Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Home Study Complete!
After six references, four health reports, three home visits, three online courses, two background checks, and one book, our home study is complete!! Well, close to complete - All of the paperwork is with our agency who will write up the final report so we can continue moving forward in the adoption process!!! :) I was told this will take around a week or so. As we wait for that, we're gathering the documents needed for the USCIS - the next step!!
Saturday, May 26, 2012
What Our Kids Thought
Once Ryan and I felt like it was time to throw out this adoption idea to our 7 and 9 year old kids, we wrestled with how to do it. We decided the best approach was to tell them it was something we were 'thinking and praying about' and see what they thought.
We couldn't have anticipated their reactions!!! They were both so excited and embraced the idea of having siblings and in their words, "being able to help someone who needs help".
We told them on a Friday and all weekend answered questions they had and tried to talk to them about all the changes that would take place if we did eventually adopt.
On Sunday, during the service, KJ was busy sitting next next me drawing something and hiding it so I couldn't see it until it was completed. Once she had finished, she nudged me with a big smile and showed me this simple drawing.
She drew Ethiopia, with a building titled "orphanage" (her spelling is a little off :) ). From within the building are the quotes, "Please do it, please! They both said". She told me those are our kids in Ethiopia telling us to adopt them. We thought it was so sweet that she was imagining what 'our kids' in Ethiopia were thinking!!
We couldn't have anticipated their reactions!!! They were both so excited and embraced the idea of having siblings and in their words, "being able to help someone who needs help".
We told them on a Friday and all weekend answered questions they had and tried to talk to them about all the changes that would take place if we did eventually adopt.
On Sunday, during the service, KJ was busy sitting next next me drawing something and hiding it so I couldn't see it until it was completed. Once she had finished, she nudged me with a big smile and showed me this simple drawing.
She drew Ethiopia, with a building titled "orphanage" (her spelling is a little off :) ). From within the building are the quotes, "Please do it, please! They both said". She told me those are our kids in Ethiopia telling us to adopt them. We thought it was so sweet that she was imagining what 'our kids' in Ethiopia were thinking!!
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
The Adoption Process
As Ryan and I have begun to tell people that we are adopting, lots of questions are always asked. So, here's a breakdown of the most popular. :)
Q: How did you decide to adopt?
A: I don't mean to be evasive with the very first Q and A but that is a long story of how God worked in our hearts and lives. I'll describe that later in it's own post. I can say, briefly, that He has guided us and called us on this journey for our family and we are so excited to expand our family through adoption.
Q: Where are you adopting from?
A: Ethiopia
Q: Just one child?
A: Actually, we feel like God has placed two children on our hearts. However, we continually are praying and asking God for His guidance as we decide on adopting one or two children. We are open to either - whatever He wants for us.
Q: Boy or girl?
A: We are thinking we would like to bring at least one girl into our family, but again, really trying to stay open to what the Lord has for us.
Q: What age are you hoping for?
A: I don't mean to sound like a broken record repeating myself, but we continue to pray through the age of the kids as well. Right now, we have the age range to 0-4. That means that we could get a one and a four year old....or a two year old and a three year old.... or an infant and a four year old. We just have an age range that we tell the adoption agency we are open to.
Q: What does the process look like?
A: This is a long answer but I'll try to keep it concise. There are three main phases of the paperwork process. We are in the first phase (Home Study).
Paperwork Process:
1. Home Study - background checks, medical check-ups, several references, financial information as well as personal visit with our caseworker and several reading assignments (online training or books on adoption).
2. USCIS - this is a packet of documents that needs to be submitted to the US government to meet US requirements. This includes things such as birth certificates, marriage certificate and a copy of the entire home study (everything that our case worked compiled on us in the Home Study).
3. Dossier - another packet of documents that meet Ethiopian country requirements. This includes notarized copies of various official documents, reference letters, health certificates, etc.
After each document packet is submitted to it's respective country, they each take a certain, unknown amount of time to be approved or get the appropriate paperwork back to move forward. I think a reasonable amount of time to anticipate these first three things taking place would be 3-5 months. I will keep this blog updated as to where we are specifically on the right hand column. :)
After all of the paperwork is done, we get on a referral list. As children become available for adoption, they are referred to the families on the top of the list. So, as children are referred, our family moves up the list. This is also a very unknown time frame with so many factors contributing. A reasonable guess would be 12 - 18 months after the paperwork is all submitted. Of course, we would love to have it move faster than this, but we have no control over it and need to be patient as we wait.
And now for the last question:
Q: What do your kids think about adopting?
A: . . . to be answered in the next post :)
Q: How did you decide to adopt?
A: I don't mean to be evasive with the very first Q and A but that is a long story of how God worked in our hearts and lives. I'll describe that later in it's own post. I can say, briefly, that He has guided us and called us on this journey for our family and we are so excited to expand our family through adoption.
Q: Where are you adopting from?
A: Ethiopia
Q: Just one child?
A: Actually, we feel like God has placed two children on our hearts. However, we continually are praying and asking God for His guidance as we decide on adopting one or two children. We are open to either - whatever He wants for us.
Q: Boy or girl?
A: We are thinking we would like to bring at least one girl into our family, but again, really trying to stay open to what the Lord has for us.
Q: What age are you hoping for?
A: I don't mean to sound like a broken record repeating myself, but we continue to pray through the age of the kids as well. Right now, we have the age range to 0-4. That means that we could get a one and a four year old....or a two year old and a three year old.... or an infant and a four year old. We just have an age range that we tell the adoption agency we are open to.
Q: What does the process look like?
A: This is a long answer but I'll try to keep it concise. There are three main phases of the paperwork process. We are in the first phase (Home Study).
Paperwork Process:
1. Home Study - background checks, medical check-ups, several references, financial information as well as personal visit with our caseworker and several reading assignments (online training or books on adoption).
2. USCIS - this is a packet of documents that needs to be submitted to the US government to meet US requirements. This includes things such as birth certificates, marriage certificate and a copy of the entire home study (everything that our case worked compiled on us in the Home Study).
3. Dossier - another packet of documents that meet Ethiopian country requirements. This includes notarized copies of various official documents, reference letters, health certificates, etc.
After each document packet is submitted to it's respective country, they each take a certain, unknown amount of time to be approved or get the appropriate paperwork back to move forward. I think a reasonable amount of time to anticipate these first three things taking place would be 3-5 months. I will keep this blog updated as to where we are specifically on the right hand column. :)
After all of the paperwork is done, we get on a referral list. As children become available for adoption, they are referred to the families on the top of the list. So, as children are referred, our family moves up the list. This is also a very unknown time frame with so many factors contributing. A reasonable guess would be 12 - 18 months after the paperwork is all submitted. Of course, we would love to have it move faster than this, but we have no control over it and need to be patient as we wait.
And now for the last question:
Q: What do your kids think about adopting?
A: . . . to be answered in the next post :)
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Adopting
I've decided to resurrect this blog as a personal journal of our adoption journey. Thankfully, we have many supportive family and friends who would like to stay updated. So, I'll try my best to use this blog to do just that!!
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