Knee Deep in Grace

A week ago I blogged about our adoption, that we had submitted the formal application, and learned it was received and accepted. We jumped in with both feet, and in the days that followed our family has been overwhelmed with kind wishes & words, offers of prayer, offers of carseats, joyful hugs...etc. Thank you so much for your support it's remarkable and we are so excited to share our journey to Grace with you. We are already seeing God's hand so clearly - it takes my breath away.

Three cheers for progress!! As of today we are knee deep in the adoption process. We received two large envelopes full of paperwork - one Wednesday and one Thursday and have spent a good portion of the days since organizing said paperwork, completing each necessary page, getting fingerprinted by a local detective in the booking room (which was kinda cool), and mailing in documents containing everything you never wanted to know about Robert and I part 1. Thursday, we have a conference call with "All God's Children" (*giggles*) - our placement agency. I'm not sure that will ever not be funny to me.

For those of you playing along at home, our next hurdle is our Home Study. I spoke with our home study agency this morning and it is scheduled for February 27th!! We will have a visit to their office the week prior to have some in-depth interviews, more paperwork, more fees, and meet out social worker, Andrea. She will come to our home the following week to make sure it is state foster care approved, meet our children, and get to know us a little more in the setting of our home. If you are wondering why I speak of two agencies - it's because we have two agencies :-). "All God's Children International" (AGCI) is our placement agency and they are in Oregon. Because they do not have satilite offices in Wisconsin, we needed to choose a second agency for our home study; one that AGCI  both approves of and meets China's requirements for international adoption. Thankfully, we didn't have to choose since the "Catholic Charities of the Diocese of LaCross" is the only office they work with in Wisconsin for Chinese adoptions. So, we have two Tiffanys with AGCI (one in the US and one in China) and Andrea with CCDLC. OMGS (oh my goodness sakes).

I remember telling people when I was pregnant with each of our children and how exciting it was, and enjoying their reactions. I had not anticipated ever having that feeling again - but I do. It's different, I'm not pregnant obviously - but the reaction and joy that comes over the faces of the people we have told is so precious...I tell anyone who'll listen. Once we know when we will get her and how old she is it'll be a hoot telling people I'm going to be a mother again in a month and watch them look me over and think I'm crazy. I can hardly wait.

Know what else is fun? Signing my name by the words "Adoptive Mother". Every time I do, my insides sparkle. I. love. it.