Baby steps are good news

I was thinking about that phrase today: "baby steps." In terms of what that means to a child, it's a huge advancement in the way they move around. For parents, it's a moment of joy and affirmation that their baby is making the milestones that a child should.

For Bill and me, we are making "baby steps," too. In my last post, I related the decisions we made recently; today we have confirmation that things are progressing! We got a letter from Bethany yesterday saying we've been approved to go ahead with the next step!

First, we need to have a phone orientation to talk about the homestudy process. Then in March, we'll need to travel to Seattle for a training and to get our formal application materials. That's when a whole lotta paperwork is going to begin! On their website, Bethany gives a really rough outline of the next steps.

We are at the very top, of course, at Preliminary Application. I'm hoping (I could be completely wrong 'cuz I'm assuming here) that we'll have all the steps up to Placement done by the end of March so we can be on the waiting list by April. Once that's all done, we just pray, then pray some more. And I need to get the nursery ready. And baby proof the house. And pray.

Okay, that's enough forward thinking. We need to get through the next step first! We filled out our reservation papers for the training (Formal Application) and mailed them today. Bethany will be sending us an information packet about the orientation, and we'll need to call them to set up a time for a 1 to 1.5 hour phone meeting. So, I'm guessing it will be a couple of weeks before we'll get to that (Informational Meeting, on their steps). Eek! That's about the same time as the meeting with Fairbanks Counseling & Adoption! I guess we really WILL be hurrying up to wait!

Until later!