Thanks to those of you who prayed for us over the last two days!  Our meetings both went really well! 

Adam and I had a phone meeting with EAC (our international agency) on Wednesday and it was very encouraging.  Our adoption consultant is very sweet and you can tell that she absolutely loves what she does which I am so thankful for.  Basically, she told us that we needed to get started on our home study right away and at the same time, start sending her all of the registration documents that EAC needs in order to forward them to Ghana to get us registered.  These are things like, birth certificates, marriage certificates, tax returns, financial statements, proof of insurance, etc.  The list goes on and on! The most exciting thing that came out of the meeting was that after we submit our dossier to Ghana (this process usually takes 3-6 months), they are averaging a 4-6 month wait time on referrals for a child.  This is very exciting!!!  This also means that the child God has picked out for us has already been born.  When I think about this, I am overcome with a heavy heart and extreme worry for what our child is going through but I am repeating Philipians 4:6-7 over and over in prayer...

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.   And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Please pray with us that God would provide food, adequate medical care and someone to snuggle on our little person until we get there!

We had our first home study interview today with CCC (our local home study agency) and that went really well but much more intense than yesterdays meeting.  I knew this would be the case since we are basically being interviewed for whether or not we will be a good fit for an adopted child.  This makes me so nervous!!!  I have been praying over the last two days that God would relieve my anxiety about these meetings and that he would guide our answers to their questions and I feel like he answered that prayer today!  Some of the questions were a bit hard but God gave us the words to answer and I am so grateful!  I left the meeting looking like a deer in headlights for lack of a better term.  I knew this was going to require a lot of paperwork but I am feeling a bit overwhelmed right now.  Please pray that Adam and I will take all of this one step at a time and that we will feel God holding our hand through it.  I am praying I can keep my focus on what God has planned for us and that we do not get bogged down in all of the details.  We have a huge list of documents to gather for the home study as well so I am going to get started on those today!  Along with all of the paperwork, we have two more interviews and one home visit where our case worker will look through our home and see us interact with our children.  The thought of someone coming into our home to see if it meets some set of standards almost gives me a physical reaction :-)  Our case worker promised she is nothing like Martha Stewart and that although it needs to be liveable, it doesn't need to be spotless.  She jokingly told me that she was going to show up unannounced and I think she could tell that was not funny to me!  ha ha!  We also have parenting classes and adoption classes that we are signed up for in July as a requirement for this process. 

One of our friends came up to us at our church picnic last weekend and said he could not believe there was so much money and paperwork that went into adoption.  He thought you just went and signed a piece of paper and they gave you an orphan to take home.  I keep being reminded of this everytime I get a new list of stuff we have to do and it makes me smile.  I am so thankful that God does not require all of this to be adopted into his family! 

So now I can't decide whether to start filling something out, start making appointments for our physicals or lay on the couch for a few minutes while the kids nap...I think I will rest for a minute but for those of you who know me well, you know this will not last long!  God has called us to this and although everyone needs a little rest, I need to make sure I am doing everything I can to bring this little person he has picked out for us home as quickly as possible....after all, they are waiting for us!

Lynsey