HOMESTUDY VISIT COMPLETE!

Our social worker came today (she said rescheduling for today would be her Father's Day gift to Todd; love her!)
It was so much less stressful than I anticipated.
Basically, she asked lots (and lots and lots) of questions about our parenting philosophies and techniques, and how we manage things as a couple. After a quick tour of the house (and my garden, which disappointed the mister, as he had yet to mow the lawn) and lots of paperwork, we were done.
We PASSED! Thank you Lord! It feels so good to have that finally over and done with.

We aren't totally out of the clear. She'll have our reports written up this week, and as soon as they are ready they will be shipped off for our state's approval. We need MAJOR prayers, please, that:
1) The state finds us fit to adopt; and
2) The state (through God's grace alone!) actually moves very VERY quickly on our paperwork. Because of the problems we had with the previous agency, we are pretty behind in the paperwork process right now. Each day that Elisha remains locked away affects her physically, emotionally, and cognitively. It's another day without knowing of our love, and more importantly, another day living unaware of God's love. We need to get her home!!

Our boys are still young, so we haven't gone into much detail with them. Basically, we've explained that Elisha is a little girl without a family, so we are going to see if we can be her family. We've talked about what it means to them; they'd have to share their toys, and probably teach her how to do things she doesn't know yet, and that Mommy and Daddy are going to have to go far away to ask for her. (We never say anything implying it is a done deal, because this process is just too crazy to make promises to little kids who don't understand any better!)
I was very surprised, then, when my 3 1/2 -year-old Evan approached me with a sad look on his face. Asking, "what's wrong?" he responded, "I just want Elisha to come home. I want to play with her."

Yes, Baby, I am right there with you! I want her home, too!
Amazing to see him actively thinking about her.


So... what's next in the process?

The homestudy will be written up, checked for accuracy, and sent on to our state.
We send the first half of our dossier (fancy word for "big pile of paperwork") off to our adoption agency (along with another massive check.)

We wanted to hold a garage sale at the end of this month. With my broken foot, I'm not sure how realistic that will be!

(I realize this post is sort of all over. Since breaking my foot I haven't been sleeping too great, and I have three kids and Yo Gabba Gabba making lots of noise in the background. I'm lucky just to have gotten through this post today!)