Licensing: Step 1

Adoption Orientation went great. We learned SO much, and the next step is to get licensed. A big part of that is completing a home study. We've been assigned an adoption worker who will begin our home study this month some time. Hopefully all will go down without a glitch. I really don't foresee any reason we won't qualify, but we do have work to do. We have to make our home child-ready starting with locking up the guns and medicines, then furnishing our kid's room! The licensing process can take as little as 4 months if we are super quick to turn in all the paperwork and we pass everything the first time and our case worker is a super fast home study writer. (The home study will be 50+ pages!) Our estimated time, however, is that a child would be in our home sometime in 2014.

The adoption road we've chosen is to adopt a child through DHS who is currently waiting for a forever family. There's a few reasons we chose this path. The parents' rights have already been terminated so there would be no court proceedings and no waiting or wondering if we'll get to adopt. This also means that our child would probably be over the age of 5. And the very best part of adopting through DHS is that the process is completely free.

All the children who are currently available for adoption are photo-listed on a website called MARE. Here's the link if you're interested in browsing through the babes. Right now there is a little girl available for adoption who I have pretty much fallen head over heals for. I am praying that she will still be available when we get licensed, but at the same time I hope she gets out of foster care soon. She deserves her forever family! (I just hope it's with us!)

Kayla

(Isn't she just the cutest thing? Go read her bio on the link and then tell me she wasn't born to be my daughter.)

-Here are some things you can pray for us about:

-That we would continue to seek God's will throughout this process and at no point in time diverge from His plan.

-That our home study would be completed without any problems.

-That I would get the elementary teaching position next school year (at the school our child will attend) so we can provide for all our child's needs and be even more financially secure than we are now.

- That God would begin working in our child's heart, softening any resentment and healing all past hurt, preparing them for our family. 

-That Crockett and I would stand firm on God's promises and not lose sight of His plan in spite of the resistance we've already begun to feel and most certainly will continue to encounter.

- That we would exhibit patience and love to those who don't understand.

Thank you, friends! We are so blessed to know how gigantic our support system is. We absolutely cannot wait to introduce our child to you.

The promise I can't wait to claim:
"I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him." I Samuel 1:27