Home Study Part I

This year in BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) we discussed the life of Moses in which we read through and studied Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Initially I thought learning about the life of Moses would be interesting but not necessarily spiritually challenging. Boy was I wrong!!

Moses was a well educated, adopted prince of Egypt. He was great in the eyes of man but a tool in the eyes of God. God called Moses to free God's people from slavery, to lead them through the impossible and to the promised land. God called Moses out specifically and yet Moses still did not want to go... Moses saw God face-to-face, he knew the character of God more fully than any man in the history of mankind and yet, Moses started his journey being unwilling, fearful, and skeptical of God's plan. There is hope for me yet!

We believe God has called us to the path of adoption, we may not have heard the audible voice of God like Moses did, but we heard Him nonetheless. Like Moses, I was reluctant and unwilling to go. I have stumbled and failed in many ways, yet I believe God wants to use us and bless us through this journey. He does not promise it will be easy, Moses' journey was far from easy, but He does promise to by our side every step of the way. The life of Moses was such a blessing to me this year, I have seen my faith grow by watching Moses submit to God's authority and sovereignty and be rewarded by watching God work for His glory.

The Home Study
Yesterday we started our home study. Our adoption worker came to our home and discussed all the the details of what we will accept and will not accept in a child.

Over the course of the past year we have been required to fill out a preference sheet on three occasions. The first time we completed the preference sheet as apart of the initial application. We were given the preference sheet at the beginning of the Trauma Based Parenting Classes we took through the county, and again at the end of the classes. We were asked to answer one of three ways; Will Accept, Will Consider, and Will Not Accept to a variety of different scenarios including age range, gender,  ethnicity, drug exposure, drug addicted, mental and physical handicaps, hearing impaired, vision impaired, history of psychological disorders with bio-mom or bio-dad, and the list goes on and on.

I found myself reverting back to my old, controlling ways. Trying to specify what exactly we want in a child... Thankfully my loving and faithful husband kindly reminded me God is in control and will bring us the baby meant for our family (I am so thankful for his faith and encouragement in this process!) Our adoption worker asked us questions for about 2 hours, then did a one-on-one with Travis for another 2 hours. My one-on-one is in a couple weeks.

After she completes the interviews she will write up our home study and submit it to her supervisor for approval. Once approved, we will be sent to matching! Yay!

I feel like I have grown so much over the past year, I know I will never have the faith Moses possessed but his life has given me something to strive for and brought me encouragement, no matter how many times I fail to properly acknowledge the sovereignty of God, He will never give up on me.