Big Leap of Faith

One week isn't a long time to make any important decision and especially when it involves an actual human being halfway around the world.  However, that's how much time God gave us.  We had one week . . . well not really even that . . . to decide whether we wanted to notify China of our interest in this little boy.  We had to have initial paperwork turned in by Friday last week in order to prevent "Jordy's" file from being sent back to China.  Knowing how our God works, we took a very big leap of faith and filled out pre-approval paperwork requesting that China allow us to proceed with the adoption of this boy.  Our thought is that if God has placed him on our hearts, the least we can do is try.  If it isn't meant to be, we have faith that God will intervene in some way.  So, last week, we were figuring out our financial self worth, filling out blanks on paperwork, visiting our physicians for physicals, and visiting the lab to be absolutely certain we don't have Hepatitis, AIDS, or any other random illness that would be unacceptable to China.  Pre-approval paperwork done!  And now?  We wait.  We should know in ten business days what China's response is to our request.

In the meantime, I'm doing my best to be proactive about the next steps.  I've been in search of a Hague accredited home study agency in Indiana.  Turns out this is a very rare accreditation in Indiana.  I am getting discouraged because I called the agency a friend used and their accreditation had lapsed.  I called another agency in Indy and they no longer do China adoptions because of the strict requirements.  I called agencies in Fort Wayne and Leo with no luck.  I started calling Michigan but couldn't find an agency willing to do just the home study without the whole adoption process.  Finally, with much reluctance, I called Evansville, Indiana.  My reluctance comes from the thought of having to drive almost 6 hours one way multiple times both for the home study portion and for the post adoption reports.  But, I ran out of options.  Turns out, God had a hand in it.  I called Evansville and find out that they are Hague accredited and . . . this is the best part . . . they have someone in Fort Wayne able to do our home study.  Whoo hoo!  Thank you God for providing a solution that was better than I could have hoped for.  If we use them all the way through to the post adoption, they are actually cheaper than all the other options that weren't even options.  :)

I feel incredibly accomplished.  We have the PA paperwork turned in, we found an agency to do our home study, and we have an adoption agency to see us through that has been so very helpful so far.  

God is good!