The ball is rolling . . .

Yesterday, at 9:03 am (so we were 3 minutes late) we arrived at Bethany Christian Services (BCS) to meet with Debra for our first meeting. We talked for about an hour about adoption, why we wanted to adopt, how we came to this decision, what our family thought of the decision. After this time, Deb and I were confident that not only was this what we wanted to do, but that this was what God called us to do. For the next two hours we discussed different countries and began the paperwork for our home study. We talked about Russia . . . we talked about Ukraine . . . and we talked about Albania. We talked about the age of the child, whether we wanted a boy or a girl, healthy or special needs. We even discussed domestic adoptions. But most of all we talked about countries.

In the end, a firm decision was not made, but we are leaning heavily toward Albania. This is a country in which BCS has a very strong program. They have a 3 building compound and a great relationship with the authorities. The main drawback with Albania is time. From the time we submit our dossier (could be 4 - 6 months from now) it could take up to 2+ years to get a referral from the country. This long of a wait will be painful for Deb, but the amount of information and the level of service we will be able to get from BCS should outweigh the length of time. I believe this will give us the time to research Albania, set up resources for when she arrives and be ready with all of our ducks in a row for our traveling adventure.

We started the paperwork. There was a ton of paperwork . . . Debra gave Deb and I homework. There were about 20 different things that need to be done from Birth and Marriage certificates to animal shot records. We have to get the house in shape for inspection, we have to put our financial records together (yep, they look at that too), and we have to set up physicals/bloodwork. So much to do.
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Prayer Request - Please pray that God will continue to lead us to the right adoption program and that He will protect her as she goes through her orphanage care. Please also continue to pray for provision during this time and that God will give me wisdom to use our current resources and to prepare for what lies ahead.