October 26, 2011 - Making Friends

So we had a random lady send us a message on facebook today and introduce herself to us.  Her and her husband are adopting from THOGL too!  We emailed back and forth today and it we are at about the same place in our adoption process.  It’s been nice to learn about them and their process and where God has led them.  It makes us feel like we are not so alone.

October 25, 2011 - Home Study Home Visit

Almost done!!!  Tonight we had our final home study and Susie came and “interviewed” us and looked around our house.  It went very well :)  I love talking to her because she is so positive and has so much knowledge about adoptions.  I could listen all day about her experiences and different adoptions around the world.  So we are officially done with our home study part and we have all of our paperwork turned in! YIPPEE!  I can’t believe how fast everything went.  We have to watch 10 hours of adoption videos, but I think that’s all that’s left.  Susie will put all of our paperwork together and make sure everything is cleared by the state.  We will look over it and if everything looks great, she will send it to The Home of God’s Love in Taiwan!  It’s been a wonderful day and we are so excited to have this part done and be one step closer to our baby :) 

October 6, 2011 - Physicals

Today was just a little blessing that I just had to write down!  I wasn’t feeling very good and decided to go to the health clinic in Danville for the first time.  While there, I was talking with the nurse and I asked if we could get our “physicals” done at the clinic so we wouldn’t have to pay for them at our normal doctor’s office.  She mentioned they could do that and I told her it was for an adoption.  I was shocked as she told me that she and her sibling had been adopted from Korea!  I informed her we were adopting from Taiwan and she was telling me all about Taiwan!  It’s one of those little things that God has worked out in the most unpredictable ways.  Such a blessing :)  So we will be going there to get our clearance on our health status…….and its free :)

We went to the sheriff’s office today to get our background check done.  It was pretty awkward and the receptionist was very rude…..must have been having a bad day?  I’m suppose to have the letter I need mailed to us :) Hopefully it’s soon because our home study is in less than 2 weeks!!  We also got our physicals done through the Danville Clinic.  Another thing to check off the list (woot-woot)!!

October 4, 2011 - Home Study Meet Up

Tonight we met Susie Herrmann for our first home study.  After going to the wrong Panera Bread restaurant, we finally met her and talked for about 1.5 hours!  She was so amazing to talk to about adoption.  She had some great advice such as buying 18 souvineers while in Taiwan and giving our child 1 gift on their “gotcha” day.  Their “gotcha day” would be celebrated on the day we adopted them :) as we would also celebrate their actual birthday.  I thought that was such a creative idea!  We went over all the criteria and the things we need to get done to wrap up the home study.  She is coming back at the end of the month and I am so excited to finish this, but I am also trying to soak it all in too and enjoy the process.  I think it really hit us that we are “adopting” after our talk with Susie.  We have been ready for so long and it’s becoming so real!  We’ve always felt like we were in a situation where “if” it happens it will be so great, but we are finally starting to feel like “when” it happens it will be wonderful.  God is just filling me with more faith every day.  We came away feeling so blessed to be working with Susie! God is good.