Mercy gives hope...and hope is everything to a child

We have received our Adoptive Parent Home Study Packet!  The saying on the front is "Mercy gives hope...and hope is everything to a child" 

This saying reminds us of why we are doing this.  There is a child out there with hope of finding his or her Forever Family, and God has planned for us to be the family for that child.  It's something bigger than we can imagine, as only God can do.  It's pretty amazing. 

We have a VERY long road ahead of us....this home study packet is a 2 inch 3-ring binder of things to do.  No kidding.  We have to do the local, state and FBI criminal background checks, complete with fingerprints.  Then there are the refererences, the statement of guardianship (should something happen to us), the home study visits, complete with fire department inspections, the 51 page personal profile.... no joke... - 51 pages.  Then there is the Child Characteristics checklist, which is a 5 page document with 2 columns on each page (each column with about 50 questions) of what we will/will not consider.  WOW!!  You think you know yourself.  The emotional part wants to check the boxes that we'll consider any child that God has planned for us....no matter what!  The practical part says, "Hold on a minute!  You know NOTHING about that - you even had to Google it to know what it means!  How do you intend to deal with a child in that situation?!"  So, I'm sure we'll learn a lot about ourselves and each other as we prayfully consider each line of this section of the home study.  The financial and medical documents are only 2 pages long! Wahoo!  But, then, there are the verifications for each of those. Well, nothing is going to be easy. 
I would normally feel overwhelmed as I look at this binder, but our new BFF, Deb Athans at All God's Children will walk us through each step of this, and she has already been in touch with us to set up a time to talk about the first step.  Thank goodness for Deb!!

Next step:  Call Deb back. 

More to follow.