I haven't had a lot of time to tell you all about our adoption progress so here it goes.... I applied for graduate school last November in hopes that I would get in along with my Mom, and complete my dream of becoming a family nurse practitioner. I wasn't to hear back from them until late March early April. April rolled around and my Mom called to tell me that she had been placed on the waiting list, I too found out that day that I had been placed on the waiting list. My mom was adamant that if she got in and I didn't she wasn't going, and I informed her that she indeed was going if I had to drive her to Hyden and drop her off myself. Now as the deadline came closer and closer I had the feeling that I probably wasn't going to get in. My mom found out that she was accepted and I was so proud of her, she agreed to go without me after much deliberation. After a lot of praying and soul searching I decided that going to graduate school may not be the plan God had for me. It made me really question whether or not I would have enough in me to pursue adoption and go to graduate school at the same time. The deadline to hear from school was two days away and I felt so much peace about not getting in that I told Brian it was time to start the adoption process for good. We bit the bullet this past May and submitted our initial application to AWAA. I checked my email every minute. It took 2 days to here back from them, Brian was at work and I had just got home from the store and was putting up the groceries when the phone rang. It was Brian on the other line "have you seen your email?" he asked, "no, what does it say?" I was so overwhelmed with emotion waiting to hear that we were accepted into the adoption program. "Congrats, you got in to school!!!". " What the @$#**$# " (sorry for the language) those were not the words I was expecting to hear. So I am now in Graduate School and we are going to adopt a baby. Unbelievable!!!!! The next email I got was from AWAA and we indeed were accepted into the waiting children program. Brian and I just can't do anything simple you know. Over the next week or two I manage to order birth and marriage certificates, fill out over 100 informational form, send off for our passports, contact our social worker, send off for police records, and many more other little details we needed to finish. So we started to get the house ready for Hadley to come home, which was a lot of work by the way, I haven't done a real good job of organization since going back to school you see and the house is very lived in by 4 little people and 2 dogs. Here is the timeline:
- 05/03/2012 Submitted application to AWAA
- 05/11/2012 Accepted into program
- 05/14/2012 Sent agreement to AWAA
- 05/25/2012 "Welcome" from Aimee our family coordinator
- 06/13/2012 Orientation meeting with Harlan our social worker
- 06/13/2012 applied for passports
- 06/16/2012- 06/24/2012 Family vacation
- 07/01/2012 Preparing for home study/ gathering papers
- 07/13/2012-07/16/2012 Church camp
- 07/20/2012 received physical forms back from doctor's
- 08/2012 kids start back to school, continue to get ready for HS
- 09/08/2012 Meeting with Harlan for Family Interview
- 09/07/2012 Home Inspection with Harlan
- 10/03/2012 drove to SOS office to certify documents
So we have made progress, even though I wish we were further down the road, I am learning to trust God's timing. Next steps include, finishing the certification of 23 more documents at the county, state, federal, and Chinese level. The major hold up now is getting a letter of employment, I didn't include the job situation we have been dealt on 09/05/2012, but all I can say about that is "there is nothing that the Devil can do to cause me pain and sorrow, that my God won't turn around into a total victory." I will get to China by row boat if I have too. I do have a new job, and I am in my second term in graduate school. I will finish up with this little announcement, after the tragic loss of my wonderful, and beautiful aunt Sue on 08/10/2012 Brian and I finally decided on a middle name for our precious little girl:
Hadley Caroline Merrick
P.S. Sue I wish I would of told you that you have a niece being named after you, but I'm sure you know that now in Heaven.
No comments:
Post a Comment