Yes, I took the whole summer off of blogging but things are still moving forward with our adoption process. Our move delayed the process by a bit since we had to be somewhat settled in our new home before our social worker could come here for her 4th and final visit with us. She came out on July 13th and then after she submitted her write up, our home study was approved on August 7th! Hooray! There were several things we had to redo when we moved, such as updated police reports, another home fire safety inspection, update our house pictures, and get a couple of last documents notarized. I couldn't wait to mail off our dossier! I actually wanted all of the paperwork out of the house. I kept having these visions of orange juice spilling on them or some other catastrophe occurring that would wipe out several months of hard work and physical, emotional, and mental investment. On the first day of school I took our dossier to Fed Ex, copied it three times as I was supposed to, and mailed it off. That sounds simple, right? Well, I thought was going to hyperventilate at the Fed Ex office! I was so nervous about these documents making it to Oregon safely that I had the Fed Ex guy go over the whole process of how these documents would reach their destination. He was laughing at me promising that it would get there just fine. When he asked me how much the contents were worth, "Over $100 or under$100?" I just stared at him with my mouth open. "Priceless," I told him. He laughed again while he selected under $100. I still haven't told Matt how much I paid to have them shipped overnight, but it was worth my piece of mind. They did arrive the very next day and my agency was so gracious to call me as soon as it arrived. There are a couple of minor changes we need to make to a couple of the documents and hopefully we will be on a waiting list in a week!
A few weeks ago I was reading the book, Simple Acts of Faith, to the boys. It is a beautiful book with the artwork of one of our favorite artists, Norman Rockwell. In the book there was a quote that we all liked in the book which is, "Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of doing." Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Andrew was asking me questions about this author and I said I didn't know much about him. It turns out he was a German Philosopher. Well, the next day I came across another passage of his which I felt has summed up how we have felt during this adoption process.
Where Commitment Leads, Providence Follows
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meeting and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.
Since we have begun this process we certainly feel that God has affirmed us along the way with the way events have fallen into place.
