The Police Chase
This weekend, we got lost trying to find our town’s police station. It took us twenty-five minutes to find a police station less than ten minutes away from our new house. Then, once we got there, it was closed. (Can you tell we moved to a more rural town?). Armed with the last form that needed updating (by the local police chief) for our dossier, we were a bit discouraged and began to pull out of the parking lot, when, alas, a police car drove past us on one of the side streets. “Follow him!” I told Ryan. “The police chief said we could just drop the form by and anyone could give it to him so let’s just follow him and give it to him!” Ryan cautiously followed to police car down the street and around the back of the police station building where I jumped out to get to the building’s door before he went into the police only entrance. (Oh the things a mom will do to not have to take her three little kids into a police station by herself during the week to get a background check…). Thankfully, the police officer was very kind and was able to leave the forms on the police chief’s desk for us. So our very last background clearances are on his desk awaiting his signature Monday morning. And, that, my friends, is where we stand. One document away from having a completely updated dossier. Once the police chief mails us our local background clearances, we’ll make seven copies of it and put it in the mail to our agency. Then, it’s back to waiting. No more police stalking shenanigans for us.
The past two months, besides moving to the mid-west and getting settled into our new home, we were also busy getting forms updated and state-level clearances for our dossier. We also had to find a new local agency to update our home study since our NY agency is obviously not licensed in IL. Our original adoption agency remained the same, but we still needed to update with a local agency here in IL so we could legally adopt in our new state. After finding a new agency, we were assigned a social worker who came out and did our home inspection. She loved our new home and thought it was going to be a wonderful fit for our family. Our social worker shared that she was adopted in the U.S. and then her family moved to Africa where she was raised for most of her life before her parents moved back to the States. It was such an encouragement to meet her and hear her story.
Right now, with all of the changes that have happened over the past few months, adoption seems like it is so far away. It’s crazy to think we could get a call any day from our agency saying they have two little ones they think would be a good match for our family. Yet, that is reality. We could be a family of seven in under five months. Wow. Of course, it could be much longer than that or Uganda could close its doors entirely in the next few months. One never knows. Anything can happen, particularly with international adoption. For now, Ryan and I are focusing on getting our family settled into our new home, church and community and we’ll see what God does with our future. He blew us away in 2015 and we’re excited to see what 2016 holds!
