Home Study Done

It's been a long silence on the blogging front, so I apologize. I definitely need more time to write!!! Lots of things floating around in my head that I'm anxious to get out there.

But for now, I'll simply report some very exciting news. We had our home study this morning and all went very well. Having been our third stab at this thing, we are becoming old pros in some sense and yet learning something new at every turn in another sense. Amy Curtis was our social worker and was greeted at the door by two very enthusiastic toddlers. Our greatest anxiety going into today was that Josiah and Selah would entertain themselves enough to afford us the time to talk with Amy and answer all of her questions. We asked several folks to pray for that for us and the Lord really answered our prayers. They really didn't try to hog the attention and apart from the occasional interruption, really allowed us to talk with Amy. Amy even commented at the end of our time that she was really impressed with how the kids acted, saying that typically her home studies result in one catastrophe or another from one of the kids in the home.

We spent about 3 hours with her, answering all of her questions and giving her the tour of the house. She had told us prior to the visit that she thought it would be a short visit since we already had two home studies on file. Before she left she said, "I know I said this would probably be a shorter visit, but I just enjoyed talking to you guys so much." That was really encouraging. So, we don't have an official "PASS" on the home study as of yet, but unofficially, she said that she had no concerns and we should get a written copy of the home study within a couple of weeks for us to look over and make any corrections on before finalizing it.

One other funny story that happened while she was there. As I said the kids were really good and at one point, I thought, too good. They were really quiet back in the back of the house and eventually Josiah came out and said, "Selah colored on her doll house." Selah's reply was "No, Bubba colored on the doll house," and they went back and forth. I asked Josiah if he had and he insisted that he hadn't. So, I went back to the back to inspect the damage (despite Selah trying to block my path and yelling, "NO, DADDY!") to discover that coloring had indeed taken place. I probably would have believed Josiah too, except that someone had prominently written Selah's name (in the best handwriting of his life to date) on the top of the doll house. The moral of the story is, if you're going to blame something on your little sister who can't write her letters yet, don't attempt to sign her name to the crime scene. Funny, but punishment did ensue.

Thanks for your prayers, and I promise to do a better job of posting our thoughts as we move forward in the process.