What does morning sickness feel like?

Ok, so no, I'm not pregnant, but man am I nauseous.  I didn't think you were supposed to get morning sickness when you were adopting. LOL

Here's the scoop.   About 1 1/2 weeks ago we were notified that there were two children in need of a family by our caseworker.  We decided to put our file in for these children.   To recap for those new here, the process goes like this - 

1.  Children identified and our family asked if we would like to send our file.  We will have received a photo and a short bio on the children at this point.

2.  If we say yes, the file gets sent and put together with other families' files that are interested in these children.  

3.  Selection Staffing is where the CPS worker and others go through the files and choose their top 3 families; and put them in order 1 through 3.  Family #1 will be notified and the children's detailed files are sent.

4.  A Presentation Staffing is held with the family to present information and for them to ask questions etc.  The family has 48 hours after this meeting to decide if they would like to continue to pursue the children.   If they say no, CPS then goes to Family #2 and the process starts again.

5.  If you say yes after Presentation Staffing, they schedule the meetings with the children.  They are always done wherever the children live; so if they are in Lubbock, El Paso, Corpus,...we go to them.  Usually there are at least 2 to 3 meetings, sometimes more to help the transition.   

Once they are in our home, the clock starts counting and at 6 months the adoption is finalized.

SO, now that we've gotten through all that - here's the deal -  we know we are in the top 3 families for these children - 8/31 they will decide the order.   Please pray, because we want God's will for this.  If these are the children for us, we want the door thrown open wide, if not we want it shut.  

Thank you everyone for standing with us.  We so appreciate your friendship, encouragement and love.  

Will keep you posted.

Josh and Juli

Homestudy - It's Over - Whew :-)

After much work, stress and sweat we completed our home study yesterday. It took about 5 hours but our case worker is fabulous and made the process go very easy. They asked lots of questions about us individually and together and we have a few things to change, such as adding a few more locks in the garage and moving some things to higher shelves but all in all it went very well. HALLELUJAH!!



From this point it will take 3 to 4 weeks for them to write the home study at which point they will sent it in and we will be licensed by the state. At that point, the matching begins.



I want to take a moment to thank everyone for all your prayers and help; especially -



Marsha; thanks for helping us especially on Saturday - we don't have anything to change on the rooms you worked on so you get an extra hug.



Janette and Jonathan Todd: Thanks you SOOOOO much for the many hours of cleaning carpets, hanging things, and basically turning the house upside down to help us get this done. And all your help after surgery, I really can't thank you enough for all your support and help. Josh and I both really really appreciate it. ;-)



Some extra prayers - I am currently unemployed having been laid off as most of you know but we are confident that God has something in store. Appreciate the prayers and will let you know as the process progresses.



Josh & Juli

Our Homestudy Date has been set! AAAAAAAA

Ok, so I received the email today from our case worker that they are ready to schedule our home study. I couldn't breath and actually thought I might become ill. Silly isn't it, it's just SO real.

The home study lasts 4 to 5 hours and is scheduled for the week of June 22nd. Breath...just breath. Actually now that I've had a few minutes to process I know how much time I have to get everything together and ready. I'm good. Actually Josh said something that really made me laugh;

He said, " You panic now, I'll panic later". I love my husband :-) He makes me laugh at all the right times.

We Passed the Fire Inspection!!

Woo hoo!!!! They came last week but we didn't have a smoke detector in every bedroom so they had to come back. Josh was really cute - he went over the checklist at least three times before they came; wouldn't you know....the item that told us we had to have one in all the bedrooms wasn't on there.....oh well......He went right out and bought them; he was going to be sure we passed with flying colors this go around and we did!!!

Next up, the rest of the paperwork gets turned in and then they schedule the home study.

For those of you new to the game; we are adopting a child from the state, we don't care about age, race or ethnicity. We just want God's will. oh, and did I mention we were thinking of siblings? did I mention you need to pray?

Juli

Still working on the house; getting everything ready for when the Home Study is scheduled. We are down to the details now; most of the large items are completed. We are very excited and equally nervous about becoming parents. God's timing.

Had a fabulous day with the niece and nephews. We had a late Easter get together and the kids had a blast whacking an egg-shaped pinata. I think they like that better than the candy that came out of it. LOL.

The Journey

Josh and I have begun our journey to adopt. We know that God has a plan for us and our family and have stepped out to start the process. We are excited, nervous, and all the other emotions that go with it.

Currently we have completed most of our forms and have had the fire inspection. Next is completing the rest of the list and getting our home study scheduled. Our hope is to have our new family together before the beginning of the next school year, but that remains to be seen. Our timing is not God's timing; we do what we can and then wait.

For those who are catching up with us in general, Josh still works for Life Outreach Today; James Robison's ministry, and I work for Christian Life Ministries; out of Uganda - Jackson Senyonga's ministry.

Please pray for us as we come to your rememberence. And thank you for standing along side us as we continue our journey.

Juli and Josh