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!)