And...relax! 3/5/10

Whew!  We had our home study this morning, and we "passed with flying colors."   That is what our adoption counselor said.  Noel and I have spent the past two weeks getting everything ready for this home study.  This week alone, I probably spent at least 15 hours doing a deep cleaning of our house.  We had several conversations this week apologizing for turning into the stress monsters we were both acting like.  The actual home study only took about two hours. She asked a lot of questions, but we had already answered the same questions on our application.  We then showed her around the house.  In my mind I was envisioning the adoption counselor going through our home doing the "white glove test."  Fortunately this was not the case.  When the gun question came up, she merely asked if we had, fire arms in the home and if they were locked up in a separate cabinet than the ammo.   She didn't even ask to see it, so during the home tour, I made it a point to show her exactly where the gun and ammo cabinet was.  Noel and Todd worked too hard on that for it to go unnoticed. 

After the home study, Noel and I had a wonderful lunch date at our favorite place, La Madeleine.  It was so nice to spend this time with my husband and to finally not feel stressed.  After our lunch date, we came home and I entered into a 3 hour "coma."  I laid down in my chair and slept so good.  I really do love naps :)

I just love when I see God's finger prints all over a situation.  He has blessed us yet again with our adoption counselor being a Christian.  It was so encouraging to have this home study interview and be able to share our faith and plans to raise our child in faith.  I felt like we were really able to be ourselves and she perfectly understood.  She even offered us some very encouraging words.  We were discussing the obstacles that some adopted children face.  She reminded us that by raising our child to love the Lord, He will honor and bless us for doing so.  And in this blessing will be His protection for our child and family.  That was so encouraging to remember.

So our next step is to gather our financing for this adoption.  This is not something that we wanted to do until our home study was complete.  We will need to pay the agency fees before our profile can be shown.  So now, money is the only obstacle in the way of bringing home our baby.  In order for our profile to be shown to birth mothers, we must pay this fee that was more than what we paid for my new car last July. We are still holding onto the belief that the Lord will provide the finances since we truly believe He placed this desire to adopt in our hearts.  So please join us in prayer for the Lord's provision.