Well we got a call last night from our social worker that she finished our official home study early and wanted to move our last meeting with her up by about 2 weeks!! So we will sit down and read it all April 1 and make sure everything is accurate, then it will get sent to Greensboro for final approval then on to the state for our foster care license.
We did end up opening up our criteria some on our final paperwork. We don't know who God has in the works to complete our family but we DO know that He wont give us more than we can handle and has the perfect child all picked out for our family, who needs a loving,dedicated mommy, daddy and sissy.
So we sit down on the 1st and read read read then we wait wait wait...and start looking at children to be considered for, and we can also be presented with children in need of homes that meet our criteria that our agency has/get in (we had to fill out a several page form with our "numbers", they had to be one of three numbers: willingness to consider, able to parent, or unable to parent, we were very honest and real with our numbers and took Gods lead and will see where He takes it).
So keep praying!
Friday, March 15, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
well....
We had our social worker meeting this evening. It went...well....we had everything we needed to, we were given another stack of paper to sign/read and some things they needed elaborated on (to help her write the official PPA).
She will be working on our official PPA next week (her spring break from school), then we will be meeting with her April 8 to review everything she wrote and approve its submission to Greensboro (main branch of our agency), from there it goes to the state to be approved as foster parents in NC (since we are adopting from the foster care system this is a requirement). ONCE it is complete/approved by our agency we start looking at children, and IF there is a child we like/get chosen for we can even meet them and start getting to know them, they just cant stay over night until we are officially licensed foster parents.
So as I said the meeting went "Well" but it was also a little discouraging. She was "real" with us which I appreciate and commend...basically she said the number of children in care that meet our age/gender criteria are slim from what shes heard/seen. They basically get almost no singleton children ages 0-5 and if they do the chances they are a girl are even less (like 1/2), (our written down ages right now are 3-9 girl) That is hard to hear especially since we already wrote down numbers above and below our ideal if we had to choose ages (which would probably have been 5-7 years)..so we are supposed to go back and discuss it and let her know if we want to broaden it. She said she is fine with leaving it at 3-9 girl but said that once we were up for renewal, if we had not been chosen, etc they would probably not continue on in renewing us. Also they get a lot of siblings. Would we love to help siblings, sure, most people would, BUT financially how would we afford sports, trips, and other things we want for our kids if there are three of them vs two!? We cant imagine.....so siblings are out unless a job increase comes in NOW or we figure out how to afford it otherwise!
While our social worker does not know everything and has realistic doubts to share with us, we KNOW that we SERVE an awesome, MIGHTY God who ALREADY KNOWS what child we will adopt, or IF we will adopt a child. There are children out there that needs homes, best case scenario no children we can parent will need a home in NC.....that's great, right!?
But a little discouraging to get THIS far into the process to hear this realness......So we are praying about expanding our ages/sibling abilities and will see what the Lord does.
So while it was a good meeting on paper it was a little bit of a discouraging meeting too.
Keep praying folks!
She will be working on our official PPA next week (her spring break from school), then we will be meeting with her April 8 to review everything she wrote and approve its submission to Greensboro (main branch of our agency), from there it goes to the state to be approved as foster parents in NC (since we are adopting from the foster care system this is a requirement). ONCE it is complete/approved by our agency we start looking at children, and IF there is a child we like/get chosen for we can even meet them and start getting to know them, they just cant stay over night until we are officially licensed foster parents.
So as I said the meeting went "Well" but it was also a little discouraging. She was "real" with us which I appreciate and commend...basically she said the number of children in care that meet our age/gender criteria are slim from what shes heard/seen. They basically get almost no singleton children ages 0-5 and if they do the chances they are a girl are even less (like 1/2), (our written down ages right now are 3-9 girl) That is hard to hear especially since we already wrote down numbers above and below our ideal if we had to choose ages (which would probably have been 5-7 years)..so we are supposed to go back and discuss it and let her know if we want to broaden it. She said she is fine with leaving it at 3-9 girl but said that once we were up for renewal, if we had not been chosen, etc they would probably not continue on in renewing us. Also they get a lot of siblings. Would we love to help siblings, sure, most people would, BUT financially how would we afford sports, trips, and other things we want for our kids if there are three of them vs two!? We cant imagine.....so siblings are out unless a job increase comes in NOW or we figure out how to afford it otherwise!
While our social worker does not know everything and has realistic doubts to share with us, we KNOW that we SERVE an awesome, MIGHTY God who ALREADY KNOWS what child we will adopt, or IF we will adopt a child. There are children out there that needs homes, best case scenario no children we can parent will need a home in NC.....that's great, right!?
But a little discouraging to get THIS far into the process to hear this realness......So we are praying about expanding our ages/sibling abilities and will see what the Lord does.
So while it was a good meeting on paper it was a little bit of a discouraging meeting too.
Keep praying folks!
Friday, March 1, 2013
One step closer!
We are one three steps closer!! We got our physicals and TB tests both approved, and our fire inspection done and approved! We were getting frustrated after several calls of finding out where we were supposed to even be calling to get our foster care fire inspection we finally got the right place (RALEIGH FIRE MARSHALS office in-case anyone in Raleigh needs that info). I gave the nice lady my information and she said we would hear from someone in 3-5 business days to schedule our inspection. A week went by and still no word, so I call back (after I relocated the correct number oops on not keeping it) and am told that I'm not in the system--WHAT!!-- So I explain how I had called, waited and needed it before March 6, for our next meeting with our social worker, she said she would put me in the system and print it out and hand deliver it to a supervisor to get someone to call me sooner rather than later. I hung up nervous it wouldn't get done, prayed it would and let it go, no call alllll week. Finally this morning Makenna and I were headed out the door (literally) and I noticed a missed call on my phone (I have the worlds worst cell reception inside my apartment in-case you have never tried to call me), I called the number right back and the inspector was literally in my neighborhood and wanted to pop over and do the inspection THEN! I had not prepared, was on my way out to work but said SURE! What possessed me to say sure I have no idea!! He came literally 3 minutes later, walked around the apartment checking windows/doors, smoke detectors, CD detector, fire extinguisher and filled out his little form...gave me a quick PASS instruction, talked to Makenna (ON HIS KNEES ON HER LEVEL SO SWEETLY I MUST ADD) about fire safety, etc and signed my little form....there was one touchy moment when he asked where my emergency numbers were posted and I said...uh..one sec...got a piece of paper and a marker, used my phone and got the non emergency police number, poison control and 911 written down and hung on wall with a push pin....he laughed and said PERFECT! We passed!! WOO HOO....
The physicals weren't easy either for a variety of reasons like timing, lack of a primary doc (OOPS), but I truly believe that God has his hand in this adoption and there is a little girl out there who needs us because God keeps working things out when we have no idea how its going to work!! For instance just today : I didn't have the money on me today for the unexpected last minute fire inspection and he didn't even ask me for a dime (maybe there is a bill coming which is more than okay but point being I had no cash on my TODAY to give the nice Deputy fire marshal)....I could go on and on on how God has been leading the way and providing for us through little and big things, but ill just say Wow.
We are getting excited about the nearing opportunity to start being considered for little girls!! We have our two meetings with our social worker for her fine tuning in her writing our homestudy, but I think WE are done now on our parts!!! PRAISE THE LORD!
Keep praying for our little girl wherever she is/whoever she is! We pray that she is safe, warm, healthy and happy with whoever she is with at this moment!
The physicals weren't easy either for a variety of reasons like timing, lack of a primary doc (OOPS), but I truly believe that God has his hand in this adoption and there is a little girl out there who needs us because God keeps working things out when we have no idea how its going to work!! For instance just today : I didn't have the money on me today for the unexpected last minute fire inspection and he didn't even ask me for a dime (maybe there is a bill coming which is more than okay but point being I had no cash on my TODAY to give the nice Deputy fire marshal)....I could go on and on on how God has been leading the way and providing for us through little and big things, but ill just say Wow.
We are getting excited about the nearing opportunity to start being considered for little girls!! We have our two meetings with our social worker for her fine tuning in her writing our homestudy, but I think WE are done now on our parts!!! PRAISE THE LORD!
Keep praying for our little girl wherever she is/whoever she is! We pray that she is safe, warm, healthy and happy with whoever she is with at this moment!
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