Moving Along

This Africa sign is a gift from Santa and is proudly displayed in our kitchen 

Happy New Year, Friends and Family! 

We are excited to announce that we have completed our home study, and can finally move along to the next steps. Yesterday, we met with our amazing social worker, Kim, to finalize the home study. She has prepared a 16 page paper about all things Nathan and Jennifer Gronberg! It's strange to read all about your life written by someone else. We've spent hours with her answering questions about our past, our life together, our marriage, our parenting style, why we want to adopt, how we feel about our child's birth family, etc... It has been a real learning experience for both of us. Now that I know more about the process of adoption, and some of the many issues surrounding it, I feel even more blessed to be embarking on this journey as a family. 

I feel extremely excited that our family is going to make an impact on a life- on our future daughter's life- and she on all of our lives, too! 

Kim had some really nice and positive things to say about how she feels about Nathan and I. It is obvious that she has enjoyed writing up this home study, and feels that we are going to be great adoptive parents to our daughter. Our relationship with her is important, as she will be updating our home study in about 1 year (they expire), and she will be conducting our post adoption visits.  One of the questions we had to answer was about what are some major stresses we've gone through in our marriage. She found it interesting that both of us said that there had been none. She thought that having 3 children, or going through the adoption would be good answers. She felt that how we viewed what stress is was a good indicator of our true team spirit, and how we handle stress together. This is a big reason why she feels that we'll get through this process just fine, leaning on one another for support. 

In other news, we have more excitement to share. On Wednesday, we received some really great news regarding our finances, and this adoption is no longer a financial worry! We don't want to get too detailed about it, but we are feeling blessed in this area. I can remember back to when we were first thinking about adopting, and people that we were giving us references for agencies were saying that we should not worry about the financial aspect- that if we were being called to adopt, then God would help us in His time. And here we are- finding out that our prayers have been answered. In addition, the adoption tax credit has been extended permanently (it was set to expire in 2012), so this is also wonderful news on the financial front for us! We will be applying for a few grants, and having some garage sales to help out with the unforeseeable expenses that creep up. Another goal we are working towards is being able to bring Riley (and Addison?) with us for the first trip to Ethiopia to meet their sister. I think that this would be an invaluable trip for our biological children to accompany us on. 

Along those same lines, a few months ago, Nathan went to an ATM on a whim to help a friend facing a difficult financial time. The next day, we received an email from our agency stating that one of our dear friends had contributed to our agency's Eternal Life fund for us. This is just another example of how God's love is shared. How great would it be if we all loved one another in this way? Were we in the best position to give to this friend in need? Of course not, but he needed it more than us. In turn, our prayers were answered for our financial needs. So very cool to think about. 

I have been thinking a lot about our daughter's birth parents lately. We have requested a female between the ages of 0-36 months, and because the wait is so long, she could be just conceived, or just born... and I am envisioning an Ethiopian woman, living in poverty, shuffling around humming to her sweet baby that she won't be able to keep. Maybe it's not really like that, but it's how I picture it. These thoughts have led me to start praying for our sweet little girl and her birth parents. I put myself in their shoes- I loved my babies from the minute I learned of my pregnancies. To carry them, and to have to make the sacrifice to give them over to someone else due to not being able to care for them- the hurt must be terrible! And so, I pray for peace for them, that the child will be protected from illness, hunger and danger, and that God will provide someone to love our child- for her to experience love, affection, and attention from the caregivers in the orphanage. I also don't feel that it's too early to also pray that the child bonds with our family, that God will knit the hearts of our biological children and our adoptive child, and that the hearts of extended family members will be softened to our adoption. These are things we think about every day as the process slowly inches along. If you pray, will you consider adding some of these things to your prayer list? It would mean a lot to us! 

We will be so excited when we can actually announce our number on the waiting list! We anticipate this being in March. There is some paperwork to finish up, and then we will be sending our dossier over to Ethiopia! While we are waiting, we will be continuing our training- on interracial issues, on hair and skin care, on how to promote bonding with our daughter, on sensory issues, etc... There's so much to learn, and we want to be fully prepared for this journey! 

Note:

KC people- if you have anything to donate to our spring garage sale, please let us know, and we can work out a time to pick it up! We appreciate anything you can give. 

Thank you all for the continued prayers and support. It's means so much to us to have people in our lives to share the excitement and joy with! 

Nathan and Jenny