Well I thought I should send one giant update so everyone was on the same page and updated all at once :) First of all though, we want to thank everyone for their prayers and the huge role you all have played for us during this journey! We never knew it would look like this, but we are just so grateful for the way it has turned out and we're SO excited for the kid(s) God is placing in our lives!! Our destiny is to be parents and we just KNOW that He's working on some very special kiddos, getting them ready for us and getting US ready for THEM.
So we started this in...May? June? Late May I think. And while our agency has worked very hard to get us processed quickly w/ the required home study, it took a lot of time, and of course, the wonderful state of Arizona, the court took IT'S time in approving us as well. We were super blessed to find favor w/ them though, and the clerk at the court was WONDERFUL (and they're known for holding it against you if you badger them) and said "keep calling, we're getting to it". So I kept calling and kept calling, and today, found out that we have been APPROVED and are now fully certified and LEGAL to adopt!!!!! Our home study was approved by the judge and sent to another court (don't ask my why) for processing back to our agency. I called them, they confirmed they received it, and would be sending the necessary documents to our agency w/in the next few days.
What that means: Now the "searching" begins!! We are still very much interested in the 2 kiddos that started this journey, the brother and sister in Oregon. There is no guarantee at this time that they are A: still available and not already placed in an adopted home or B: that even if they ARE available, that they (their case worker) will find us to be a good match for them. So while we're still holding onto hope for them, we will now start our search for other kids. The process is LONG and will take some time, so prayers are still very much coveted and requested!!
Here's how the process works: there's 2 ways for us to "find" kids. 1: through the online websites and galleries. adoptuskids.org is the biggest. We see picture/profiles we like, "inquire" about them (that inquiry goes to their case worker). Their case worker then sends OUR case worker a request for our home study (profile, autobiography, fingerprints, letters of recommendation, etc). They review that and any other home studies from other families that have been submitted for the specific child or sibling set and pick 3-5 families that "match". Then, the set up a big conference call between the child's case worker, their foster family, and all the hopeful families' case workers, and each family's case worker will advocate on behalf of their family to convince the child's case worker and foster family to "vote" for them. Then they all vote and that family is then "matched" w/ that child. Please note that we will more than likely inquire on 30+ kids before we're even invited to a "match meeting". This process looks easy in email form, but will likely be a long time coming. We're praying for quick success (but the RIGHT success as well!!). Once we're "matched", we will receive the child's folder which will contain any and all background information and current medical records.....everything. We'll read through it, page by page, to determine if this child really fits our family. If we agree, then we say "YES" and we set up an official MEETING, where we will fly to wherever the child is and meet them for 5-6 days. After that meeting, we'll go home and FINALLY get to prepare our home for kids!!!!!!! Then the child or children's case worker will bring them to us anywhere from a couple weeks to a month or so later.
PHEW!! So that's how it looks!! After they come into our home, the agency will do follow up visits for a minimum of 6 months and then our adoption can be finalized and the Brooks' clan will grow!!! AHHHHHH we're so excited!! We are in for a long journey still, and possibly still a painful one as days go by and we're not "picked", but we really do know that God will place the right kids with us at the right time, so we just have to be patient, have faith....and ask that you remind us of that when we start to doubt :).
We love you ALL and will keep you updated as we know more. We DO ask that this be kept off of Facebook, as adopting through foster care is very private and requires extreme confidentiality when it comes to these kiddos. While the majority of our friends and family know, we just want to keep FB info limited until we can really have our family.
***J***
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