Matched

It's been a while since I have blogged.  To say "we have been busy" is an understatement...!  I wanted to give an update on our adoption.

After meeting our case worker at FF for the first time in April, we proactively searched for potential adoptive children.  We were particularly seeking special needs children and sibling groups.  On several occasions, we read biographies of children that we wanted to inquire about.  Inquiring did not lead to any matches.  We felt that our agency wasn't doing very much in the way of seeking out potential adoptive children on our behalf.  That is until, we were asked by them about our interest in a certain special-needs sibling set in metro-Atlanta that needed a new home.

After much prayer and discussion, we said 'yes' to learning more about these two children...a three year old girl and a four year old boy.  The boy is non-verbal and has severe medical challenges.  Saying 'yes' kicked off a flurry of activity...

• July 26th - Presentation.  Meeting with our agency to learn about the children.
• August 24th - Staffing meeting. We met the foster mom, (5) people from DFCS and (3) social workers from our agency to learn more about the children.
• August 29th - We were officially 'matched' with the children.
• September 22nd - First visit with children in the foster home.
• October 22nd - Visitation officially began.

We found out this week that a tentative placement date in our home is December 5th.  We will have weekend visits with the children up until the time they move into our home in December.

Kristie and I are thankful that the Lord has opened up many doors along the way.  We will continue to walk through them one at a time.  We know that the road ahead will be extremely challenging, and will stretch us in ways that we haven't ever been before.  We are thankful for the support that we have from friends and family.

Please be in prayer for us and this adoption.  Additionally, Kristie's dad has been in the hospital for over two months, so we are dealing with all that goes in to helping a sick parent.

We do need help as we get ready for these children to move in, so I am simply putting it out there on this blog.  We have not had a toddler in the house for many years, we will need supplies, diapers, sippy cups, etc.   Also, we will be making numerous trips to see these children for visitation over the next 6 weeks.  This will require tons of gas and patience with Atlanta traffic.  Also scheduling will be extremely challenging.  I am praying that GOD will take care of our schedules and work out all of the details.  I have no doubt that He will make it happen.

Thanks again for everyone's support and prayers during these next few months.