Cautious Excitement!

Nathan and I had our second home study visit this past week.  Two more to go!  These home studies were done individually at Lifeline to discuss our childhood, teenage years, college years, and young adulthood.  We were asked to expand on specific memories, personalities at various stages in life, and the like.  We continue to become more comfortable with our social worker each time we meet with her.  We, of course, wrap up our session with at least a million questions each time.  We had one specific question this visit that we were somewhat hesitant to ask; one of those questions that you would like to know the answer to, but at the same time, you know that you may not like the answer.  We wanted to know what the time frame looked like at this point, but ultimately, we wanted to know when we would get the referral and be able to see our little girl's face.  Eager and impatient, we know!  Her answer completely amazed us.  She believes that we will be matched with our little girl in January, and possibly traveling to get her by July.  We understand that we must be patient and understand that this is only an estimate; however this was such exciting news! 

I know that we must have looked over our very first piece of "official" paperwork one hundred times before mailing it in, but we should have look at it just one more time.  We received this document back in our mailbox with a letter of rejection because we missed one very important detail...our signatures.  Great way to start out trying to stay on this new timeline!  Hopefully, we have learned this lesson of signing all the paperwork before mailing.

We completed our physicals for the adoption process, as if we haven't had enough physicals done lately.  This made for some much needed fun for our doctor and his nurse, as everything has to be done just so.  Hopefully the physical forms will come back quickly so we can check another thing off our list. 

We want to ask for your prayers as we continue to struggle filling out our "Desired Child Form".  This form enables our social worker and the staff in China to match us with a child based on the special needs that we feel that our family can handle.  There are a variety of conditions that we must inquire about and prayerfully consider.  It is very difficult to pass over conditions, knowing that there is a child out there who needs a family, just as those do with less severe special needs.  We ultimately know that we must choose a child based on where God is leading us and what we can handle, but this process continues to be difficult.  We also know that God already has our child chosen for us, and we must trust in Him through this difficult part of the process.  Please pray that we will hear the Lord's direction in all of this.