August adoption update

Some of you have asked about our current adoption proceedings. I don't post much about our adoption not because it's not on my heart every single day [it IS], but because quite honestly, nothing has been happening recently. Well, today something happened. And no, don't get your hopes up, not THE something but... something, nonetheless. :) And for any of you who have adopted, any something any where any time within this long process is a *huge* something.

But, first: a bit of history. And I realize this may be tedious for some of you to read through, so feel free to skip or skim it. But I know some of you will want these types of details, so for you, here they are:
-Spring/Summer 2006 We felt God prompting us to adopt again; this time through our state's foster care system.
-October 2006 We went to the introductory meeting with a private, *free* agency.
-Shortly thereafter we completed and turned in our application to the adoption agency.
-December 2006 We had a pre-screening interview with a pastor affiliated with the agency.
-February 2007 We attended PRIDE training (the state-mandated courses, 30 hours worth).
-At our PRIDE training we received a hefty (and by hefty I mean 50 plus pages) of paperwork to complete. The paperwork contained autobiographies, family history, parenting philosophy/styles, homework from our PRIDE training, references, background and medical checks as well as spiritual evaluations.
-March 2007 We took additional classes covering Transracial Adoption, God's Will, Drug-Affected Infants, Transitioning Children from The Foster-Care System, and Parenting the Special Needs Child. We also completed our paperwork and turned that into the agency.
-April 2007 We were certified in CPR/First Aid.
-May 2007 We had our homestudy visits. (Agency caseworkers came to our home and asked us lots of questions, basically.)
-June 2007 Our adoption homestudy was completed. (We were approved to adopt 1-2 young children.)
-June-July 2007 We began working with the state to obtain a foster care license. (The children that will be placed with us will likely not yet be legally free (read: adoptable). We will be fostering them with the intent to adopt them once they are legally free. That process could take up to a year. Maybe longer.) Our experience with the state thus far has been less than exemplary. Suffice to say, it took them a month and a half to even mail us the foster license application. But we finally did receive the application, and completed it, with more background checks and fingerprints, and then notified our agency that we were done.

And that brings us to the current month of August. ~whew!~

Today we met with our agency's Placement Coordinator. Several times a month she goes to these round-table type discussions where the state presents children entering the foster care system who need homes (temporary or permanent). It is her job to review the files of the presented children and find the ones who are either already legally free (adoptable) as well as the cases where the (birth)parental rights have been terminated on previous children (older siblings) or are likely to BE terminated. Did I lose any of you? (Basically, she pays attention to children who are likely to be placed on the adoption track, usually because of the history of the birthparent (drug/alcohol use, abuse, neglect, the parent is in prison, etc)). So she then takes a look at those children and tries to match/place them with the approved families on her list.

As of our appointment today, we are now on her list. So we are officially a "waiting family", and when she attends these meetings from now on, she will be on the lookout for a child or children who would be a good fit for our family.

There. I think that's it in a nutshell. (HA!)

For those of you who are praying (and we thank you, so much!), please pray for...
*the child/children God has chosen for our family
*our ongoing communication with the state to obtain our foster care license
*discernment for the placement coordinator as she reviews children and tries to make matches with waiting couples/families on the list. (On a side note, I was so reassured when we met with her today, because she shared that she is very prayerful about this process of matching/placement, and said that often in these meetings when children are being presented, the Holy Spirit will just lay a specific couple on her heart in relation to a particular child. I just love knowing that.)

For anyone who has questions about any of this, I'll do my best to answer. [And if I can't, I'll ask my friend Kimmie to help answer questions as she's been down this road in its entirety, though in a different state.]

I'll just close now by saying that we feel immeasurably blessed to be in the process of adoption again. And we are *so* excited to meet... someday... (soon, Lord?)... the addition(s) to our family. I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. He knows. And so we wait, fully trusting His choice and His timing.