We have reached another milestone! Sort of! Last week, we got an email telling us that we should be receiving our approved Home study at any time. We excitedly (perhaps obsessively) began checking our mail...back door...front door...garage door, etc. for the "golden" package. Finally, on Friday afternoon, it arrived. We began to make plans to get it in the mail along with our I600A form to send to USCIS. Friday evening, Chris finally got a chance to begin reading through it (It may or may not have been during the Science Fair awards ceremony). Unfortunately, he found a mistake. Five little words that were left out. Evidently, five very important words. Words assuring that he had been cleared in a background check.
Worried that that could cause a problem down the road, we sent an email to our agency. Of course, it was the weekend, so nothing could be done until Monday morning. We naively thought that they could just amend the words and email us a new copy that could be switched with the other. We were wrong. Because that would be simple. And if we have learned one thing in this adoption process, it is that NOTHING is simple! We were told that we would need to get an addendum to be added to the original document.
SO, we are now waiting on our addendum. We have again been told it should be here any day and Chris got a very sweet call from our social worker apologizing for the mistake. Our I600A is all filled out and is just waiting on a completed home study so it can be mailed off. We can ALMOST taste the victory!
As excited as we were to send off our paperwork to immigration, we were also excited to be able to begin applying for grants. Unfortunately, we have learned that, because we are doing an independent adoption, we will not be eligible for most grants. On the upside...we will also have a cheaper adoption than if we were going through an agency. All in all, what that means is another almost. We are ALMOST there financially...but not quite. It would be nice to have about $5000 more to make sure we had all expenses covered. We do have a couple of other fundraisers planned, but we will probably not be quite there, even then. We are looking at a couple of possibilities and hoping that, perhaps there is SOMEONE out there who will help support an independent adoption. I guess that is where prayer comes in. God has been completely faithful up until now and I know that He will provide in His way in His time.
Hopefully, next time we are on here, it will be to say that we have a mistake free home study in hand and that we are moving on to the next phase. Thanks for all the support and prayers!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Getting Closer
Hi, this is Chris. I'm not the writer that Star is but thought that I'd give you guys an update. Star has mentioned our "water issue". The first time that we treated our well, we were careful to follow the instructions exactly as prescribed. So, you can imagine our surprise when the results returned positive. After receiving positive results for the second time, I gave this whole water treatment thing more thought. We had been careful to run water through every inside and outside faucet, showers, tubs, and washing machine. So, what could be the missing link? I finally realized that we have a water source heat pump. The heat pump pulls water from the well and pushes it across the coils to produce heat. The night that we treated our well was a rather brisk night so the heat pump ran all throughout the night. Therefore, all of our bleach ran through our heat pump and was gone by morning. No clean water but our heat pump is now nice and clean. So, off to the store for another jug of bleach. This time though, we outsmarted this whole water treatment process by turning off the heat and spending the night with Nana and Papaw. The kids loved it and, snap, we had clean water. Finally, after 2 1/2 gallons of bleach and three water tests, we received an all clear on our water on the morning of February 7. Just in time for our last home study visit, that night. Isn't it amazing how God's timing is always perfect.
Star and I traveled once again to meet our social worker for our last visit. What a great time. It's been a pleasure working with her. She is every bit as sweet as Star has mentioned. I've really enjoyed the whole home study experience because it causes you to really take a look at your entire life. Every little detail from your physical appearance to your finances to your child rearing philosophy to your testimony to an autobiography of your life to your water. You get the picture. They even want to see your dog's vaccination records. I described the home study to a friend as being similar to walking around naked in public. That's what they want to know, everything! It's been a blast.
This brings us to today. We heard through email that our home study agency now has our FBI clearances. Yes, that's right. All three of our oldest family members passed the clearance. Just doesn't sound right for a redneck family. We are very excited because this means that our home study is near complete. It's only a matter of our social worker putting it all together now. Pray that it will be soon so that we can move on to the next step along our journey. There's a little girl in a land far away who's depending on it!
Star and I traveled once again to meet our social worker for our last visit. What a great time. It's been a pleasure working with her. She is every bit as sweet as Star has mentioned. I've really enjoyed the whole home study experience because it causes you to really take a look at your entire life. Every little detail from your physical appearance to your finances to your child rearing philosophy to your testimony to an autobiography of your life to your water. You get the picture. They even want to see your dog's vaccination records. I described the home study to a friend as being similar to walking around naked in public. That's what they want to know, everything! It's been a blast.
This brings us to today. We heard through email that our home study agency now has our FBI clearances. Yes, that's right. All three of our oldest family members passed the clearance. Just doesn't sound right for a redneck family. We are very excited because this means that our home study is near complete. It's only a matter of our social worker putting it all together now. Pray that it will be soon so that we can move on to the next step along our journey. There's a little girl in a land far away who's depending on it!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Home Visit Complete
Yay, our next milestone is complete! Tuesday night we welcomed our social worker into our home for the home visit. We had asked a lot of friends that have been through this what to expect and all said the same thing...Don't go on a cleaning spree. They aren't going to do the "white glove" test.
At first, we began that deep cleaning anyway...you know, just to be sure. Then we realized, we have four children. If we deep clean Saturday, by Tuesday afternoon it is sure to be worse than when we started. SO, we focused our efforts on making sure that we were "safe". Everyone told us they would check for fire extinguishers, check the smoke detectors, etc. We were a little concerned about what they would say about the pool and wondered if they would fault us for not having a fenced yard.
So, we bought an extra fire extinguisher, tested the smoke detectors...a few times, made sure the pool door was locked, etc. I did have a plan for a quick run through to straighten up. I teach at the tutorial on Tuesdays so I knew no one would be there to mess up too much. Monday was CRAZY and there was no way we could work cleaning into the mix so my plan was to straighten up as much as possible before tutorial on Tuesday morning and then when we got home, have everyone pitch in to vacuum, dust, etc.
She was scheduled to come sometime Tuesday afternoon or evening after a visit with another family in town. I figured we had two or three hours after we got home to get it all arranged. SO, imagine my surprise (and panic) when at 12:30, while I was still at Tutorial, she called and said she was about an hour away and would be at our house at 1:30! I was very calm and level headed...or not! I began running around like a chicken with its head cut off rounding up kids and bags and heading for the door!
My precious MIL had kept Coop that day and had texted saying she had made pizzas for the kids at her house. We flew to Nana's where I made the kids inhale their pizza and even forbade them from eating the required bowl of ice cream (a Nana necessity). We got home and I ordered the kids to straighten their rooms, and we vacuumed the kitchen...that is as good as it got!
Our social worker arrived and completely put us at ease. She really is very sweet. We talked for a long time, she interviewed the kids and then we began our house tour...where she didn't even ask to see our safety stuff...we just volunteered it like a preschooler who is proud of their art picture! "See, see our fire extinguisher!" "Look, our smoke detector works!"
By the time we got upstairs, Coop figured out what was going on. He took over as tour guide from there and proudly showed her his bed, his hippie, Sissie's room, the bathtub, the pot AND the toilet paper...He is nothing if not thorough!
Anyway, I think all went well. We will have our final interview on the 7th and HOPEFULLY we will have passed our water test by then (we are re treating this weekend) and will have our fingerprints. If so, we will just have to wait for the completed write up and final copy of the home study and will be one step closer to our sweet little girl!
At first, we began that deep cleaning anyway...you know, just to be sure. Then we realized, we have four children. If we deep clean Saturday, by Tuesday afternoon it is sure to be worse than when we started. SO, we focused our efforts on making sure that we were "safe". Everyone told us they would check for fire extinguishers, check the smoke detectors, etc. We were a little concerned about what they would say about the pool and wondered if they would fault us for not having a fenced yard.
So, we bought an extra fire extinguisher, tested the smoke detectors...a few times, made sure the pool door was locked, etc. I did have a plan for a quick run through to straighten up. I teach at the tutorial on Tuesdays so I knew no one would be there to mess up too much. Monday was CRAZY and there was no way we could work cleaning into the mix so my plan was to straighten up as much as possible before tutorial on Tuesday morning and then when we got home, have everyone pitch in to vacuum, dust, etc.
She was scheduled to come sometime Tuesday afternoon or evening after a visit with another family in town. I figured we had two or three hours after we got home to get it all arranged. SO, imagine my surprise (and panic) when at 12:30, while I was still at Tutorial, she called and said she was about an hour away and would be at our house at 1:30! I was very calm and level headed...or not! I began running around like a chicken with its head cut off rounding up kids and bags and heading for the door!
My precious MIL had kept Coop that day and had texted saying she had made pizzas for the kids at her house. We flew to Nana's where I made the kids inhale their pizza and even forbade them from eating the required bowl of ice cream (a Nana necessity). We got home and I ordered the kids to straighten their rooms, and we vacuumed the kitchen...that is as good as it got!
Our social worker arrived and completely put us at ease. She really is very sweet. We talked for a long time, she interviewed the kids and then we began our house tour...where she didn't even ask to see our safety stuff...we just volunteered it like a preschooler who is proud of their art picture! "See, see our fire extinguisher!" "Look, our smoke detector works!"
By the time we got upstairs, Coop figured out what was going on. He took over as tour guide from there and proudly showed her his bed, his hippie, Sissie's room, the bathtub, the pot AND the toilet paper...He is nothing if not thorough!
Anyway, I think all went well. We will have our final interview on the 7th and HOPEFULLY we will have passed our water test by then (we are re treating this weekend) and will have our fingerprints. If so, we will just have to wait for the completed write up and final copy of the home study and will be one step closer to our sweet little girl!
Friday, January 13, 2012
Baby Steps
A little progress this week! After a couple of weeks of just waiting and not much going on, we have made a little progress this week! We have sent off for our passports and are hoping to have them back in four to six weeks. We have a little bit of trepidation about this because apparently the laws changed in 2011 and they want your parent's full names on your birth certificates. Idaho...back in my day, didn't put the full middle name, just the middle initial. Getting this changed is a MAJOR project and the lady at the records department acted like that was complete new information to her and said that they had no thad any influx of people needing their certificates revised...so, we took a risk and just used the original, here is hoping we don't have to go back and redo everything!
We also had our first home study meeting this week! We met our social worker in Corinth at Subway...Chris is totally accusing me of making the plans because I am the only one in the house that truly appreciates the deliciousness of a good Veggie sub...or any other sub for that matter. Anyway, I had nothing to do with it...but I didn't complain! :) I totally meant to take pictures, but I guess nerves got the best of me and I forgot. The meeting went well. We met our social worker in person for the first time and she is a little bitty, sweet, talker! We talked for about 2 1/2 hours and it was not at all nerve wracking, more like just talking to an old friend! Our next visit will probably be our home visit...would love that to be next week but we haven't heard back from her yet so not sure about that yet.
Thursday we got our local fingerprinting done...that will probably take the longest and, in hindsight, we wish we would have gotten on that a little earlier because that will probably take several weeks and our home study can't be completed without them...live and learn! We talked to a very sweet lady who did the fingerprinting AND we will soon know if Brooks has a criminal past we don't know about! (I kid!)
Finally, we got our well tested. We had no idea you were supposed to get your well water tested (apparently once a year....ours was last tested in 2001)! We got the results back today and we have no bacteria...but we do have high levels of chloroform...REALLY, chloroform...I had no idea. ***Update, Chris just called with a revision of this report, he misread and we do NOT have chloroform...we have coliform, which is totally normal and harmless! Makes me think back to a certain court case I was obsessed with this summer, but I digress. Anyway, we now have to use some bleach to treat the water and retest in 7-10 days, simple enough I guess...except for the whole no access to water for bathing, drinking, cooking, etc.
We are now, once again just at a waiting point. Hopefully we will talk to the social worker today to get our next meeting scheduled and get our education set up.
Please pray that my passport application will be accepted, that we can get our water up to standard and that we can continue to keep things moving along. We are still committed to getting everything on our end in as quickly as possible. We also talked to our stateside representative for the orphanage and they have received all of our "stuff" so they are just waiting for our completed home study to proceed! Every day brings us a little closer to our sweet girl! Thanks for the prayers!
We also had our first home study meeting this week! We met our social worker in Corinth at Subway...Chris is totally accusing me of making the plans because I am the only one in the house that truly appreciates the deliciousness of a good Veggie sub...or any other sub for that matter. Anyway, I had nothing to do with it...but I didn't complain! :) I totally meant to take pictures, but I guess nerves got the best of me and I forgot. The meeting went well. We met our social worker in person for the first time and she is a little bitty, sweet, talker! We talked for about 2 1/2 hours and it was not at all nerve wracking, more like just talking to an old friend! Our next visit will probably be our home visit...would love that to be next week but we haven't heard back from her yet so not sure about that yet.
Thursday we got our local fingerprinting done...that will probably take the longest and, in hindsight, we wish we would have gotten on that a little earlier because that will probably take several weeks and our home study can't be completed without them...live and learn! We talked to a very sweet lady who did the fingerprinting AND we will soon know if Brooks has a criminal past we don't know about! (I kid!)
Finally, we got our well tested. We had no idea you were supposed to get your well water tested (apparently once a year....ours was last tested in 2001)! We got the results back today and we have no bacteria...but we do have high levels of chloroform...REALLY, chloroform...I had no idea. ***Update, Chris just called with a revision of this report, he misread and we do NOT have chloroform...we have coliform, which is totally normal and harmless! Makes me think back to a certain court case I was obsessed with this summer, but I digress. Anyway, we now have to use some bleach to treat the water and retest in 7-10 days, simple enough I guess...except for the whole no access to water for bathing, drinking, cooking, etc.
We are now, once again just at a waiting point. Hopefully we will talk to the social worker today to get our next meeting scheduled and get our education set up.
Please pray that my passport application will be accepted, that we can get our water up to standard and that we can continue to keep things moving along. We are still committed to getting everything on our end in as quickly as possible. We also talked to our stateside representative for the orphanage and they have received all of our "stuff" so they are just waiting for our completed home study to proceed! Every day brings us a little closer to our sweet girl! Thanks for the prayers!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
A Bump in the Road
They said this process would be a roller coaster. They were right! Last night we had a great time at our first fundraiser! A dear friend from church opened her home to several families in the process of adoption. We each set up a table and were able to raise a little money for each of our adoptions. We have now sold our whole first batch of paper bead necklaces, Yay! But even better was the sweet fellowship!
Today, has been a bit of a downer. We contacted our stateside representative that we are working with for a very simple question. We received some unwelcome news. In a nutshell, he told us that the adoption process in Uganda is very up in the air. Due to a lot of corruption, etc. the laws are changing...at some point; we just do not know when or what that will mean. In all likelihood, one thing it will mean is Uganda will probably become an agency only country. We are not using an agency because we are working directly with a specific orphanage. Our heart is really with this orphanage and we would prefer to continue working with them. However, if we continue on the with the process we are currently using we run a fairly high risk of the laws changing and not being able to proceed. If we change now and go with an agency, we will no longer be able to work specifically with the orphanage that we have been using and currently sponsor a child at. It is also fairly certain that things will slow down quite a bit regardless.
After talking to a few people today and thinking about things, we have decided to proceed as we have been but with much more determination...we have been told the quicker we can get everything in and processed, the better. I have also contacted an agency that will be willing to work with us and transfer our information in the event that the laws change mid-stream. We are feeling a bit discouraged and a bit frustrated, but we were warned that this journey would be full of ups and downs so I guess we are not totally surprised.
We have our first home study interview next week and I am hoping that we can fit all of the meetings in fairly quickly and get the ball rolling as much as possible. So much is out of our control right now, but we can at least try to tie up all the loose ends on our side!
Anyway, for those curious for updates, that is where we are right now. When you think of us, please pray that we will be able to clearly see the direction that we should be going and that we would make decisions wisely. Pray that our faith would be strengthened and that we would use this entire process...including the down days, to just glorify the Father. Thanks friends!
Today, has been a bit of a downer. We contacted our stateside representative that we are working with for a very simple question. We received some unwelcome news. In a nutshell, he told us that the adoption process in Uganda is very up in the air. Due to a lot of corruption, etc. the laws are changing...at some point; we just do not know when or what that will mean. In all likelihood, one thing it will mean is Uganda will probably become an agency only country. We are not using an agency because we are working directly with a specific orphanage. Our heart is really with this orphanage and we would prefer to continue working with them. However, if we continue on the with the process we are currently using we run a fairly high risk of the laws changing and not being able to proceed. If we change now and go with an agency, we will no longer be able to work specifically with the orphanage that we have been using and currently sponsor a child at. It is also fairly certain that things will slow down quite a bit regardless.
After talking to a few people today and thinking about things, we have decided to proceed as we have been but with much more determination...we have been told the quicker we can get everything in and processed, the better. I have also contacted an agency that will be willing to work with us and transfer our information in the event that the laws change mid-stream. We are feeling a bit discouraged and a bit frustrated, but we were warned that this journey would be full of ups and downs so I guess we are not totally surprised.
We have our first home study interview next week and I am hoping that we can fit all of the meetings in fairly quickly and get the ball rolling as much as possible. So much is out of our control right now, but we can at least try to tie up all the loose ends on our side!
Anyway, for those curious for updates, that is where we are right now. When you think of us, please pray that we will be able to clearly see the direction that we should be going and that we would make decisions wisely. Pray that our faith would be strengthened and that we would use this entire process...including the down days, to just glorify the Father. Thanks friends!
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