Adoption Update {May 2022}

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If you’re new to our adoption journey, start here. The basics are that we’re adopting through our state’s Department of Social Services (DSS), which means we will adopt a child who is currently in the foster care system. We have applied to adopt a child or group of siblings between 7-16 years old.

Back in December when I shared our initial adoption news, I told you that our next steps were to go through our adoption investigation interviews. We were praying that they would happen before February, and they were scheduled for the last week of January!

We spent almost two hours on a Zoom call with the adoption investigator who asked us lots of questions about our home life, our family dynamics, the way we grew up and the way we planned to parent.

Meeting with an adoption investigator sounds scary, doesn’t it?

Well, it wasn’t! In our case, we were interviewed by a young, very casual individual who conducted her Zoom interview with us from a table at Panera.

The next day she came into our house for the home inspection. That sounds scary too, right?

I led her around the house (that I had worked all day to make as cozy and inviting as possible). She asked to look inside our closets and behind the shower curtains, but that was as detailed as her inspection went. She didn’t even ask to see the dryer vent I made Paul clean for me! 🙂

After those two meetings, we waited a little over a month for our adoption home study to be written. This is a written out collection of all the data and information we’ve provided them since the beginning of our application process.

The home study had to go through a round of revisions, where people came back to us and asked questions we’d already answered (and that were also on file somewhere in their office).

On April 6 I received an email that I had to read three times before I believed it was real. The first line said “Your home study has been reviewed and approved.” Yay!!

After scheduling one last Zoom meeting, we were done! Paul met me at work and we conferenced with our adoption specialist during my lunch hour.

—> Here’s the adoption update in one sentence: Our approved home study is now in the state database and can be considered by any case worker who is looking for a home for the children under their care.

What’s next? At some point (it could be tomorrow, it could be months from now), we will receive a phone call from a case worker who has chosen us to be considered as adoptive parents for a child or group of siblings.

At every step, Paul and I can take time to discuss and pray over the details. A phone call leads to a meeting with the child/children’s case worker, then a meeting with the child/children, then an overnight stay in our home and possibly a weekend stay in our home before we can decide to move forward with adoption.

(from the family album I created to help the children get to know us, our extended family and our home)

One thing we’ve heard quite a few times from various people is dismay over our decision to adopt an older child or children. We’ve heard things like, “Oh, don’t do that. They’ll be so messed up.”

I love what Tara Leigh Cobble says in The Bible Recap: “God knew what he was getting into, adopting a bunch of sinners into his family and giving them a seat at his table.”

That’s our motivation when our own hearts feel weak. We get to do for them what God did for us, except we are not saving them – we’re pointing them to the Savior.

There is pain, but there is love and there is hope because we know Jesus. It is an honor to nurse a life back to where it should be, despite the pain for all involved. That’s what Jesus did for us!

Keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up. (Hebrews 12:2-3)

We’re using this waiting time to think, study, pray, and talk through as much of our unknown “jump into parenting with both feet” future as we can. I’m really thankful for this time that God is using in both of our hearts to draw us closer to him as we wait.

We’re also working on home projects that will make our little ranch house more conducive to housing extra people. Paul and I both had happy childhoods in small, cozy homes and we are excited to share our home with the children God places here. ❤

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What questions do you have for me? I wrote a post about the actual home study process that you can read here. It will help you and hopefully encourage you if you’re in the adoption or foster care home study process yourself.

Many of you have told me you are praying for us and the children God will place in our home. Thank you so much! It means the world to us. ❤

Read More:

• 10 Ways To Support The Foster Parents In Your Life
• The Question That You Should Stop Asking: “Are You Ever Going To Have Kids?”