Moving onto a new set of paperwork

So, we are finally officially DONE with our home study. We can now apply for grants which I started working on today.

We sent our US Citizen Immigration Services paperwork on and that typically take 8 weeks to come back with approval. While we wait on that we start working on the dossier which is a massive stack of papers we have to get signed and most of them need to be notarized and get a state seal. These 8 weeks will pass quickly and I want to have the dossier totally done.

If all goes well the dossier should be off to Ethiopia by March. Then we wait . . .and wait. . .and wait. Only God knows how long. One day we will get a call saying there is a baby waiting for us!

one thing left to get done. . .

So our home study is done. . .except . . . we have to read a book and write a little paper on it. I ordered it online because the local libraries didn't have it. So, we're waiting for it to arrive and then we'll try to sail through it and hopefully get it done before the end of the month. Then we have a couple months of waiting on the USCIS stuff before the dossier (tons of paperwork) is sent to Ethiopia. We're getting so close to being done. Phew!

Homestudy

We met with our social worker last Wed. to proof read the home study. It was ALL about us. We had to make any corrections needed. The only other piece she needed was Dave's physical report. When we went in for our physicals a while back he forgot to go back in 48 hours later to have his BP test checked. He just kept forgetting but finally got it all done last week. Once she gets that she can send the HS to the state for approval.

Now there are other pieces we need for Bethany Christian Services to be able to send the HS onto US Citizen Imigration Services. So, we are cramming on our training which is the last step. Once it's off to USCIS it could take them 2 months to approve it. While we wait we will work on our dossier documents which will be sent to Ethiopia after USCIS approves us. We're getting there. . . YEAH!

Two days of training in Idaho Springs

We're home from two 8 hour days of adoption training. We were nervous about it cause he had to take Gabriel with us. He's fairly high maintenance compared to Liam at this age. He doesn't always nap well in other places. SO, we just didn't know how the weekend would go. Gabriel did fabulously well!! He napped in his pak'n'play in a little office during our training and never even cried before falling asleep. All the other couples loved him. He was a very good boy. We went back to the hotel and got A LOT of rest. We were all asleep by 9:45. I know, we are old fogies now. LOL We had a long week this past week with house sitting for some people and taking care of their three teenagers and 6 year old. We NEEDED the sleep.

The training was great. A lot of it wasn't very applicable to us as it was about domestic adoption and about getting a baby at birth. Things are very different when it's a domestic adoption vs. adoption international like us.

One big difference is whether or not you can meet the birth mom. With domestic you get to choose if you want it an "open adoption", "semi-open adoption" or "closed adoption". These terms refer to the level of involvement the birth mother will have in the life of the child. We learned that in a lot of ways it's a GOOD thing to allow some involvement. This minimizes your child growing up with hard questions and someday going to search for their birth mother. I think most of the other couples in this training came thinking they would want it as closed as possible but they left today feeling like openess is the best choice.

After this training I realized that it will be difficult that we may not know anything about our baby's birth parents. We may never know what they looked like, health history, their story. We may have no answers to the questions our little one might have. I know the Lord will work through those things and offer healing to our baby in other ways. He is good! He is in control!

We are SOOOO close to being able to finish our home study. We need to finish our online training (we should get it done this week), Dave needs to get back to the doctor for his BP test so his physical can be complete, we need to meet with our social worker one more time, and we need to read a book and write a short paper on it.

home study interviews

Dave and I had our one on one interviews with Kendra today. Painless. She asked a lot about our childhoods and our siblings and parents. I felt like I was just telling a story. Anyway, the crazy thing is that she is going to give our home study approval for TWO. Yes, that would be two kids if twins might end up needing a home WE would have the option of adopting two without having to go back and do everything over again. This is what she said, "You never know what God has in store for you guys."

First meeting with the social worker

WOW! We just got done meeting with our social worker, Kendra. She was a very nice lady and very excited for us. We thought this meeting was just to talk about what would happen during the home study. Well, we're in the middle of talking about 'why Ethiopia", 'what age child', 'family traditions', 'square footage' etc when she says "we'll go ahead and do the inspection today and then we should only have to meet two more times. WHAT? we felt there was a lot of things we needed to get done before we were comfortable with having the inspection done. So, we warned her that there were a couple things we knew we needed to do (put up a banister in the stair case and get fire extinguishers). She was so cool about everything and just told us to get them done soon. i asked if she'd need to come back to check on us and she said, "nope." Then she told us the only other things we need to do as far as her involvement is concerned is for both Dave and I to meet with her one on one for an interview. We set up both interviews for THIS Monday! Then we're done with our social worker. Isn't that incredible?! We still have to do our 8 hours of online training and I think there's a couple classes we need to attend before the HS is approved. Bonnie thought we might be done by the end of Nov. but at this rate we could be done a lot sooner.

YEA!!

Home Study begins on Oct. 8th

The lady who worked for the local Bethany branch moved and I assume no one has filled her spot. We were excited to have a local contact with Bethany and that's part of the reason we chose them. So, it's a bit disappointing that we can't work with Deone. Anyway, We got a call today from a social worker. She was contacted by Bethany but does not work for Bethany. She seemed very nice on the phone which was a relief. For some reason I had a picture in my head of what social workers would be like if they weren't working for a Christian company. I think Kendra will be good though (from what I felt through our phone call conversation). She said the state requires she have four meetings with us. Two will be with us as a couple and the other two meetings will be one on ones with only Dave or myself and Kendra. We set up the first meeting for Oct. 8th. I am excited and nervous. It'll be so nice to get it moving though.

Oh,it's not set in stone yet but we most likely will be changing our child's age preference to 1 year or younger instead of 2 or under. We heard that 4 families recently got referrals for 4 baby boys all under 5 months. I asked about the wait time and was told that it doesn't seem the wait for younger kids is any longer.

Starting the Home Study soon

We are starting our home study in Oct. WOOHOO!! Bonnie thinks we could have it all done by the end of Nov.

This all gets a bit confusing so instead of putting it into my own words, here's the email:

The completed, approved home study report is sent to Adoption Alliance for approval (a week) and then with the packet to USCIS. I understand the USCIS process in Colorado is several months. Once approved by USCIS, the state seals need to be ordered (a two week process?) - and then the dossier can be mailed to me to review (I always try to do that the day it is received, sometimes it is 2 days), then sent to our National office for review (done within a few days), they send to the Ethiopian Consulate in Washington D.C. (two weeks?) and then it is mailed to Ethiopia.

So, if my calculations are right we could be done and waiting for our baby's referral sometime early 2009 (maybe by spring).