Baby Steps

Once my husband and I realized we were on the same page with pursuing adoption, then we both kind of looked at each other and said, "Now what?"  What is the first step?  We talked about what kind of child we felt would fit best in our family and whether we wanted to adopt internationally or domestically.  Our conclusion was that we would like to adopt domestically and that we would like for Lilly to be the oldest child or at least the oldest girl (a big brother could be pretty cool).  We know full well that God could change all of our "ideas" and bring somebody totally different into our family, but for now, this is what we have "decided."

Second step, find an agency or group to work with to help us through this process.  We attended an orientation for a group that works with helping to get homes for children who are already in child protective services - either through adoption or fostering.  There was some information that was a little eye opening for me - not being able to home school the child until the adoption was finalized was one and that you we were not allowed to physically discipline our own child while an adopted child was in our home or we could be in danger of losing all of the children, even our own?! 

We took the application home with us after the orientation and it sat on the desk for a couple of weeks. We prayed.  Then, finally, I was moved to pick it up and start working on it.  I was stumped by a lot of the questions and I almost immediately put it back down thinking, "how am I going to answer these questions?"  How do I put the way my family shows anger into words?  How do I explain the chore distribution in our house in a way that makes sense?  What would we do if a child was afraid of our dog?  How do we deal with nudity in our home?  Lots of questions to think about. 

Then, the documentation - health forms, references, diplomas, background checks, etc.  As of now, January 2013, we are just about finished with the first round of paperwork. It is exciting and scary.  I know that God is every much in control of this as He is in us having a baby naturally - either way it is up to Him whether we will have any more children or not.  So, when we send in the application with all the documentation it will go with prayers as well.  Prayers for God's will!