It's Renewal Time!

I can't believe it has already been a year since we completed our home study for the adoption. I remember getting on other family's blogs this time last year and reading about how they couldn't believe they were still waiting for their babes and having to renew their home studies. They expected to have their babies within the year's time. Not so, as we know, and now here we are, at that same stage but I think we are quite settled with the fact that this will be THE WAIT of all "waits". I'm over the "fantasy" and have totally relinquished this thing to my Father who knows the very minute Sarah Grace will be ours! This is so NOT about us. Praise God! The only thing that shook us about the renewal was the jump in cost. When discussing the renewal last year with our social worker we were told it would be around $300.00 to complete. The "new and improved" cost is $650.00 plus the cost of notaries (of course) for new medical and employment forms. Ouch! We have no idea where that money is going to come from, but we watched God move mountains for us last year and don't suspect He has so soon forgotten about our precious Chinese Empress. It will be exciting to watch what He does on her behalf and we will be sure to keep you posted.

Other than that, school has started up again and we have had a really good start to '08 in that department. No complaints yet and the kids seem to really be motivated. (What? Did I really just hear myself say that?) It was a bit of an anxious start of the year for me because I seemed to be losing students left and right. I had three families pull out which left me at 18 as of Monday. However, because My Father is faithful and true, I am no sooner right back up to full-time status and will be meeting with my new famlies tomorrow. I'm excited to connect with some fresh faces. I love my job for that. The big worry about going down to part-time status was that it affected our adoption tremendously. Prayer is powerful and thank you to all of my faithful friends who have been praying about this situation for us. We love you so much. I'm sending a shout-out here to my dear friend Linda M. who is so faithful in her prayers for our fam. I so appreciate our chats and moments of reflection. Friends are good to have! I'll end with that tonight.