We went to the lawyer's office today to sign the petition to adopt forms. Jay and I just looked at one another in awe like, THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!!! So hard to believe. The icing on the cake was that we picked up Sarah from daycare today because her nanna had a late meeting. We got to hang out together tonight, she "helped" Jay make dinner. Her laughter, her excited reaction to seeing us, her zest for life, her cute facial expressions...all of this just makes our day. What a great day it will be when we get to have that EVERY day of the week!
What does this mean next? Well, we are going with a place called Love Links to do our home study. The director, Joy, and I have spoken briefly about what her needs are to complete the study and we will set our first appointment soon and get the required documentation to her. She let us know that there will be a required 4 visits (2 together with her and one with me alone and one with Jay alone). The lawyers office was hopeful that we could possibly try and fit these in very quickly and still get it done and through the courts by the end of the year but that is not a realistic goal and we are OK with it not officially happening until 2012. We are very aware that all of this is on God's time not our time anyway!
The lawyers plan to file the Petition to Adopt paperwork tomorrow. At that time things will get into motion with the home study. Then once that is complete we can file the finalization paperwork. Potentially we can be officially Sarah's parents by the end of January. What a great New year's kick off! In the mean time we have some important things coming up on the horizon. My very dear friends are throwing us an "adoption shower" to bless us with things that Sarah may need once she is here with us full time. I have to say that this idea is a very uncomfortable one for me. I receive so much more joy when I am the GIVER and not the RECEIVER. It is difficult for me! We have been super blessed though by so many and for that I am extremely grateful.
Also, we will be having the big "move in" with Sarah over the holiday break. Sometime through the weekend prior to Christmas weekend. She is going to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at Nannas - the family just really wants this last Christmas morning together. We will then get her full time and do a trip to VA to see family. Jay and I will also both be taking FMLA during the month of January. With all that I have read it is very important to spend lots of time together in order for the bonding process to happen successfully and to also establish new roles and routines. I am getting very excited about spending all of this time together!
For those of you who have not seen pictures on facebook, here is a link of some photos of Sarah and the family:
https://picasaweb.google.com/TJMSTrekkers/Sarah
So - today marks an important day :D Truly another example of ONE MORE STEP...
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