Pages

Monday, November 21, 2011

Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving this week, I want to reflect on my blessings through a process that has been frustrating and heartbreaking. We are still dealing with frustrations, but there is hope of some additional progress in the next few weeks.

Psalm 9:1
"I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds."

Thanksgiving 2011 Blessings:
  • a wonderful husband who loves me very much
  • supportive family
  • State Representative's Senior Aid helping with our adoption
  • some progress with our adoption
  • a lovely home ready for our future child(ren)
  • prayers of many believers that our child(ren) will come home soon
  • improved health
  • I know God is looking over our future child(ren)
  • I have been a blessing to others who are embarking on their adoption journey

Genesis 12:2

"I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing"

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Finding grace

November is National Adoption Month and today is Adoption Sunday. There are stories of so many families created through adoption. During these celebrations, what is not discussed are the years of waiting, the mounds of paperwork and the frustrations each family experiences to bring their precious children home. In the past ten years, the adoption process - domestic and international - has become longer and there is more scrutiny about the potential adoptive parents.

The past three weeks, I have made contact with about four different people at DSHS trying to see if we can move our process along. At this point it looks like we will not be moving our foster-adopt process along any faster. Our adoption caseworker is overloaded and we just have to wait until she can find time to meet with us. Then I have to make a call to the foster care Placement Coordinator later this month to find out if she can found out if she can help us with getting a suitable placement. Being told that these two women are the only two people in the entire state who might be able to help us create our family is, in a way, frustrating and disheartening.

At this point, I have to find the grace to allow DSHS to go through their process even if I think they are moving too slowly. I have to find the grace to deal with the state workers who tell me I must continue to wait patiently for weeks and possibly months. I have to find the grace to find ways to make changes in the foster care system that benefit children while I hear of teens aging out of the system without permanent families.

I pray for grace, patience and forgiveness as we move through our adoption process and wait for our child to come home. As we get closer to the holiday season, it will be harder for me to not lose faith that we will have our precious child in our home come this time next year. I had this wish last year and this will be my wish until we have a child in our home.