All God's Children International

First, I want to say something about how awesome our church is! Last Sunday, Pastor Dave and his wife Roxanne hosted a new group for foster and adoptive parents. It was uplifting and overwhelming at the same time. It was fantastic to meet people in our church family that are either foster parents or adoptive parents. I could have sat and listened to their stories of courage and love all night long. It was an honor to be among this group of caring and selfless people who open their homes to children who need them....for a night spent in a warm bed to a lifetime of memories with their Forever Family. What a heartwarming experience!

The reason I'm writing today is because we have decided on an adoption agency! It was not an easy decision, but God kept putting this agency in front of us while we did our research. So, it seemed very clear to us that this is the direction He wants us to go. It's called All God's Children International www.allgodschildren.org. It is a non-profit Christian agency that works with the Oregon Foster Care program. The children are currently living in foster homes, and the birth parents have lost their parental rights. The children are living in a safe and loving environment while they wait for their Forever Home. The program has children ages 1-17 years. We will still be focusing on children under the age of 3. When the time is right, we will travel to Oregon to take custody.

Our first step is to fill out the application. It is about 6 pages long, plus all of the supplemental paperwork that goes along with it - the 3 page financial statement, the doctors' letters, the personal medical statement, the right arm, the left leg...the list is crazy!

Once we fill this out and submit it with our application fee, then, we wait for the approval. Once approved, we will begin the Home Study process. This takes 3-4 months. During this process, we will complete a 2 day orientation class, meet with our social worker who will get to know us, our lifestyle, and do an inspection of our home. The social worker will be the person writing our profile that will later be presented to the committee (I'll explain that in a minute). Home Studies can also involve inspections from other sources, such as the Fire Marshall to make sure our house is up-to-code with smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, etc.

Following the Home Study will be the Referral Process. This can take anywhere from 1-24 months. We will review bulletins of waiting children, select children that our family is open to adopting, then AGCI will submit copies of our Home Study to the State of Oregon Caseworker.
Following that, we wait to see if the caseworker accepts our Home Study (they will select up to 3 families for each child). If we are selected, then we will be represented by AGCI at the Adoption Committee. The adoption committee will choose which family will be the Forever Home of the child or sibling group. This process can take 2-4 months.

Once we are chosen by the adoption committee, placement can happen in 1-4 weeks. We will travel to Oregon for this.

Wow - as you can see, we have quite a long road ahead of us. We have faith that God has a plan, and He will make it as simple as possible. Thank you all for your prayers and words of encouragement.

I'd better get moving along...and start that crazy long application. I'm sure it'll take a couple of weeks just to fill that thing out! eek!

Research, research, research

Not much of an update, yet. We are still in the midst of research. The outpouring of support from friends and family is a little overwhelming...and it is simply fantastic.
We've received emails & phone calls from family and friends with all kinds of connections. It's amazing to watch the work that God is doing here.
This is all I have for an update: We have found an agency that we have a great feeling about, but haven't made a decision on them, yet. We have given ourselves a deadline of the end of January to decide what we'll do. It's time to get moving on this! We have months of home studies and strangers scrutinizing our personal lives to look forward to!
I know what you are thinking: What is a "home study"? Well, we will be assigned a social worker who's job will be to help match us with the appropriate child. A home study also includes classes on parenting (isn't that cool - we actually get to learn the proper way to be parents!), interviews from the social worker, including visits to our home (to ensure we meet state licensing standards, the size of our home, etc). They'll also review our health records, our financial statements, and our background checks, etc, etc....you get the idea.
The Home Study report will include family background, education/employment, relationships, daily life, our parenting perspectives, religion, feelings about our readiness for adoption, and a summary of the social worker's approval/recommendation.
In other words, it can be a long and difficult process. Of course, all of this needs to be completed before we can even think about moving on to the next step. So, we'll look forward to these steps next month.
Thanks so much for all of the prayers!

WE HAVE BIG NEWS!!!

HAPPY NEW DECADE, EVERYONE!

We have big plans for 2010. And, God has even bigger plans, it seems! We know 2010 is going to be a life-changing year for us, and we are looking forward to every second of it.

To be honest, we really thought things would be getting ramped up for us in the summer, but our Pastor called us to a meeting and asked us to help lead the church's youth group. So, we are going to go check it out to see how it goes. That starts next week. I don't know where it will lead, if anywhere, but it will be a fantastic experience and one that I think we'll need, as we head into some of our other plans/hopes/dreams, call it what you like... haha.

In the summer, Rob will begin preparing for his very difficult FAA exams for the A&P Mechanic license. He should complete testing by the fall.

By that time, we hope to know more about God's plans for us, in the meantime, we wait patiently. It's not easy...but we feel He's going to lead us into good things, so we faithfully wait.

We also feel that God has put it on our hearts to ADOPT A CHILD!! This is huge, as you know. It was a big decision for us to accept this calling, and it's still difficult to believe....but we are sure this is in His plan...so we are putting it out there that we are open to adoption opportunities..whatever God brings our way. We are excited to see what the plan is for us.

We have announced this to our immediate family over the holidays. It was a fantastic and eye-opening experience, just to announce. Some were joyous, some cried, some screamed, some were just indifferent, saying things like, "that's great" and wishing us luck with the endeavour. The most memorable ones were Mike, who will be our child's Papa cried (first time I'd seen that...and it made me cry), and Martha, who will be our child's Great-Grandma, who joyfully told me that it will be her 12th great-grandchild, and she can't wait to meet him/her.

Several people have asked us to keep them updated, and I figure the best way to do that is to blog about our journey. So, here you are, the first entry in our Journey to Adoption blog. We have decided to call it "Chosen DeVol" because we believe that our child will be chosen for adoption by God, just as He chose Moses to be adopted. We want our child to know that he/she was chosen and that being a DeVol means being loved...just spelled backwards. :)

OK - and here is the stuff you want to know: Here is where we stand: We IN THE BEGINNING! So, here is what we need: ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING! If you know anyone who is connected to the adoption world, if you know a birthmother seeking two very awesome adoptive parents, if you know anyone, anything, anyhow, anywhere, please let us know. We are praying for a healthy American child under the age of 3. Gender does not matter. So, get your thinking caps on. You can help us by considering all of your contacts and giving them a call, having them call us, etc. We want our friends and family to have a HUGE part of this experience with us. After all, it takes a village, right?

Wow, it's really been a journey for us the last couple of years! I have learned more about myself, my limits, my abilities, and my awesome husband (I couldn't have made a better choice!)! I have come to truly understand the meaning of FAITH...and how to exercise that faith in a positive way and how to not just believe...but to KNOW good things are coming our way. It is a hard lesson, but it's been learned, and I'm glad for it.

THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF THIS WONDERFUL JOURNEY WITH US!