Ah. Yes. The physical. I hate those.
I promise, I was going to get it done in the summer, but I decided to wait until after I recovered from my debilitating chest pain episode and the semi-collapsed lung that resulted from it. Arguing that my 3-year recovery plan was interfering with her plans, my wife sent me in for the physical. That's when we found out that I had a broken wrist.
Regardless of all this, I was given a clean physical (although they really got my height wrong), and the honest-to-goodness last document was sent in about a month ago.
Over the end of the summer and the beginning of school, Bethany sent out a nice young lady to do our home study. She came once, inspected the house, both for safety (I had to replace a smoke alarm and an outlet cover; the trampoline didn't bother her) and also to make sure we have enough room (we do). On her second visit, she asked my wife and me a lot of questions. Thankfully, they were not merely repeats of questions on the application forms. On her third and final visit, she interviewed the boys. I could hear her laughing from my office.
So our packet was complete about a month ago. And Bethany sent it to the State of Georgia for their approval, which we were told would take about a month. So we wait.
In the meantime, I'm reading a couple of excellent books that a friend from church (with two adopted kids of their own) recommended to us: Adopting the Hurt Child and Parenting the Hurt Child. I started reading the first one a few months back, and it is excellent. I recommend them to anyone who is dealing in any way with kids who are or have been involved in the foster care system.
Because of reading these books, and of conversations we've had with other people, we've decided to lower our requested age. At first, we thought we would be fine with kids who were younger than Timothy. But now we realize that it would be best for all involved if they were younger than Sam. God will provide whom he will.
That's it for now. Updates as events warrant.
