Homestudy Complete

On November 17 we had our final homestudy visit. This involves the social worker coming into our home and talking with us for two hours. She asked many questions, takes a tour of the home and meets the kids. It went very well.  After the visit she then takes all her information and writes a 8-10 page paper about us. It really is hard for me to believe she can write that much about us, but I guess its possible!



 We are currently waiting for our completed homestudy.  We should receive it in a week or two.  When we get that in our hands we can then submit our documents to Immigration. Basically we are "paper chasing", collecting documents so we can send our Dossier to Ethiopia. We are hoping to have the Dossier complete by the new year. Once that is complete we are put on the "wait list".



Many may be wondering age and gender of the child. When we started the adoption process we thought we would be specify girl.  In our minds it worked, Addison is the youngest, they would be close in age and they could share a room.  The thing with that is there is a much longer wait for a girl. A referral for a girl is 9-15months (or more) from the time your Dossier is submitted and for a boy it is 2-4 months.  There is a great need for families to adopt infant boys, so we have decided to be open to either gender. We figured we weren't able to choose gender of our first 4 children why should we choose now.  God brought us to this place and He is in control of all areas - even the gender of the child.  When it comes to the age, the child will have to be 9 months younger than Addison.  Basically the child will be 0-2 years of age.



It is exciting to watch God's plan unfold in our family's life. We feel His hand leading us through every step, even when the road seems scary and when there are so many unknowns.  When I find myself overcome with fear of the unknown, I am reminded of of Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God". 



Thank you for praying for us. We ask you join us in praying for "Baby E"- for health, protection, for the birth parent as they make the ultimate sacrifice of giving their child up for adoption.



Blessings to you all this Christmas!



Sarah