Travel Plans

I never thought I would be saying this right after our home study was finished: WE ARE TRAVELING TO GHANA!!! I just bought our plane tickets and we get to visit the country our child(ren) come from. The Ghana dossier is extremely simple to compile compared to other countries and we have that ready to go. I originally thought we might travel later this summer, but due to some limitation of scheduling on the Ghana side, we decided to travel now before our children are done with school. Their regular routine keeps them busy at home and then we can enjoy a long summer together while waiting for more progress on the adoption.

Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare for a lot of unknowns. I don't leave my children very often, so we are all dealing with those emotions. I also know it will be extremely difficult to leave Ghana without knowing when we will be back. So while I am beyond thrilled to go, I'm just keeping it real here that I need prayers to sort all of my feelings out.

I hope once we return, I can finally talk more about our adoption details. The time has not been right to share anything here yet.

<3 jenni

Home Study in Hand!!!

Home study process is a huge part of the adoption journey. For us, this meant gathering medical, financial and official documents that prove that we are who we say we are. I am grateful for wonderful friends who wrote letters of support on our behalf. Our social worker is a wonderful lady who I am sure will remain in our life even after our adoption is finished. I met her today to get copies of our home study and while I am glad that the home study is finished, we both agreed that we want to stay in touch. I don't believe that God placed her in our life just for the duration of the home study.

Some of the highlights of our home study for our friends who have not gone through the process:

- Having the entire neighborhood worried as a fire truck pulled into our drive way. It was only the fire inspector conducting a part of the home study. Same madness ensued later the same week when he came back to check one smoke detector. Turns out there was nothing wrong with it, the battery wasn't pushed in all the way...oops.

-We collected reference letter from long time friends from 3 different states. Funny thing is: we "picked them up" in person. None were mailed. Yes, in the middle of all the chaos, we have traveled all over the place.

-One of the cool "God moments" of our home study: getting all our fingerprints/back ground checks back in less than 10 days. This takes about 45 days usually, which lengthens the home study process for most. We are beyond thankful for this.

So, now we are getting our dossier documents together and planning a trip to:

GHANA!!!!


<3 jenni

Spring Break Fun!

We had a wonderful spring break full of family time and relaxation. We visited family, enjoyed time cooking, taking walks and holding all kinds of critters. Eric and I kept thinking the entire time how much fun this will be next year, should we have more kids to enjoy. Our spring break included:

Horseback riding....

A Llama....

Even a zipline...

It was a great way to decompress from the home study process, dossier paperwork and the anticipation of any news on our adoption... We can't wait to see the spring break where we introduce our new child(ren) to our traditions and maybe even create new ones:)

<3 jenni