Our Home Study is Complete!

Our home study is complete!! We received official notice today that we can expect it to arrive in the mail within a day or so. The home study is the main piece of our dossier. Now that it is complete, we can begin the immigration process. We've been told that this process takes the longest. It can take a couple of weeks or a couple of months. The prayer is that this adoption process moves according to God's timing.

Well, since this has been posted of Facebook (this wasn’t for publication for a little while), I can now officially let you all know that we will be having “company” for our adoption journey. We’re so excited to be sharing this experience with George’s brother and sister-in-law, Art & Vickie. Art & Vickie have also applied to adopt from the DRC.

When we first began considering adoption, my thoughts were that we would adopt from Korea. Art & Vickie have two biological children and four adopted children from Korea. We absolutely love our nieces and nephews and figured Korea would be a logical place from which to adopt. As I’ve said before, God has been leading us in this process and Korea was not part of His plan. People have told me that God leads you to the country where your child is. I truly believe that because we already feel so incredibly bonded to a child in the Congo we’ve yet to meet!

Instead of Korea, His plan was for us to adopt from the DRC. Art & Vicki have a heart for adoption and have talked about adopting more children, but weren’t sure they’d meet the criteria for Korea anymore. Long story short – I mentioned the DRC to Vick one day and said, “Wanna join us?” I thought they might be interested, but since we don’t have the opportunity to talk frequently, that was all that was said.

When I contacted Vickie to let her know we were definitely filing our application, I asked again, “Are you joining us?” She answered my question with an email that said, “Does this answer your question?” Attached was correspondence she’d had with adoption agencies on the DRC. Unbeknownst to me, she had spoken with many of the same people as I had (not just at our adoption agency). How confusing it must’ve been for them to have two very focused women with the same last name trying to weed out the details that would lead them to their children! I’m sure they were thinking, “Didn’t I already talk to Mrs. Laubach once (or twice or three times) today?” While Art & Vickie are in Hawaii and we are in Pennsylvania, we’ve both chosen the same adoption agency. We’re hoping that it will work out that we will be able to travel to the Congo together when the time comes to pick up our children. Please be praying for them as well as for us.

In the meantime, we’re continuing to work on paperwork. Our home study is nearing completion. We’ve gotten our fingerprints, pet immunizations, etc. I don’t know how I’ll feel when the paperwork’s finished. I’m not an overly patient person. The paperwork makes me feel like we’re being productive - like what we are doing is getting us one step closer to our child. Somehow I don’t think the waiting will give me the same satisfaction as checking items off my list of things to do! I’m reminded that it doesn’t matter what we do. Things will happen as they’re supposed to. Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God’s timing is perfect. The waiting, whether it ends up being short or long, is all part of God’s plan and His timing.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in HIS time.”