It is almost a month to the day since we last shared an update with you. Thank you for your patience and understanding with that. This past month has been a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions. We did add a crib and a rug to our nursery this past month though! Check out the picture below.
Let’s rewind to October 16th! Ashley was on Fall Break and Tommy took time off from work to go to our initial meeting to begin our home study. We got dressed up and were so excited to take this first “big step”. We walked into the office and were told to wait in a conference room. As we sat down, we noticed the “look books” in front of us and were even more excited as this all began feeling real. Our contact came in and sat with us as we began talking. Initially we were told this meeting would last 1.5 hours. We were nervous, but so ready to take this first step. We were asked to fill out a background check- no worries for us and we felt a completely normal first ask. Then we were handed document after document to complete at a later date. We were told what the next steps were and were sent home less than 30 minutes after our meeting began. December would be the next time something “big” would happen. Our emotions were all over the place after leaving that meeting. Why didn’t we do more? Why wasn’t this given to us a month or more ago? Why wasn’t this a phone call or a zoom meeting? Are we going to be done with this step before Christmas? Will we ever be parents? The questions came in a flood of uncertainty as we left that meeting. When we arrive home, we completed all the paperwork we could and made sure all necessary appointments were made to complete the various steps of this Home Study. We are in the middle of our Home Study, but it just doesn’t feel that way.
Fast forward to 2 days after our first Home Study meeting. An opportunity was presented to us of being able to foster-to-adopt an infant. Of course we were open to the idea of that, but had so many questions. We had initially began with foster-to-adopt in 2021, but were so worried about what would come with that we pulled away. We felt like this opportunity may be God asking us (calling us) to be open to that idea. So we just said yes to whatever might have come. We explored that option and talked to various people. We were unsure if it would even happen. We were hesitant to even tell our parents/families because of the false hope it may give them. We did anyway and we were all excited of this possibility. Even if it was not in God’s Plan for it to happen, we continued to be open to the possibility. This past Wednesday the baby boy was born and more was added to the complication of fostering to adopt this child. For reasons we will never fully understand, it was not in God’s plan for us to foster-to-adopt at this time. We informed our families and while we were disappointed, we had, and continue to have, faith that whatever God’s Plan for us is that we will one day be parents.
If you have made it this far, thank you for joining us on our journey. Here we continue to wait and prepare ourselves for the adoption process. We wait by getting fingerprinted, heading to annual health check-ups, filling out questionnaires and paperwork, getting trained and eventually having someone visit our home. The wait is hard and long, but the joy and beautiful addition to our family one day will be more than we could ever hope and dream.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers and share our journey! There are so many families out there like us who long to be parents and we want them to know they are not alone. We will continue to pray with all of you for our future child as well as for all of you who are part of our village near and far.