Our home study is officially
underway! On May 20th we
drove down to Portage and met with Brian Tool of Pauquettes Adoption
Services. Other than a lot of questions,
I wasn’t sure what to expect. The couple
weeks prior to this we had worked on answering a handful of essay-like
questions about ourselves so the agency could get to know us better. Clint and I both separately typed up our
answers to questions such as “Tell us about your life growing up” and “What are
your future career aspirations?” Never
ones to be brief on topics like this, Clint and I both were relieved to get all
of the questions done. I personally
rewarded myself with a couple marshmallow peeps and a new issue of Runners
World. Our interview with Brian was very
low key; he answered some questions for us, let us know what to expect from
here on out, shared some stories about his life as an adoptive parent and
adoption social worker of 35 years and, yes, we did talk about our essay
questions as well.
The following Tuesday it was
Brian’s turn to make the trip. He came
and visited out happy abode here in Marshfield.
I’ve seen a meme on Facebook that says “I clean my house more in the 10
minutes before someone comes over than the rest of the week.” The same can be said for a home study—all of
the cleaning and organizing we had be putting off for so long magically got
done on Memorial Day and the hours before Brian’s arrival. His visit again was very low key and relaxed. He toured our house and checked out our
backyard and garden (Clint’s pride and joy).
MaeLynn joined us for part of the time; being her typical self she kept
walking past Brian and saying “hi.” Our
cat Oscar being his typical self was very interested in Brian and tried in vain
a couple times to jump on his lap. All
in all child, pets and neighbors all acted normal during his visit which is
just what I was hoping for.
Now comes the homework part of
our home study—20 hours of education to complete (most of it online), forms to
fill out and a profile to create. Clint
and I agreed that we would sacrifice at least one night a week that we would
typically watch “Scrubs” or “Sherlock” on Netflix to hammer out education
instead. I started a file on the
computer yesterday to put pictures in for a profile book and I’m working on
making goals of when to have certain clumps of paperwork done by.
I realized this morning a lot of
what this boils down to is how people see our family. From the outside looking in who are the
Gosses? What do we stand for? How will we parent a child that is not our
own biologically? Of course I want them
to see a loving family that has room for more members, people who love God and
follow Him, living in a home that is safe and close to a couple parks. But what else? Should they know too that we are a snuggly
family that loves hugs and Eskimo kisses?
Or the fact that we like to watch birds and squirrels in our backyard
while we eat breakfast in the morning? I
don’t know. I guess ultimately I want
them--whoever “them” may be—that we are so excited to do this and would love
nothing more than to add to our family through adoption.
Prayer points
- · the biological parents of our child-for their health and wellbeing
- · for efficiency and timeliness in getting our paperwork, education and profile done
- · for guidance in choosing which agencies to send our profile to
- · Our finances: that we would be wise in our spending and that God would provide extra money for us to put away to pay for the adoption
How you can help
- · Pray for us
- · A couple smaller fundraisers might be on the horizon—I’ll post when I have more information
- · Make a delicious meal! Buy Wildtree products or host a Wildtree party. With a possible promotion in sight, now is a great time! All of the proceeds from my sales continue to go directly into our adoption fund. Thank you so much for those of you who have already purchased from me! If you enjoy the products, tell your friends! For more information, or to order, go to www.mywildtree.com/lizgosse
