24 hours of training complete!

We completed our final 12 hours of training with P127 last weekend. It was a long weekend, neither of us are very good at sitting for hours and hours! It was worth it though, every hoop we jump through gets us closer to getting our little kid :)

Next...

• I meet with a couple people and make our final decision on which agency/county we are going to move forward with
• We get our CPR/FirstAid Certification
• We attend the Empowered to Connect Conference
• We attend two hours of a local adoption support group
• Have our friends and family fill out support covenants
• We turn all of our certifications and hours into our caseworker
• We begin our homestudy/background check/fingerprint screening... this is where the waiting begins

We are buying a house this summer as well and cannot finish our homestudy until they approve the living space we will be bringing our little kid into. Our hope is to close on a house in July, move in, take the vacation Drew earned through work in August and then be ready for our little kid to come home when we get back!

In the meantime we are reading a gazillion books, talking, praying, dreaming, looking up how to build cool bunk bed, stressing about what sport he/she might want to play and how much things like cleats, uniforms and bikes cost, picturing Drew heading off to go fishing with him/her in his truck, lingering as I walk past the little kid clothes section at Target, planning camping trips with our friends in my head, crying as I think of the hurt in his/her little heart and wishing I was the one tucking them into bed at night, wondering what it will feel like the first time they call us Mom and Dad.

Honestly, all that mixed with the fears of not doing this well, of not loving enough, of exhaustion as I read and learn about attachment, trauma, loss and grief and knowing that all of my energy will be spent on this sweet little kid, knowing that how we are going to need to parent this child for his/her heart to heal is going to take so much work and patience and that our friends might think we are nuts for parenting so differently than you would a bio kid.

Our days are strung with a mixture of worry, fear, hope, excitement, faith, trust and wonder. As we prayed for our little kid last night before we fell asleep I asked Drew how he knew God wanted us to do this. As he answered me I drifted off to sleep with a sweet peace of having a loving Father who knows us, loves us and is intimately involved in our lives and sharing a life with a man who seeks that Fathers heart in all he does.

One thing I know for sure...the little kid we get to bring into our lives is going to have the best Daddy in the whole world.

(Drew filling out one of our many questionnaires)

12 of 24 hours complete!

We finished the first half of our certification this weekend. It was A LOT of sitting and being fed junk food. By the time we got home Saturday night we both felt sick! BUT, it was a ton of information and we met another couple about our age who live in Denver and are on a similar road to us. We got to grab lunch with them and they are going to come over for dinner before our next weekend of training which is the 18th and 19th. We really feel blessed to have met them. We feel sort of like the minority in the process being young and that we are choosing to adopt before we have bio kids. So, when we met Andy and Megan and we realized our many similarities we knew this other couple was going to be a huge blessing to us during and after this process!

So, after we complete this next weekend of training we compile all of our certifications (listed in the post before this one) and give them to Project 1.27 to process. At that point we have to choose ONE county or agency that works with P127 to move forward with and they will run our background check, process our fingerprints and then begin our home study. After we choose we will only be able to adopt out of their waiting children, this is where we are asking you to be praying for us. We believe that God has already chosen who will be our kiddo and that He is in control of this whole situation. We want to move in His shadow, not too far ahead or too far behind. At the next weekend of training all of the counties and agencies will be there to answer questions and tell us about their process. We were told they will also have pictures and profiles of their waiting kids which is where emotion enters and my extremist and impulsive tendencies want to jump in and try and take control of the whole thing.

To be completely honest everyone in that training room shared they wanted a young child, some said boys, some girls, some said they would be open to 2 or even 3 siblings. The average age of kids waiting and ready to be adopted is 10. There are exceptions to that, and we are hoping to not go older than 8 just because we are young. We have had a certain picture in our heart for a while now and have held it close to us not telling many people what we think God might have in store for us. At the same time we want to hold all of our expectations loosely and know that we are not in control.

I am not sure if I mentioned this in the last post but we are also house shopping:) We hope to move in July, so even though this certification is going quickly we don't feel good about bringing a child home until we are in that house. All that to say, we have a lot we are trusting God on right now:)

Please be praying for us, that we have an insane amount of wisdom when it comes to choosing a county/agency and choosing a home. Also, that in the midst of training and house shopping and certifications and dreaming about being parents, reading books about attachment, grief/loss and how to love a child well who has been so deeply hurt that our marriage and relationships would stay strong.

4 Hours Down!

We are in Loveland settling into our hotel room for the night. We just completed our first 4 hours of certification training and head back in at 8am tomorrow for 7 more hours!

We are soaking in a lot of good information and even made some friends who live in Denver. We bonded over Drew's Oregon hat and the fact that we are the only 20 somethings in the class :)

We are so excited to be on this journey and already completing half of our certification this weekend!

They suggested tonight that we start memorizing scriptures about fear, protection (spiritual warfare) and trusting God. Any suggestions?