take on the waiting period with hopeful anticipation of how He is going to continue growing me and my family.

   I would love for you to add your comments below, or any other questions you might have.


Thanks for loving us through this journey,
Until next time....