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!