Check, check and check

For those of you eagerly awaiting news on the home visit. It went fine. My friend Nikki arrived about 20 minutes before the social worker and while she was more interested in the coffee, I made her walk through and take a look at the entire apartment before I would let her have a drop of caffeine. Not a very nice way to treat a friend who took time off from work to be on hand for an interview from the social worker, now is it. But after her walk-through I did treat her to a cup of Apple Pie in the Sky Coffee with cinnamon hazelnut creamer. (Can you tell I am wishing I had a cup of that in hand now?)

Anyway the social worker arrived right on time, complimented me on my directions and then dismissed me to my room, so he could talk one on one with Nikki. About 10 minutes later, they were done. Nikki headed to work and my visit began. First we went through the check list and at the end I realized, I had everything but one thing checked off. Check, Check and check!!! Still waiting on the fire marshal review, but my social worker suggested a work around! He thinks that since my apartment complex has been inspected, that should work for the home study, if I can get my hands on a copy of it. I went to the rental office on my way in, but management is at a conference today, so I will have to check back tomorrow. Fingers crossed and heart hoping.

The good news is, if I can get the fire clearance and firm up one other area of concern for him (he wants the funding for the adoption to be in my bank account and not my retirement account) then he can get the home study written up. This home study is the key to everything. It is the last piece of my Dossier puzzle and the key to my I-171 H (actually in Maryland, it is some other title, but I can't remember what it is...however I know what it does, it means the US says I can adopt an orphan and bring her back to the US).

At the end he asked me what age I was looking to adopt and I told him 2-5 years old. But just this morning I had received an e-mail from our agency that there were several 6-10 year old children that were paper ready. He didn't hesitate and said that he didn't think it was a good idea to go that old. What is so interesting about this process is, that his home study will hold a recommendation of what age and sex of a child that I am eligible to adopt. If this process has taught me one thing, it is about handing over the controls of your and decisions to someone else. That has been the hardest part for me.

Most of you know, I like to be in control. And this process is so far out of my control that it is at times frustrating. In fact a few weeks ago it was so frustrating that I went forward at church and asked for prayer. As the pastor prayed for me, his wife came up behind and started praying the most beautiful words. She prayed that Jesus would be my lawyer, my social worker, my doctor and anyone else that I needed him to be for me. And I have held on to that ever since and I am still holding on because I know that as long as He is in control, (He being Jesus, not the social worker) everything will work out just fine! And one last time for the record that is check, check and check!!!