1 of 3 down!

We had our first appointment (of three) with our homestudy agency and social worker yesterday. It went really well. We got a large checklist of documents to gather, and signed a bunch there in the office. Our next appointment is March 5th (less than a week!) and we need to turn in the majoirty of the paperwork then. Since I was a little pushy about getting the appointments on the books we are going to be in a bit of a paperwork crunch time over the next couple of days. Still, I would rather have a couple of jam-packed paperwork days than be waiting a month for our next appointment :). I am expecting an e-mail from my social worker before Wednesday's appointment with some possibilities for scheduling the final appointment. We have our medical check-ups today and will finish our taxes and autobiographies tonight. After that the next big piece of paperwork is the police clearance/fingerprints. Hopefully we will get a fingerprint appointment scheduled sometime in the next couple days. The title of "PAPERCHASING" for this stage in our adoption is so appropriate!

Dr.'s Appointments, CHECK

Well I guess technically we can't cross it off the list yet, but they are scheduled. Normally it takes me about 3 months to get an appointment with my Dr. and Brian doesn't really have one so I was worried about getting both of us on her books. I called today and they are squeezing us in Friday afternoon!! So, we will get the forms in Thursday's meeting and go with our notary to the Dr.'s on Friday. It can't get any faster than that! MORE PROGRESS!!

Lots of Certificates

We just ordered 2 copies of each of our birth certificates. Both our homestudy and adoption agency will be needing copies. Brian will be running another after work errand to the county clerks office to pick up a couple copies of our marriage certificate. We get to cross a couple more things off the list!

Congratulations!

Congratulations Ted & Tracie on the newest addition to their family. Brian and I have loved reading their blog the past few days as we are learning so much about Ethiopia and what our trip may be like!

Dossier Orientation Call

The phone call went well. I got some questions answered and now I can "bust-out" the rest of the list! Christy is very nice and I look forward to working with her more. I am afraid I may have scared her or impressed her I'm not sure which :). She would get to a section to explain it to me and I would say timidly, "Um, I already did that." At least she would laugh and say "Oh good." I am very motivated and secretly love paperwork - what a nerd, I know.

Dossier "Paperwork" Checklist

I thought a running checklist would be easier for everyone to visualize what we need to do and what we have completed so far. The red are the things we have completed in the last few days.

Statement Regarding Criminal Offenses - Brian
Statement Regarding Criminal Offenses - Autumn
Medical Self Report - Brian
Medical Self-Report - Autumn
Release of Information

Two Power of Attorney Forms
-County Certification
-State Certification
Statement of Reason for Adoption
Passport Photos
Photos of Family
Photos of Home
Letter of Employment - Brian
Letter of Employment - Autumn
Financial Statement
Birth Certificate - Brian
Birth Certificate - Autumn
Marriage Certificate
Medical Letter - Brian
Medical Letter - Autumn
Police Clearance - Brian
Police Clearance - Autumn
Two Letters of Reference
Obligation of Post Placement Reports

In addition to completing this paperwork, we need to have a completed home study. To have a completed home study we need to have our 3 appointments with the social worker and complete a bunch of paperwork (This will include duplicates to the list above like reference letters, medical reviews, police clearance, certified copies of certificates/licenses). We will get that paperwork list on the 28th!! We will then need to turn in our completed home study to the Immigration office and wait for our Favorable Determination Letter (FDL) - THEN WE GET A PLACE ON THE WAITING LIST!!

Homestudy Update 2

I just spoke with our social worker, Lori. We have our first interview on Thursday, February 28th. This will be about an hour long appointment where we will go over the paperwork we will need to complete for the homestudy. Our second appointment will be Wednesday, March 5th. On this appointment, Brian and I will have an hour and a half separate interviews. On the 28th we will schedule our third appointment which is the home inspection and should be the final appointment. After our final meeting Lori will need a few weeks to complete the report and then our homestudy will be done - I am hoping this might be by the end of March!

It's A Boy

Congratulations DeeDee on your referral!

Dossier Packet

We got the dossier packet. When I saw the box, yes box, I was very intimidated. Luckily, it was not a 6 inch box of papers but rather (just like Emily guessed) a three ring binder with the paperwork inside. That seems a bit more managable. Brian and I have a big date planned tonight - looking through our binder of paperwork!!! On Wednesday I have a phone call scheduled with Christy from AGCI. I will be able to ask any questions we have about the dossier binder and then I'll be allowed to "officially" start the paperwork. Our plan is simple, do the few things in our control as quickly as possible.

We Have Names

Today we were assigned a case manager, Christy, with AGCI. We should be hearing from her soon and getting our dossier packet in the mail. We also learned the name of our social worker - Lori. She works with Adoption Alliance and will be conducting our homestudy. Lori too is supposed to contact us in the next couple of days to schedule our homestudy interviews!! WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS!

You Know You Are An Adoptive Parent Or Should Be If:

1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has ever made you lose sleep.

2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love and family.

3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.

4. The fact that if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child, there would be no orphans in the world is convicting to you.

5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who have experienced the blessing of adoption.

6. It drives you crazy when people ask you about your adopted child's "real" parents.

7. You have ever been "pregnant" with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth (2 years!)

8. You had no idea how you would afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway knowing where God calls you He will provide.

9. You have ever taken a airplane ride half way around the world with a child you just met.

10. You believe God's heart is for adoption.

11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart and family is one of the most important legacy's you could ever leave on this earth.

12. You know what the word Dossier means and you can actually pronounce it!

13. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.

14. You shudder when people say your child is so lucky that you adopted them, knowing full well you are the blessed one to have them in your life.

Fingerprints

We had our fingerprint appointment yesterday afternoon. Brian and I went to an immigration office in Chula Vista, waited a couple hours and got our prints taken. It feels good to be able to cross one more thing off the list!

Releasing Americans from Wealth in Jesus' Name

Releasing Americans from Wealth In Jesus' Name

Quick read that is very thought provoking.

Homestudy Update

The application and contracts are in. Unless they have questions about our application we will have a social worker assigned to us by the end of the week!!

Passport

On Wednesday I sent away for my passport with my updated last name. Yes, it has been 3 and a 1/2 years that we have been married but I haven't needed it since the honeymoon. The thing I am most bummed about was I really liked the picture on the old one and they made me get new pictures taken - luckily, I think I will still survive.

I-600-A

So with our couple of hours of warning, Brian and I filled out the I-600-A. This form will allow us to be pre-approved for a visa for our child. Once our homestudy is done we turn it in and then we wait for an approval letter from Immigration. So I dug through my file boxes to find the supporting documents and filled everything out. We learned Monday night that we needed to get this form in ASAP and that Tuesday was the only day to return it. On Tuesday morning I went downtown to the office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration. I was given walk-in hours and figured this would take 10 minutes because surly no one else in San Diego is adopting internationally. Sure it's a city but it's not that big. Boy was I wrong. Two and a half hours later I was finally leaving. The process was very much like the DMV. I had to feed my meter a couple of times but it really wasn't all THAT bad. There were 15 people in line in front of me all regarding international adoption. Who knew?!? One woman sitting next to me was chatting on the phone and saying this process had her contemplating suicide - now that was totally dramatic and inappropriate. Meanwhile I sat there super excited and actually happy to be sitting there waiting for my name to be called because it meant that we were one step closer to our little guy. When my name was finally called I couldn't hold back the beaming smile. The woman I had the appointment with was super nice. She did almost give me a panic attack though :) As she was glancing over our paperwork she started counting on her fingers while looking at my birth certificate. She goes, "You are 23?" I said, "Yes." "Well you aren't old enough to fill out this form." I said, "Sure I am, I know I am at the minimum age but I can adopt at 23." She says, "No sweetie for this particular form you have to be 24." WHAT?!? You mean according to Ethiopia and according to our agency I am old enough to adopt but I am not old enough, by 4 months, to fill out the necessary paperwork to adopt? Luckily I had my thinking cap on and pointed out that I put Brian as the primary person adopting and I was "only the spouse." That was good enough! I was so happy in that little 10 minute meeting. For those of you who know me well, you would never describe me as a "peppy person" and had I been on the other end of that meeting, I am pretty sure I would have nauseated myself with all the obnoxious peppiness that was going on!!

Home Study

Ok, so I am WAY behind but I've been out of town. Here is the latest. On Monday (a week ago) I spoke with Adoption Alliance, the home study agency here in San Diego. I learned that there will be 3 home study meetings, two at their office, one at our house. We will be attending educational classes at their facility with other families who are adopting during the end of March and beginning of April. I am very excited because the coordinator said there were a lot of families adopting from Ethiopia right now and we would get to meet quite a few who live close to us. I am really excited about that. We need to turn in an application with them and then we will be assigned a case worker. I asked how long the process takes and was told that things will progress as quickly as Brian and I can get through the paperwork. We were told scheduling appointments with our social worker should not take long at all and that they are usually flexible and very available. Unless something unforeseen comes up, we were told to expect 2 months start to finish. I was also told that many times the Immigration form takes much longer than the actual homestudy. Since we will probably end up waiting for this form, the woman at the homestudy agency gave me instructions for getting the I-600-A in right away. She also said that the office was only open on Tuesdays during the morning so we should fill out the form tonight and I should pop by tomorrow morning. We are really excited about the homestudy although I have to admit this is the part that makes me the most nervous. I am also very excited to meet other people from San Diego who are adopting from Ethiopia.

Contracts

The contracts are in! Brian and I sent everything to AGCI yesterday. The next step will be getting our dossier packet and being assigned a case worker. I imagine that would happen by next week.