WE ARE APPROVED!!!!!!

We thought the day would never come, but WE ARE APPROVED!!! Yay!!!! The state of Texas has officially decided we are fit to be Foster/Adoptive Parents. In the grand scheme of things, 7 months is really a very short time period to be approved - a process that can typically take up to 12 months - but it sure has seemed like it took much longer. AND, we have only just begun our journey to becoming parents. But my goodness, it feels good to have gotten over this hurdle! :)

So the next step is to find out who our Case Worker is (we get a case worker and the children placed in our home have their own Case Worker), get to know that person so they know what kind of home we have, and wait for our first placement call. Of course, secretly I hoped that we would have the first placement call sometime this week, but I know the reality is that it will likely be more like the next month or so....or maybe more...who knows. But we are so glad to be at this point that we are reinvigorated to wait a little longer. God has this plan already laid out for us, so we will faithfully follow. I will continue to work on letting Him have that control, Patrick will keep supporting (encouraging me to release that white knuckled grip!) and calmly demonstrating that patience I strive to achieve.

We will surely keep you all updated on any news we have about our first placement!

Still Not Approved...

But we did go to the Arlington Police Department on Friday afternoon. We got there at 4:30 and walked out at 5:15 with two background checks! We paid $4 total and 45 minutes of our time to wait for our background checks. It is amazing, but they are finally done! Of course we don't know if CPS will take these background checks or not, but just the fact that we could get it done in one afternoon gives us hope that it is possible to get them done at least! :)
Of course I immediately emailed, faxed and snail mailed the originals (don't worry, I made copies just in case) to our file worker at CPS as soon as I could that night. Which has meant a weekend of waiting to see if they will accept these to complete our file. Not that I would wish extra working time on anyone, but I was secretly hoping our worker would be pulling a Saturday work day this weekend! :)

Anyways, this is just a short update to say we still don't know where we are, but we have literally done all we can do at this point. It is in God's hands.

You will be the first to know when we hear something, of course! Keep those prayers coming if you think about it. :)

7 Months Isn't That Bad

You know, it takes most couples over 9 months to conceive and give birth to their first child. So far Patrick and I have been working on approval with CPS to become Foster/Adoptive parents for only 7 months. I guess when you look at it in the sense of numbers, we are pretty much ahead of the curve! At least, that's the way we are trying to look at things right now.

The news is there is no news. The City of Arlington background check still has not been received, which means our file is incomplete, which means they can't approve us until it is complete. We got a sense of how frustrating this is for our worker the other day as she told us she has been calling daily to get a status update to only get a busy tone or no answer, she mailed the request a third time thinking maybe it would get processed that way and she even has a friend who works in that area on the hunt for the background info she needs! Come on A-town - what's the hold up??!!?? :)

So I called down to the City of Arlington main phone number (sitting on hold for 16 minutes to speak to an operator) and was directed to the Police Department. I was then told to go to the Records department. When I got on the phone with the Records department, it was busy and it hung up on me a couple of times (I feel your frustration Dione!). I tenaciously (that's an understatement at this point boys and girls!) called back. I was able to get someone on the phone on that third attempt. She told me I could run a self-requested background check for $2 and if I have never been arrested (I haven't!) I could have the report right then! **eyes rolling viciously**

So we will attempt to do that, even though we haven't been told by CPS that it will be accepted at this point. But we figured, what's $4 and an afternoon at the police department if it will possibly finish our files! So I leave you with this update that isn't really an update and these words of wisdom: God is in control and these "delays" are a part of his plan. We keep faith that the plan he has for us is the right one (those of you who know me well know that I am chanting this over and over in my head constantly and all day long since February!). :)

As always, we will keep you all posted!