Tanner Life

Home Visit

I am both blogging this and emailing it, in case you don't pay attention to one or the other. You may see this twice. I wanted everyone to be "in the loop" on where we are, you guys are so amazing and supportive, we appreciate it!!

I am so thankful to announce that we are finished with everything we can do for our entire home study. Every piece of paperwork is complete and filed. We’ve been poked, prodded, questioned, interviewed, studied and visited. Saturday our social worker, Jenni whom we love, came out to visit. I was sad that she didn’t notice my spotless dusting, clean baseboards, freshly washed curtains, new blinds, cleaned fridge and oven, cleaned out closets, nothing under the beds and general tidiness. We’ve spent 2 months getting ready for the big day, that was more like an hour visit from a friend. Funny! I know that we went above and beyond, but it was things that we needed to get done anyway. We went to the dump once and Goodwill twice, how can we have so much stuff?? It feels good to have everything done for once though.

She took a grand tour, laughed at just how much we have in the nursery already. Amazed like everyone else! She checked our smoke detectors, did notice I had all chemicals in boxes on a high shelf in a bathroom closet (I pointed it out) and she did ask to see the fire extinguisher. She met the dogs, all three. She talked to Millie & Casey outside and loved on Gizmo during her entire visit. She asked us a few more questions about what school our little one will attend, how far away the nearest hospital is, how far away the nearest park is (yes, she asked), how far away our church is and a few other random questions. Again though, it was just like chatting with a friend. It feels absolutely amazing to have that final step behind us.

What now?

Jenni will write up her report and send it to our coordinator for approval, she’ll also send us a copy to approve for factual information. Then she will have our coordinator sign off on the final copy and everything we’ve done up to this point will all be sent to the office in California to be signed off on. Sometime while that is happening, our birth mom letter should be approved. We’ve sent our third edit back and are waiting to hear from it. Hopefully if we have anything else to change, it will be very minor. We are hoping and praying that this all comes together in the next 3-4 weeks. Your prayers are much appreciated. I imagine we’ll be able to be “in the books” and “waiting officially” by the time I am out of school. That will give me plenty of time to sit and stare at the phone every day! (Just kidding, I have tons of summer fun ahead of me!)

We continue to value and thrive on your prayer support. It isn’t easy when all you can do is wait, but we’ve been waiting for almost 9 years so we’ve had a lot of practice. We are so firm in the faith that God’s timing is perfect and his hand has guided us each and every step along the way. For some reason now it feels like it’s more in his hands than ever. I know he was with us along the way so far, there are so many examples. To know that we have nothing else to do finally seems like it’s officially handed off to him though and we take such confidence in knowing our God is in control. We will stand back and wait to be amazed by him once again.

A Sunday School teacher talked to us one year, 6th grade I think was when we had Ms. Campbell (right Lisa?), about miracles almost weekly. She reminded us that God wanted to bless us with miracles. We need to pray for them,then watch and EXPECT to see them from God. We need to look for them in all the little moments as well as the big ones. We are praying, expecting and anxious to meet our own little miracle!!!!

So, pray for us and wait with us!
Much love to all!!