Interview, Paperwork, and More...Oh my!

We finally made our first home study appointment for Aug 10th. So thankful for Mrs. Robin and Ms. DeAnna for hanging out with our kiddos while we went for our first appointment! Y'all are AWESOME!! We made it up to Nashville right on time for our appt. NICE! Our social worker is very sweet and is working hard with us to complete our home study in a timely manner. The first interview was just a kind of an intro to home study. I had already filled out several things for the application so she had a little info on us already. She had a few get to know you questions for us up front. Then she had the blue folder of paper work to read over with us. Every time she went over a set of papers she would ask if we had questions...we'd look at each other and say no...I felt kinda like 'should I have questions?...I do feel overwhelmed.' Anyways she was very thorough with everything and really made sure we understood each part. So we left there feeling pretty good about our home study agency and social worker. Lots of paper work ahead of us, Dr appts to schedule for everyone, and background checks to be performed. Let the fun begin. She said the ball was in our court now...meaning we control how fast this next step will go.

After we finish a few questionnaires and our autobiographies we will schedule our 2nd interview where we will have separate interviews and one together if I'm remembering correctly.

Blue folder of paper work to complete!

As for homeschooling, we are on week 3. We've been easing ourselves into everything. At first it felt like a rocky start, but we had a really good day today! Sierra had been bored with learning new words, but today she read two lines from her first poem! She was so excited and couldn't wait to tell daddy how she could read. I'm so proud of my big girl! She's been going around all day reading to anyone who will listen. Savannah is finally interested in learning her letters! She learned how to write the letter E today and was so proud of herself! I too am very proud of my girls! They are so smart. I am enjoying being the one to teach them these things that will be with them forever. Thank you Lord for this opportunity with my kiddos! I'll add a few pictures of our learning these last few weeks.

We learned about apple trees and how apples grow!

We learned how the apple blossom
turns into the apple! So amazing!

Sierra's drawing of an apple.

We learned about God's promises!

Savannah learns the letter E!

Sierra learns to READ!

Home study in process...

Hey y'all! Sorry to leave you hanging for so long. We finally got our paperwork in to the home study agency and now we are trying to schedule our first interview in Nashville. We will have two interviews at the agency in Nashville and one at our home. This is the only real update I have on our adoption so far. I'm sure in the next several weeks we'll be gathering documents and getting physicals and such! Let the busy season begin!

On another note, most of you saw that our little man just had ear tubes put in on Monday. He did really well. I'm proud of my sweet boy. There's such a special bond between a mom and her son. I just can't explain it. We haven't ever had to do any other surgeries with the girls, we've been extremely blessed to have such healthy kids. Thank you Lord! But as we sat in the room as our little guy was getting ready for his very routine surgery, we looked around at all the precious kids there waiting to have surgery too. I wondered what kind of surgery they would be having and what their story was...I was thinking about our adoption journey and about all the sweet kids just waiting for someone to bring them home. Some of those kiddos just need a simple surgery and some love! I thought maybe this is why we are here right now in this hospital...and as soon as I had that thought, Jarred was saying the very same thing to me. Was this God slowly preparing us for what we may face in the future with our new little one? If so, I'm thankful that He is opening our eyes to these things now. He is always in the smallest and largest of details! I don't know what special need our little one will have, but I do know that no matter what God is preparing us to love this precious gift with all that we have!

Little man ready for a ride!

Lastly, we are planning to start Robinson Academy on Aug 10th. I'm a little nervous and excited all at the same time. This will be our first year homeschooling! Just want to ask for prayers that we all have fun and learn lots.