Immigration here we come!

Well there sure hasn't been much to report on in the recent weeks but the wait has paid off! We absolutely flew through our home study! Even though we finished it quickly, everything is a process and you are at the mercy of whoever is on the other end of your paperwork as to how long it takes to get it back into your hands.  I got an email probably a week and a half ago saying that our home study was being mailed.  I waited and waited and waited and waited and....well you get the picture! I sent a follow up email asking if it had been mailed yet, two days later I heard back that actually the person was out that had to notarize and sign the home study.  So, we waited :) FINALLY, today when I came home around lunch time I saw it leaning against the house (I'm so glad that Lola, the lab, was in her pin or else this could have been a really bad day!).  I pulled in the garage just long enough to run in and grab the other pile of paperwork that had to be mailed off with our original home study to Home Land Security to convince them that we are in fact the perfect family to adopt a child.  Having four of your own doesn't do much for you :) 

Such a special message from just one of the many amazing Lifeline employees.

There were probably eight different things that we had to send in with our home study, of course one of which was a nice size check.  It is scheduled to arrive at the USCIS tomorrow at noon and the next "wait" will begin.  As a rule, the immigration process is approximately three months long.  We have been encouraged by others that the process is running a little quicker right now (pray that it continues).  After they receive our papers, they will send us some paperwork and an appointment for our biometric fingerprints in Atlanta (the other three aren't sufficient).  Again, it may not seem like much but it is one step closer to the children that I was just praying for this morning.  The ones that God knew before the foundation of the world that HE in his sovereign plan would place in our care for a short time.  I cannot wait to be able to put a face and a name with the children I have in my heart right now.  I pray that the Lord sends loving caregivers their way and that most of all He begins even now to prepare their hearts to know Him first and foremost.  That is our heart's desire above all else.  

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." Galatians 4:4-5

"But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God."

John 1:12-13

LAST HOME STUDY VISIT!!!!!

WE had our last home study with Bekah today!!!!!  I cannot tell you how exciting it was to actually check something off of our massive list.  Bekah is still waiting for a couple of references and our FBI fingerprints to come back and then she will finish writing up our complete home study. After the extensive previous meetings with Bekah, we were honestly wondering how in the world she could come up with three hours of things to talk about....well, let's just say she didn't disappoint! We were able to come up with three and a HALF hours worth of things to pick apart. 

Paul and I started this morning at 6:30 am to get the four kiddos dressed and out of the house.  We dropped the girls off with Grammy and took the boys to school before we hit the interstate toward Peachtree City.  Paul and I were chatting it up hard core and I was letting him listen to a few of my new favorite songs when we topped a hill and there he was! Yep, a Grantville policeman with his radar gun shooting right at us! He immediately put his gun down and pulled right out.  My heart sunk! I started straight into, "how fast were you going?" "Not that fast," he says.  I turned the music off and prepared for the officer to pull us over when he flew past us and got the car in front of us.....wheeeewwww!!!!! Anticlimactic for you guys maybe but I was sooooo relieved :) 


The meeting today began with Paul and I turning in the last few pieces of paperwork and going down our checklist to make sure neither of us had missed anything.  The questioning steered clear of marital questions and went directly to parenting questions. I think I preferred the marriage questions :)  There's nothing like reflecting on your strengths and weaknesses as a parent to make you feel great.  Praise the Lord that his mercies are new every morning! 


We had to give a description of each of our kids. It was fun getting to describe their very  different temperaments.   It began with, well Cason is our type A, analytical child.  He has a tender heart and ALWAYS wants to know why.  Braden is just happy to be alive! He is very touchy feely and loving.  EllaKate would like to be a princess living in a castle when she grows up....wow! She is very emotional but loves so big! Chloe...well, Chloe may look like a porcelain doll but she is our bulldozer! I adore all four of our children and cannot wait to meet the new addition that the Lord will bring into our lives.  


Once Bekah finishes writing up our study, it is sent to immigration. This can take a month or it can take three months.  We are really praying that it will go quickly and that we can move on to the next part of our adoption journey which will be the dossier preparation and then the referral process. Continue to pray for this process and for all the Ugandan adoptions (as there are a lot of changes going on presently).  

Home Study #2 and #3

We had our second and third home study visit yesterday.  This is probably the ONLY part of this whole process that we have ANY control over so we are busting our tails to make it go quickly.  The first meeting was here at our home.  After that, we had to go to Peachtree City to meet Bekah (our home study social worker).  This portion of the study involved a hour and a half interview with Paul (alone) and then a hour and a half interview with myself, also alone.  We had already completed approximately 45 pages of questions (45 pages for me and 45 pages for Paul) covering topics from "how was your childhood" to "how do you two fight in your marriage." We thought we had answered every possible question BUT....

                                                             Katie, Bekah and Paul


Paul decided he would go first since he had a conference call coming up.  I made myself comfy out in the lobby of the Community Center where I played on the computer and listened to one of David Platt's amazing sermons on adoption.  It seemed like they were in there for hours! Finally, about two hours later, Paul came out and let me know that it was my turn to go in.  So, in I went! It's never comfortable when you walk into a room and see one lonely 6 foot table with two chairs.  I took my place opposite Bekah and the grilling began! Wow, I'm making this sound terrible, huh! It really wasn't that bad, I just had to get past the awkwardness of feeling like I was in a therapist's office.  My dream of having answered every possible question was short lived.  She moved right through this extensive questions and I answered them the best I knew how.  


Some of the questions were very deep and even sometimes emotional.  At one point, I was overcome with emotion and a little embarrassed that I was crying BUT Bekah comforted me by saying, "don't worry Paul fell apart at one point as well!" I love having an emotional husband :) The funny part about it all is as soon as she would ask a deep question, she would ask something like, "have you ever spent the night away from home because of a fight," or "what does Paul do to add stress to your life." 


I think we have been successfully grilled when it comes to our relationships with our parents, our siblings, each other, life as a child, life as a young married couple, etc.  We were forced to think back to things that honestly I have a hard time remembering.  Some things just aren't worth thinking back to and rehashing a thousand times.  In the end, we passed :) Now all we have to do is finish reading a book, completing out 10 hour online training, our online adoption seminar and turn in the rest of our paperwork and then we will be through our home study.  EEEEeeeekkkk!!!! After that, it's on to Immigration! So exciting :)

God's Amazing Hand

What a week this has been! I am in the middle of Beth Moore Bible study on the book of James and with no surprise God has rocked my world with his sovereignty.  He amazes me constantly how intricately woven the details in our lives are where he has divine appointments with him.  


Wednesday was a busy day for me. I was attempting to prepare for our "Uganda room" at church for Missions night but everything else seemed to be getting in the way.  I was getting email after email of things that needed my immediate attention.  With everything going on, I had let my daily time with the Lord wait and I finally got to sit down and do it around four o'clock in the afternoon, when there were five squealing kids in my house. What was I thinking! BUT God! He knew every detail like He always does and He knew the exact time that I would be ready to hear from him.  When I opened up my book to day three in our James study what do you think it was on....yep, James 1:27. How huge is our God! I began to read, "religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  Beth really dug deep into the definition of being "religious." It was such a special moment for me because the Lord was completely preparing my heart for the ministry we were going to be doing that night.  I got through my study and just stopped right where I was and prayed.  I told the Lord that I knew that He didn't do this just for me, He wanted me to respond and DO something.  That is part of what James is saying in the entire book, don't just be hearers but be DOERS of the Word.  I begged God to show me what that was. Lord what does this look like? I'm going to talk with people tonight about Uganda and I'm going to share my heart and what you are doing in that country.  What else do you want me to do? All I could think about was a video that I had seen that ROCKED my world.  It may be the best video I've ever seen that truly shares the road that God has brought Paul and myself down.  We have in no way "arrived" but we are striving with everything in us to listen to the Lord and do exactly what He tells us to do.  So, I leave you with this video.  If you have already seen it, great! Pray and ask the Lord what this means for you. If you haven't seen it yet, I hope it means something to you and it gives you a glimpse into the Father's love for "the least of these."

Adoption Process (part 0)

As we've started our journey... I've had so many people ask about the adoption process and what all we have to go through.  I end up explaining a long list of steps, discussions, trips, etc., detailing how we ultimately will get to the place where our child(ren) can come home with us.  Inevitably, the comment comes back, "wow, you should post this because I don't think anyone understands how much is involved."

So... that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to be careful not to post something that would be considered sensitive or confidential to any one group or agency (so don't worry Lifeline this will be generic), but I will post enough about the basics and public processes to help everyone learn through this with us. 

While I don't have time to type it out all today, I figured I would start posting about the process as well in hopes to not only help people understand, but possibly to help others who are considering adoption be informed about what is to come.

Stay tuned in the days and weeks to come for several posts regarding the adoption process.

Paul

Home Study Visit #1

On Friday we had our first home study visit.  It had been a process of emails and paperwork to finally get to the point of meeting our social worker, Bekah, in our home.  It was roughly a three hour meeting where we did everything from check smoke detectors to ask how Paul and I fight :)  Because we are crazy excited to get the ball rolling, we had a stack of paperwork ready when she got here and we UNLOADED on her!  She loved our enthusiasm.  Usually she would have been telling us what stuff needs to be started and worked on but most everything we could have possibly done, was already completed.   There are a few more items for us to complete and turn in at our next visit.  We are also in the process of completing our 10 hour online adoption training.  One of the many educational requirements.  

Bekah was absolutely wonderful! She was very easy to talk to and made even the more awkward questions seemingly comfortable.  You would be shocked at the many details they ask you about.  It almost makes you wonder what questions are left to ask, but apparently there are some because we have three more visits to go through.  We are planning our second/third meeting (we are combining the two meetings to keep the process moving) for possibly two weeks from now.  We hope to have all of our educational training completed by then.  

The girls were both here during Bekah's visit.  She assured us that she understands little interruptions as she has three boys of her own.  The girls got to show Bekah around the house and tell her where everyone sleeps :) Pop brought the boys home after school so she could meet the entire crew.  The boys got to answer a few minor questions and then they were set free to play games since it was Friday after all!  Overall, I think the meeting went really well and we are just one step closer today than we were.  

Lifeline trip

We took a trip to Lifeline Children's Services on Friday, Feb. 10th, to meet with them.  They are our adoption agency that we will be using... exciting!

This wasn't a required visit for either them or for us.  We simply wanted to put faces with names and get a chance to talk and ask a few questions. The meeting went well. Dave and Heather did a great job of answering questions and helping us understand more about Lifeline and their Uganda efforts.

While the process won't be fast, their knowledge and experience were obvious and gave us a great sense of comfort.

PF

Uganda Mission Trip 2011

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Home Study Bound

 Wow, where do I begin? This is our first blog. Neither of us have ever been big bloggers but we are really excited to document this journey and also have people follow along side us.  We know it will be long but COMPLETELY worth it! The Lord has called us to adopt from Uganda.  I am so in love with this country! Sometimes I feel like half of me is still there.  We go back for another mission trip in June.  It will be such a special time for Paul and I to share that time together.  At the moment, we are at the beginning of our home study.  Typically they last about four months, but we are going to try our best to set a world record for the quickest home study ever! We have already done most of the paper work that has to be turned in. We know there will be very few things in the process that we will have control over so we are taking advantage of it while it lasts.

 These pictures are from this afternoon.  We went to get both sets of fingerprints done along with our criminal background checks.  The little things are so exciting right now! 
- Katie

 For me, today was the first time I've ever been in a Police department, which is a good thing :). It was a little bit like an awkward scene from a TV show where you come in and sit at the little table in a plain chair. The room is all white, but not like "hospital sterile" white...more like, "I don't care about your life so I'm not going to make this pretty white." OK, so they aren't really that bad, you just feel that way when you first walk in.  It was an easy process and the officer was quite friendly, even joking about how she had a guy with fingers so big that she couldn't get the print to fit correctly on the paper...names not mentioned of course.  I've never had so much fun getting fingerprinted and having ink stains... one more box to check and one step closer to seeing my kid(s) for the first time!

- Paul

As we continue to walk this journey, we ask that you walk it with us, not just by following this blog, but by praying with us, laughing with us, crying with us and ultimately rejoicing with us!  My hope is that this doesn't become a fad to see what is happening in the next post or what funny pictures are being posted. I want this to be a platform for sharing our faith and what we feel God has called us to. My desire is that all who venture across this would open up the hearts and minds to the possibility of adoption, knowing that if you call yourself a Christian, you are already adopted as a child of God.  Blessings on you all and please keep our Homegrown and Handpicked family in your prayers!