Home Visit

Home visit was a success! Besides the fact that Atti (our 3lb yorkie) wanted to growl at the social worker the whole time, our home visit went very smoothly. Thankfully, we were able to leave our office the way that it currently is and not change it into the nursery yet. We just had to show that our house was large enough for our baby, safe, and clean. Many people think the home study is just a one visit thing, but it is so much more than that. The home study is basically a huge document that tells the state of Illinois, the government of Ethiopia, and everyone else who has to approve us who we are and every little thing about us. It is more of a short biography if I had to describe it.

Our home study is currently being composed. We are still are waiting on Jeffrey's doctor's exam, and Jeffrey's employee letter (YEAH! JEFFREY GOT A NEW JOB!) This past week has just been a whirlwind. We have been praying and believing that Jeffrey would receive a full time job in time to submit it to the home study and literally the week that we need it, the job comes! We truly believe that this adoption is something that we are supposed to do, and we have just stood in faith that God would provide and make a way for all of it to happen. There are so many instances already where we have just had favor, and can see God working on our behalf.
We are all brushing up on our knowledge of Ethiopian culture.

This week, we also completed CPR training. Besides Jeffrey hitting the infant's head on the table while practicing the choking exercises, we did quite well =) We really did learn a lot, and I am glad that we had to take the course. I feel like we are becoming better parents through all the reading, classes, and discussions we are taking part in. I knew that it would be different to adopt an orphan from a third world country, but we are beginning to realize things that we never really thought about. Our baby will have never slept by himself/herself, so sleeping in a quiet bedroom may not be the best transition. Our baby will not have experienced many of the sights, smells, sounds, etc that many American babies face everyday; we must be careful not to send our baby into sensory overload. Although we are also hearing many statistics about institutionalized children and we don't want to be ignorant or unrealistic about our child, we also want to be praying and believing that our child will adapt to her/his environment quite well and that she/he will be healthy and safe while in the orphanage.

There will be other post where we are going to go into more details about our transition home, and how we will need the support of family and friends to understand that bringing our baby home will be different than bringing a baby home from the hospital, but it isn't time for those post yet. What we ask you to do now is to continue to pray for us and for our future child. We are growing more in love each day with a child that we do not know, have not seen, and who may not even be born yet.

We thank God for what He has done, and what He continues to do on our behalf. We are humbled and amazed that we are going to have the opportunity to raise a child that did not come to us through my womb, but absolutely came to us through our hearts.

Psalm 37:4 "Take delight in the Lord and He will give you your heart's desires."

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