Medical Reports cleared!

Our social worker confirmed with us today that the director has approved the medical portion of the homestudy! This is big because now it means all that is left is minor tweaks before we can send it off to our placement agency. Once the draft has been approved by them, it can be finalized and notarized! First hurdle handled!

For the moment the ball is out of our court.

We had what is hopefully our last meeting with our pediatrician today to finalize the medical reports on our (current) kids. The form was handed off to our social worker, and that is the last of the paperwork. If the agency director approves, the Homestudy should be complete by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week!

I say the last of the paperwork... but that is just for the Homestudy. Now I can focus more on the dossier paperwork. Similar stuff, but more complicated as almost every form needs to be notarized. Right now I'm working on the application letter that basically introduces our family to the Ethiopian adoption officials.

Paperwork

No updates for awhile since we are just working on paperwork. We've had a few issues with our medical reports, but we are on our way to a solution for those. Measnwhile, I am working on the parenting resource plan we have to submit before the homestudy can be approved with our placement agency. That has taken more time than I originally thought, but Ive got all but one question answered. I should be ready to send it all off to WACAP by the time the homestudy is completed.

Dear friends...

Now that we are well into this process, we have decided to start sharing the news of our adventure with family and friends. Everyone has been very enthusiastic and supportive. I'm hoping to use this blog as a way to document the adoption process, as well as to let others keep up with whats going on. I also hope this will be something our child will enjoy reading in the future.

We have our third (and final) meeting with our social worker tonight. She has said that in this meeting we will be discussing our parenting philosophy and our reasons for choosing adoption. She gave us an article on discipline to read and we will also be talking through that. Since it echoes how we already parent, it should not be any trouble. Otherwise I'm just waiting on paperwork to be returned to me so I can pass it along for completion of the home study.

On our way

Things are moving right along! This past weekend we had our home visit with our social worker. I cleaned all weekend in preparation for her arrival... the house hasn't been this clean in a long time. Over all it was a very easy meeting. She had a tour of the house, and had us tell her the significant items in each room. So for instance, several of our rooms are adorned with Cale's handiwork. The kids loved having someone to show around the house and to tell about their treasures. She asked what the kids like to do, and what we like to do as a family. It was a very relaxed meeting, and would have been more so if I hadn't been so nervous! One interesting thing we found out during this meeting is that our social workers kids go to the same school as our oldest. Strange that we have never crossed paths, but I'm sure we will now!

Otherwise, we are plugging away at the paperwork and Ive started the online training as well. Not too exciting, but every form filled out is one step closer to our dream!

Sent!

Handed two fat envelopes to the mail lady today! And then, tried not to pass out. :)

Two envelopes

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." ~Martin Luther King Jr.

There are two envelopes waiting to be stamped and mailed. They are the first step towards growing our family by adopting a son from Ethiopia. I am weary from trying to anticipate the entire journey to know if I am strong enough. With this inital paperwork, I take this step in faith and hand it over to God.