Waiting - Adoption Update

At the end of January I posted our adoption announcement on this blog, saying that our family might be growing by 4, 6 or 8 feet in the near future. I mentioned the fact that we were still in the "waiting for approval" stage of the home study process, so it could technically still fall through.

Well, as of this week, I am happy to report that we have officially been approved to adopt! Now it's no longer a question of "if" we will be having children through adoption, but rather, "WHEN"! :) My heart feels pregnant with anticipation! Jon and I are both so excited and thankful to God for how He has guided this process and brought us through it so quickly! Now, instead of waiting for approval, we are actually waiting for a placement! It feels somewhat surreal right now.

I have our two upstairs bedrooms all cleared out now, waiting to find out who our children are so we can tailor the rooms to their needs. I've started decorating a little bit already though, re-locating the nice lime green curtains my Mum gave me, from the living room to their bedrooms (at the suggestion of the ladies in our Hub group - thanks girls!): 

My sweet sister-in-law has also offered to give us the cutest little loft bed that our niece doesn't use anymore, if we need it, so I'm pretty excited about this:

This placement stage is the part of the process that Jon and I have decided to keep confidential and share only with each other, the Lord, and our adoption worker. This is because of the uncertainty of this stage, and the potential for emotional ups and downs as we work with CAS to find a good fit. Thankfully for the children, CAS has a child-centered approach, which means that they are looking primarily for the best parents for the children, not the best children for the parents. This does mean, however, that the placement process could be somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster for us, and we would appreciate your prayers for continued guidance as we trust God to lead us to our children. The timing of this phase is completely uncertain - the placement could happen in 2 weeks, 2 months, or a year from now. We just don't know. But once we have confirmation of the placement, we will certainly let friends and family know how many children we are bringing home, how old they are, and when they will be officially placed with us.

Thanks to all of you who have been such a support and encouragement to us through this process! I will continue posting updates as we prepare our hearts and our home for our children, sharing as much of this journey as we can with all of you.