Hi Everyone.
March 20th was our last post. Unfortunately, not much "new news" to post.
We had our final homestudy in April and have completed our dossier. Right now our agency is reviewing in before we can send it onto the State of MN. According to our adoption agency, I should hear back from the state within two weeks or so after submitting it. When that is finished we will send it off to the Bulgaria MOJ. Once there, it's all in the hands of the Bulgaraian government and then the anticipation increases on our part and the wait really begins for us.
A few changes since my last post. Our adoption agency said if we wish to adopt siblings it would force the process to take much longer. So, ultimately we ended up changing our wishes (again) to just 1 healthy child (boy) under the age of 18 months. Jim and I are both comfortable with the change and feel thankful to be blessed with a child.
I finally broke down and decorated the nursery. It turned out so cute and now I'm impatient because the only one to sleep in the room (on the rug on the floor of course) is our dog Coach. I think he feels he's in heaven because it's the only "boy" room in our house. It is decorated in reds, navy blue, and yellow in a sports theme. I have slowly begun picking up clearance items at the local stores for things like sippy cups, toys, dinnerware, toys, etc. We also purchased a new high chair and car seat for our future son. This has been a lot of fun and such a roller coaster ride. We have a lot of clothing size 12-18 mos., but have put off purchasing any more clothes until we have him home.
Mother's Day was this past weekend and we had both our Mom's out for dinner. The only thought that kept running through my mind the whole day is that hopefully, this time next year, I can participate and be a Mother to a child who doesn't have 4 legs (referring to our dogs and deer). I also couldn't help but wonder what our future son was doing on this day. Does he realize there's two people out there who already love him and think of him constantly even if we can't even begin to visualize what he looks like? Is he happy right now? Does he know we're just waiting for the "word" and we'll be there? It is so hard knowing everything is out of our hands at this point. Sorry to sound so depressing, but these are the thoughts constantly occupying my mind and I also realize this wait will be worth it once we wrap our arms around our son.
Some of you may have noticed I removed the timeline from our website. My intentions were well when I put it there, but it's just something else I need to track. Also, I don't like the reminder of how long this process could take!
Spring has helped occupy our minds somewhat. With each new plant that surfaces from the earth we are reminded we are one day closer to being a family! Jim is very busy at this time and is thankful he's in a new location closer to town. I am busy wrapping up my grants and working around the house.
We hope all of you are doing well. I'll start posting more frequently once we have some news for you...
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Long Time - No Post
Well, it appears that February 4th was our last post. I wish there was something more to add and something exciting to share with everyone, but there just hasn't been much happening.
Jim and I have spent the last month moving into our new offices over the past month, so I haven't had a lot of time to focus on the paperwork end of this adoption stuff. What was once such an "exciting" adventure has turned into a bunch of grueling paperwork. We are still waiting to hear from INS about our application to adopt a child abroad. This could take up to another two months.
Today I took a "day off work while at work" day to finish working on our dossier. This was a huge accomplishment to get our "life story" finished. Now we are awaiting a financial summary from our accountant so I can put those numbers in. The rest will be up to our home study agency to complete.
I did email the home study agency requesting our 2nd visit. At this visit she will question us about our life history and how we intend to incorporate a child into our lives. She will then put her interpretations in with our dossier. Her final visit will take place prior to the submission of our dossier to Bulgaria for our final approval along with the adoption agency approval.
On our original application, we stated we wish to adopt a 1-year old male. With time, our hearts have grown softer and we have decided that if siblings are available (the oldest no older than 3 years old and the youngest no older than 1 year old and siblings that are 1 boy and 1 girl) we would adopt both. Also, we have decided that if twins are available, up to 1-1/2 years old we would adopt twins (male). The chances are pretty unlikely with the criteria we have stated, but stranger things have happened! You just never know!
Spring is definitely here. Wehit 33 degrees today and our snow is finally melting! We can't wait for summer!
Hope all of you are doing well, and we'll talk to you soon! Happy Easter!
Jim and I have spent the last month moving into our new offices over the past month, so I haven't had a lot of time to focus on the paperwork end of this adoption stuff. What was once such an "exciting" adventure has turned into a bunch of grueling paperwork. We are still waiting to hear from INS about our application to adopt a child abroad. This could take up to another two months.
Today I took a "day off work while at work" day to finish working on our dossier. This was a huge accomplishment to get our "life story" finished. Now we are awaiting a financial summary from our accountant so I can put those numbers in. The rest will be up to our home study agency to complete.
I did email the home study agency requesting our 2nd visit. At this visit she will question us about our life history and how we intend to incorporate a child into our lives. She will then put her interpretations in with our dossier. Her final visit will take place prior to the submission of our dossier to Bulgaria for our final approval along with the adoption agency approval.
On our original application, we stated we wish to adopt a 1-year old male. With time, our hearts have grown softer and we have decided that if siblings are available (the oldest no older than 3 years old and the youngest no older than 1 year old and siblings that are 1 boy and 1 girl) we would adopt both. Also, we have decided that if twins are available, up to 1-1/2 years old we would adopt twins (male). The chances are pretty unlikely with the criteria we have stated, but stranger things have happened! You just never know!
Spring is definitely here. Wehit 33 degrees today and our snow is finally melting! We can't wait for summer!
Hope all of you are doing well, and we'll talk to you soon! Happy Easter!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Beginning our Dossier
Hi Everyone:
It's been a busy week so far doing more paperwork and jumping through hoops.
On Friday we received our Dossier requirements for Bulgaria. We need to have all sorts of documents Apostilled by sending to the Secretary of State. The Dossier is basically certified/aspostilled documents of everything we have pulled together so far.
Jim and I went in for fingerprinting on Saturday to the Law Enforcement Center. All the staff was so nice and had many questions as far as how this process works. What should have taken ten minutes lasted nearly an hour! They made us promise that as soon as we have our little guy home to take him there so they can meet him.
We received our I-797C (Notice of Action) from Homeland Security/Immigration Services on Saturday also. This is good news since it means they are actually reviewing our I-600A at this time. We will need to go to Fargo, ND to USCIS so thay can caputre our biometrics (whatever that means). Our appt. is scheduled for February 13th.
The licensed social worker will be to our house this Thursday to begin our home study. I think we're about as prepared as we're going to get for that. We are just thrilled everything is running as smoothly as it is.
Weather outside is beautiful today! In the 20's which seems like a heat wave compared to what we've had the previous weeks.
We'll post again soon!
It's been a busy week so far doing more paperwork and jumping through hoops.
On Friday we received our Dossier requirements for Bulgaria. We need to have all sorts of documents Apostilled by sending to the Secretary of State. The Dossier is basically certified/aspostilled documents of everything we have pulled together so far.
Jim and I went in for fingerprinting on Saturday to the Law Enforcement Center. All the staff was so nice and had many questions as far as how this process works. What should have taken ten minutes lasted nearly an hour! They made us promise that as soon as we have our little guy home to take him there so they can meet him.
We received our I-797C (Notice of Action) from Homeland Security/Immigration Services on Saturday also. This is good news since it means they are actually reviewing our I-600A at this time. We will need to go to Fargo, ND to USCIS so thay can caputre our biometrics (whatever that means). Our appt. is scheduled for February 13th.
The licensed social worker will be to our house this Thursday to begin our home study. I think we're about as prepared as we're going to get for that. We are just thrilled everything is running as smoothly as it is.
Weather outside is beautiful today! In the 20's which seems like a heat wave compared to what we've had the previous weeks.
We'll post again soon!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Home Study Process Begins
We finally found a home study agency to perform our home study. The agency contacted us to let us know this will begin in our home February 7th.
Robbin is going nuts cleaning closets, organizing, and cleaning like a mad woman! It's funny how it takes someone to inspect your home before a person decides to take care of things that should have been done years ago! We have cleaned out closets and have managed to "bag" 8 trash bags full of clothing to donate to the Salvation Army; precious quilts/blankets made by grandparents/great grandparents have been preserved and packed away in totes; all of our "growing up" things from our youth have been packed away in totes as well; a ton of books have been boxed to be donated to Northern Lights; lots of Robbin's "rummage sale bargains" from over the years have also been placed in totes and will be donated to the Humane Society for their rummage sale in the fall.
On another note, Jim has been busy doing the finish work on his office/shop and we'll hopefully be moving into our offices by the end of February. We also received an antique buffet table from Robbin's mom which Jim and I have been busy restoring and it is absolutely beautiful!
Weather here is real cold today - 9 below zero and 45 mph winds. Not sure I'll go to work today - weather man is saying no travel advised. We'll see how it looks when the sun comes up. If not, I'm sure I can find another closet to clean!
Robbin is going nuts cleaning closets, organizing, and cleaning like a mad woman! It's funny how it takes someone to inspect your home before a person decides to take care of things that should have been done years ago! We have cleaned out closets and have managed to "bag" 8 trash bags full of clothing to donate to the Salvation Army; precious quilts/blankets made by grandparents/great grandparents have been preserved and packed away in totes; all of our "growing up" things from our youth have been packed away in totes as well; a ton of books have been boxed to be donated to Northern Lights; lots of Robbin's "rummage sale bargains" from over the years have also been placed in totes and will be donated to the Humane Society for their rummage sale in the fall.
On another note, Jim has been busy doing the finish work on his office/shop and we'll hopefully be moving into our offices by the end of February. We also received an antique buffet table from Robbin's mom which Jim and I have been busy restoring and it is absolutely beautiful!
Weather here is real cold today - 9 below zero and 45 mph winds. Not sure I'll go to work today - weather man is saying no travel advised. We'll see how it looks when the sun comes up. If not, I'm sure I can find another closet to clean!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
I-600 A mailed to USCIS!!!!
We finally got all our paperwork together and mailed to USCIS. This is a huge hurdle for us! Hopefully it won't take long to get our approval so we can keep moving forward!
We finally found a new home study agency. They are a little more expensive and are based out of Moorehead, MN. I've spent the last few days calling and trying to find other agencies, but just haven't had much luck. We will be receiving our home study contract agreement tomorrow and will send it in right away. The home study agency feels they will be able to begin right after we do our fingerprinting for the Adam Walsh Law, and the fingerprint cards will be in the mail tomorrow as well.
Our adoption agency is still feeling very strongly that all of this will move extremely fast for us, and that we could have a referral as early as April. It's hard not to get our hopes up, but we're trying to keep the faith. I have been researching other agencies, and ones that had cancelled their Bulgaria programs late last year have now begun accepting applications again and it seems as though they feel something is soon to break loose and the process will move much faster now than in the past. I hope everyone is correct!
The weather is still so cold up here! Until we talk to everyone again: STAY WARM!
We finally found a new home study agency. They are a little more expensive and are based out of Moorehead, MN. I've spent the last few days calling and trying to find other agencies, but just haven't had much luck. We will be receiving our home study contract agreement tomorrow and will send it in right away. The home study agency feels they will be able to begin right after we do our fingerprinting for the Adam Walsh Law, and the fingerprint cards will be in the mail tomorrow as well.
Our adoption agency is still feeling very strongly that all of this will move extremely fast for us, and that we could have a referral as early as April. It's hard not to get our hopes up, but we're trying to keep the faith. I have been researching other agencies, and ones that had cancelled their Bulgaria programs late last year have now begun accepting applications again and it seems as though they feel something is soon to break loose and the process will move much faster now than in the past. I hope everyone is correct!
The weather is still so cold up here! Until we talk to everyone again: STAY WARM!
Monday, January 21, 2008
Oh No! We lost our home study agency!!!!!
Well, it's been another interesting week. The home study agency we were going to use to prepare our home study was not approved by our adoption agency due to some "full disclosure law". Apparently, this home study agency was in big trouble in 2001, however, has since then remedied their situation. Because of this, our adoption agency could not allow them to proceed with our home study. We got this news early Friday morning, and Robbin immediately contacted several other HS agencies. Our adoption agency is in the process at this time researching those that I contacted. Hopefully, we'll know by the end of the week who is approved so we can keep moving forward.
In the meantime, we are required to do online testing related to Adoption Education. We downloaded the information (about 100 pages or so) and we began submitting our test answers on the 16th of this month. Today, we have officially completed the course! Although at times this was extremely dull and boring reading material, it does have very good information. This was very intensive reading on:
In the meantime, we are required to do online testing related to Adoption Education. We downloaded the information (about 100 pages or so) and we began submitting our test answers on the 16th of this month. Today, we have officially completed the course! Although at times this was extremely dull and boring reading material, it does have very good information. This was very intensive reading on:
- Attachment & Bonding
- Behavioral/Mental Disorders
- Culture & Identity
- Effects of Institutionalization
- Effects of Stress in Early Life
- Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
- Malnutrition
- Prenatal Drug Exposure/Prenatal Exposure to Maternal Smoking
- Sensory Integration Disorder
- Special Regional Considerations
- Travel and Transition
We are still waiting for our copies of our Certified Marriage License (I don't dare mail to original for fear my copies won't arrive) and a few other documents. We will at that time mail in our I-600 A which is the most important part at this time. After that we will begin working on our Dossier preparation.
Things are moving so much quicker than anticipated and it has been a very interesting experience thus far. We are hoping things keep moving forward at the pace it has this past month. Our adoption agency has reassured us that this is the easiest part, the hardest part will be the wait! I'm sure between Jim and I, we will find ways to stay busy during the wait.
We'll post again when we have more exciting news.
Monday, January 14, 2008
It's Home Study Paperwork Time!
I just completed (for the most part anyway) documentation needed by the home study agency out of St. Paul. They sent all the documents to me via email for me to complete. This was even worse than all the paperwork we have had to prepare for our adoption agency out of Charlotte, NC by far!! We do understand, however, that all these questions are necessary to determine/prove that we would be suitable parents. This paperwork included a 5 page application; an 8 page contract; DOJ Certification of Identity for both of us; a 4 page individual fact sheet for both of us; and many consent forms for both of us for background checks. We should be receiving our fingerprint cards in the mail by the end of the week and we will need to go the the local police station to be fingerprinted, then these will go to the FBI for them to do our background checks which they will remit to the home study agency when complete.
It feels so good to have this part of the "paper chase" complete. Now all I need to do is get ahold of Betty or Kenny to notarize all this stuff. I'm sure they're getting tired of me by now!
On a more positive note: Robbin is trying to keep in mind that with each hour she spends on this greuling paperwork and with every dollar we submit with our paperwork for so many different agency fees, we are that much closer to adopting our future child. After we have our child, all of this will have been worth every hour spent in preparation and the gift of growing as a family will be priceless!
It feels so good to have this part of the "paper chase" complete. Now all I need to do is get ahold of Betty or Kenny to notarize all this stuff. I'm sure they're getting tired of me by now!
On a more positive note: Robbin is trying to keep in mind that with each hour she spends on this greuling paperwork and with every dollar we submit with our paperwork for so many different agency fees, we are that much closer to adopting our future child. After we have our child, all of this will have been worth every hour spent in preparation and the gift of growing as a family will be priceless!
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