Our crew

Our crew

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Not This Time

Our case worker called this morning and told me what I expected to hear.  We did not get the girls.  I'm surprisingly not that upset about it.  When we first submitted our home study for them I thought about them constantly and didn't sleep well because I was thinking about them.  Then, after we got info on another sibling set, my mind was filled with both of them.  It's been so nice to be able to pray for these children and to associate a name with a face.  But out prayers have been that these children would be blessed with loving parents and a forever home.  I am happy to report that these two little girls now have a forever home.  I presume that it will be a loving one.

It was almost too good to be true anyway.  What are the odds of being licensed in three months and getting an adoptive placement immediately?  We also learned through this that our older boys would really like another brother.  We wait to see what the Lord has in store for us and we know that His timing is perfect and His plan for our family is perfect.  We didn't get these two girls, but they did get a home.  That's the point of adoption.  It's not about finding kids for families.  It's about finding families for kids.

I'm not sure if we will report here each time that we submit and are not chosen.  I'm sure I'll have an idea of how long it takes and how many submissions.  I'm a little afraid that our family size will deter the case workers, but again, that is all in the Lord's hands.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

I love our case worker

Have I told you how great our case worker is?  And how wonderful it has been working with Buckner?  I must admit that I was a little less than excited about being somewhat forced to go with a private agency.  (You can read about that in some of my earlier posts.)  But now that we are where we are, I couldn't be happier.  I know that the private agency case workers end up with a much smaller case load and can give more attention to each family.  I had heard that and was afraid of that too.  I didn't think that more attention from CPS was a good thing.  I was wrong.  I love having a case worker that thinks about me, even when I'm not right in front of her.  She emails me to tell me things even when I haven't asked.  Just today she sent an email to check in with us and to let me know she had sent an email to the little girls' case worker to see what's happening on that case.  We both knew that their case worker said she hoped to make a decision by last Friday.  As much as I wanted to, I didn't even have to call and bug her about finding out.  She did it all on her own.  And she let me know!  In a time when good customer service is pretty hard to find, I didn't expect to have such a caring and thoughtful case worker.  We definitely won the lottery on this one.

She hasn't been doing this for very long.  I'm guessing she's early to mid twenties and pretty fresh out of college.  She has told us we are the first family that she has gone through the whole process with.  She was my first point of contact with Buckner, did our first informational meeting, and all the training classes.  I know she's done some of those things with other families, but we are the first family she will see start to finish.  I think she's pretty proud of how quickly we've gotten licensed.  (That took effort on both parts and of course, God's perfect timing.)

We've also been blessed to connect with the adoption case manager at our local CPS office.  He is the one we met at our first CPS informational meeting.  We clicked with him right away too and he is actually the one that helped point us in the direction of Buckner.  He and his wife adopted through Buckner a few years ago since CPS workers can't adopt directly through CPS.  We met back up with him a few weeks ago at the adoption event and enjoyed our visit.  Andrew also met with him today as he was doing some paper work to get on the list of adoption attorneys for CPS.  What a blessing it has been to work with these two fine, caring, Christian people.

The are also thankful to have met the little girls' case worker.  She was very kind and easy to talk to.  I hope that meeting her and talking to her face to face was advantageous for us.  I've been afraid that having a large family to begin with would be a deterrent to other case workers.  A friend pointed out though just how subjective the whole system can be.  It's really up to the kids' case workers.  If they've had good experiences with big families, they will work in our favor.  If they've had bad experiences with big families, they'll scratch us off the list quickly.  I hope that they are intrigued enough by our Dear Case worker letter to at least look into us more.

We are still waiting to hear anything.  We are trying not to get our hopes up.  Our kids are asking and anxious. They are all excited about new siblings. We pray for them daily.  We are already a big happy family, but hope to soon be an even bigger happy family.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

T-shirts

I'm asking again in case anyone missed this. We are selling t-shirts to raiser awareness for adoption and to help fund some of our adoption related expenses. The pre-order closes on Friday. You can click the link in the comments to order or you can send me a message and I'll take down your info. They're $20 for local pick up and $25 shipped. 
The link to the order spread sheet is (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkTJTWgNwnvydGhsbTZvQnFJczdzUUxBWkJCVUtlUUE&usp=sharing#gid=0)

Find us on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ShippAdoption


Friday, March 7, 2014

Busy Bee

I'm trying to keep myself busy with projects so that I can keep my mind off the possibilities.  Since we've submitted our home study on the two little girls, we have been notified about another adorable sibling group.  (I really wish I could share pictures with you all!)  Seeing their pictures makes it all very real.  I like knowing their names and being able to pray for them specifically, even if they aren't meant to be in our family.  In the mean time though, my mind is racing.

In case you don't know this about me, I'm a planner.  I want a plan A, B, and C at the very least.  I want to know where our potential kids are going to sit in the car, around the table, and at church.  I want to plan their birthday parties.  I want to think up fun nick names for them.  I want to plan our future photo shoots so that one day I can share them with everyone.  But I can't.  Not only do I not know when or if we will get the call on these little girls.  I don't know when we'll get a call on anyone.  And if we get a call, I don't know how long it will take or when we will get whomever they are. I can't plan.  And it's driving me nuts.

Today I busied myself with a couple of sewing projects for the girls.  When I told Andrew that I had fabric for the girls he gave me the look.  He suspected I was already sewing for new kids.  I wasn't.  But that doesn't mean I didn't think about it.  And besides, I can always get more and make them matching outfits too!



It's comforting knowing that our great God has had our family planned from before time began.  I don't know who will be in our family, what they will look like, their age, or gender, or anything.  But the Lord knows.  And it's a perfect plan.


In the mean time, I'm making lots of lists and crossing many things off.  Next up, cleaning out the freezers.  I'm making as many plans as I can. I'll probably have a whole alphabet of scenarios figured out before we know anything.  And then none of them will work.  It's fun to dream though.





Saturday, March 1, 2014

The Adoption Event

The event went well.  At least from our perspective.  There were about 12 couples there, mostly from out of town.  I think there was one other local couple.  The first hour was without the kids there.  The CPS workers told us what to expect, what kind of questions were off limits, and generally how to interact with the kids.  We also all introduced ourselves to one another and the CPS workers.  Danielle, our case worker, came too.  Only private agency workers came with their prospective adoptive parents.  We were so glad to have Danielle there with us.

During the orientation there were pictures around the room of many of the kids that would be present, including a sibling set of two little girls.  From the moment I saw it, I knew that was what we were there for.  I jokingly asked the case worker if we could hide that picture so that no one else would see.  We quickly identified the girls' case worker and made it a point to talk to her at length since these little girls weren't present.  (No kids under age 5 were there.)

There were about 12-15 kids there.  They had activities spread out for the kids to do and the prospective adoptive parents to participate in with the kids.  The petting zoo was the biggest hit.  We only actually interacted with one teenage girl.  I can't imagine how hard that was for her!

We were able to meet several CPS workers that will be great contacts.  Hopefully they will advocate for us as well.  (I think they will.)  At the end of the day we were able to submit our home study for those two little girls.  They are here in town and their case worker said that they really want to find a local family for the girls.  I can't give much information about them (I wish I could share their picture with you all!), but please be praying for them and for us during this waiting period.  The case worker said that she hopes to have the home studies reviewed and narrowed down to three families within two weeks.

This may or may not be it for us, but we are so glad we went to the event.  Please pray for all that are involved in this case.  We know that the Lord will accomplish His will.