One Week...

One week from today an agency worker will be sitting in my home, and this journey will officially be under way. I’m excited, nervous, stressed, happy, and fearful. It seems that I am on the verge of one of the most difficult and most rewarding times of my life. There is so much yet to do and learn.

In this final week I’m just trying to stay calm, get as much done as possible, and trust that God will take care of the rest. Last night God answered one of my biggest prayers of the last 2 weeks. I realized that I had to put onto paper two emergency care givers. These people step in and care for the child for the first 24hrs, should I fall seriously ill, need to go to the ER, or have some other kind of emergency. From my understanding, they needed to be local and live on the IL side of the river. Now, I have few friends in this area, and even fewer on the IL side. My initial thoughts on who could fulfill this role did not work out. Thankfully, though, I had met some great people at church in recent months. Once I started praying about this, one person became clear pretty quickly. I asked and they agreed. The 2^nd spot was a bit harder to nail down. I thought and prayed about it a lot and decided to ask another woman I met at church. Last night I got the word that she, too, would be willing (and even honored) to fill this need. I was so excited! I had been really nervous about this, but God has slowly, but surely been helping me to make connections, build relationships, and create the circle of support I so desperately need and have been praying for over the past few months. I will continue to pray on this subject, though, as there can never be enough good, supportive people in your life….especially when you are entering the world of foster care.

For this next week, these are the things I'm praying for, and asking you to pray for as well!

1. For health and strength for me to accomplish all on my "to-do" list before the 20th.
2. To see what is important and what isn’t…don’t stress over little things that don’t need to be stressed over!
3. That I correctly filled out my application packet and won't have to redo any of it.
4. That the agency worker will be kind, helpful, and find me worth moving forward in the process.
5. That I know all of the right questions to ask, as well as hear & understand all of the important information.
6. Wisdom to know what to do with all of the answers & information I receive that day, so that I know the best path for me moving forward.
7. For Freckles & Charlie to be on their best behavior that day!

I appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers! Please remember me on November 20th!