Exhausted

I feel like I owe an update as I know so many people were praying for us and that our home study visit from the social worker this past Tuesday would go well.

The social worker came to our house after work and did her thing. She was perfectly nice and I know she was just doing her job. But after 4.5 hours I was exhausted! I felt very under a microscope, exposed. I know that the point of this whole process is to protect the children. And I know that when you become a parent, your life becomes about your children. But that doesn't stop me from having feelings of my own. It is so difficult for me to admit that I was discouraged because I would never want to discourage anyone else from adopting.

After weeks of preparing documents for the home study, a weekend of adoption classes, a full evening of home study visit, and knowing that we still have the dossier documents to go... I am exhausted. I know in my mind that I still want to adopt. I have wanted do so for 13 years. But this process will definitely test your resolve.

Once we complete the home study (which is mostly in the social worker's hands now, except for a few more minor documents that we need to do) and complete the dossier (about 10-14 documents, they go to the Ethiopian government explaining why they should consider us for adoption) which we are just starting, then we go on the wait list. I would say about 1-2 months before we get ourselves on the wait list.

So the process continues...