Nic and I wanted to share that we have recently met with our home study agency and are excited to say we have officially chosen to work with St. Elizabeth Coleman. We decided to go with this agency for several reasons:
1.) this agency is approved by America World Adoption as an agency they work well and often with for international adoptions. Therefore, they are familiar with the process and paperwork.
2.) this agency is based on Christian principles. They understand what we mean when we say we felt called to adopt. We truly have put our trust in The Lord for this process and we feel confident that a Christian adoption agency as well as home study agency is where we should be.
3.) After we met with the agency for our first initial meeting, we both felt comfortable with how the agency is ran as well as how they communicate. All in all, we had a very good vibe.
Those are the three top reasons we have decided to go with St Elizabeth Coleman. So where do we go from here?? Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. We have several essays to write as well as providing other information about our lives. I knew this "paper pregnancy" as they call it would be long but I never imagined it would be this detailed! There are three background checks that will be preformed as we go along... We passed our local check, not that there was any doubt. A second background check will be submitted by the home study agency. While the agency is doing things on their end, we will continue to gather physicals for ourselves, medical records for our children, financial information, ect. Once we finish and submitted the paperwork we need, the agency will officially assign a social worker to our family. She will come out and spend lots of time at our house and evaluate our lives. Once that is complete she will write up our home study which will be reviewed by several people before it is finalized.
While This may seem like a relatively easy process, it is very time consuming. Our goal is to have our home study complete by mid August. Once that is completed and in hand, we will be submitting it along with a few other things for our final background check. This will actually be done by the FBI. As long as everything matches what the FBI has on record about us, we will be approved.
Communication about everything with our home study agency and social worker is key in making this the smoothest process that it can be. We have been warned, there will be hick ups along the way but not to worry. We are excited to start this part of the process. The farther we go, the more real everything becomes!! It is so exciting to know we are that much closer in learning who our daughter is and being able to hold her and love her! The important part to remember, which can be hard for me, is that this will be done in God's time not mine! Patience, patience, patience!
We would also at this time like to remind everyone that our Cornhole, garage sale, cook out, bake sale is this weekend at New Life Wesleyan Church 75 E 1100 N in Chesterton. The garage sale will be open Saturday 9 am until 5 pm. The Cornhole tourney will begin at 1 pm, registration at 12 pm. We are asking a $20 minimum donation per team. There will be cash prizes. If anyone is interested in helping with the fundraiser, please let me know. :)
Thank you again for all your support and prayers!!! God Bless!!
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