Praying over papers

Wow ... March was some kind of busy for our family! I started several times to update the blog this past month but never got a post actually published. March was full of traveling and family and making lots of special memories. For now, then, I figured I'd simply start a new post and update where we are on our journey.

We just finished our last training for our domestic adoption this past Friday. We will meet with our caseworker this week (on Thursday) to review everything we've gotten together up until now. We have our completed home study that we shared with her, along with all of the documents we've collected over these past few months. We'll have a clearer picture after our meeting and will better be able to share what our next steps will be at that time.

At this point, the last thing we have to complete on our end is our adoptive family profile. This is basically our story and an introduction to our family in a scrapbook format that will be made available to expectant mothers who have chosen an adoption plan for their baby. She will review the profiles of families whose preferences meet her own, and she will use these to help make her choice of an adoptive family. This pretty much means these papers we are currently working on are the most important ones we will have turned in during our journey.

Yes, financial statements and testimonies and family history and FBI background checks and personal references are all important, but this profile will be what God uses to direct a mother to the family He has already picked out for her little one. There will be something in the pages of our profile that He uses to speak to her to let her know that we are the family who will adopt her baby. Talk about making a good first impression ... the words and pictures we choose for our profile will give her an idea of who we are. This is our chance to let her know enough about us to make a very big decision. These pages are awfully important.

We have no way of knowing right now what kind of relationship we will have with our child's birthmother. It could vary from being pretty open with her and sharing pictures frequently to having no interaction with her at all. It is possible, then, that these pages will hold all the information she will ever know about us. This may not only be a first impression but an only impression. We have carried that thought as we have worked on each page and chosen each picture. More than that, we pray that these pages will convey a message to her of love. Our love for our Heavenly Father. Our love for each other and for our children. Our love for our children we haven't met yet. Our love for her and for her forever part in our family's story. The love that our Heavenly Father has for her.

The thought that these pages need to carry all of that is overwhelming. Is little ol' worrisome me going to worry and fret over each page knowing the importance of what it is we are doing? Nope! Seriously. No worrying here. We are simply going to be honest and real in what we include in our profile. From there, we are going to cover these pages in prayer as we turn them in to our caseworker. We pray for God to use them to speak clearly to the mothers who will read them and to give them a peace and comfort as they make such a big decision using these pages as a guide.

We have prayed for a lot of different things over our adoption journey, and we have lots more requests to come, I'm sure. For now and for the next few days as we complete this profile, however, we will pray for each picture and each word. We will be praying over papers ...