Home Study Complete!

Oh those words sound so good. I received an email from my home study agency on Sunday saying that our home study was finally updated and complete. Our placement agency accepted in on Tuesday 3/18. Now it is on its way to Immigration. We should get an appointment to have our fingerprints taken in Hartford soon. Hopefully by the end of the month but maybe the first week in April. Then we wait for approval. Please pray it comes quickly, although I have heard that many are waiting about a month for immigration approval.

For now, I have most of the documents for our dossier all set to go to Hartford to get authenticated. I am waiting on my letter of employment, week 3 of waiting for that. UGH! The only other documents needed are the home study, which I should have by Monday and then our immigration approval notice.

HUGE STEPS FORWARD!!! But it still seems like so far to go. Still praying for an early fall travel. Prayers please!

Waiting....Waiting....Waiting

Well, we are still waiting for our homestudy to be updated. I'm not sure what takes so long. All of the background clearances have gone through. So I am happy to report that neither Mike nor myself have any history of bad behavior at the local or state level or anything reported to DCF! Yeah us!

I have most of the papers done for the dossier. We are meeting with the doctor to complete the medical forms today. I am still waiting on my employer to complete an employee letter. It's been a week. Not sure why that is held up. I also need to take photos of the house and Little Miss's room. The room is currently Colby's Lego room so he spent much of Sunday morning cleaning it, under the watchful eyes of Daddy.

So, not much new to report. More waiting and waiting and waiting. And still no name for Little Miss. Top contenders seem to be

Amelia, Morgan, Ella, Sophia. I'd like the middle name to be Mae (Mei). HELP!! Suggestions!!!

Dossier Paperwork

Here it is March and we are still freezing! When will Spring come???

We received a nice packet of information from the agency on Friday explaining the documents we need for our dossier. It also had some information about the home study for WHFC. I spent much of today emailing, calling, visiting, or mailing stuff out. A lot got done which is good but not everything.

The To Do List:

My employment letter will be done next week, I hope.
We need to clean up Little Miss's room and at least make it look presentable so I can take photos.
Need to take photos of the house too.
Medical forms (UGH!) yet again. Not sure what to do about those. Hopefully we'll get into a doctor who helped a fellow China mom with her adoption paperwork, but not until next week also.
Copies and signing/notarizing papers.

Actually, not too bad. I can say that the docs needed for China are so much easier than the docs we needed for Russia. No 25 pounds of paperwork for this one!

So for now, paper chasing and watching videos over and over. Hoping for a "correct" update and new video soon. We had received an update but it didn't make any sense. Measurements were totally off and had Little Miss with 2 LESS teeth than before. I think they were wrong. What do you think?

Pre-Approval Equals One Step Closer

Well, we received our Pre-Approval yesterday for our little girl. We are so excited. It brings us one step closer to bringing her home. Now to hurry everyone else up: social worker to update our home study, US Immigration to get our fingerprints done and approve us, China to translate and approve everything. Plus some notarizations and apostilles in the middle.

The paper chase has begun! 

But we are matched and she is ours! Here we come!

The Winding Road

I haven't thought much about this blog in the past year. We have been following a winding, somewhat broken path this past year. We began the journey last year to grow our family, with the idea of going to China. During visits with our social worker we diverged from that plan to head down the domestic adoption path. I never thought I would hold a newborn in my arms but that dream was brought so close and then, pulled away from me. My heart will always wonder where that baby boy is and I know I will always love him, although from afar.

And now, a year later, this adoption journey brings us back around to China. When one door closes, another opens, or in this case reopens. We are in the process of updating our home study, yet again. We have chosen a placement agency and have even found our little girl. She is is Beijing. She is three and has the most amazing smile. We are now waiting on pre-approval or PA. Should be anytime now.

Her name is TaiLu. Colby wants to call her Anna. I like Adrianna or Amelia. Mike's not so sure yet. But Colby said that since I picked the girl that he and Mike should be able to name her. Oh boy! I hope I have veto rights at least.

So, for now. We start anew on this crazy adoption journey. I will share photos when things become more official. (And I still hope to get Mike to agree to bringing home 2. I think TaiLu needs a little brother too!) We'll see where this journey takes us. Come join us!

The Fork in the Road

Well, when we started down the road for this second adoption, I thought I knew the path we were going to take. It was all laid out in front of us. We would go through the home study and put in our paperwork to adopt a little one, age about 1 year old, from China through the China Special Needs program. The path was fairly straight and much easier to navigate than the path to Russia. So much less paperwork and silly stuff to get through. Then we met with Christine.

Our first visit with Christine, our social worker, went really well. It was so nice to see her again after 4 years. She came on Feb 22, 4 years plus one day from the day we brought Colby home. I love those coincidences. It seems, we are starting this adoption from right where we left off with the first one. So, we were all set, right?

During our visit, Christine asked what program we wanted to pursue and why. She listened and agreed that China SN would be a good fit. Then she created our fork in the road. "Why not look into the domestic program?" What?? Really?? That never seemed like it would fit us. We don't want an open adoption with contact from the birth family. We thought, no, I thought, it would be a long wait and I just don't like to wait. Yes, Mom, I'm still as impatient as ever! So we talked about it with Christine and later between Mike and me. I called Mary, the head of the domestic program at the agency, and talked with her while I was home for yet another snow day. What she said had me really thinking. Maybe it was possible for us to bring home a baby. Maybe?? So, more discussion and a conference call with the three of us and I think Mike and I have made a decision. We are taking that fork in the road, for now, and seeing where it leads us. We are going to apply to the domestic program and wait it out for a little while. We decided to apply and see where we are in late summer. If no referral by then, then we will apply for the China SN program and have both options open. Whichever comes our way first, is what was meant to be.

Can I say this has been an easy decision? No. Is it one I am comfortable with? Yes. Am I happy about it? Yes. Am I truly at peace with it? No. I just can't seem to dismiss all the previous experience with domestic adoptions and the long waits and heartaches. I am not sure what has changed with domestic adoption but something has. It is, I am told, more straightforward and the "it" program right now. Our agency has a good record of placing, or helping to place, 40 children last year. I think I will always worry until that final paper is signed and we bring our baby home. But then again, I am a worrier and not all that optimistic. But, I am happy with our decision and willing to walk hand in hand with my love and our family to see where this next adoption rollercoaster brings us.

So for now, this blog will be on hold. I will be starting a domestic adoption blog soon. Please join us on our adventure and lend us your support. It is always appreciated.

Domestic or China....Social Worker Has Us Thinking

We had areally nice visit with Christine, our social worker. It was nice to see her again. I still can't quite believe we are back on the adoption rollercoaster. Christine was here last Friday. She was scheduled to come on that Saturday but there was a threat of snow so she rescheduled it for Friday night. We talked for almost two hours. She will be coming again at the end of March to actually start the paperwork to get accepted for the China program.

While she was here she asked us which program we were looking at and we said the China Special Needs program. She wants us to think about the domestic program. I guess there is a need for families in that program. But, I am just not sure. I would love to adopt a newborn and the thought of that is very appealing, but we just do not want an open adoption with our child having contact with the birth family. It just wouldn't be fair to Colby who will never have that. I wouldn't mind sending photos through an agency without any identifying info but not a full open adoption. So, that really limits our availability and we would be waiting for a birth mother to like our family portfolio. There wouldn't be a set time frame and there would be a whole lot of unknowns. I just don't think it would fit our family's needs. But I will touch base with Mary who heads up that program and see what she thinks. Maybe I am being too harsh and too quick to dismiss this. I just don't see us as that "lucky" couple who falls into a quick and easy adoption process. More likely, we'd be the family who waits forever and does finally get a match only to have the whole thing fall through and us left standing empty handed in a hospita somewhere. What do you all think? Any experience and words of wisdom?

Thus far, the paperwork has been so easy. I am amazed at the huge difference between this paperwork and what we did for Russia. I'm still waiting for someone to give me a list a mile long of documents that they need tomorrow! But the dossier list of docs looks really small and I could probably get them done within a couple days. So, we wait for the homestudy to be written and we enjoy our days, waiting for Spring to arrive. With Spring...the arrival of new things and new possibilities. Here's to shooting toward dossier being complete for Colby's birthday end of April...