3/24/08
March 24, 2008
There's only three places where you can get fingerprinted here in our general area. One place conveniently is at PSU where Scott works. So today the boys and I picked Scott up from work and we walked over to the place to get fingerprinted. It was a bit expensive but oh well, it needs to be done. It felt strange getting fingerprinted. It was a neat process though that the boys enjoyed seeing -- they scan your fingerprints into a computer so no more messy ink pads.
Update from 3/15/08
We got all of our paperwork turned in and were waiting for the homestudy to be scheduled. Then we received an email stating that a new Pennsylvania law, as of Jan.1, 2008, requires that all perspective adoptive parents (and anyone working with children) must be fingerprinted along with the background checks. Another delay. Our new family motto is "another delay but it's okay!" Kind of cheesy, but hey, it works.
Update from 2/21/08
February 21, 2008
There's not much that has changed with the adoption
process since our last email. We're still doing some paperwork -- it's
more of a "gathering" of paperwork. We need to have physicals and it
took me a month to get mine scheduled for the beginning of February but
thanks to an ice storm that day, I had to be rescheduled and the next
opening is tomorrow. Of course, the weather forecast is calling for a
snow and ice storm again tomorrow! It's very frustrating for me
because my schedule really limits what days I can schedule appointments
on. So we'll see if I'm able to get out tomorrow for the appointment.
I'm trying very hard to take it all in stride and to be patient. We're
waiting on grant approval from the national adoption agency to find out
how much they will pay towards our home study. We know we're approved,
but we just don't know how much money they will contribute or when
we'll find out. As soon as our local adoption agency gets the grant
contract from the national agency, then our home study will be
scheduled. The home study is when they come to our house and inspect
it, and they'll also interview our family -- basically put us under the
microscope.
We are connected with an adoption support network based in
State College, PA. It's a group of families who are going through the
adoption process now or who have already adopted. We have gotten some
emails regarding the struggles some of the families are having with
their adopted child. It could really scare us and discourage us into
not adopting if we allowed it. But we strongly feel the Lord is
calling us to adopt. This is something our family truly wants as
well. The enemy wants nothing more than to discourage us through the
"horror" stories of another family's struggles, or through delays in
appointments and paperwork, etc. One family wrote how there's a
spiritual battle waging against them because Satan doesn't want a child
to be set free through adoption. There's a spiritual battle going on
over our future daughter and our family as we carry out God's plan to
bring a little girl into our family. Please pray for our family and
for our future daughter.
Prayer Requests:
- For our family to stand strong in the spiritual battle, and that we won't get discouraged with delays, stories, etc.
- For God to clearly reveal to us who our daughter will be and where she is.
- That God will be working on her heart now, and ours, in order to prepare her and us to be a family.
- For paperwork and appointments to come together in God's timing.
Update from 1/2/08
Dear Family and Friends,
January 2, 2008
We're starting this periodic newsletter regarding our adoption
to update everyone since so many people have been asking us how the process is going. You
are a memberof our support system and we value your prayers for us as we begin this
journey.
Over the weekend we started filling out the paperwork to begin
the process. Both Scott and Traci need to have criminal background checks and child abuse
history checks done as part of the home-study process. We are sending these forms out
first because they will probably take the longest to process. These forms have put
our minds to work as both of us need to list every place we've lived, and even the people
we have lived with, since 1975. It's a good thing we started with these forms first! So a
lesson learned so far that we pass onto you as a little tip -- keep track of where you have
lived because you never know when you'll need that information. Certain jobs and even
volunteer work can require you to get the background checks and you'll need to know
that information for yourself.
The first adoption agency we were going to work through is about
a 45 minute drive away, and we were going to adopt through the SWAN (State Wide Adoption
permanency Network). God seems to have closed that door, but He is good and He
seems to have opened another door for us. We discovered there is an adoption agency
right here in our town with about a 10 minute or less drive. This agency isn't
affiliated with SWAN (which would limit us to adopting only a child from Pennsylvania), but
it is affiliated with AAN (Adopt America Network) which will allow us to adopt a child from
any state. Maybe our daughter isn't from PA.
Traci's biggest question regarding the adoption is -- out of
over 100,000 children in
the U.S. waiting to be adopted, how will we know which one
child is the one for our family? We guess that we will "just know" in our hearts. We are
seeking the Lord's guidance for every step of the way. Traci admits she is a very
impatient person, but God has graciously answered her prayer and has granted her a sense of
peace and even a calmness for the long process ahead.
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God Answers Prayer with a License Plate
A few days before Christmas, Scott decided we would ask
God to reveal an answer to us on Christmas Day by using a license plate. On Christmas Day, we
were driving to Traci's parents' house. After the boys prayed for safe travel, Scott
prayed asking God to use the license plate of the first car to pass us as soon as we got
on I-80 to be the state that our daughter will come from. We were coming up the entrance
ramp of I-80 followed by another car. We were just beginning to merge onto I-80
when the car on the ramp behind us impatiently drove out around us into the passing lane
and flew by us really fast. We could tell it was an out of state plate. A few
seconds later a car from PA went by. We tried to catch up to the out of state car but it was
driving too fast. We slowed down to normal speed and by this time, the car was almost out of
sight. Michael prayed that God would let us catch up to the out of state car so we
could read the
license plate. Within what seemed like a few seconds, we were caught
up with just the
PA car in between us. We were planning to get off at the next exit to
get gas and the out
of state car got off at that exit too. We were right behind it at the
stop sign at the end of the exit ramp. The license plate was from Kentucky. The chances of a
car from Kentucky being on that area of the highway are highly unlikely.
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We are excited at what the new year will hold for us. We know
that God has a little girl set aside somewhere in the U.S. for us -- perhaps she's in Kentucky. We can't wait to find out who she is, and to see how God will reveal who she is to
us. We would appreciate your continued prayer support through this process that we
are just beginning.
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Prayer Requests:
- For our paperwork and home study process to come together in a timely fashion.
- For calmness as we go through the home study process.
- For Traci to get the house organized and ready for the home study visit.
- For God to lead us to the little girl He wants us to have.
