Adoption Update

A lot of people have been asking about the progress of our adoption through SD County. We have been hesitant to spread the word on the latest developments because it is so uncertain. But we appreciate all the love and support that so many have been expressing to us. So we feel that some sort of candid response is appropriate. To be totally honest, it is kind of embarrassing to write this because of how positive we were about our prospects earlier.

Wow. Talk about a disclaimer! OK, here goes...

It seems clear that the two little girls will not be coming to live with us. The timing is just not right. The social worker for the girls needs to move on their situation now and there are many good families that have been waiting a lot longer than us for the same opportunity. We are still delayed because of the fingerprint problem. Their social worker has decided to proceed with a family that is already in the system and ready to go. We got fingerprinted on Dec. 31. Here we are nearly three months later and Jenetta's still have not been cleared by the Dept. of Justice. It is in the best interest for the girls to begin transitioning to their new home this month. Although we have done everything on our end to prepare our home and ourselves, and we have completed all the necessary paperwork, this fingerprint delay keeps us from being active in their system. Their social worker has decided to go with a family that is waiting and ready rather than us because no one knows how long our delay will last.

We are saddened by this a bit. It would be really nice to have a child connection with our friends who are leaving to be missionaries. They are good people and to have them as "grandparents" in our lives would be such a great thing. But we are comforted by the fact that we met a lot of really good people when we were going through our classwork. We know the preparation and heart that is necessary to be in this program. The girls will get a fine family, and it will be the best situation for them.

On our end, they were really the personification of an idea. They were the names and faces attached to what we feel God is calling us to do. Although the names and faces attached to the concept will change, the idea is still firmly in place. We had only met them once for an hour and purposely avoided further contact based on the advice of our social worker. In hindsight, this was the best for them and for us. There was no real emotional connection - it was more of a possibility.

This was embarrassing to me because after over a year of keeping this process very quiet, we were finally sharing it with friends and family. It felt really good to be able to talk about this with everyone. So I wondered if maybe I shouldn't have been so open until things were more certain. I wonder if we should keep things more close to the vest in the future until we have children placed in our home. But it gets really easy to be worked up when friends start talking about throwing a shower for you or helping to get your home ready. We have known this news since last week, and we were not sure how to tell everyone or if we even should, but since so many have asked, we felt that some update was necessary.

Thanks for all the love and prayer and support that you give to us. We really appreciate it so much! We know that God's timing is best and that at some point, Jenetta's fingerprints will pass and we can proceed with someone else.