Making the Call
At 9 am on December 21st, I made the call to Adopt!inc. I believe they are the people God has led me to in order to do out home study. They cost more than others, but I just feel they are the right way to go. A colleague here at work used them to do his homestudy when he adopted his daughter from China. He said he would go with them again if they adopted another child. The personal recommendation is a big plus for me. In addition, the agency's operators are evangelical christians. We feel this will be a good fit for my husband and I.The cost for the home study is $1900.
I cringed when I heard that.
Then they told me their placement cost for domestic adoption is $9,000.
I cringed some more.
Then he told me that the legal fees will run about $10,000.
(big deep breath)
I said, "Okay, that's what I expected."
He asked when we wanted to get started. I said as soon as possible. Someone is going to call me back today.
It feels good to have at least made the initial call. It also feels terrible to be starting over again. We had high hopes of adopting throught the state and foster care, but perhaps it was just God's way of preparing us for bigger and better things.
I'll keep praying about the decision, and trusting that with God's guidance we cannot make the wrong decision. God already provided Michael with winter interterm teaching as well as a summer class in order to give us the extra income we will need. If we are careful, we can save up enough money to pay for the placement so we only have to borrow toward legal fees. And, we will have that lovely 10K tax credit from the government. Praise God for that.
My goal is to be able to have our first home visit by the end of January. That should give us time to completely unpack from the move and child-proof the house, as well as finish the mounds of paperwork we will have to complete. The good news is that we still have a lot of what we turned in for our home study with the state, so hopefully that will give us a good head start.
Hopefully, I can document our progress here, and perhaps assist others in their pursuit of adoption. I no longer have the goal of adopting in a matter of weeks or months. I know it will take a very long time.
We have decided to go ahead and set up the crib in the new house instead of taking it apart and putting it in the garage or in storage. If we get a call to do foster care and if God leads to to say "yes", we will accept the placement. We know we will not get a call unless God is behind it, and we know we will be able to say "no" if it is not the right situation or time. We are not leaving the foster care system, but we are not counting on that to be where we will adopt our children from.
My goal for 2006 is to complete the home study and have signed with an agency and have our profile "out there" waiting to be selected. We certainly may not be able to adopt within the year. I'd love to have a child by Christmas of 2006. But I am going to prepare myself now for that to not happen. As long as I am making progress toward a goal, I'll feel better about everything.
At least now, I'm not sitting around and waiting and wondering. I'm taking action. I'm stepping into the Jordan river. Sometimes, God doesn't calm the waters until you've gotten enough faith to step into the rushing current. This is my Jordan river. The rushing waters could pull me under and send me to my death - but God promised if I trust him, he will still the waters so that I will be safe. If I sit by waiting for him to still the waters first, I have no faith. God will still the waters, but He requires I do my part first.
He I am, God! I'm jumping into the Jordan! Let's go on together!
posted by No Longer In Crisis @ 12/21/2005 09:14:00 AM
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