[6/25/2021]

This week we had the second of our three home study visits. We are excited to have made it this far, and we are almost done with this stage!

The thought of a home study was initially slightly stressful, mainly because it is an evaluation of us as individuals, as spouses, and as parents. Quite honestly, the holistic approach to evaluating ourselves in perspective of our past, present, and future has been an amazing experience. We have enjoyed learning more about each other, our family, and ways in which we can prepare for our future child(ren). Needless to say, it’s been very thought-provoking and an interesting learning process.

Our social worker, Gail, is real, honest, thoughtful, and attentive. She is an adoptive mother herself, so she has shared wisdom and experience with us that we are soaking up. She has given us homework and made us delve deep into the “why” of our lives. We have been given so many tools to add to our toolbox for marriage and parenting from experienced people who have been where we are. With each visit and assignment we are learning how to best prepare for parenting our child from a hard place that we are bringing into our family.

The third and final home study visit is scheduled for next week. Once home study is officially completed, we will post another update, along with our status of expenses. Once we have a completed home study it makes us eligible to apply for grants to help with the financial costs of the adoption. This is something that we have been working towards since the beginning! We intend to apply for all grants we can find and hope to be accepted to at least a couple of them. Of course, grant awards are not guaranteed, but we are hopeful!

The next prayer request that we would share with all of our friends and family is that we will be able to raise a significant amount through grants and fundraising in the next few months. Our next round of adoption expenses are fairly significant: $2,200 for home study completion and $5,200 for international dossier completion/submission.

Excitement, anticipation, nervousness, cluelessness, determination, and sleeplessness—these are all things we have experienced in the recent months as we continue through our adoption process. We’ve said it many times and will say again that we are grateful for those who have partnered with us, nut just financially but also prayerfully. We look forward to meeting our child, and we know our supporters do too!