Happy Monday

Setting: This past Thursday at 1:30 while at work.
Cast: SW: Social Worker; M: Me

SW: Mary? Is this a good time?

M: YES. ALWAYS. YES. WHAT? YES. 

SW: I'm afraid I have some bad news.

M: Multiple scenarios race through mind--Um...what?

SW: We will be closing our adoption program, and you're going to have to find a new agency to complete your home study. 

M: *crickets*

SW: *crickets*

M: Um....what?

SW: We will be closing our adoption program, and you're going to have to find a new agency to complete your home study. 

M: Just.....what? 

M: Tries very hard not to throw phone through the wall because I'm at work. 

To put this in perspective, we were pretty much done. We've been visited, interviewed, CPRed, fingerprinted, blood tested and background tested. We were good to go! And...then this happened. 

And so, as of Thursday at 1:30, we had no home study, no plan, and no clue. To summarize, we were going to have to either find or transfer our home study (depending on how new agency would handle it) and go from there. This would add at least a month (not terrible), and in the interest of full disclosure, an additional $2,500 to the final cost (a lot closer to terrible). 

Talk about disheartening. Frustrating. Anger-inducing. 

However, through a series of phone calls, emails, texts, posts, and prayers...we've gone from last Thursday's "I have some bad news" to this:

We reached out to friends almost immediately last Thursday (really, I'm pretty sure I updated our Sunday School class before Derek was able to contact me after the phone call...sorry Derek) and knew you all were praying for us. This wasn't life-altering or devastating, but it was a serious expense and inconvenience. To be sitting on the other side, it's easy to think "oh, we must have overreacted, because this was SO easy to solve." 

But I don't think that's the case. 

Instead, we're choosing to believe God heard and answered our prayers. CCAI approved our homestudy. Our original agency signed off on our home study--and is delivering it tomorrow. Our new social worker/agency is visiting tomorrow afternoon. Done, done, and done. Plus, (best for last) we only have to pay our new agency a $250 deposit/credit that will be used for our post-adoption visits. Honestly, I don't know why we are continually surprised when our prayers are answered. We are, and we shouldn't be. Once again, we've been reminded that we are so definitely not even a little bit in control of our situation, but God is. And once again, I'm thankful for a God that doesn't get tired of reminding us of that.

For an updated list of prayer requests, please visit the Get Involved page. Thanks!