Today we received our homestudy for adoption from Vietnam! Our social worker is printing and sending copies to our attorney. I feel like I just crossed a huge hurdle in the process. GRIN What a great feeling!
Now we will be waiting for our attorney to send the I600a form, for which we will be issued a fingerprinting appointment. We are getting closer and closer!
Babies, your mama and papa are waiting! :)
Mishy
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Time drags by...
As you can see I'm obsessed with the waiting time... Friends tell me that being pregnant takes 9 months so be patient! However, my view is that I've been waiting more than 8 years...that's plenty of "pregnant" time and I want my babies now! :)
The international homestudy was this recent Friday. Everything went well. It didn't last as long as we were prepared for but we had a few things going our way: all preliminary paperwork and question pages were done, we had worked with this same social worker for Jason's homestudy so she was familiar with us, and we communicate with each other. The communication is important, believe me. We had no secrets... we knew details about each other, previous marriages, financial details, etc. This made it easy to have no surprises and be united in our goals. In fact, our social worker left and Jeff asked me "that was supposed to be invasive???" We chuckled and went back to waiting.
The report for the international homestudy should be done some time this week. Our social worker, bless her heart, said she'd be typing on it all weekend. :) Our attourney has our I600a paper and will be sending it off soon to the Yakima office. We will next be expecting to get a paper announcing our fingerprinting appointment which we can accomplish in Portland. Not sure how much more paperwork makes up a Dossier but we are wading through it!
Jason has decided he wants to race his bike. He had 2 free races to try it out, and now is ready to get serious. Jeff and Jason are on their way to a race right now so that Jeff can handle paying the fee and signing Jason up for a membership. Me? I'm staying here to babysit the puppies and do some homework for my professional certification class. I will be done with my class on May 2nd and then just wait to ensure my paperwork passes at the Pullman office and my certification will be on its way to me.
That's all for now...
Mishy
The international homestudy was this recent Friday. Everything went well. It didn't last as long as we were prepared for but we had a few things going our way: all preliminary paperwork and question pages were done, we had worked with this same social worker for Jason's homestudy so she was familiar with us, and we communicate with each other. The communication is important, believe me. We had no secrets... we knew details about each other, previous marriages, financial details, etc. This made it easy to have no surprises and be united in our goals. In fact, our social worker left and Jeff asked me "that was supposed to be invasive???" We chuckled and went back to waiting.
The report for the international homestudy should be done some time this week. Our social worker, bless her heart, said she'd be typing on it all weekend. :) Our attourney has our I600a paper and will be sending it off soon to the Yakima office. We will next be expecting to get a paper announcing our fingerprinting appointment which we can accomplish in Portland. Not sure how much more paperwork makes up a Dossier but we are wading through it!
Jason has decided he wants to race his bike. He had 2 free races to try it out, and now is ready to get serious. Jeff and Jason are on their way to a race right now so that Jeff can handle paying the fee and signing Jason up for a membership. Me? I'm staying here to babysit the puppies and do some homework for my professional certification class. I will be done with my class on May 2nd and then just wait to ensure my paperwork passes at the Pullman office and my certification will be on its way to me.
That's all for now...
Mishy
Friday, April 13, 2007
Homestudy
Whew! One homestudy done. We finished the post-adoption homestudy for Jason. Our copy from the social worker just arrived in the mail today. Smile. We are one step closer! The homestudy was not as bad as I had feared. I was prepared to feel really uncomfortable answering invasive questions. It was a fairly painless process, about an hour and a half, sitting around the dining room table and following a list of questions telling how much progress Jason has made and how proud we are of him.
Now for the next one...the Vietnam adoption home study. I thought I'd feel less nervous after the first one was done, but I'm not sure. Our next appointment is on the 20th and is supposed to run about 6 hours long. SIX hours?! That's a lot of talking. Well, I'm praying it will go well and we'll get the report back quickly. I don't like the waiting part of this process...
That's all for now...
Mishy
Now for the next one...the Vietnam adoption home study. I thought I'd feel less nervous after the first one was done, but I'm not sure. Our next appointment is on the 20th and is supposed to run about 6 hours long. SIX hours?! That's a lot of talking. Well, I'm praying it will go well and we'll get the report back quickly. I don't like the waiting part of this process...
That's all for now...
Mishy
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
We are a growing family
Our son, Jason, just turned 16. He is my husband's bio son, has lived with us for 4 years now, and has asked me to become his legal adoptive mom. :) We are in that process now. I posted a picture of him on his bike. He loves to spend any free hours available out riding.
Our Boston Terrier puppies have been "stand in" children while preparing for adoption. Penny is now 3 years old and Button is 2 years old. The two of them are sweet yet mischievious. Button is laying on the Papsan chair right now watching me type. :) They are never far from my side.
As to the growing part...with me soon being Jason's legal mom, we are all looking forward to two children from Vietnam joining the family hopefully some time early this next year.
That's all for now...
Mishy
Our Boston Terrier puppies have been "stand in" children while preparing for adoption. Penny is now 3 years old and Button is 2 years old. The two of them are sweet yet mischievious. Button is laying on the Papsan chair right now watching me type. :) They are never far from my side.
As to the growing part...with me soon being Jason's legal mom, we are all looking forward to two children from Vietnam joining the family hopefully some time early this next year.
That's all for now...
Mishy
Settling in for the long haul
The process to adding to your family through adoption is a long one I've been told. I hoped to try to shorten the process, but so far it has involved a lot of waiting. I mean...come on...I've already waited 25 years!
During the 8 years Jeff and I have been together we've discussed adoption many times. When we visited an adoption attourney on March 6th and discussed Vietnam as a possibility, we both became so excited.
Since that first meeting we've requested and received 4 copies of each important certificate required. I thought... okay... that wasn't bad... this timeline thing will be a cinch to beat! I applied for my Passport (Jeff already has one) and it will arrive on May 25th! Jeff had his physical on April 4th and mine is scheduled for April 16th. Our homestudy is scheduled for April 20th. Ackk...already 2 months now... guess the timeline isn't a cinch after all. The waiting is so hard and we've only just begun to wait!!!! I can't imagine what I'll be thinking/feeling next year as it gets closer to the day we will meet and bring home our children.
In the meantime... Jeff has been looking at websites about Vietnam. He is really excited about traveling. He loves photography and is dreaming about the picture taking already. I have been join listservs, buying adoption magazines, reading blogs, and TRYING to be patient... ha ha. AND... life goes on. I teach middle school science and am overwhelmed with lesson planning, grades, end of the quarter, etc. Jeff is working for 2 weeks with a local company. Our 2 adorable Boston Terriers beg for attention. :)
That's all for now...
Mishy
During the 8 years Jeff and I have been together we've discussed adoption many times. When we visited an adoption attourney on March 6th and discussed Vietnam as a possibility, we both became so excited.
Since that first meeting we've requested and received 4 copies of each important certificate required. I thought... okay... that wasn't bad... this timeline thing will be a cinch to beat! I applied for my Passport (Jeff already has one) and it will arrive on May 25th! Jeff had his physical on April 4th and mine is scheduled for April 16th. Our homestudy is scheduled for April 20th. Ackk...already 2 months now... guess the timeline isn't a cinch after all. The waiting is so hard and we've only just begun to wait!!!! I can't imagine what I'll be thinking/feeling next year as it gets closer to the day we will meet and bring home our children.
In the meantime... Jeff has been looking at websites about Vietnam. He is really excited about traveling. He loves photography and is dreaming about the picture taking already. I have been join listservs, buying adoption magazines, reading blogs, and TRYING to be patient... ha ha. AND... life goes on. I teach middle school science and am overwhelmed with lesson planning, grades, end of the quarter, etc. Jeff is working for 2 weeks with a local company. Our 2 adorable Boston Terriers beg for attention. :)
That's all for now...
Mishy
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