The start of a long road

This week has been both exciting and scary...
and full of anticipation for what lies ahead

After much prayer, seeking God's will, and the wise counsel and prayer of many good friends (thank you all - you know who you are), we have decided to apply to be adoptive parents...

We attended an open evening last week, where we heard what adoption is all about - first hand from parents who have adopted, and also from the social workers' point of view... we heard about the ups and downs, the forms and meetings, and how long it all takes! And we were excited...

That meeting confirmed what we'd been feeling for a while - that this was the right thing to do.

So we filled in the initial enquiry (the pink form!) and sent it off.
Today we received the acknowledgement - and somebody will phone us within the next couple of weeks to arrange to come and see us here at home...
Better get the hoover out and do some dusting at the same time!!

It seems that 2 social workers will come and visit us - ask us lots of questions about ourselves and our motives - what we have to offer, what we hope for...
then they will write a report and determine whether they think we would be suitable adoptive parents for the kind of children they are looking after.

If they think we are, then we complete a full application, which kicks off the official process:
training days
police checks
references
weekly meetings at home with the social worker, thinking through issues, discussing our approach to everything and anything...
At the end of it all, they'll know more about us than we do!
Then there is the adoption panel - they make the recommendationas to whether we are suitable or not...

All of this takes about 8 months...

So the start of a long road - but full of anticipation for what God has in store for us...
We just keep imagining - God knows who will be in our family already - that's an awesome thought!