Getting Matched

Two agencies and four weeks after my heart was captured, we finally recieved the phone call.  I was in the middle of ordering Changs Spicy Chicken and I heard my phone ringing in my purse.  I stopped mid-order, looked at the # and literally ran out of the restaurant.  The words, "they are still available" should have come as no surprise, as I knew in my heart God was knitting our family together, but it was as if I could breathe again.  The relief was overwhelming and I just started crying.  Tears of joy.  Tears of relief.  Tears of anticipation. 

Now the paperwork began.  Not international adoption paperwork, but matching paperwork.  We had to get matched to Isaiah & Ruth before we even found a social worker, began a home study or anything else a "normal" adoption process might include.  Getting "matched" just means on paper, we look like we would be a good fit for these children.  So in record time we produced 7 typed pages of answers to questions like "How we deal with stress," "Reasons why we want to adopt," "Our family and our childhoods," "The attitudes of our family regarding adoption," "Parenting styles and discipline," "Birth parents and their rights," and the list goes on and on. 

Those questions, as tedious as they seemed, helped us filter our feelings and emotions and we realized, this wasn't about doing a good deed.  This wasn't about just helping some kids out.  We were not on a path looking for the easiest child to raise or the one that would cause our family the least inconvenience.  We wanted to adopt Isaiah and Ruth.  Period.  We wanted to become their family - forever.  Whatever that meant and whatever that looked like.

So off we mailed (overnighted to be exact) our paperwork and a check (for what felt like the equivalent to what my husband makes in a week!  UGH!)  to a California adoption agency.  It took exactly 5 days for them to get back to us.  She began by saying, "ya'll seem like wonderful parents..."  My heart dropped.  That's what someone says when they are about to drop a bombshell on you.  It's the line -  "I think you're great, but I'm just not looking for a serious relationship right now."  She wasn't getting to the point, so I finally had to stop her and with all the grace that I posses, ask her, "are we matched?"  That's when I found out that the California agency was only a screening agency for the agency that is actually handling the adoption.  But that yes, we had passed their screening.  Immediate relief turned into that sick feeling you get in your stomach.  Now we had to wait for the actual adoption agency to interview us, and officially match us. 

It took about a week and two phone calls totaling almost 4 hours in length for them to find out everything they needed about us and for us to find out everything we needed to know about the children.  There were moments during the conversations that were difficult and my heart just broke.  But with each passing minute, I knew they were ours and I felt time was of the essence.  I wanted them home...yesterday! 
We signed an intent to adopt agreement and the official adoption procedures began...

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’”  Luke 15:4-7