Things are Moving Along

We are way overdue for an update...that's for sure! Between the middle of August until now we have had our 4 visits with our home study social worker, including the in-home visit. We've been busy! We have also been learning more American Sign Language (ASL). The kids like to show us every now and then a few of their favorite words, including food, eat, water, mom, and dad. But their favorite (and this must be a boy thing) is poop.

We have just about turned in all of our paperwork that our home study agency requires- just waiting on a couple of little things and then we'll have our part done. We are hoping our home study will be completed by next week sometime so it can be sent on to our placing agency and approved by them so we can move on to the next step- immigration and fingerprinting!

We are also waiting to see if we will be approved to adopt two children or not. Our social worker is 100% on board and feels we are ready, capable, prepared, and have done our research on the special needs we are open to. Her boss is saying no though because the disruption rate increases significantly for those who adopt two children and the disruption rate for Chinese adoptions is on the rise (though I think there might be a bigger reason for this than because people are bringing home two at once, but I won't get into that). We have filled out a special form with our placing agency for families interested in adopting two children, which has been shared with our home study agency. We have had multiple discussions with our home study social worker and a conversation with our placing agency. Sadly, someone is trying to make a life decision for our family and for a child who is waiting for a family and she has never even met our family. Our social worker is trying to support us the best she can and we are doing what we can. There are a couple more things we are going to try and we'll see if this person will change her mind or not. Ultimately, we need our home study agency's approval to be able to bring two girls home. We have the approval of the social worker we have been meeting with and who has come to our home, just not that of her boss- the director of the agency. We'll see where things go this week! Praying for God's plan to be revealed.