Nursery Pictures and Waiting.......

Here we are at the end of summer....why oh why did it go by so fast?  Chad and I have been busy this summer getting the nursery ready for our baby.  Our home study is complete.  Now we play the waiting game.  The Lord is teaching us patience.....some days I feel like Job.  Although, there's nothing like the beginning of a new school year to make the time go faster.

We now have an online profile through Bethany Christian Services website.  Here is the link:

 http://www.bethany.org/A55798/bethanyWWW.nsf/0/B307A9FA5460ABF38525774D005493F9

I wanted to post some nursery pictures to show everyone what we've been working on.  The only thing that is not completed is the changing table.  As of now, it is still being built.  Here are a few pictures.

My cradle from when I was a baby.  Chad put a coat of polyurethane on it to make it shine!

Rocking chair that my grandmother gave to my mom when I was born; I painted it red and added a Mickey icon.

Chest of drawers that we refinished and added Mickey/Minnie drawer pulls

Keep praying everyone....I know the Lord has a plan for our baby.  All we can do is stay in constant prayer and know that God is control.  It's God's perfect timing we wait all the day......

"For this child I prayed; and the Lord had given me my petition which I asked of him."

I Samuel 1:27

Still Waiting on God's Time

The end of school marks a new beginning on so many different levels.  Yes, it's an ending for some....yet a new chapter in the life of others.  Although I am saddened by seeing my students and co-workers going in their own directions, I know it's only a new beginning for them.  It reminds me of a song we used to sing "Friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the Lord of them, and a friend will not say never, 'cause the welcome will not end, though it's hard to let you go, in the Father's hands we know, that a lifetime's not too long.....to live as friends."

We're still waiting......waiting on God's perfect timing for our baby.  Not much has changed with the adoption process since the last time I wrote a blog entry.  Our FBI criminal background check and fingerprints should be back by June 15th.  I can't believe it's been 3 months since we sent those in to the FBI.  Our home study home visit is on June 10th.  Oh, goodness.....that's next week!  Right in the middle of our VBS!  What a busy week!  Chad will also be working part of the week so it looks like the MAJOR house cleaning falls on me.  I think the only big things we need to have done prior to the home visit is to have the house as spotless as possible.....that means cleaning the carpets, cleaning the baseboards, finishing the painting in what will be the nursery, and overall a major cleaning of the house.   Last night we accomplished cleaning the basement----lady bugs are so annoying!

There have been some changes in my life along with preparing for our adoption.  As most of you know, my precious grandmother, "Nanno," passed away on Mother's Day.  It was such a bittersweet time to know that even though I lost her, she went home to spend Mother's Day with her own mother and with my daddy.  It's been almost a month since she passed, it still seems surreal that she's gone.  I thought she would live forever.  Nanno was my last living grandparent and link to my daddy....it's been tough to accept the fact she's gone.  She was such a strong woman, I pray that the Lord will give me just an ounce of her strength and wisdom in my lifetime.  Here she is at Christmas a few years ago.....

I also wanted to share a couple of things from our adoption profile book with you.  Here are a couple of the pictures from our book.  Let me tell you all the trouble we had with printing this book....we decided to print the book ourselves, but our printer kept messing up.  Finally, after spending about $100 on ink....we got it printed-all 8 copies!  Then, the very next week lightening ran in on our computer and it crashed!  Praise the Lord, He was watching over us so we could get those printed.  Anyway, enough rambling. 

Keep praying everyone!  I can feel your prayers for us going up....the Lord works in mysterious ways and I feel His touch in our adoption journey.  I'll try to keep a better blog this summer to let everyone know the status.

"For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie:  though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."           
Habakkuk 2:3

Home Study and waiting.......

I guess you guys have been wondering what's going on since I haven't posted an entry in a few weeks.  Well, life has been going on!  And, you know life doesn't get put on hold....

This past Monday, Chad and I went to the adoption agency to meet with our adoption specialist for our individual home study interviews.  That was somewhat of a strange meeting.  We were interviewed separately.  Chad went first.  I think he was a bit nervous...but he would never admit that to anyone!  While he was in there I decided to do a little shopping at Babies R Us.  A little premature, you say?  Well, probably so but I like to be prepared.  After Babies R Us, I went to Chickfila.....and found that Peach milkshakes are back!!!  Yippee!!!  By that time, it was my turn to be interviewed.  I returned to the agency a few minutes ahead of time.  When Chad came out, he had spoken with our adoption specialist for an hour and a half.  What happened to him?  He usually doesn't talk very much as most of you know....well, he turned into a "chatty" person that day.  So, that meant I only had about 40 minutes to speak with her before her next appointment arrived.  Good.  I want to get it over with.  The questions she asked me were the same ones she asked Chad.  More than likely we had mostly the same answers.  The hardest question was about my goals for our family and for me individually.  So, in all it was a good interview.  Hopefully, she liked what we said.

We finished our profile book the night before we went for our individual interviews so we took it down to her for approval.  We worked so hard on the profile.  As most of you know, Chad is a perfectionist so every word and every picture had to be absolutely perfect--in his eyes at least.  Our adoption specialist liked the profile book but she wanted to look at it more closely to see if there were any changes that need to be made prior to printing more copies.  We have to print and bind 8 copies of the profile book.

Now, we wait.  She did give us some more paperwork to complete and mail back to her.  However, we can't send it until our doctor completes the paperwork we gave him to complete about our health.  Waiting, always waiting.  Once those papers get mailed in to the agency, we wait some more.  Our letters of reference is the next thing we wait on.  After those have been turned in, we wait some more on our FBI criminal background check.  Hopefully, it will be back during the first part of June.  When that is complete, we schedule our home visit for the last part of the home study.  At the home visit, our adoption specialist comes to visit us at home to see where we live and the place where the baby will be in our home.  With the Lord's help, the time will go by swiftly---I hope.  We have 7 weeks of school left and they will go by fast with as much stuff as I have to get finished by the end of May.  Also, Chad and I are in charge of VBS this year, so that will help us to keep busy as well.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers.  The Lord is still on the Throne, and He is still supplying all our needs.  I would like to say how blessed I felt at church service on Sunday.  We had an amazing service!  The power and love of God was in the service.  What a great way to start our revival week!  I want to leave you with this verse I found in Habakkuk.


"For this vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie:  though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."  Habakkuk 2:3

Watch for my next entry soon....."The Fun Stuff---nursery pictures"

Fingerprint Fiasco

OMG!  Is all I have to say about fingerprinting!!!  Let me just tell you about fingerprinting and criminal record checks.  So, this past Friday we had a meeting with our adoption specialist at the agency.  Everything was going great at the meeting then she says....."by the way, did I give you the fingerprinting cards and information?"  I was like "no."  She then proceeds to tell us how she has forgotten to give this to us earlier and we need to get it done as soon as possible.  You see, we must have a criminal record check for the FBI and the GBI to be approved as adoptive couple through our agency.  Why, I don't know.  I guess because the child may come to us from out of state and they must know if we have a criminal record throughout the U.S.  So, okay, she tells us we must have two types of fingerprinting done.  The FBI needs the old school style of inked fingerprinting and GBI uses the Live Scan fingerprinting.  Now, here comes the shocking news....the FBI record check will need to be mailed to West Virginia and could take up to 13 weeks to come back!!!!  I was like, OMG!  Why did you wait so long to give this to us?  This should have been the first thing you gave us to do.  She said we should try to get these done today so it could get in the mail.  We leave there at 2:15 on Friday afternoon.  Our agency is in Atlanta near Perimeter Mall.  Immediately, we get on the phone with Hall County Sheriff's office.  They say "yes, we do the inked fingerprinting cards Monday-Friday, 9-5."  "Awesome!  We will be there," Chad tells the man on the phone.  After gobbling down some Chickfila, we high-tail it up 400, rolling into the Hall County Detention Center at 3:45.  By the way....if you don't remember, it was pouring rain on Friday afternoon.  As we pull into the parking lot of the detention center...the bottom falls out of the sky.  I'm also trying to complete the form we need to take in with us to get the fingerprints.  So, here we go into the door.  The officer at the door says, " may I help you?"  I say, "we need our fingerprints done."  He says, "go to the other door, please."  You gotta be kidding me!  Back into the rain?!  So, here we go....to the next door.  We go in and walk up to the plexiglass window.  "May I help you," says the girl.  Me, trying to be the nicest person I can be....."Hi," (with a fake smile), "we need to get our fingerprints done."  Without saying a word, she gets out a sticky note and writes something down.  I peer through the plexiglass to be nosy.  Metro PCS??!!  That's what she's writing!  I don't need a cell phone, lady.  I need my fingerprints done!  She looks back at me, "The jail does fingerprints Monday-Thursday, 9-5 only.  And, they don't do them for adoptions.  You may go to the Metro PCS on Atlanta Hwy, they do them for us.  Here's the number."  I say, "Well, why did someone at the jail just tell us they would do them today and that they will do the inked prints?"  She's like, "I don't know, but we don't do them on Fridays at all."  Can you believe this? We thank the nice lady and head back into the rain.  Luckily, we didn't get a ticket because we parked in a reserved spot at the detention center but we weren't even there for 10 minutes at the most.  We get into the truck and I immediately call Metro PCS.  The lady who answered the phone says they do prints until 5:30.  Good.  But, they only have the Live Scan.  My heart sank.  By this time, I am furiously frustrated!  What to do now?  Chad decides to call our friendly sheriff's deputy, Phil.  He tells us to call the courthouse to find out what they suggest.  We call there to speak with the person in charge of adoptions for Hall County.  Guess what?  She's out of town and Monday is a furlough day!!  What have I done in  a past life to deserve this??!!  By this time, it's after 5:00.  What a fiasco we have gotten ourselves into.  What are we to do?  We must have the inked prints for the FBI and we needed it done---last month!  Also, we need the Live Scan prints done for the GBI but we need to register on a website prior to having those done.  So, no go for launch today on that one---our mission was scrubbed. 

On to Saturday night.  The youth at our church hosted a soup dinner as a fundraiser.  Chad made a crock pot full of corn chowder for them.  So, we took it to the church and stayed to eat with them.  While there, we were discussing our fingerprint fiasco from Friday.  After hearing our story, Meritta--our pastor's wife, started thinking of who we could speak with about getting the prints done.  Sunday morning she asks me if we have found a place to get them done yet.  I told her no and that we were so frustrated we weren't sure what we needed to do.  Well, she remembered that a gentleman who goes to church with us is a former FBI agent.  BINGO!  Later that afternoon, we get a call from him.  Meritta and Ricky had called him on our behalf.  He told us that he would need to call around to find out who has the ink...but he was sure he would find a place for us to have the ink prints done. We have lift off!  On Monday morning around 8:30 I notice that I have a voice mail.  It's from our FBI friend, Terry.  He has found out that Dawson County Jail has the ink and they would be glad to do the prints for us.  So, I sent Chad a message to call Dawson County to find out the times.  When he called, they told him they do prints until 5:00.  So, at 4:00 we meet in Dawsonville to head to the jail.  Halfway there, I can't find my wallet.  Thinking that I had left it in my car, we turn around and go back to Kroger.  It's not there.  Guess where it was???  It had fallen out in the floorboard of the truck,  so I had it all along.  Oops!  So, here we go....heading back to the jail, er, I mean the detention center.  We get there at like 4:30.  The "overly nice" lady up front says, "we only do prints until 4:00."  Here's when it almost got nasty.  "Listen lady, we spoke with someone earlier who said they did it until 5:00.  We have driven like a bat out of Hades to get here."  The really nice lady says, "let me call someone to see."  I'm like, "you better or I'm going back there."  Well, it turns out since the guy told Chad they did it until 5:00, he said he would do the prints for us.  Yippee!!! That guy was awesome!  He made up for the "overly nice lady" at the front.  After he did the prints, I was going to pay him the $10 fee to do the prints.....he said not to worry about it.  Amazing....the Lord was in this the entire time.  He knew what we needed.  I prayed on Sunday that we would get the help we needed to do the inked prints....God answered in His time.  It reminds me of a song that goes, "Down the road comes Jesus, right on time."

Yesterday, I went to the Post Office, got a Money Order to send with the fingerprints and I mailed the package Priority Mail to the FBI in West Virginia.  Now we wait----"I'm waiting on You, Lord."  Today, we are going to the Metro PCS on Atlanta Hwy to have our Live Scan prints done for the GBI.  Those prints and criminal record check will be back in 48 hours.  I still don't understand why we can't use Live Scan prints for both FBI and GBI.  It seems all the counties around use the Live Scan for both...I don't know why our agency won't accept it.  But, it's not for me to understand.  You can't tell me that the Lord didn't have control over this situation, because I know He did.  We would have never found a place to have the inked prints done if the Lord had not been working on both ends of the situation.  I give thanks and honor and praise to Him.

Keep praying everyone.....the Lord is good.  He is watching over us right now.  I feel like we are being blessed beyond measure during this time of going through the process of adoption.  The Lord is in control of this situation.  I know in His plan, He has a child already chosen for us and it truly will be our child.  We are still working on our profile book....it's a slow process because we need to make certain that every word and every picture are chosen precisely. 

Until next time, may God richly bless you,

Lorissa

While I'm Waiting......

This song by John Waller really speaks to my soul.  It gives me strength and encouragement.  Here is the link to it on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrzkRwDXhP4

Song lyrics:

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am hopeful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it is painful
But patiently, I will wait

I will move ahead, bold and confident
Taking every step in obedience
While I'm waiting
I will serve You
While I'm waiting
I will worship
While I'm waiting
I will not faint
I'll be running the race
Even while I wait

I'm waiting
I'm waiting on You, Lord
And I am peaceful
I'm waiting on You, Lord
Though it's not easy
But faithfully, I will wait
Yes, I will wait
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve You while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting
I will serve you while I'm waiting
I will worship while I'm waiting on You, Lord

I found this website (http://lyrics.christiansunite.com/lyrics_3182_3.shtml) that has a description of the meaning of the song by John Waller.  Here is what he wrote about it:

"The explanation for this song is simple, I was waiting on God and I was hurting when I wrote the lyrics. I probably wouldn't have written a song if my friend, Mike, hadn't encouraged me to document what I was going through during that time. I'm sure there are few people who can't relate to this song, but the important thing to remember while we're waiting on God is to not just wait but to actively wait. Serve, worship and be faithful with what you have, where you are... "even while (you) wait." - John Waller (2007) "This wasn't one of those songs that the revelation preceded where I was, because I had been truly already waiting 15 years at the time when I wrote the song. I wanted to pose the question, 'What do you do when you are waiting on God?' The answer is you continue to be faithful where you are. You continue to serve and worship while you are waiting. I never dreamed "While I'm Waiting" might end up in a movie. I didn't even find out it was being considered for FIREPROOF until it was already done. Everyone who hears it finds it to be a 'me too' kind of song." - John Waller (2009)

Every time I hear the song or think of the words, cold chills run over me.  If you haven't heard it....I encourage you to listen to it.  I know it will bless you as much as it has me and Chad.

I hope everyone has a blessed week.  Stay strong in the Lord and He will strengthen you.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?  Psalm 27:1

Profiles and Pixie Dust.......

I had such good intentions of posting a new blog entry over the weekend.  Then, I decided I would write while we were out for snow.  Since neither one of those got done.....here I am writing today.  First off, I want to thank everyone out there who has been reading the blog so far.  I have gotten so much positive feedback from all who have read.  I feel truly blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends and family who are all so supportive.  Keep up the praying!  I can feel the prayers going up on our behalf. 

One of the things we have learned from Bethany Christian Services is how we should network with others to get our "story" out there.  A couple of you have told me that you have shared the blog with your friends who may not even know either one of us and that those people are praying for our adoption.  I want to encourage all of you to keep it up!  By networking through our friends and family, more people hear about our story.  You never know who may know someone who knows someone who might have a daughter or a niece who may be pregnant and wants to give her child up for adoption.  I also feel that by networking through all of you, more prayers will go up on our behalf.  We need prayers to give us strength, patience, and understanding.  I know those things only come from the Lord.

This week we have started to gather a sampling of pictures from throughout our lives to put together our profile book.  Our profile book will be how the birthmother chooses us to be the parents of her child.  In other words, it should be perfect!  In my mind, I'm thinking.....yeah right.  How in the world am I supposed to put together a profile book to help someone choose us???  We should include pictures and writings--like a letter to the birthmother.  One of the educational classes we took through Bethany taught us that we should choose each word and each picture very carefully as we place it in our profile book.  AAHHH!!!  How do we do that?  I'm not a writer.  If I write the profile, I'll be like......."Uh, uh, we go to Disney World about 4 times a year, uh, we love children, uh, we knew each other before we started kindergarten......."  I will need all the help I can get with the writing....I guess that will be Chad's job.  He has a higher education degree than I do.  HA! But, he is only a math teacher so I will have to proofread it for him!  I have been looking for pictures this week and have been trying to find a few pictures from each major chapter in our lives.  If any of you reading this have any pictures of Chad and me together at school or church, I might like to see them.  I've been trying to find a couple of pictures from church when we were little...like at the Christmas play, VBS, or Sunday school.  What Bethany suggests for us to put in the profile are pictures showing us doing something....not just portraits or posed pictures----if that makes sense.

Yesterday I received a new packet of paperwork to complete for our home study.  I never realized how much "stuff" we would be answering for the agency.  With all of the classes we've taken, the self study, the home study, and the statements of faith......I think all parents should go through these things.  In the long run, it will make me a better parent I know.  However, if all parents were to go through the self study, the educational classes, and the self study.....we would not have the behavior problems in the classroom that I see on a daily basis in high school.  I think parents would be better prepared to teach their children how to be respectful and responsible.  Ok, I'm off my soapbox. 

In closing of this week's post....I want to give thanks to the Lord for His many blessings He has already given to me and my family.  Our pastor, Ricky Stone, is returning from the Holy Land today.  Our prayer was delivered to the Wailing Wall!  Thank you again everyone for reading and continuing to pray for our journey!

Why we are here...

Think back to where you were in December 1977.  I'll tell you where I was.  I was in a womb inside my birth mother when I decided to join the world on December 11th.  My birth mother had a plan.  Her plan included terminating her parental rights to give custody of me to my parents.  If it had not been for her following God's plan, I would not be here today writing this blog entry.  I am so very thankful that I was given to such a loving, supportive, Christian family as the one I was to join.  I could never ask for a better family to grow up in.  My mother and father have been my strength and my support for my entire life.  I owe every part of my life to them.  However, I know and you know that our heavenly Father is the one we owe everything to.  His plan was for my birth mother to give me over to my parents.  His plan was for me to be a part of the Freeland/Forrester family.  It was also in His plan for my daddy to be in an accident on February 12, 1987 and for him to live 20 years in the state he was in.  Why??  Well, it's God's plan.  I don't know why, and I don't suspect I will find out why until I see the Lord up in heaven.


I'm sure you're asking yourself what does this have to do with Chad and Lorissa adopting???  You see, it's in God's plan.  We have been married for 9 years and 8 months.  I'll just go ahead and tell you....we've been off birth control for probably 8 years.  Yes, we've done the infertility tests.  Yes, we've done the infertility drugs.  Nothing seemed to work.  I remember having the conversation with Chad during our first few months of marriage that I wanted to adopt an infant and how he shared the same interest as I did about adoption.  I had such a wonderful experience growing up and knowing I was adopted, therefore, I wanted to give back a little of what I had received from my own parents.  Fast-forward to May 2009.  We had completed all infertility tests and about 4 rounds of infertility drugs.  I had just graduated from UGA with my master's degree.  There was nothing holding us back now from adopting.  As most of you know, from the time Chad and I were married in 2000, at least one of us has been in school doing some kind of graduate work.  Now, it's God's time.  So, we prayed and prayed and prayed for the Lord's will to be done in our lives.  We have wanted nothing more than to share our lives and our love of the Lord with a child.

In December, we got our answer.  I had contacted Bethany Christian Services back in September.  Someone from there had sent us the preliminary application packet but when we received it, I left it on the edge of the desk for months.  I kept looking at it thinking...I'll fill that out this weekend or I'll talk to Chad more about it this weekend.  Well, this weekend never came until my birthday in December.  I think we both knew what the Lord wanted us to do, but neither of us had said anything about it to one another.  On December 28, 2009, we began filling out the preliminary application and the statements of our faith that Bethany requires us to fill out.  It took us until January 3rd to get it all completed.  Our preliminary packet was mailed on that day.  It seems like an eternity ago already.  The statements of faith we had to complete were the ones that took so long to do because we had to do some soul searching to find our answers.  You see, Bethany Christian Services requires any couple wishing to adopt an infant to be Christians.  By completing the statements of faith, we answered questions regarding our faith and belief in Jesus, how we came to know the Lord, how the Lord is evident in our lives, and how we serve Him each day.

Now, here we are today.  Since January 3rd, we have completed 10 hours of educational classes regarding adoption, completed our formal application, each of us completed a 12-page self-study, and we attended a Discover Adoption informational meeting.  It's time now to wait until the final word of approval of our formal application and to make certain our references letters are sent to the agency.  We will also begin creating our profile book and an online profile where birth mothers can view a letter from us and our profile (a birth mother will choose us to be a forever family to her child).  Once we have final approval, we go into the home study where our adoption specialist will visit our home and speak with us individually.  Once our home study is approved, it's the hurry up and wait game.  Most likely our wait time will be at least a year because we are requesting a Caucasian infant from here in the U.S.

Please keep us in your prayers.  We need guidance, strength, and patience daily.  All of this comes from the Lord and the Lord only.  On Him do we wait....

"For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him." 
I Samuel 1:27

The Wailing Wall...

So, here I am.  I thought it would be a wonderful thing to create a blog about our adoption process.  I knew I wanted to keep a journal of the emotional journey we are about to embark upon, so I thought I would share our story here with all of you.

Why is it when you think things are just trucking along great, then someone or something tries to tear you down?  Is it the devil?  Probably.  But, the way I look at it is that I must be doing what the Lord wants me to do or else I wouldn't be getting this criticism.  That sounds like the better answer, so I'm sticking with that.  I know the Lord is in control of every situation.  Nothing happens in life that He is not in control over.  This past weekend, I found out just how in control God is in my life.

On Saturday, I found out some troubling information that almost rocked me to my core.  Someone had been talking "smack" about Chad and I going through with the adoption process.  Now, normally things don't get to me.....but I'll just tell you now, I must be getting into that "mommy mode" thing already because I was livid!  Not only was the person speaking about me, they were speaking about my child (or at least my prospective child).  It hurt me first because I am adopted.  It made me think that this person must not like adoption!  Then, I realized.....jealousy!  That green-eyed monster! Secondly, it hurt me that there are actually people out there who don't want others to be happy.....gasp!  After that horrifying revelation...the Lord showed me how He is still in control.

Sunday morning rolls around and we are sitting in church service.  I knew our pastor, Ricky Stone, was about to leave for a trip to the Holy Land on Monday.  Well, he starts to talk about going over to see where the Lord walked and about the other places he will be visiting.  I knew what was coming before he said it.  The mysterious thing is that Chad knew about it also but neither of us had said anything to each other about it.  Ricky begins with talking about going to visit the Wailing Wall and how he knows that God can hear our prayers wherever we are no matter if we are in the Holy Land or if we are in Disneyland (he didn't say Disneyland, I added that myself).  But, the Wailing Wall is believed to be a place where people visit to say special prayers and leave messages tucked in the wall for God. At that point....my heart began to pound and I could feel a lump coming up in my throat.  God is in control and He knew that at that moment I needed to hear from Him that we are doing the right thing in our lives by adopting.  Ricky continued with letting the church know that if any of us wanted to write down a prayer, he would make certain that it made its way to the Wailing Wall for the Lord to hear.  I felt like someone had just covered me with a warm blanket......I knew it was the Lord telling me that everything will be alright and that I should rely on Him and look to Him for strength and no one else.  So, Sunday afternoon Chad and I wrote a prayer on a little piece of paper.  We took it back to church Sunday night to give to Ricky.  He promised us he would say a special prayer over the paper as he placed it in the Wailing Wall.