This morning Ryan and I had our joint interview for our home study. To say I was nervous, would be an understatement. We are fortunate enough to have friends that have gone through the adoption process before us, so we had an idea of what to expect, but still....I was a nervous wreck! When you decide to get pregnant, there is no one there to critique you and to tell you if you are fit enough to be parents. Well, I take that back...you might have people tell you these things, but they are generally your family or friends....not professionals who can allow you to adopt or to the end the whole process! The only thing I can compare this interview to would be our premarital counseling when I felt like we were being judged on if we were ready for marriage or not. The only difference there was that we knew our marriage counselor extremely well, and we had never met our adoption specialist. In fact, the last time Ryan and I sat down together for an "interview" was for our premarital counseling, so its been a while!
I am pleased to say that I think our interview went well! We had been told it would last 1 1/2 to 2 hours, but we were out of there in 1 hour and 10 minutes. We didn't delve extremely deep into any one topic. The main topics of conversation were how we each deal with grief/loss, what our expectations are for Miss A and how we see her fitting into our family, how we think this will affect our 4 biological daughters, what kind of support system we have, and our plans for her schooling. Thankfully, Ryan and I had thoroughly discussed each of these topics prior to our interview, so we were able to answer these questions easily, and on the same page.
Our next step is our individual interviews and our home walk through. These will take place this coming Tuesday. After that, our home study will be complete! Our placement agency is finishing up our dossier, so once we get the home study write up, we will be ready to submit our dossier! After that, will be the long, agonizing wait to hear from immigration. Please be in prayer for the government agents that will be looking over our dossier, both here in the US and also in Ukraine... that they will look favorably upon our application, and that they will process it quickly. Having a child in another country that you can't talk to on a daily basis, that you can't hug and tell them that you love them, that you can't be there for for the little every day things, is torture. We pray that this process will move along as swiftly as possible so that we can bring our sweet daughter home, and hopefully start the healing process for her from all of her past heartbreak and disappointments.
I listened to "You're Not Alone" by Meredith Andrews the other day. I have always loved this song, but this was the first time I have listened to it since starting our adoption process. It has such a wonderful message. My heart breaks for all orphans who face each day without a loving family, with sadness and hopelessness and fear. No child should have to feel abandoned and alone in this world. And yet, so many children do. I am looking forward to the day that we bring A home and show her what loving parents look like, what a loving, supportive family looks like. That she doesn't have to face this world alone, that she is cared for and she is worth loving! But even more than that, I cannot wait to teach her about our loving Savior. I can't wait to teach her that even in her darkest moments, He was there. That if she will let Him, He will use all of those heartbreaks and disappointments for good. That even though she couldn't see Him in the darkness, she made it through because of Him. I would encourage you to listen to "You're Not Alone" below. And if you do, please pray that many more orphans will find a family, and not have to face this world alone. And even more than that, that they will know that they have a Father that loves them and is with them every moment of every day, even if they can't see Him or feel Him.
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