Dating & Waiting . . . June 2011

While we were super excited that things went so well the day we met her, we wondered how she felt about us!  I had referred to this process as a type of "pregnancy" up until this point, but now was feeling more like it was a dating relationship!  Because of her age, there was a need for her to like us as well!  While the ultimate decisions would be made by the social workers involved, we all knew it was in all of our best interests if she liked us and wanted to be with us.  At this point, she knew that her social worker was looking for a family to adopt her, but we had not been named as that family as of yet.  Her social worker wanted to allow things to move slowly and in order.

On Friday morning, we got the call - SHE LIKES US!!!  We were so happy!  We then knew the next step was to have her meet our family and see how the kids did together!  This would be another very nervous and awkward time, but it needed to happen!  It was important to us that she and Ashley would get along, as Ashley so wanted a sister!  We set up the meeting for Monday, June 27th at 5:30pm.  We would take her out to dinner and then to the park to play basketball.  She was in a day camp during the day, and this worked out great with our schedule.  The kids were so ready to meet her and we really wanted to see how they interacted!

Alec was so thrilled, and knew how excited Ashley would be, that he decided to make her a treasure hunt around our home.  He took sticky notes and had her hunt for the treasure, which ended up being a pink heart that said, "We get to meet Janice on Monday!"  Ashley loved it and was thrilled!  I realized that because of Janice's age, this was also a little more exciting for Alec!

Over the weekend, we began trying to explain to the kids that we wouldn't actually talk about adoption when we met Janice, but just try to get to know her and treat her like a new friend.  This was going to be a difficult task, especially for Ashley as an 8 year old that has been talking about adoption for 5-6 months already!  We had been praying about it for that long as well, and it was on our minds continually.  We asked for lots of prayer for the meeting, and so many sent encouraging notes and prayers for us - it was incredible and we felt so lifted up the whole weekend!