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)