What's in a Week?

cleaning out the office!

We would really value your prayers this week!  Here's what is on our "to do" list in the next 6 days:

- This weekend a social worker from Small World Adoption will fly in from China to do our Home Study!  A home study is a big part of an adoption process and is an evaluation by a certified social worker of you and your family and your readiness to adopt and add a child into your family.  It is a detailed report of you family that includes a comprehensive list of documents, observations and interviews.  You can read more about it here if you are interested!

- Deep clean, clean, clean!  Although having an impeccable home is NOT the point of a home study, it still feels like you want our home to be in great working order before it is evaluated!  We have had a number of "spring cleaning to do's" that we have wanted to tackle so we figured, what better time?  We also completely  moved our office into our bedroom so we would have an additional bedroom for our Houser "Baby" #2 when he/she comes into our family!  We are still a long way off (likely) from that event but it is good to have an extra room to show the social worker we have room and are ready for another.  In the mean time, we are all set with a spare bedroom for any of you who want to come visit us!!

- As a part of preparing for our home study and new child, we need to complete several online training courses as well as read several books.  Our goal is to completely finish all our online training by Friday so we can discuss it with our social worker and also be ready with questions for her.  I (Sarah) am almost finished but Steve is just starting, so he'll have a lot to tackle on it this week.

- What books are we reading?  We are working on "20 Things Adopted Children Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew" right now.  We are also planning to read "The Connected Child,"  "Attaching in Adoption," "Toddler Adoption" and "The Out of Sync Child."  These came highly recommended by our social worker and a friend of ours who is trained as a social worker and has worked in that capacity.  There are a lot of things we need to learn about the hurts and wounds that our child will have when they enter our family and also the unique challenges that a child coming from a background in an institution will have.  If you are interested in reading any of these with us and talking about them, we would love to!  Also, if you are family or close friends and would like to learn more about helping our new child adjust or the challenges we will be facing as a family, feel free to check any of these out at the library, we will need all the help and support we can get!  If you have adopted before, what books did you find most valuable or helpful? If you are in-process right now, what have you liked reading?

- We need to finish up some final documents and paperwork for our home study. We have been working on compiling this for over a month and are getting close to finishing our giant "to collect" list.  It is slow going but feels good to be checking some boxes off and be close to finishing.  Now, just be praying for expedited paperwork as we will begin the waiting process to receive most of it back (for instance, since I was born overseas and need a certified birth certificate there will be some added cost, waiting and patience involved in requesting it etc).

- We have several people we are meeting with this week to encourage and who encourage us, looking forward to some time spent with good friends Monday night and Wednesday morning and night, as well as a doula planning meeting Thursday night (In June we will be offering two childbirth education classes and have some planning to do for those)!

- Wednesday night youth group, 7pm and some times scheduled with students as well as normal office times and meetings.

- Steve will be preaching this weekend at Church and he is also speaking at Tres Dias up in Seoul on Saturday evening. Please pray for both of these important talks and that the Lord would guide him as he opens the word - that he would be faithful and that the Lord would use him.

- On Saturday our Church will have a booth at the International Center - we will be selling food items to raise money for our summer missions trip so I am helping prepare and bake food for the event this week.

- Friday and Saturday our social worker will be coming to Songtan to meet with us, teach us, interview us and inspect our home.  Please pray for stress levels and a good visit!  We are actually more excited than nervous for this - I think it will be a great time to learn from her and hopefully glean wisdom in this process. But there is a lot to do to prepare and it is still nerve wracking to have someone coming to investigate you as a family and your home.  I know we are a loving family, ready for this next child but STILL having someone come to investigate you definitely brings some anxiety.

- Training and Raising up Caleb.  Last week and this week we have had some very challenging times with Caleb.  He is struggling with getting easily frustrated, with being disrespectful in the way he talks to us and interacts with us and also with some aggression towards other kids (pushing, hitting and taking toys away from them).  This has really concerned us and we are working hard to be consistent, firm and loving that he may not act in these ways.  We really could use wisdom in how to handle and how to respond - as well as patience with him!  Where oh where has our sweet little boy gone? I miss him and want him back!!!

That's our week! Will you take a minute to pray for us now and will you continue in prayer for us as you think of it this week?  We need your prayers!