Beautiful Things

Here are the lyrics to the song in our previous blog posting:

All this pain
I wonder if I’ll even find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
You make me new, You are making me new
You make me new, You are making me new
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

Frustrated…But Not Hopeless…

Yes, we are frustrated over how long our homestudy agency is taking to complete our homestudy.  I try not to think about how we had our first interview with them in October and how most of our paperwork was in by January or February of this year…and how they say that it should be ready this week…

There are children who need mamas and daddies so that it makes me very sad to think of an agency taking so long to complete a homestudy for a family who has already adopted one child and is not new to the homestudy process or adoption…I pray that the majority of families who enter the adoption process have a very quick turn around with their homestudy agencies because the need for adoption is great in the U.S. and around the world.

What we do know is that God is able to take the “dust” of our waiting time for our daughter…and He can bring beauty from it (and to His glory)…This song, “Beautiful Things,” brings us comfort as we wait for God’s financial provision for the remaining adoption expenses and as we wait for our homestudy and for that day when we will meet our daughter.  God has been faithful (and is faithful still) to continue working on Alan and me as we seek His will and as we trust in God to make us beautiful, too.

 

Puzzle Update…485 Left…

4 more days and 5 more pieces before we meet
our goal! Another puzzle piece was sponsored this week! Please help
us make our goal of 20 puzzle pieces being sponsored by the end of May.

Check out our facebook page(click on facebook button on the right of this page) if you’d like to show support for our adoption.  We appreciate your prayers, encouragement, sharing our story with others you know, and your support of our puzzle fundraiser.  You can give donations through our paypal button (to right on this page) or mail them to us care of Alan’s work address (or email us to get our home address).

Thanks for stopping by,

Heather & Alan

Puzzle Fundraiser Update

We are still posting on both blogs but this blog will tend to focus solely on our domestic adoption journey while our other blog will still touch on some of the day to day of our life with our son.  We have now had 14 puzzle pieces sponsored (see photo above)  which means there are 486 more puzzle pieces that still lack sponsors.  If you are interested in sponsoring a puzzle piece, please click on the paypal button to the right on this blog or our other blog.  (Suggested donation is $10 but we are grateful for any donation). If you’d rather send a check, please leave a message for us and we will send our home address to you by email.

BREAKING NEWS: Our homestudy may or may NOT be in our hands this week.  Our homestudy agency does not allow families to look at a draft of the study so that means we might still find errors in it which will have to be corrected before we can submit it to placing agencies and grant organizations.

We are talking to Colin more and more about his sister.  When we talked to him last week, he asked when she was coming and then he said, “Friday?”  We assured him that she was not coming that soon!  We know he is going to be a good big brother.  We are excited about him having someone else with whom he can play and we are looking forward to seeing how God leads us to this little one!  We are still open to the possibility of sibling but we aren’t dwelling too much on that possibility right now.  We are trying to gather the little we can (not knowing her age) in case the adoption moves very quickly (for example: a car seat).

Having Colin to help keep us busy makes this adoption process feel very different than Colin’s was.   It was so hard waiting on him and hearing the quiet and our arms aching to hold a little one…Now Colin feels our days with laughter, play, “sugar” (as in kisses) and, yes, sometimes challenges.  We love our precious boy so much!

Please do feel free to take a blog button!  I don’t know that anyone has yet but we’d love your help in spreading the word about our blogs and our adoption.

Thanks for stopping by,

Heather

U.S. Adoption Vocabulary 101

Here are some definitions of  terminology related to domestic adoption(from our consultant, Tracie Loux, of Christian Adoption Consultants:

Consent, Revocation, Finalization???? What Does It All Mean?

A lot of the fear surrounding adoption is in regards to the lack of understanding of these three important adoption vocabulary words. We hope with a little “Adoption Vocabulary 101,” we can demystify some of it for you!

Consent: Consent refers to the agreement by a parent, or a person or agency acting in place of a parent, to relinquish the child for adoption and to release all rights and duties with respect to that child. In most States, the consent must be in writing and either witnessed and notarized or executed before a judge or other designated official.

Revocation: The revocation period refers to the length of time the birth mother or father has to change their mind after signing consent.

Finalization: Finalization hearings usually take place within a year of the time the child is placed in the home. Your adoption is not legally complete until you have gone through the finalization process. Prior to finalization, post-placement visits are required to be preformed by the social worker who initially completed the home study. The court will seek to establish that the child has been placed in a loving, secure home. You should be prepared to present all information included in your adoption petition, and to answer questions about why you want to adopt, how you will care for your child, how your family is and will continue adjusting, and anything else the court feels is relevant. When the judge signs the adoption order, you gain permanent, legal custody of your child! Finalization is the last formal step of the adoption process, but just the beginning of your new family.

Variations in Law from State to State: The important thing to remember is that adoption law varies from state to state. The time period in which consent is signed varies from state to state. Revocation periods do not exists in all states. There are states where consent is irrevocable at the time of signing. The length of time before finalization also varies from state to state, from as little as a few days to as long as a year.

Adoption Timeline?

How quickly could our adoption happen? A family with our consultant just found out about a baby today and they are flying out tomorrow to meet their daughter!  We have to be prepared for it to happen that quickly just in case it does…We pray that God will lead us to our child (or children) and that He will remove any obstacles between us and our child, like finances. 

Please consider taking a blog button (on the right of our front page of this blog) and putting it on your blog and/or consider going to our facebook page.  Feel free to share with others.  We appreciate prayer .  Colin was prayed home by many people–some whom I’d never met.  We want God to be glorified through this adoption, as well.

Our puzzle fundraiser is off to a good start.  Four families have sponsored puzzle pieces.  If you’d like to sponsor a puzzle piece, our suggested donation is $10. 

Our homestudy should be released to us soon.  Then, we can officially apply to specific agencies and be paper-ready to adopt. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Heather & Alan