Many people have asked "where are you in the adoption process" or "when do you get your child". Validate questions just hard to answer. Adoption is full of ups and downs, and a lot of unknowns. The most famous word that describes an adoption is WAIT. Everything is out of our control. We have to wait on other to do their jobs, we wait on paperwork to work its way through the system, we wait for a birthmom to choose us, and we wait for the best phone call.
Our adoption journey this time is a little bit different than with Jadon. So let me start at the beginning. In January of 2012, Jason and I made the decision to begin the adoption process again. Immediately we are flooded with questions: where to adopt from? what age are we looking at? how much money can we afford? etc. So we began to pray: asking God for His guidance and wisdom. Every time we prayed about it, both Jason and I felt "Wait, it is not time yet." So for a year, we prayerfully sought God's guidance. We learned what it means to Wait on the Lord. We were ready, selfishly I wanted a baby now. But we waited, we were obedient. In January of 2013, we both felt during our prayer time that it was time to proceed. We thought for sure we would be going international again, but God had something different in mind. We both had peace with domestic adoption. My head kept saying: "domestic adoption is so much more money and we want to pursue an asian child" but my heart kept saying: "domestic adoption". So we began the process.
First, we need to find an agency. I thought our last homestudy was good until 2013 but I misread it: it was only good until 2012 so we needed to do our homestudy again. After searching on the internet and praying a lot, we were guided to A Little Bit of Heaven Adoption Agency. We sent them a check and began our homestudy.
What is a homestudy? Basically it is a report of everything about us. A social worker comes to our home twice to interview us. All members of the family must be present. So Owaldi, our foreign exchange student, was interviewed also. She asks us questions like: why are you adopting? what was your childhood like? how do you plan to discipline your child? She takes information on family history, how old everyone is in our extended family and what they do for a living, how we were raised, what are our religious beliefs, what schools did we attend, how many surgeries have we had, etc. You name it- it was asked. We also have to provide a packet full of information: medical clearance, financial forms, life insurance policies, CPR certification, fire inspections, safety audit, background checks, child abuse registry checks, fingerprints, layout of the house, auto and medical insurance, etc. We are an open book. When we went through this with Jadon, I had problems with the homestudy. It felt like such an invasion of privacy. I would think "well any teenager can go off and have a child with no questions asked but here I am under the microscope having to prove that I am financially, emotionally, physically, and mentally able to raise a child." But now it doesn't bother, I know it is for the best interest of the child so I graciously give them all the information they need.
We turned in our paperwork back in March. Usually the homestudy takes a couple of weeks for the social worker to write it up and file it with the state of Ohio. We have been running into roadblocks. As of yesterday, our homestudy has not been officially filed. But hopefully soon. So we just sit and wait!
The next step in the process is sending out our profile. [profile is just a visual representation of who we are, where we live, and a letter to the birthmom] My cousin Taylor did an awesome job of composing our profile book. When our agency hears of a possible adoption situation, we can see the circumstances and decide if we would like our profile to be sent to the birthmom/agency. The birthmoms generally get around 10 profile books (but that can differ depending on the agency) and it is her decision on who she would like to raise her child. If we are picked, then we proceed with paperwork. Once the child is born, in the state of Ohio, the birthmom has 72 hours to sign the release. Then the child remains in the custody of the state for six months. However, the child would be with us during that time. We would have many visits from the social worker over that period of time. If everything is good, then the adoption would finalize.
So currently, we are waiting for our homestudy to be filed. In the meantime, we have sent out our profile twice but were not picked. So we wait.
Domestic adoption is different than international. Mostly the birthmom chooses the family. So it could take a week or several years: we don't know when we will be picked. We are seeking a child of any race.
So to answer my questions:
When? We don't know- could be next week, could be 5 years from now.
Where? We don't know- could be from any of the 50 states (depending on which state will detemine how much the adoption will cost: somewhere between 15,000-40,000)
How? This one we do know- by the Grace of God!
Keep us in your prayers as we sit and wait. Wait for answers, wait for directions, wait for our child. Pray that we will remain hopeful, that God will fill us with patience and erase doubts, and that our child will quickly be in our arms.
