We received our letter from the DCSF to say that our documents were OK, and they are releasing them to be legalised by the notary. That means we have to get them checked again (at solicitors prices!!) and gather our last details, including photos of ourselves/family and house, as well as further medical checks. These should be done soon, then it's back to the DCSF with our papers, before finally being sent to Peru. Phew! Long journey for papers that we never really see ourselves!

We are pleased to have got this far and hope that we get all in place for the next step to move quickly. Thanks for all your prayers!!

Read this from 'Word for Today' bible notes today and thought it was appropraite and helpful!

Lessons from Lazarus 30 Aug 2009
'That the Son of God may be glorified through it' JOHN 11:4

Here are three more lessons from Lazarus: 1) God has a bigger and better plan in mind. Lazarus was four days dead when Jesus arrived. When the Lord waits, it's for two reasons: a) That He may be glorified. The Pharisees believed that your spirit left your corpse on the fourth day after you died. So if Jesus had intervened earlier they'd have said, 'He wasn't really dead.' Hence He told His disciples, 'This sickness is ...for the glory of God' (John 11:4 NKJV). It's in looking back that we clearly see God's hand at work b) That our faith may be strengthened. Jesus said, 'I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe' (John 11:15 NKJV). In life, crises come and go. Your next crisis will be different from your last one, but the thing that must remain strong is your faith. 2) God will ask you to remove the hindrances and deal with the stench. 'Jesus said, 'Take away the stone.' Martha...said to Him, 'Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days' (John 11:38-39 NKJV). Are you praying for an answer in one area, while God's telling you to take away the stone and deal with a 'stench' buried in another? Surrender, you can't win! When your heart's right with God your prayers will be answered. 3) God wants to make you a living testimony. Everywhere Lazarus went, without even speaking a word, his life declared that Jesus is Lord. And the same should be true of you. God has saved and raised you up to be a testimony to His grace and goodness.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

We know God is doing more than teaching us patience! We are learning to trust His will for our lives, and our faith is certainly being stretched! Maybe this will help others too x

As you know, we often buy a little memento when we reach a significant stage in the process. This time was no exception!

The famous English story of the bear that travelled from Peru of course!!

We feel a little in limbo, waiting for our papers to be checked and told to proceed with collecting the next things to add to our dossier. But waiting needs to become normal I guess!!

Please pray that the paperwork is checked soon, we can find the help we need to get everything in order, and that we continue to trust God timing and purposes for us. Will keep you posted x

FINALLY!!!!

We have been away for a bit, and have not posted here for lack of news, but finally we can confirm that Peru WILL accept our application!

It has been many weeks, and we have benn calling our government on a regular basis, but a conversation and an e-mail yesterday confirmed that we can proceed. Peru are still suspending adoptions from the UK after us and may in the future only accept adoptions from people with Peruvian heritage!!

The picture our friends had was spot on!! They prayed and saw us getting through like Indiana Jones under a closing door- he might loose his hat but he makes it! And others who prayed with faith saw us being accepted at the right time. Maybe at the end of this we will better understand the timing, but we know God's timing is perfect.

Now we have to wait while our paperwork is checked by our government, and will need to collect together a few extra things specifically for Peru, such as a chest x-ray (!) We are officially in the 'paper chase' and will need to do a bit of phoning and writing to get everything ready. This could take about 6-8 weeks. Then our papers can be sent to Peru.

Thank you God for bringing us closer to you and our future this week x

Still waiting! We know the letter is translated and should arrive in Peru any day now. This week we have made contact with a notary, this is the legal person who will sign and verify all our papers (for a crazy fee!!) and send it to the right English/Peruvian offices in our country before it is sent abroad. We have also made contact with a friendly law firm in Peru who would help us complete all the legal parts of the process over there.

We are still praying and hopeful. We are not sure when we will find out if we can proceed or not, but are looking for things to be clearer soon. Trying to keep our faith focused on the one thing worth having faith in; not this process, not our government, not Peru, but God. He is the only sure and constant one in all this. If you are praying for us, please pray that this is our daily reality. It is easy to let emotions and doubt creep in. We want to our faith to be stronger after this time. Thanks,

Still no news yet. We are waiting to hear if Peru will accept our application as we are so near to sending our papers to them, despite them wanting to suspend all applications from the UK. We will try on Monday to call again and see if the office at the DCSF (UK Gov) have heard anything.
We realise that God is working to build our faith, even when he is silent! We don't know what will happen, and are not sure where God is taking us, but we have faith that he will be in our situation and not let us fall.

Thank you to all those who were praying for us.

We are APPROVED!!

The Panel meeting went well. They asked us three questions and then we went to sit in another office for them to deliberate. No sooner had we sat down than our social worker entered the room to give us the good news! They must have taken about a minute to decide!
We are obviously pleased, and are now anxious to hear news from Peru. We know that a letter is being written and sent, and we hope to hear within a week.

Thanks again,

A significant day for all the right reasons!

On Tuesday 9th June we heard news that Peru may be suspending international adoptions from the UK. We were of course worried, confused and saddened. Yesterday we prayed, a lot!!
My wonderful husband had heard from God 2 years ago, unknown to me, about these two dates. He had written them down on a piece of paper, dated and sealed, in 2007. He was not sure why they were significant. How amazing is that? God knew that I would need to know He is in control, He saw this coming, and He is at work.

So please join us in prayer. Today I found out that Peru is indeed suspending, but the government here is hopeful that we will be allowed through before they do. They are not closed, just suspended. We are not sure what the future holds but we are praying that :

• God directs each of our steps
• He works a miracle- where the impossible becomes possible
• the 9th would be a birth, a commencement and a bringing forward of God's plans
• we can pray like Sarah: Is there anything to hard for the Lord?
• it will increase our fervour, passion and faith
• even though we feel small/weak, we would know that God sees this as His opportunity to work His way in His power, (like David with Goliath or Gideon and his small army) it is no matter for God
• we will come to see how our prayers get answered, even through there may be delays (like Daniel talking to Angel Gabriel)

(based on words given to us through prayer and the prayers of others)

Saviour, He can move the mountains,
Our God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save!

Thank you,

Just one and half weeks to panel now. Getting closer!
The panel takes place in Reading and is at 12.00 midday. We are travelling up that morning and hope it will be over fairly quickly. Will keep you posted!

Some people have mentioned to me that they can't seem to subscribe to the blog using the notify list at the side. If you wish to and are having trouble, please send me your e-mail address and I will add you myself. Not sure what is going on but I will try and fix it!

Thanks,

Just two and a half weeks to panel now. We have recieved a copy of our social workers report which the panel will read. We have had to proof read it to make sure that everything was correct and how we meant it to come across!

It has been nice to relax this week and not worry about paperwork, but it is also strange as the process feels quite removed from us again and so unreal! Thinking about being a familiy of more than just us two seems very odd, and distant.

We have bought our first toy.

To celebrate ending the Home study!!

(Sassy Talk 'n Talk bilingual phone! It makes Spanish and English sounds)

We will collect little items in celebration of mile stones we reach in the process or special events in our lives.

Other examples we have bought include:

Bilingual story book

First words in Spanish

So in little ways we feel we can prepare and we look forward to explaining when each item was bought, and the anticipation we had. Our hope in in God for the future, and our prayer at the moment is 'help us with the wait, direct us to our children'. Once panel is done and the outcome is possitive (we hope!) we can begin to ask God to bring us to the children He knows will be ours.

We trust you!

Thankyou again to our freinds and family who are holding us through the wait- you are the best!

For those outside the world of adoption, here is some information about the process we have been through so far from online. We are currently checking the drafted form F with our social worker via e-mail!

Assessment Form
The Form F assessment process is a nationally recognised format for the assessment of potential adopters and has been designed by the British Agency for Adoption & Fostering. The home study is demanding and can feel intrusive, but there are good reasons why everything is explored in depth. Adoption is for life and the agency must be sure that the candidates are right for the role. Just as importantly, they must be certain the new parents can make a success of it. Adopters have a crucial role to play at this time, the assessment is a collaborative one with applicants providing evidence of their skills, experience and knowledge to show their competence and understanding confirmed by the social worker's views.

The assessment explores:

Your experience (if any) of caring for children
Providing a safe and caring environment
Working as part of a team
Your understanding of adoption as a lifelong process
Your own childhood and family background and what that has contributed to who you are today
Any previous serious relationships
Any children already in the family
Your understanding of circumstances that lead to children not being able to live with their birth families, and how you think that may affect them
The kind of child you want, and that would fit in with your lifestyle / interests / and personalities.
How you think you might respond to the challenges of parenting.

This is what comes next!!

Adoption Panel

The Adoption Panel consists of up to 10 members from among the following:

An independent chairperson
A locally elected Councillor
2 social workers with at least 3 years experience.
3 independent members drawn from adults who have experience of adoption (ie adopted, been adopted themselves), or who have knowledge of the care system, or professional work with children (ie teachers)
A legal advisor
A medical advisor
An agency adoption advisor
Additionally there is a Panel administrator, who takes the minutes.

Sound fun! From what we hear the 10 people are kind and not at all scary. Lets hope we remember that on June 17th!! Hope this makes the process a little clearer.

We are excited to hear that people in our agency's group that trained with us are going to panel, and some couples have already been approved. It is really exciting and makes our time seem just around the corner!

It has been nice to have some normal life back. We have had no meetings, no pressing forms to fill in and no to-do lists for a couple of weeks since finishing our home study, and are liking it! We have had a draft of our final report to look at, to check we are OK with what the social worker has written, but apart from that we are in waiting mode. We have visited friends, kept working hard and even enjoyed a bit of sun (only here at home, no where exotic!) We are finding our more about Peru, and thinking a lot about the time we will spend there. It is exciting but there are a lot of questions. We are planning to learn some Spanish, but as Catherine has some Portuguese we hope it wont be too tricky! (at least for one of us!) Joining an online group has been great, because it means we can chat to other families adopting from Peru with much more experience than us. We have found out so much. The inter country adoption world is quite small, particularly in the UK, and it seems that no question is too big or small! Everyone is so willing to help, it is very reassuring. I am sure others have found the same.

Need to check the last bit of the report and e-mail it back so that it gets to our agency on time. At least this process has improved my organisation skills!! Thanks all,

You may have noticed that a new clock and map have appeared on this page! We can now let you all know that PERU is the country we are adopting from!! This decision was made quite a while ago, but there were some uncertainties. Now we are set, and that is where our paperwork will be sent.

We thought we knew which country God was calling us to, but in His unique way He has brought us to the point where we can abandon our ideas and respond to His leading. China was going to be, and still is for many, a very long wait. There were some uncertainties surrounding Thailand. Our social worker introduced us to the idea of Peru, and with our links with South America, ability to learn some Spanish, a sound programme and the possibility to travel there more easily, we explored further. We believe it is where we are meant to go and are persuing it keenly. (but as always are open to God's direction if things in the country or programme suddenly change, which we really hope they don't!).

Peru only opened last year to the UK, and so there are very few UK families adopting from there at the moment. This means that some of our questions can't be answered, as we are one of the first couples preparing for Peru.We sometimes feel anxious that so much is unknown, but we are trusting God for each step.

We are looking forward to Panel, and are keen to get a decision so that we can move the process forward. Once our papers are translated and sent, we wait!! Yet again, all in God's timing.

We have done it!! We have finally had our last home study interview!!!

This means that we are nearly ready for panel. We might have a few more e-mails to reply to, but other than that we wait. We have worked hard the last few weeks to get that to do list sorted (but still have to buy a fire extinguisher! Any ideas?!)

The next big date is June 17th. This will be a day in Reading at our agencies offices, where we will spend the day with our social worker answering questions and waiting on a recommendation; approved, approved but some things to do, or not approved. We are hoping for the first decision obviously!

We are getting closer. It struck me the other day that the lists at the side of this page are changing length, and now our done list is longer than our to do list! That is a good feeling!

We have two weeks to catch up which feels great! We are not having another meeting until April 16th so we have chance to catch up on a few jobs. We have been left a to-do list, which includes

• taking photos of us and our home
• completing a finance form
• writing notes that answer questions about behaviour management and more!
• detail again our reasons for adopting in as few words as possible!
• write a bibliography of book and articles we have read re: adoption
• buy a fire extinguisher!

...plus a couple more minor tasks! If we get most of this done by next time we should be nearly finished for the home study part. Our social worker then has to write the 6 part report, which we have to sign three times! Then we should be ready for panel. You may have noticed our date has changed. That is because our agency has changed how often panel happens, but it is probably good as the slightly later date (2 weeks later) gives us a little more time to get ready and make up for the time we lost while our first social worker was taken ill.

Something our social worker said this week, "It is now very real!" It still feels a long way off, but when we look how far we have come and how quickly the next steps could move along we suppose it is. But we have been waiting for so long, and thinking 'one day' that soon seems a bit premature. In reality it could still take years, and we are prepared for that. But we are not sure when it will feel real. When we send our papers abroad? When we receive a photo? When we hold our child? When we get home with them? At the moment it is not sinking in. We will let you know when it does! Thanks again for your love and support,

Exhaustion is setting in a little bit! Constantly thinking through how to answer so many questions, completing paperwork, and finding evidence for so many things is an emotional journey that has more of an effect on us than we realise. We find after an interview we are starving and tried! Trying to carry on normal tasks seems to be more difficult, and we have to remind ourselves that we need time when we don't think about these issues and relax!
Yesterday went well, and we have a growing list of things to pull together, such as photos, legal documents, etc. We felt reassured by our social worker that we were on the right track with what we had completed so far, and that there was nothing jumping out at him that would worry him. Good to know! We have another meeting on Thursday, and we will then have Easter break to rest and get together the next lot of stuff!
Please pray that we are not relying on our own strength and that we find time over Easter especially to really rest. This is heavy going! Thanks,

Sorry for the delay but these last few days have been busy! We have been to visit with friends, and have been doing some DIY as well as more paperwork! Our social worker was friendly, made us feel relaxed and was very keen to move forward quickly, which is great. He said he will do all he can to keep the date for panel, and hope that he will be able to catch up on the interviews we have already done. We will of course have to go back over some stuff, as he needs to get to know us, but we should be able to do this in a condensed way!

We feel pleased to still be moving ahead, and are beginning to understand more about God's plan for us. We still fluctuate between fear and trust, but we think trust is winning!! We guess it is normal to second guess, and think of all the possible outcomes of this journey. There are still so many uncertainties. But ultimately it is not our decision. God has a plan, we just pray we have ears to hear and a willing heart. We are finding that it is not our role to understand God's ways through this journey, but to have faith that he will not let us fall. God bless,

We think we mentioned before about the need to be flexible when going through the adoption process? Well once again we have learnt this lesson! During the last day of training our social worker left early. We later found out that she was very ill, and had gone to the hospital. A few days later we received a call to explain that she would no longer be able to take our case, and we would be reassigned a new social worker! We were obviously concerned that she was ill, and felt that this was one of those things that could not be helped. So, today we meet our new social worker! We have a man this time, and he is hopeful that our panel date, the day we get a yes or no from the agency, will remain the same as panel is not held very often. We really hope so, and will probably have to add in some more dates when we will meet our new social worker over Easter break to catch up, and help him get to know us better.
This afternoon, he will be going over what we have done so far, and so hopefully we will not have to revisit everything again, but at this stage we don't know.
We value your prayers:

• That we quickly build a good relationship with our new social worker
• That we can organise enough appointments so that we can keep our panel date the same
• That we continue to trust God, His timing is still perfect!

We are quickly realising that relationship with the social worker is really important, as they are building a picture and making a judgement on you and your ability to parent! We will let you know how we get on later. Thanks,

We managed to complete the third day of the course, which was a lot less heavy, and focused on parenting and having your child home. It is nice to feel we have completed that part, and will not have to travel to Oxford anymore. We are hoping to complete our other interviews over the next few weeks, and then get ready to travel to Reading (we think) for our panel appointment.
Apart from Catherine having a nasty cold, we feel OK about the next steps, and need to complete a bit more paperwork before our next meeting. Things are still moving along well, and we will let you know how the next interview goes.

The interviews are over for this week, and we feel happy with what we have shared and how things have gone. Today's was more about our skills as potential parents, and our strengths to cope with the issues we might face. We felt we could be open and share how we felt about a range of issues, and feel positive about the steps ahead.

Just so you know, some of the dates in the 'Still to Come' column have changed again, to fit around our social workers schedule and so that we can limit the time we have off work. We are learning that during this process you need to be flexible!!

Thanks for all your extra prayers this week. We feel we have indeed got on well with our social worker, and feel much more relaxed about the interview process now we have had chance to get to know her. Our next event is our final Course day away in Oxford. This will conclude the training part, and all that will be left will be a range of interviews. The last day they have assured us will be more relaxed and upbeat, focusing on having the child at home. The topics will be:

• Country links
• Naming your child
• Making a life book for an adopted child
• Managing racism
• the views of a young adopted person
• An adoptive parents speaks

We will get to chat to a parent who has recently been through the process, and ask questions. We are looking forward to completing the course, and really feel we have learnt a lot.
If you are praying, please pray for:
Good contact to be maintained with those on our training course
That we will have the energy to attend the training mid week and carry on with work the next day!
That we will continue to build a good relationship with our social worker

Thanks,