Getting Started...the Home Study

With joyful anticipation we wrote the check to Child and Family Services to begin the home study process. We sent the check on a Tuesday and on Friday we received a response that gave us the name of our social worker and the letter said that she would contact us later in the week. I doubted that this would actually happen because it was the week before Christmas. However, I should have known that God has been pretty faithful in encouraging me and proving me wrong lately! The social worker DID call on January 5th and set up our first meeting for January 11th. I had been thinking about joining our pastor and Mike on a mission trip to Rwanda. The trip was scheduled for February 5th and I was hoping to bring my dossier with me to submit to the Rwandan government, however I knew that I was dreaming because our first meeting for the home study was the 11th of January and I would be leaving a few short weeks later. Well, we met with the social worker on January 11th and I asked her what she thought the time frame would be until we could expect the final report. She said she thought it could be done the first week of February! Brock and I looked at each other in amazement because everyone tells you that the home study takes about 3 months. She noticed our shock and we then told her that I was going to Rwanda the first week of February and if I really could get the paperwork by then, that there might be a chance of the authorities releasing info on the children at the orphanage so that I could identify a child during this trip. When she heard this she said she would try to get it done by the end of January. That is only 3 weeks compared to the 3 months we were expecting. Isn't God GREAT!!!