What?

Life is moving at a hundred miles an hour right now. The holidays always bring a quicker paced life, but now that we are excited about all of this adopted stuff, it feels like we are in over-drive. Who knew that every single person in Santa Fe would be at the post office each of the three times I have gone in the past two days? I was just trying to send off our fingerprints and some paperwork. What in the heck where they doing there?
I've wanted to post since Saturday night but thing after thing has kept me from getting it done.
The biggest news as of right now is that we were given about 20% of our monetary need for this adoption this weekend! Wow. That made it possible to send our paperwork back into our agency. I was preparing myself to have to be patient for a lot longer. God is really going before us and preparing the way. It was three donors that gave us money and we had not asked any of them for anything! (I want to get a little fundraising thermometer on my blog, but I haven't figured that out yet.) We were also given enough American Airlines miles for all of the trips we will need to take to Honduras. What? Yes.
We are working on home study paperwork right now. Jonathan and I were both fingerprinted yesterday. Then we got a request for a background check notarized and sent all of that information in. Those are the documents that will take "one to three months" to complete. :) And our home study won't be complete without them. So, that is out of our hands now.
I emailed the home study agency this morning and she said that we are on track and the first week of January they will call us to schedule our home visits.
We met with the owner of the ranch we work for this weekend and she wanted to be sure that our garage passed the home study test (among other things), so she told Jonathan to get one of the ranch workers to start cleaning and organizing our garage!! Wow, that was a load off.  I clean out our garage every 3 or 4 months. And over that time the stuff just piles up. It was rather bad yesterday morning, but since it was muddy out, Jonathan had two ranch workers come over and they knocked it out quickly. It looks fabulous. Thank you boss and thank you Lord. Who has a boss that not only lets us have the best job in the world (no exaggeration) but also takes care of us in real tangible ways? Crazy amazing days.
I feel like I could write for another hour but I need to pack for our trip to see family. We are leaving tomorrow morning and we have the ranch Christmas dinner tonight. I have about 2.5 hours to get the rest of the laundry done and pack for 5 people for 8 days. No sweat.

FBI here we come

We got our first packet of information from Adoptions Plus (our homestudy agency). Hooah. Thirty pages of digging in. And I finished it all yesterday. It arrived in my inbox at 1:47pm and I finished up at midnight. Love this. There were a lot of intense questions and there were a lot of questions that I felt like I needed to make up something. Our marriage has been great since day one. There were questions about our biggest problems and our most terrible crisis and our most recent argument. Well, I could tell them about our most recent argument, but we've never gone through a crisis and we have never had a big problems. We agree on 99.9% of parenting issues. We enjoy each other tremendously. But, I feel like they are going to think I am making it all up! Like my marriage is out of some fairytale. But it is the truth. And the truth will win out.
We now need to go get our fingerprints done for our FBI, state, and CYFD clearances. A note in the directions says, "they take about one to three months." Wow. Could they narrow that down a bit more? Oh well. That is why we are going to take care of it quickly. I will probably go today when I take the kids to piano lessons. Now, I need to light a fire under Jonathan. He has finished the easier questionnaire and said he doesn't think he will get this fingerprints done while in town today. Umm. We'll have to see about that. I need to think of a good bribe. Is that something I should put in the questionnaire? That I bribe my husband to get what I want? I did admit to not being flexible.

There

We sent in our home study application on Friday. It should have gotten to Albuquerque today. I have no idea, really, what the home study process will be like. I've heard before. But I think it is one of those things that you just don't get until you are there. There are things in life that people who are there try to explain to people who aren't there and all you can do is nod your head and think "well, it was tough for you but I don't see why, if only you........it will be different for us." Have you had any of those moments? Probably not, but I have. I'm sure several women tried to tell me how hard labor and nursing were going to be. But, gosh, God created us to do it right? How can it be that hard? Come on. That was my attitude...until I was there. And all of those nuggets of wisdom were lost in the oh-my-gosh-why-didn't-anyone-tell-me-it-would-be-this-hard moment.
Well, I know several people who have had home studies done. And I know I was around while they were doing theirs and I know I asked about it. But, I'll say it again, I really have no idea what it is going to be like. I'm not fretting though. If the whole process goes like I feel about it today, then it should be good, uplifting, optimistic, not easy, but not torture. I like paperwork. And I can be a drill Sergent to my husband who is a bit more easy going than me. About four months ago, he said "We were going to make a great adoption team. I am going to be inspired and you are going to make it happen." :) Well, honey, it's time. And no you can't have your eggs until you put your initials on every one of those 37 X marks. Love you. ;)
Yes, I said that on Wednesday to my dear husband. And it worked. He likes his eggs hot and I like getting paperwork done as quickly as possible. We are going to make a great team. Oh, and he asked for it.
All joking aside though, I can't imagine a better partner in this. And a better lot of children. The kids pray for their new brothers and sisters all the time and talk about them like they will be here soon. And my husband, well, most of you know that I am head over heals for him and make most of our friends uncomfortable because I can always sing his praises. But gosh, we wouldn't be doing this without him. He has heard God speak and is walking head-on in faith. This isn't a first either. That is how we got to New Mexico. God directed him to go and he brought us here. And it has been amazing. The job thing is a little different, I guess. It was his dream job. A private ranch. Wildlife habitat development. In the Rockies. Okay. There were a few emotional downsides and the fact that most of the U.S. Americans don't even realize that NM is one of the 50 states. But the adoption has a few more open ends. We don't know where they have been and what they have seen and what they haven't had. But we know that God knows. And Jonathan has been inspired by the Creator of the Universe. And I have too.
We can't say no. We can't drag our feet. They are our children. They need to be here. They need to be fought for and protected. And they need hugs. Daily. Lots of them. So we walk forward in faith. And it is so nice when your feelings are on board with faith's direction. Lord, keep us grounded and seeking you. Make our paths straight and our eyes fixed.

He's Got This

I'm shocked at how little I am "worrying" about the adoption process. Maybe it is my uncanny ability to NOT see what could go wrong. That's not really my thing. I don't want to worry about what is ahead. What will that accomplish? I live in the here and now. And right now things are rolling and I've just got to keep up, which IS one of my strong points. I can tell I'm going to like the adoption process when I'm filling out paperwork and crossing things off my list. It's going to be tough when I'm just sitting and waiting and thinking an waiting.
But, that isn't happening right now, so I don't need to worry myself about that.
Anyway, yesterday I made sure all of our i's were dotted and t's crossed with the AWAA paperwork and was ready to send it in. But then I realized that we need a big check to go along with it. (And again, it had been tucked away in my mind that we needed money, but it wasn't time for that yet, so I hadn't spent my little left-over energy on it.) And since it is Christmas time here at the Grassmick house, we can't just write that check because expenses always rise this time of year and it would be a little irresponsible. So, it dawned on me that we have to get to raising money. That is how we always planned on funding our adoption. We know that God has asked us to house and raise and invest in these children daily and that He will raise up the funds to do it. I know some of you out there are rolling your eyes thinking that we are something else thinking that other people should pay for our choices. Why would we embark on a $30,000 journey without saving that money up? Well, good point. It doesn't make a lot of sense. But I feel like it is what God has asked us to do. Maybe this is one way God wants to be glorified in this. Maybe I'm just naive. Maybe I'm just dumb. But, I really believe He wants us to walk forward in this and marvel at how He provides. Not everyone has been asked to take in orphans. We all can't do it all. We just have to do our part. And we NM Grassmicks have been asked to be a family to them and maybe some of you can't do that, or more importantly, God hasn't asked you to do that. But maybe you can play a part in our kids having what is called a forever family.
Anyway, I kind of got off track there. I was writing today to document how faithful God is.
So, yesterday, when I was really busy getting stuff done, God was already working. I hadn't stopped to talk to God specifically about the check we need to write. Don't get me wrong. I have been a praying manic about this adoption, but remember I had only realized earlier in the day that we need funds. I talked to Him a lot yesterday, but more about our H kids and their needs being met and that there would be someone to hug them, not so much for the money yet. So, I sat down last night and started to try to make it work in my head. I quickly remembered how that never works...because I couldn't make it work. And within a few minutes Jonathan came in and said that some friends of ours had sent him a Facebook message asking if we had an adoption fund yet because they had some end of the year giving money left over and wanted to give it to us.  .   .   .   . WHAT? Had she read my last blog post that mentioned briefly that we needed some money? No, I just posted that minutes ago. And she doesn't know about my blog!! Did I mention anything to her recently? No, I haven't seen her much.
Ohhhhhhh, God.
God knew.
God knew we needed money AND He knew I needed to be reminded that He's got this.
I don't know how much they are going to give. It could be one dollar or it could be one million. But, it doesn't matter. Because He's got this.

Step by Step

This past weekend I was in Dallas visiting my family and friends and so I wasn't able to look at all the attachments that were sent to us when we were accepted. But now I've been home for 24 hours and I am stoked. I'm sure this excitement will wear off soon enough but I'm going to ride this wave while it is here. I have printed about 50 pages of agency documents. I have signed my name and/or initials probably 75 times and I am ready to send it all back. The next steps are to return all of this paperwork to the agency which is basically legal sign offs and payment agreements. But, we've got to come up with a chunk of money first to send in with our paperwork.
The next step after submitting the paperwork is getting a homestudy. Most of you probably know what a homestudy is, but for those of you who are new to this, here is a definition I found online:

The adoption homestudy is a detailed written report of your family compiled and prepared by a social worker. This can take three to six months to finish. The adoption homestudy requires the prospective adoptive family to gather different documents, answer several questions, and explore their reasons for adopting. Through a series of visits and interviews the social worker can get a complete picture of who you are and what life is like in your family.

So last night, I also chose the agency who will conduct our homestudy. NM doesn't have an office for our agency so we have select another company to do this for us. I am taking the advice of some friends who adopted from Rwanda with our agency 2 years ago. They used Adoptions Plus in Albuquerque. I checked out their website and felt an instant peace about using them. I printed off another 25 pages of paperwork and we signed our names some more. Tomorrow we have to make a trip to Las Vegas and request Local Criminal Record Checks for both of us. We need our DL, our SS# and $1 cash...each. I think we can handle this one. After we get the record checks back (I have no idea if we will walk away with it or if there will be a wait) we will be able to turn in our home study application and paperwork. Then, I think the REAL paperwork will begin.
I just realized that I still haven't named our agency! I didn't want to name them until we were accepted. So, we are going with AWAA, American World Adoption Agency. They are based in Virgina and have been great so far.
Another big step that we are about to make is announcing our intentions to our family and friends. I finished our Christmas letter today and will send out the majority of them tomorrow.
This thing is really rolling. I love it.

12.2.11

I don't have much time right now, but I wanted to get this in print... We received an email from Sara from our agency congratulating us on our acceptance into their Honduras adoption program!!!!!!!! Yea! I really haven't had much time just to sit back and process it yet. I've been on the go since I read the email. I just talked to Jonathan and he said he talked with Sara earlier. She called the house to let us know. Then he tried to call me but I didn't hear the phone ring. I told some family and friends (that were here tonight) and thought they knew before he did, but I guess he had us beat. :) Today is definitely a new, good start date (like I talked about in a previous post). December 2, 2011. 12.2.11. I'm going to remember this date. Thanks to the few who have known this little (big) secret of ours up to this point and who have prayed for this step. I need to read all of the eleven attachments she sent me in the email and figure out what is next. I'm sure I will be blogging more. At least for a while. We hopefully will broadcast this soon to all we know. Please be praying for the communication of this to those we know and love. Also, please pray for our little ones. For our hearts and theirs. For their health and safety and anything else that comes to mind. I'm so excited to figure out who these kids are. Lord, be with them in a special way until we can get them.