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.