Apparently, a few years ago, a little girl had been adopted from Jenny's country and some bad things happened. We aren't sure exactly what happened, but it was bad enough for the country to instill a ban on all adoptions from other countries.
Rumors began flying all over social media about the situation. We remained optimistic, however, since Jenny is considered "difficult to place" because of her disability. It was our understanding, from our placing agency, that children considered difficult to place (ie those with a certificate of disability or children in large sibling groups) would eventually be eligible for international adoption once more. The concern was that all of the children had to be re-classified for this eligibility. And that could take months!
Justin and I were certain God wanted Jenny to be an Etter. This was His plan. We were just doing what He wanted us to do. So, with no approval from the Adoption Center in Jenny's country, and no guarantee that Jenny would ever be eligible to be adopted by us, we bowed our heads once more, took a leap of faith, and dove headfirst into our Home Study.
The Home Study process, as I've mentioned before, is where you pay a social worker to completely and utterly invade your privacy, dig up old skeletons, and air your dirty laundry.
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| Our Home Study Checklist |
Our Home Study would cost us about 1/7th of our entire estimated adoption expenses. So, moving forward with it at this point with no approvals was akin to putting a down payment on a boat without an anchor. But we trusted God. When you're obeying Him, you're never wrong.
We started the Home Study process on Jan 20. As of April 21, we've completed all of our requirements in the checklist above. Ok, God...now we wait.
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