Home study Part I

I'm a little behind on blogging, we've had a busy week. We spent the first part of this week (Spring Break) at a resort in Orlando, well Davenport actually. The resort is privately owned town homes, and there is a wonderful pool with a lazy river and water slide. The town home we stayed in was nothing special, 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen, etc, but it really needed some updates-so that made it so-so in our book. But we spent lots of time at the pool, the kids loved it, and we had a nice time-not too long, not too short.
We had the first part of our home study on Thursday, so we came home and cleaned the house on Wednesday. Our Family Adoption Specialist, Lindsay, came at 11 on Thursday. We were nervous( ok, I was), not really knowing what to expect, but it was really easy. She just sat and talked with us, and asked us questions-things like: why we want to adopt, the specifics of the child we are looking for (age, gender, race), and what types of  "issues" we are willing to consider in a child: ADHD, physical handicaps, mental handicaps, fetal alcohol syndrome, even "verbally defiant"-lol-what kid isn't?, just stuff like that. So, we discussed all of those things and decided what would work for us, so she can get an idea of who would be a good fit with us. She also asked for a brief description of each of our children. We were just open and honest, as usual, and felt really comfortable. We also gave her a tour of our home, showed her the kids rooms and discussed where the new kid will go. We will have another appointment in a few weeks, and then we should be done with all of the "application process"! The agency has "match meetings" once a week, a group of people including Lindsay, meet to discuss possible family matches for the kids. If they agree we are a good match, then we will get some info about the child and we can decide if we would like to get more detailed information and meet the child. From there it's just a period of getting to know the child and letting them get to know us, and once we are comfortable, the child moves in. After they move in there is a minimum of a 90 day period, to make sure everything is going well, if the case workers think all is well then we finalize! So, we're moving into a very exciting time in this process and I will try to keep you up to date on all of it.
Besides our vacation and the home study, I went with Bailey on her confirmation retreat this weekend. It was at St. Leo's University, a very pretty place. We had a great time just hanging out together, and with friends, and I think it really helped the kids to understand how important it is to be confirmed into their faith. I just really have a heart for middle schoolers and am glad I got to share this experience with them. It was a great weekend and it reminded me of God's purposes for me and gave me a renewed spirit to "go and make disciples"!