ugh....Paperwork

Ok, if there was ever a reason to reorganize every important scrap of paper on your life, this is it. We've finished the poking and prodding of the "self-study," a rather thorough questionnaire about us, what makes us tick and every aspect of our life together and apart. The social workers use it as an advance snapshot for our pending interviews (the home study). That wasn't too tough, since we generally wear our lives inside out. But now comes the fun stuff. Our friends, the Nichols, are several months ahead of us in the process. Tonight, they shared their journey thus far with the church. (they did a great job, by the way.) One thing Stephen pointed out is that, with international adoption, you get to wade through the bureaucracy of TWO countries. I laughed then. I'm groaning now.

So now I'm tracking down our financial stats, insurance policies, previous employers, family history, and references. Later this week, we begin our interviews with Mary, our case worker from Bethany. We also get doctor visits, criminal background checks, and birth certificates requested this week. I'm starting to feel the weight of the process. But at least it's progress. Ha ha - I guess we've been feeling the "wait" of the process for a much longer time.

But the Lord is faithful and He is good, and He has sustained us through the waiting. Now, I know He will sustain us through the paperwork. It's not every day that you receive a "whole life inspection," but that's what it feels like. It's certainly not a bad thing.

On a side note, Amy headed back to school last week after a long Christmas break. I'm enrolled in Spanish classes at Chattanooga State. I realized I can squeeze in three semesters of Spanish before Salem arrives, and I won't want to take them once she's here. Nothing like a baby coming to make you hurry through a "to do" list.

Well, I'm about to break the seal on the "China Packet," an ADDITIONAL pack of forms we get to fill out. It turns out all the others we have are only for the stateside crowd: Bethany and the Feds. On a progress note, we have sent off our I-600A form, a permission slip to ask permission to bring a foreign child to the states for adoption. When we get that back (hopefully soon), we will have an appointment to get fingerprinted in Nashville. After that, we wait for the Federal forms, the Home Study, and our prints to get clearance. Since this is a time consuming process, we look forward to getting our request back so we can get fingerprinted and begin waiting. You can pray for that process to speed through. Thanks.

Also pray for us as we wade through paperwork. While I'm used to juggling lots of things at once, it's not due to my great organizational skills. Pray God will help us stay focused and organized through this paperwork process. Thanks. And thanks for checking in with us. I feel like the process has truly begun. (We even wrote our first check.) We'll probably post weekly to let you know how it is going and how we are managing.