Where we are at in our Adoption stuff!?

I wanted to write and let you know where we are in our Adoption process. This will be one of many updates, I am SURE!

In case you missed it, we are adopting through the Department of Social Services (DSS).

We FINALLY sent in most of our paperwork this past Thursday. We have been able to scan in and email most of all of our documents to our social worker, which has been nice.

So far, we have turned in our:
-Application
-Background check papers
-Went and gotten our fingerprinting done
-Filled out a Discipline Agreement (saying you won't hit/spank a child while in the DSS foster care system)
-Our Family History Information
-Completed and Sent our 10 page Autobiographies (both of us had to do this 10 page thing!)
-Send in all secure identity documents
-Made and sent our collage up there, which I will also print out and give to them in person. We are supposed to have 2 pictures of our family and home.

We have left to complete our:
-Financial Form (waiting on a more accurate picture when we do our taxes)
-14 hours of training
-Our child factor checklist (waiting on meeting with our social worker to go over what this overwhelming piece of paper really means i.e. what we can/can't accept in a child)
-Do our Medicals

Then we will have a home study completed, a sanitation check, and a fire inspection.

EVERYTHING is paid for by DSS, except for our medicals, which we pay for however much our insurance doesn't pay for. This will be somewhere around $100 for both of us.

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After I sent that first email with most of our documents the fist thing that we got a reply back on was not the most encouraging, actually. I was slightly taken aback at first, because basically our social worker just wrote back saying she was hoping we would reconsider our age range, because it could take SEVERAL years to get a child within the 0 - 1 year age range and even getting a child 0 - 2 years is difficult.

I guess I had hoped our first email back would have gone a little something like this: Welcome to the DSS Family! We are so happy you are adopting! (insert stuff about paperwork here). 

I called Hart and vented at first. Hart, we were so excited to send all that in and then that response came! I wasn't expecting that...where you? Is this a bad sign already? (insert him making me feel better and I realize how emotional I already am)

We wrote back explaining how we already have a 17 month old son and that we want to keep his birth order and we are fine adopting any child under his age range, so long as he is our oldest. We explained that we are beginning our paperwork now, because we knew it would take a long time.

Thankfully, our social worker COMPLETELY understood the birth order thing and was really sweet. She said that we should understand the it would take AT LEAST a YEAR, if not a little more.

Okay....THAT was more what I was expecting. It was clear that our social worker had just skimmed things over and saw our narrow age range. SEVERAL years seemed like forever...ONE year still seemed like forever, but a pregnancy is 9 months, so not too much more. And as a sweet friend said to me already... you NEVER KNOW what God will do!

How you can PRAY for us: 

-Please pray that we will have a positive experience when we actually meet our social worker and that we will "hit it off". This is someone we will interact with a lot in the next year or so and we just pray for favor in this relationship.
-Please pray that we would be able to get in to see our VERY busy doctor and that we will get our medicals complete
-Please begin to pray for the child/children that we will be adopting into our family. We have said 1 - 2 children in the age range of 0 - 1 year. Please pray that this child is kept safe and God will be protecting it whether it is already in this world or going to be conceived soon.
-Pray for our hearts to accept whatever God's will is for our family!

Love in Christ,
The Traylors