Adoption Update: Another Failed Inspection

5.22.2012

Whew! These inspections are starting to get to me! I thought we would just fly right through them, but we just keep on failing! But, it's going to be okay.

Yesterday, was our Fire Inspection. We thought we had done everything necessary, but we did not. The Fire Marshall pointed out that our windows were the wrong size and a fireman would not be able to enter through the adopted child's window with all of his gear on. 

Our windows are not up to the 1996 building or International Fire codes, since we live in an older house. Granted we have a home built in the 1960s with basically brand new energy star vinyl windows, but when you actually open the window, the size of the opening comes short of 5 square feet, even though they are your basic standard size windows you see that most homes have.

The Fire Marshall said that he has tried to fight this aspect of the Fire Inspection for years, because he said that the Fireman will come through the front door on most every case and this is something crazy that blocks families from fostering and adoption, especially considering the types of homes these children come out of.

So.... what does this mean for us now?

We have to replace ONE window in the adopted child's room that has a total of a 5 square feet opening. So, we have to get the kind of window that will crank open and swing the entire window open and out, so that the opening is large enough for a fireman to crawl through if necessary.

I've called a couple places to get quotes and am waiting to hear back from one company, but this is definitely an unexpected expense that we were not planning on.

Other than that, for some reason one of our fire alarms would not function properly when he tested them, even though they were fine when Hart installed them and our electrical box needs some covers over some open spaces that were exposed.

Everything is fixable, it's just now a little more of a hassle to work on, even though it will be worth it.

I talked to my social worker about if we would have to replace 2 windows, one in our spare room and one in Cai's room, if we ended up getting 2 children, but she said that any children, even of opposite sexes can share a room under the age of 5 in separate beds, so thankfully we just need to replace one window in our spare room.

She did seem to think that our approximate wait time with an age range so narrow would be a year or more once we were approved, which she has told me before, but I was kind of hoping she would be wrong! haha! I know that is ultimately in God's hands, so I will leave that part up to Him!

I feel like this verse is where we are at in this adoption process right now.


"So we do not lose heart. ... For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

I know that God is just creating the best possible situation for us to adopt our next baby or babies and I just want to give him the glory, even when we have the wrong window size!

Please pray that we will be able to fix the window necessary quickly and that financially it would not cost too much money!

Thank you so much!

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