Another adoption update

For the last two weeks we've been traveling the west coast, logging in over 40 hours in our van as we drove from our house to Vancouver WA to visit Kevin's parents, then up to the Puget Sound to celebrate his grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary and then down to California where we visited my family. The girls behaved remarkably well. Abby is a trooper and I would without hesitation take her on any big road trip. Hannah is a bit more of a nervous traveler and managed to have one major meltdown per travel day. (I was frustrated with this fact, but also saw my own stomach aches and meltdowns that resulted from travel stress.) We are home now and settling back in. Not sure what to do with this messy house--guess Bentley didn't understand he was supposed to clean up the place!

Our adoption has made a bit of progress. I finally heard back from the FBI and my fingerprints passed this time! Our homestudy is now completed and we are cleared to adopt! Which basically means we could adopt immediately (although the chances are improbable).

We also, after much talk and prayer, decided to change our preferences. As I stated in an earlier post, we get to "choose" what sort of child we would like, in the most general and broad sense possible. At the time we said only boy but while on vacation decided to open it up to "unknowns" which are pregnancies that do not yet know the gender. So, there is still some selection going on-we did not open it up to pregnancies that are girls, but now will be more open and allow us to be presented to more birthmothers.

In conversations it has appeared that people thought Kevin was the reason for the boy only, but really it was me. Kevin said from the beginning he didn't care, but I am a control freak and the adoption process, esp. the domestic route, leaves nothing for control. I'm really at peace with opening it up and have started the mental preparations for a girl. One night I stayed up late worrying about names because although we have 1 girl name picked and ready to go, what would we do with twin girls? I finally fell asleep when I landed on one that I liked and the next day while driving got Kevin to sign on to the name and even figure out a good middle name to go with it. Highly unlikely that we will get twin girls, but I feel more at ease knowing I've got a name waiting.

We also, thanks to my mom's mad skill with a Flip recorder, have a video to add to our profile page. We were not thrilled to make it (who wants to see themselves on tape talking about what great parents they are?), but it made sense. We live in such a tech savvy time and birthmothers are more likely to be used to YouTube and such that it makes sense that it would be a better way to connect with them.

So, that is where we are. Adoption is progressing, although a match seems far off. This is one of those things that we walk into with faith, knowing that God is good and in control, even when I am frustrated by what feels like slowness. I have confidence that when our baby comes home, the whole process will make sense and the slowness a blessing.