Moving Forward

We received a call from Dennis, our counselor, yesterday. He was just following up to see if we were still going forward with the process with their agency, since he hadn't received all our paperwork yet. YES!

He's already calling us? I'm freaking out! It's only been 8 days, including one weekend....yikes! Even in the slows of the week, we couldn't have gotten it all done; let alone in the midst of moving. But he quickly explained that he just wanted to know if he should keep our file open. I'm sure plenty of people leave the orientation and don't go forward. I explained to him that we were moving this week but that we had been working on the paperwork and hoped to have it to him in the next 2 weeks. He was going to check on the scheduling of the PRIDE classes to see when we could get started on that.

I just want to get the move completed and then be able to focus on the paperwork.

On that note, we have received the keys to our new home and will begin to move some things in tonight. The movers will be at the old house first thing in the morning and we are so excited. We just hope that everything coordinates well...between the movers arrival time, the delivery of new furniture to the new house, cable guy coming out and last but not least, Chopper's reaction to everything during the move...that should prove interesting!

One final note....in my Bible time this morning, the verse of the day was this:

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Phil.4:6-7).

It made me think...how can I ever really give something over to God and know that I have indeed left it in His hands? This is not an easy task, but it is one that gets easier in time. It's the difference between walking on an ice-covered lake and walking on a concrete sidewalk.

This verse reminded me that when we entrust something to God we do not hold our breath until the problem is resolved, and then breathe a sigh of relief. If we have truly entrusted something to God we should feel God's peace at the moment we trusted. We REST assured that God has it under control, and that He will make us aware of any thing needing to be done. So if we say we have given it to God yet breathe the sigh of relief only after things are resolved, then we did not completely trust. But if we can say we have given it to God and then feel the worry- free peace from trusting Him, then we have really begun to learn how to walk on the ice as though it were a sidewalk.

Walking on ice ~ Court

One thing accomplished....

We are scheduled to get fingerprinted next Saturday morning....one thing down, many more to go.

Back to the list.....

The Process

As I said in my previous post, Michael & I attended the first orientation with LSS last night. This orientation, along with everything else, is a requirement of the State of Texas. Our counselor, Dennis, was thorough with explaining everything that we would need to do to get certified and very encouraging about the process.

We were handed a packet of information that we are required to fill out. It’s a bit overwhelming and time consuming. There were so many forms to fill out, papers to sign, boxes to check, directions to follow…and it was just the first night. I had already been warned of all the paperwork involved but this was even more than I had imagined.

Here’s just the beginning of what we need to get done in the next two weeks, to start PRIDE training in March:

*Application
*Criminal background check run
*Child abuse record check run
*Firearms safety verification.
*Photos of us and our home.
*Medical forms completed by doctor
*TB tests done
*Certified copy of marriage license sent to agency
*Certified Proof of citizenship
*Autobiographies of each us, using the 2 page single spaced guidelines provided by agency
*Marriage and parenting data sheets completed by each of us (a huge document of question after question)
*Verification of income
*Copies of the last 2 years of income tax statements
*Personal budget
*All of their policy and procedures signed off on
*Get fingerprinted at the FBI level

Once this is completed, we can start our 30 hours of training and certification to become adoptive parents.

Can you all just take a deep breath with us?! It’s not necessarily that these items are difficult to do or complicated, but there are just so many of them. Everything has to be certified, no copies. So this usually requires getting the information from the main source – county clerk’s office, state department, etc. This takes time. I can see where this could get frustrating. But I’m trying to stay positive and just get it done as quickly as possible. Dennis said that the paperwork is the biggest part of getting through the process quickly. The faster we get these 16 things done, the closer we are to being united with our children. Then we go through the training and home studies, interviews, evaluations, etc.

As we were driving home last night, Michael and I were talking about how thorough the State of Texas is with the foster care/adoption process. It’s a good thing though. These children have already been removed from their birthparents. They don’t need to be put into an unfit home. Isn’t it interesting though, that as adoptive parents, we have to go through 30 hours of training every year and yet a birth parent doesn’t have to. We have to be fingerprinted at the FBI level and pay for the fingerprints and yet a huge majority of these parents have been fingerprinted for free, as they have criminal backgrounds. Makes you think…..what if they required this of birth parents?….maybe there wouldn’t be 47,000 children in foster care just in the state of Texas?!

Even with the huge packet of forms, applications, requirements, and lists of things to do, Michael & I are still so encouraged and excited about the journey the Lord is taking us down. He has truly blessed us. We believe with confidence that our children are being prepared for us, even now, as we are being prepared for them.

“Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24)

We thank God for our children and pray that they are protected until He brings them to us. While we are trusting, God is working, and in due time our faith will become sight.

It is only human to want to see before we step out on the promises of God. Yet God said to Thomas and to a long list of other doubters, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

Believing........Court (and Michael too!)

The First Meeting

It's late, but I wanted to post a quick note to let you know that Michael & I survived our first official meeting with our adoption agency. We've chosen to work with the Lutheran Social Services, who in turn work with the State of Texas, and all the children in their care.

Our mentor, Dennis, shared with us some staggering numbers/facts with us tonight:

At the end of 2006, there were 6,998 children in the foster care system in Harris County without a permanent home. For the whole state of Texas.....47,825! There were 4 couples and 2 single ladies in the meeting with us. We were all dumbfounded by these numbers. Do you think that the State of Texas has enough foster parents and/or adopted parents for these children? No way! Michael & I were even more convinced that this was the route that the Lord desires for us to take.

We are a bit overwhelmed tonight....so I will sign off for now...but promise to write more tomorrow.

Much love ~ Court

Orientation Meeting

Many of you have emailed me about the orientation meeting we were supposed to attend on Monday night. Well, it turned out that this orientation meeting were for foster care parents only. The foster-to-adopt/adoption orientation isn't until this coming Monday, the 19th. So, we will be sure to let you know how it goes.

It already seems to be a slow process....and I guess that's because it took so long for another orientation to come up on the schedule. We're hoping that things progress fairly quickly, once we get into the system and start taking our required classes. We are required to take over 30 hours of training before we are officially available. A friend did tell me that they were able to do their training over a long weekend, versus a couple of hours here and there. We hope that this will be something we can do as well.

Thanks so much for all your prayers and encouragement. It means more than you know.

On another note, our house is officially a wreck; boxes everywhere; Chopper confused! We plan to attack the garage this weekend ~ oh joy! Just 14 days until we move.....

Much love ~ Court

Pictures of our new home

Many of you have asked to see pictures of our soon-to-be home. These were taken last weekend. It's difficult to get good pictures of an empty house but here you go. We'll be sure to update with more once we're moved in and settled...enjoy.

• 1. View of kitchen from living room
• 2. From the back door - View of living room, breakfast room, kitchen (leading into the dining room). 1st hallway leads to the master bedroom. Other hallway leads to the other 2 bedrooms and garage.
• 3. Outside of the house

We're moving!

After much prayer and house hunting...we found out today that we got the house that we've really been hoping for. We will be moving on March 1st -- now it's time to get busy. Oh my! I do believe that we have accumulated quite a bit of "stuff" since I first moved in 4 years ago....

Now it's time to get services switched over, find a mover (don't worry family & local friends...your moving services will not be needed!), find boxes, go through everything, find more boxes, and get moved in 22 days ~ whew! We can do it...I'm the queen of packing and moving.....

We're just so thankful to have a bigger place - one of the things we can check off our list of things to do with the adoption process. Our current home was just too small for little ones.

Thanks to all who have been praying for us in this adventure...it continues on.

Inundated

Our mailbox has been INUNDATED with brochures, newsletters, pamphlets, business cards, invitations to attend orientation meetings, forms, forms and more forms from a multitude of foster care and/or adoption agencies. It's really overwhelming!

How do we decide which agency to go to? How many different orientations do we attend? Do we want to foster-to-adopt or adoption only? Do we want a single child or sibling group? Do we want a newborn or toddler or are we willing to take an older child or sibling group? Will we be able to write our "lifebook" to truly reflect who we are and what we're all about? How do we put our life into a one page essay? Will we find a new house soon (yes, in the midst of all this, we're trying to move!) and will the house pass inspection? I could go on and on....

At this point, there are more questions than answers. The awesome news is that God is in control, He knows the answers to our questions, even before we know what to ask, and He will show us where to go, what to do, how to handle every situation and guide us through the process. . Michael & I have felt the Holy Spirit in such a strong and mighty way over the past few weeks, confident in His leading and we are excited to see where we are going on this journey.

We will be attending our first orientation meeting on February 12th with the Lutheran Social Services of Houston. This is the organization that has been recommended to us. I'm sure we will have even more questions after that. In the meantime, we just continue to seek out God in all that we do and read alot of information!

In all my reading lately, I ran across a sentence that sums up how I feel right now….

“Expecting without a due date”

It’s true – I’m an expectant mother without a due date! How wonderful though to know that our Heavenly Father knows right now of what our due date is and will bring us our children at just the right time. We just have to take comfort in that and continue to lay our fears and anticipation at His feet as we take each day as it comes.