Homestudy Approval Meeting Tomorrow

We're driving up to Bethany tomorrow to meet with Bert at 2:30. The homestudy's been signed off by the Director, and we have to read through it carefully to make sure it's all accurate and things cast in the particular lights that we feel are appropriate. We'll be bringing her a few more photos to add in, and we'll also be discussing our time line for the next part of the plan. As soon as I know it, I'll share it.

I love my friends, and how they're all so amazingly supportive through all of this craziness. I've been spending time here and there looking through photolistings and getting discouraged because of how few children are listed as available who we feel could fit our family. I've been discouraged enough that we've already started discussing our alternatives. I mentioned this to one of my best friends last night and she said, "Well, you wouldn't be able to do anything about it until Friday, right? So they wouldn't be there yet." Her point was basically, when we're ready, God'll put our children's info right where it needs to be. She was so totally right. I'm so grateful that God's given us friends to help us keep perspective.

More news tomorrow!

A month later...

Wow. My last post was the 16th of March, and here it is the 17th of April. But there's good news! Bert took two days last week to focus on our homestudy, one of which she worked from her home office so as to avoid distractions. While going through our file, she did find questions she wanted to ask, something that was marked off as received but had NY information, and discovered that she hadn't received a recommendation from one source and that our physical exams were soon to expire.

So yesterday we went in to the doctor's office and got our physicals done again (3rd time's the charm?), and the recommendation is currently in progress (the person writing it IMed us mid-writing, so we know). As of this moment the homestudy is 99% complete; as soon as these items get to the office and she plugs in the text, we're ready to roll!!

What's next? When it's ready, we drive to the agency office, read it over and make any corrections or changes, and she'll work through a timeline with us. I have no idea what this timeline looks like yet, but we'll let you know.