My How Time Flies (where we are in the process) - January 9th 2014

     I still can't believe it has been well over 5 years (half a decade, wow) since we moved to England. It has been nearly 2 years since our adoption prep trip to Indiana. It's been close to a year since the watershed conversations that led us to inspect the adoption process in this country and abandon the one in the states. My how time flies!

     We've had a picture from a good friend that was a highway view and the encouragement was to 'enjoy the view'. There has been much to enjoy over the last year and of course we look with great excitement to the new year that is now a week and a half old already. I hope that we have taken time to enjoy the view, they say that once you have kids the the years go by even faster, I think that we'll have to continue being aware of the advice to enjoy the view.
     The beginning of a new year brings with it new hopes, dreams and plans for the coming days. In our case there are some really exciting hopes and dreams that we hold to coming into 2014. Some specifics about our process which we have not expressed are the following; sorry this seems a bit clinical but I want to express the process as clearly as possible

• We have almost completed our home-study process, meaning that we are finished with the interview process that was done by our social worker. A profile report needs to be done based on these interviews, these were great times together, we really appreciate our worker and the depth with which we had conversation.
• We are scheduled to go to 'panel' in the middle of March. The panel is a group of people who are knowledgable about the adoption process and they gather to hear the 'case' of prospective adopting couples. After reading the case profile they meet to ask questions of our social worker and ourselves. Provided that there is noting unforeseen we are then approved to adopt.
• Either right before or right after the panel we'll recieve profiles of waiting children from our agency, it's then time for us to look through them, determine which ones we feel drawn to and then seek further information for those profiles. This part can take a very short amount of time depending on how quick we decide to go and how many profiles come our way. 
• Once the child is narrowed down to one there is a matching panel where we as adopters would be approved specifically for that one profile and then a date is set to meet the child, and eventually have the child in our home.

     Speaking of timing, I would say that we have learned to wait as this has not been a 100 meter sprint but much more like a 1500 meter race. To us the timings are all the Lord's, He has been the one leading our way the whole way, our own plans and timings were blown out of the water long ago. As a result we are not all that concerned on how fast or slow certain parts of this process might take. We are aware of a couple adopting who were just recently approved and are already going to matching panel for that child, it has happened oh so quickly. That could happen in our case to, or maybe not, maybe it will linger on, either way we are prepared to be on God's programme not our own.
     For those of you who are prayers here are a few specifics that you can pray on our behalf...

• For our home-study process to be fully completed with the profile written
• That the March date for our panel would happen and that meeting would have a positive result
• The blessing of God to be upon our family, we look forward to the changes coming and we are preparing in our head but we'll need to prepare our house as well. 

Thanks to all of you who have stood with us through this process, if you have been a loyal reader then you'll know the up's and down's of our story. Have a wonderful new year and you too enjoy the view. Below are lyrics to Stay and Wait a song by Hillsong United, a song that sprung to mind while I was doing this blog. Have a listen their acoustic version of the song.

Who spoke the Earth and sky to form, Who sets the sun and calls the dawn
Who breathed me out of dust to life, With the will to trust or run and hide
I will stay should the world by me fold,  Lift up Your name as the darkness falls
I will wait and hold fast to Your word, Heart on Your heart and my eyes on You
Who loved me through my rebel way, Who chose to carry all my shame
Who breaths in me with endless life, The king of glory Jesus Christ
I will stay should the world by me fold, Lift up Your name as the darkness falls
I will wait and hold fast to Your word, Heart on Your heart and my eyes on You
God of wonder and God of grace, Let my soul stand always to praise You
Fix my eyes on Your perfect way, And I'll never look back
Who lifts the poor and heals the blind, Who trampled death for all mankind
Who stands for all with arms stretched wide, My King forever Jesus Christ