Our File is Assigned!

We got the good news today! No, our background check hasn't cleared DHS yet, but our file has been assigned to a social worker. Our newest hero on this journey, Katie the application coordinator, asked the Director of Social Work if we could be assigned to a social worker while we are waiting on DHS. The director gave the go ahead and we are now moving forward again! HOORAY!!! Our file has to get to Iowa and the social worker has to review it before we meet so it will still be awhile before we complete the home study, but we are very excited to not be "stuck" anymore. Slowly but surely, we are making progress! After running downstairs, waking Kevin up, doing a little happy dance, and re-reading the e-mail a handful of times to make sure it was real, I think Kevin may be a bit worried how I might react when we get really good news... like the referral!

Self-Study...check!

Thirty pages later, we are finally finished with our self-study! Actually, we were done a week ago but didn't realize until Wednesday that they couldn't take our documents via e-mail. They wanted the real thing so it was off to the post office first thing Thursday morning. There isn't a huge rush on them, though, as we also found out that we are still waiting for our fingerprints to get through Minnesota DHS. Apparently since we are out-of-state residents, it takes them longer to process our prints.

Once our prints clear, our application file will be officially complete and sent off to the social worker here in Iowa. It takes her about a week to go through the information and then she will contact us to set up our first meeting in Cedar Rapids. So now begins another time of trying our best to wait patiently while the system works. We have done our part and now we can "relax" while other people do theirs.

We are learning a lot about trust, patience, faith, and hope. And we constantly remind ourselves that one day we will look back and feel like the time flew by.

P.S. We finally figured out how to automatically e-mail a list when the page updates. Shoot us an e-mail if you'd like to be added to the list!