Oh, that this would happen!

10 prayers for adoption from The Gospel Coalition.... see the link...see if God will use you as part of the answer to this prayer.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2010/01/13/10-prayers-for-the-sake-of-orphans-in-2010/

Where oh, where are you?

Ok, I just noticed the little map gadget on my sidebar has people reading this blog from various places all over the world.

DO YOU KNOW HOW EXCITED I AM? (I think I did actually squeal out loud....)

But, now I'm just dumbfounded?  I mean, who really is interested in my silly ramblings and boring paperwork updates?

Anyhow, I am DYING to meet you all. I have been reading all the comments of other people's blogs and clicking any person's links that I can in order to find other families that are adopting or have adopted (most particularly from Mexico). Ok, it really is bordering on stalking, but all for a good cause!

So, please, leave me a comment. Say hello! Tell me if you are adopting (from Mexico or some other place), have already adopted,  or you are just a person strangely interested in ramblings about paperwork. And tell me as much info about yourself as you feel comfortable. I'm like a sponge soaking up any morsel of information (ok, I like to mix metaphors!).

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Here's the latest on the paperwork front....
Psychological report is done. A medical doctor has confirmed that we are not lunatics or psychotic. All my friends and family may beg to differ, but it's right there in print. Even notarized for officiality.  SO, HA!

After a month of phone calls and emails, and finally a slightly nasty phone call to a certain person's boss, I finally have the necessary letter from our insurance company stating our adopted children will have health coverage. I HATE that the only way to get some people to follow through with things is to get nasty. Customer service really stinks sometimes.  But, once I went to the bosses, I had my letter notarized and in the mail in 2 hours.... sigh.

The homestudy is in the process of being written as we speak. Hopefully. She said it'd be done in a week and a half, but so far I've not gotten any indication of how things are progressing. I'm praying that it will be done this week!

THEN, once we have that completed and notarized,  we can send in our I-800A to immigration. This is the paperwork petitioning the US government to allow us to adopt internationally. I haven't heard any recent news on how long the USCIS is taking to approve people but our social worker said 2 months. During that time, we'll be assembling our dossier- the stack of paperwork that requires lots of pretty gold stickers to certify that they are authentic, that then gets sent to the Mexican Government.

Comic Relief...

So today has to rate as one of the funniest in the adoption process so far. I had been under the impression that we needed to have our Psychological Evaluation as part of our dossier. We aren't quite at that point yet, so, though I had a psychologist, I hadn't set up an appointment yet.  Then, during our last homestudy visit, our social worker mentioned that she needed to have our psych results as part of our homestudy. So I was scrambling to get an appointment.

We needed to have an MMPI- which stands for something I'm sure- but basically it is just a personality test. Often people have to take them as part of a job hiring process. And then, the psychologist has to write a 2-3 page report on each of us to include with our paperwork.

The psychologist was a jolly old man who wasn't really interested in interviewing us at all! He started off by telling us that he wants us to write up all our personal history and he'll include all that into the report. Ugh. A writing assignment.  Then we had to take the MMPI- all 550plus questions of it.

He took us to a separate room for some privacy. Let me just tell you, we got a little slap happy during some of the questions. Here are a few we remember....we had to answer true or false.

I like to read Mechanic magazines

I often  hear sounds that no one else can hear.

I am afraid of doorknobs.

When I close my eyes I hear people talking to me when no one else is around.

If I was an artist I would like to paint children.

I am sure someone is trying to rob me.

Sometimes my voice changes to a different sound even when I am not sick.

I would like to write editorials about the theater.

I sometimes feel like I want to smash things.

I frequently see things that others can't see.

If someone makes me angry I try to hurt them back.

I would like to be a soldier.

People can talk to me when they are not with me.

Now, I'm sure all of the questions put together do a great job of determining psychological problems, but to us, we were just cracking up at a few of the questions that just seemed bizarre. And what's the deal with SO many of them asking about hearing voices??
There were soo many more and were even funnier, but well, ......ok, maybe you just had to be there...(this isn't sounding as funny as when we were taking the test.) Maybe we really aren't mentally stable! LOL!

A Roller Coaster Drop...

So everything I've been reading about the adoption process say that it is an emotionally exhausting time. It's full of ups and downs, confusion followed by changes. It's funny, it's even written in our agency's contract that we understand "that our expectations may have to change multiple times throughout the process".  So it isn't surprising that we are starting to experience the roller coaster drop.

Last week we got some pretty bittersweet news. The three children that we'd been pursuing, and had fallen in love with since June, are no longer available for adoption. We can't adopt them. That's the bitter part- for us. The sweet part, though, is that the reason they are not available is that they are being adopted by a Mexican family! It is wonderful for them. They will get a family that will allow them to stay in their culture and potentially get a family faster than if we were adopting them.

It is disappointing for us because we had already pictured them as part of our family. The kids are so sad, but they are handling it well.  It seemed so perfect with the ages and genders, but it was not meant to be. Though we loved them from afar and prayed for them, they were never meant to be ours. I am thankful for the few months that we were connected to them even though they never knew us.


Brent and I both feel peace about it, but it does take some of the excitement out of the process. It makes the waiting easier when there are sweet little faces that you can keep looking at on your computer screen with  names and personalities that you know. Now, we will have to proceed though the next few (or many) months with the trust that God already has our children picked out for us- we just don't know what they look like yet.

It does open up the doors for asking questions such as... Do we still want three? How many boys? How many girls? What health situations will we be willing to take?  Frankly, we just don't know the answer to these right now. We are still in the process of praying and waiting on God to reveal His desires to us. This is a whole new aspect to the adoption process that we didn't think we would have to consider since we found these particular children so early on in our search. Some of those questions are really hard to answer and still be completely open and trusting of God- especially the health issues.

On the upswing of the roller coaster ride....
We had the first interview for our homestudy on New Year's Eve. The social worker couldn't be more sweet! She immediately put us at ease and had the kids laughing and joking in the first few minutes. We have to meet three more times- hopefully over the next week and a half. She hopes to have the report done by the end of January which will be wonderful!
We're still waiting on the bunk bed decision, which will ultimately determine how many children and whether they are boys or girls we can be approved for. So that is actually a blessing since it will help us make our decisions for us! LOL!

So, for now we just continue on the process- surrendering our expectations and desires to Him who is Sovereign and Good. He has chosen our family before the foundation of the world and will bring us together at just the right time and with just the right people. May I continually rejoice in His plan and thank Him for each twist and turn of the journey.