So much has been going on recently that finding time to post is quite rare. Especially since there’s so much to tell when I do post. But I think it’s time I make an attempt to bring the blog up to speed a bit.
We’re still in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. We got our dossier in recently, and it should be making its way across the ocean before too much longer. At this point, the next major step is to get referrals for two children at which point we’ll be asked to accept or reject the referrals. I think most people accept them, but occasionally something comes up in medical tests or something that people don’t feel they can handle. I can’t think of anything off hand that would make us refuse a referral, but sometimes these things are unexpected I guess.
While we wait for the referrals, there are plenty of things to do to fill up our time. One of the main things we’re trying to accomplish is plenty of training. We’re reading books (I finished “Attaching in Adoption” and am in the middle of “Black Baby, White Hands” which is excellent) and registering for various classes. The agency that did our home study offers a class on Transracial Adoption that we’re planning to attend. There’s another training that we’d really like to attend specific to Ethiopian adoption, but it’s out in Washington state so we’ll need to work a few things out to manage that one. The other classes that we’re taking are online through Adoption Learning Partners. We’ve only finished their “Conspicuous Families” class so far, but we really enjoyed that one. My favorite part of the course was the different scenarios that they give where people make really inane comments about your adopted child in their presence, and you have to pick which response you think would be best in the given situation. They had some amusing responses. 🙂
We have other books we’d like to read, too. We have one called “Adoption Parenting” that looks really good, and a few that are about Ethiopia, it’s land and history. And I can’t figure out whether we should try to do this all really fast so we’ll be ready just in case they find our children right away, or if we should spread it out to try to absorb it more and not make ourselves so anxious. Well, it’ll probably end up being something in between anyway. 🙂
Joel and I are also working towards beginning an orphan ministry in our church. We have one other couple interested in helping us, but they’ll be moving out of the area soon so we’re hoping to find one more couple to help with the leadership. Then we’ll do a lot of spiritual preparation, praying for guidance on where the Lord would have the ministry go and such, before actually bringing the new ministry before the congregation. It’s an exciting journey, but slower than I sometimes like to go. 🙂 It’s good to be forced to slow down. I tend to rush into things if I’m passionate about them, and then I’m not always as ready as I should be.
Time to go do devotions with the two older girls. It’s past their bedtime already. And it’ll be my bedtime before I know it. Time seems to run away like that in the evenings. Chances are, it’ll run away like that leading up to our travel to pick up our new children, too. 🙂 Hmm… maybe we can fit in another online class before bed. 🙂