Confessions of an Obsessed Paper Chaser

I’ve been obsessed, consumed, confused and overwhelmed with this wonderful (not!) stage of adoption known as the paper chase. Since October, I honestly don’t think I’ve left my house without carrying at least one – and sometimes 20+ - paper chase documents somewhere on my person.

The paper chase started with everything we needed to accumulate for our homestudy:

Continued on to what we collected for our dossier:

And ended today – YES ENDED! – with the apostilling of our dossier. Make sure you “ooohhh” and “ahhhhh” over all the pretty gold seals!

**Keep in mind that 99% of all of these folders contain 2 or more copies of the documents inside them!

This, folks, is what we will be able to hand deliver to C. on Saturday! After that, how will I ever find a way to spend my time?

(Note to self: When the adoption journey becomes bumpy again, which you know it will, remember how hard you laughed tonight as you tried to write this post. Remember Norm’s “dude….” moment. Remember that you were laughing so hard no sound was coming out but tears definitely were! Remember getting your hand stuck in the couch trying to dig out the projectile Reese’s. Oh, and also remember that Norm is CUT OFF from soda & sugar after 8pm!)

From WAAH to WOO-HOO in 24+ hours

I need to thank Beth, Ana & Jojo for their support and encouragement yesterday. They let me vent, ramble, and vent some more. Then they walked me through a major meltdown and talked me off my ledge…they were my cheerleaders but most importantly they were (and are!) my friends and I so, so appreciate their kindness and empathy.

Oh, and so does Norm since it saved him from having to do all of the above! Although I must say that he definitely did more than his share in working through the obstacle we faced.

Beth & Ana – if you think you had it bad with my email drama, poor Jojo actually SPOKE to me on the phone last night. Jojo, thank you for your patience!

I’m sure you’re all thinking “Enough with the gratitude, get to the point already!”

Well, much of what happened between 10:30am yesterday and 11:30am today is a blur. I will say that I was about as angry and discouraged as I’ve ever been. It started when I received a call yesterday morning from our SW saying that Judy’s prints had been rejected. That was bad enough. What made me flip out is that she also told me a message had been left at her office last week stating the prints had been rejected, but that info was never passed on to me or Norm. Other stuff made me flip out as well but the fact that it took 7 days to tell us about the rejected prints gave me “exploding head syndrome.” (I hear Ana has suffered from the same thing from time to time!)

I usually try to be as diplomatic and tactful as possible but that all flew out the window during my conversation with SW. I wasn’t rude but I was far from being subtle. I said what I thought needed to be said. And I cried. (May have yelled a few times after hanging up the phone but I was the only one in the office so there’s no proof of that!)

Then I vented and rambled to Ana, Beth & later to Jojo. Then I tried a dose of Susan’s therapy – a wonderful combination of chocolate and a couple furry friends. Susan’s version includes dark chocolate and a chocolate Lab. Mine was Reese’s, a Lab mix and a German Shep. Mix. It worked wonders!

Today at 11:30am I found out that the fingerprint thing has worked itself out. Yes - the fingerprint drama is OVER! Can you believe it?

SW asked me to stop by her office to retrieve 5 glorious, wonderful copies of our home study. After I picked myself up off the floor, I said I’d be right over. Thankfully her office is about 12 minutes from my own. I made it in 5!!

She & I put aside our differences, she handed me the most anticipated package I’ve ever received, and I was out the door (after writing a hefty retainer check for PPRs – post placement reports). Come to find out, SW was inspired by my meltdown yesterday. She coordinated with two other offices in Northern Virginia to have the committee re-approve our homestudy and get it to their Regional Director for signature yesterday afternoon. Then, they FedEx’d a packet to her for morning delivery today! I’m very impressed that they moved so quickly and secretively for us. Neither Norm nor I had any idea we’d have the homestudy in our hands today.

This means that I get to FINALLY mail in or I600A. For those who have already done this, can I FedEx it? Do I need to give them a return airbill to send me the receipt and/or appointment invitation back?

I also get to have the rest of our dossier notarized on Monday and apostilled on Tuesday. Providing everything is correct, we’ll be able to deliver the entire dossier to C. from our agency when we meet her in Asheville on Saturday, 1/19!!!!! Oh my gosh…talk about warp speed! Even though this is exactly the outcome I have been praying for and asked all of you to pray for, I can’t believe this is happening so quickly.

As if all if this weren’t enough excitement to make my head spin, Ana & Russ have decided to drive 3 hrs. next Saturday to meet us in Asheville! We’re going to have lunch together and hang out a bit before our meeting at 3pm with C. Yay! There’s also a chance that on our way home Sunday we’ll be able to reconnect with one of my cousins, his wife & their 3 kids who lives about 1.5 hrs. from Asheville. It’s going to be a busy weekend but so much fun.

Now if I could just make it up to see Beth & Nick…

Thanks to everyone who have been lifting us and Baby C up in prayer. Keep ‘em coming and remember to also rejoice for all He has provided to us in our adoption journey!

Good Stuff

Remember this post and how discouraged I was about the first appraisal of our house? (Scroll down a bit in the post to refresh your memory).

You may also remember in this more recent post that I mentioned the house was being reappraised (for the 3rd time no less!) on January 3. I asked for everyone to pray for that appraisal and those prayers were answered! Thank you, thank you!

We found out today that we have been approved for the HELOC which will definitely help us get Baby C home. Thankfully, as far as this is concerned “3rd times a charm” won over “3 strikes and you’re out.” I’m still researching fundraising ideas, and we are extremely grateful for any donations/contributions anyone feels led to give, but the HELOC is a nice cushion to have if we need it.

As long as I’m on a positive note, I should also mention that attorneys, at least the 13 in my office, do have hearts...and very compassionate ones at that! (Love you guys) They are going to a 4 day conference soon in Norfolk and are staying at a Marriott. They all joined the Marriott Rewards Program today and plan on donating/transferring their points to Norm & me to use on one of our trips to Russia. While this may not cover the entire stay, it will undoubtedly help lessen our lodging expenses. I would like to use these points for a portion of the trip and hopefully transfer to a Peace Travel apartment for the remainder of our stay. THANK YOU ALL AGAIN! For our upcoming trip to Asheville, we are also staying in the Renaissance and those points can be used in Russia as well.

In closing, our SW returns to the office tomorrow. I’m not sure I’ll get much sleep tonight because I’ll be praying for positive news regarding Judy’s fingerprints. As always, we're still inviting others to pray for a speedy and positive resolution to this issue as well.

Oh, and also tomorrow night is my first ever Mom’s Night Out with the FRUA DC chapter. We're headed to the Corner Bakery at the Fair Oaks Mall. Should be lots o’ fun (not to mention yummy)…

Another Day – Another Fingerprint Update

I work in my county’s Prosecutor’s Office. My co-worker’s are awesome and we all work so well as a team. I love knowing that, thanks to the amazing job each person in my office does day in and day out, my child is going to grow up in one of the safest counties in Virginia.

We prosecute defendants for their crime(s), they are sentenced to an appropriate amount of jail time, and we hope that during their sentence they turn their lives around. Some do...some do not. We have a nickname for Defendant’s who just don’t seem to “get it.” Our office and our Sheriff’s Office (“SO”) have come to know them as our “repeat customers.”

Despite the fact that Judy claims she has never received a parking or speeding ticket, has never been arrested, and as far as I know has never seen a jail cell FROM THE INSIDE, she is starting to feel like a “repeat customer” at our SO. (By the way Denise & Joan - - if Judy happened to “forget” to tell us anything from her past, feel free to chime in!!)

Anyway, as promised I drug Judy to the SO today for another round of fingerprints. Since I work so closely with these Deputies, it was actually a fun trip. They assured us that the condition of the fingerprints was very good and that there shouldn’t be any reason for them to be returned as “poor quality” or anything like that. I immediately took them to our SW and they should have gone out in the mail today. I made sure “expedite” was noted on them as well. Now we just need to pray that they don’t get lost in transit!!

On a different note, I’ve found a new hobby / means of therapy. Those of you who know me should sit down if you’re not already. I don’t want anyone falling over & getting injured when they read this. Ready? Here goes…

Yesterday evening & this evening I COOKED!! Okay, I actually baked but I was still in the kitchen doing more than washing dishes! Shocker, huh? My blogger friends don’t know what a disaster I am when I try to cook. They also don’t know that, until yesterday, Norm & Judy had banned me from doing anything more in the kitchen than walking through it or loading the dishwasher.

So what brought out my Betty Crocker side? Pet treats!

I found recipes for Merry Mutt Loaves, Papago Peanut Butter Treats and Tasty Tuna Tarts and decided to make them for my co-worker’s pets. My dogs are pawsitively drooling right now since my kitchen counters are littered (no pun intended) with treats for 26 dogs and 7 cats. Santa Paws will be making a special delivery tomorrow!

DISCLAIMER: No humans or pets were harmed in this experiment…Honestly!

Fingerprint Update (again)

We found out today that Judy is going to have to redo her fingerprints. We had pretty much come to that conclusion on our own this weekend but both FPL and our SW confirmed it. So, I'm dragging Judy back to our Sheriff's Office on Wednesday. Supposedly this set of fingerprints will be "expedited" but I don't know how "expedited" they will really be given the fact that Christmas & New Year's are just around the corner. It took just over a month for SW to receive mine & Norm's back. I really, really hope it doesn't take that long to get Judy's back this time.

Regardless, we now know what we have to do and ask everyone to pray that "expedited" really does mean "expedited."

Tails of Destruction

It is Friday, is it not? Because I’ve been walking around all day thinking it was. In fact, I even made the executive decision to close our office early and let our paralegals and attorneys get a jump start on what I thought was going to be their weekend. It’d be a real shame if we all have to go in tomorrow considering we’re under the impression that tomorrow is Saturday. Hmmm…

Oh wait, maybe Friday isn’t considered the end of the week anymore. Is that it? No? Hmmm…

Well, the only other thing I can surmise is that FPL (fingerprint lady) has a different calendar than the rest of us. You see, she never called our SW about Judy’s fingerprints. It seems her voicemail doesn’t actually record messages because she didn’t return any calls either. If by now you have guessed that Judy’s fingerprints remain MIA, sadly you are correct.

Our dogs overheard us talking about all of this tonight and they’re pretty upset about it as well, which is quite evident in the Tails of Destruction below:

"Oh well," Bailey says, "maybe Monday??"

Despite this continued setback and my post from a few days ago, I am content!

I am content because I have an amazing husband who loves me unconditionally. Who understands I have my "freak out" moments from time to time, and who knows exactly how to make me laugh and forget all about the freaking out stuff.

I am content because I know the finances will, somehow, someway, workout.

I am content because through God's grace I was adopted into His family, even though more often than not I don't deserve that honor.

I am content because I know that God's hand is holding my own and is guiding us through our adoption - even when our timelines don't come close to matching!

Yes, I am content...

HS/Fingerprint Update

We didn’t hear from our SW yesterday as to whether or not her committee was able to review the HS pending Judy’s fingerprints. I sent her an email early this morning and then Norm followed up with her this afternoon.

Good News – the committee did approve our HS pending receipt of Judy’s fingerprints.

Semi Good News – the fingerprint lady (“FPL”) lives despite the fact that she hasn’t returned any of the phone calls from our SW. Unfortunately FPL doesn’t know where Judy’s fingerprints are, and told our SW she would get back to her by the end of the week to let her know (a) if FPL was able to find the fingerprints and (b) what the processing time will be if they are found. If they aren’t found, I have no idea what we’re going to do. Judy’s travel schedule is unpredictable right now & I don’t know when she’ll be in town to redo them, if that ends up being our only option. They say IA is not for the faint of heart…I am beginning to understand what this means. Right now so much is dependent on the fingerprints and it’s not like we can just “forego” this step.

On a slightly different note, we received not-so-good news this evening regarding the HELOC we applied for. Our house was appraised for far, far, FAR less than we know it is worth. We were not only offended by the appraisal, we almost had to laugh at it because it was completely ridiculous. Obtaining a HELOC from this particular lender is now out of the question and this evening I applied to another lender.

I’m sure I sound pretty discouraged right now. Yeah, I guess I am but I think I’m more confused than discouraged. A little while ago I was hiding in my office while Norm watched a show about “exotic foods” (read as DISGUSTING - as in still beating frog hearts… blech!!) when I stumbled upon, and found comfort in, these verses and Bible study notes:

Gen. 30:22 (NLT): Then God remembered Rachel’s plight and answered her prayers by giving her a child.

Life Application Study Bible Explanatory Note re Exodus 2:9 : "God doesn’t need much from us to accomplish his plan for our lives. Focusing on our human predicament may paralyze us because the situation may appear humanly impossible. But concentrating on God and his power will help us see the way out. Right now you may feel unable to see through your troubles. Focus instead on God, and trust him for the way out. That is all he needs to begin his work in you."

Life Application Study Bible Explanatory Note re 1 Samuel 13:11-13: "It is difficult to trust God when you feel your resources slipping away… When you know what God wants, follow his plan regardless of the consequences. God often uses delays to test our obedience and patience."

So for this evening, I leave you all with the following prayer requests: Please join us in prayer for the financial provision we need to make this adoption possible. Without the HELOC we are missing at least ½ of the funds we need to bring our child home. If God has other plans for financing our adoption, GREAT! But we need the wisdom to figure out what that plan is, and the resources to follow the plan. Also, I think we could both use a good dose of patience and peace knowing that this is all in God’s hands and WILL work out! And, of course, please pray that Judy’s fingerprints are found and returned to our SW as quickly as possible.

Until tomorrow,Kar & Tiger

S.T.A.L.L.E.D. / Learning Russian Culture

First off - THANK YOU and WELCOME to our family & friends who have logged into our blog for the first time within the past few days. I'm shocked at how quickly some of you received your Christmas cards & announcements. We're so happy to have you with us on this journey. Please keep the encouraging/supportive emails and comments coming!

In my last post I mentioned that our SW emailed a draft of our HS to our agency for their review & approval. They didn't have a chance to do anything with it on Friday but yesterday they had 3 minor questions for us, which we replied to today. (We didn't have internet AGAIN last night or else we would have answered sooner.) I'm hoping that those questions were they only thing they needed to clear up and that today they told our SW to carry on.

I also mentioned in the last post that our HS agency has committee meetings on Tuesday's. As of yesterday, our HS was on their agenda for today - with the committee approval pending Judy's fingerprints finally getting here. Uh, yeah, still waiting on those. Grrrrr...

Our SW didn't email or call us today so I don't know whether the HS went before the committee or not. I'm also not sure if the SW was able to get in touch with a live person at the fingerprint place. She told me yesterday that they have left multiple messages regarding the fingerprints but no one will return their call. This whole issue really gets under my skin so I'll move on to other, more positive, topics!

Two weekends ago we attended the Freddie Mac Adoption Expo in Washington, DC. There was a ton of great info for people interested in learning more about adoption. I believe there were about 30 vendors there, one of which was FRUA. Yay!! For those of you who don't know, FRUA stands for "Families for Russian and Ukranian Adoption" and is a WONDERFUL organization for anyone interested in pursuing a Russian or Ukranian adoption, as well as for families currently in the process and those who are lucky enough to have already brought their children home. I am so grateful to the ladies at the FRUA table for letting me hoard so much of their time with question after question, and to Laura for emailing me after the event and connecting me with such great resources. Laura, thank you for your kindness and guidance!

As we were driving through DC, both to and from the event, I realized how fortunate we are to live where we live. (Other than the ridiculous DC traffic we have to deal with.) We are going to be able to introduce our child to a vast amount of American history, and visit numerous American landmarks. It got me thinking about the importance of retaining their Russian heritage as well, which frankly I have very limited knowledge of. So, I've decided to learn as much about Russia as I possible can...

We went to Borders this past weekend and picked up a huge wall map of Russia, which clearly shows all 6 regions our agency works in! This is very exciting to me. We also picked up a great book, "Culture Smart: Russia A Quick Guide To Customs & Etiquette", which I recommend to anyone in the process who is waiting for their travel dates. I'm also trying to teach myself the Cryllic Alphabet - yikes!! - and am making flashcards of words and phrases. At first I was super intimidated with the alphabet but I'm s-l-o-w-l-y getting it and am now having fun with it.

What's my first Russian sentence you ask? The phonetic pronunciation is:
ETT-a NAH-SH-a sa-BAHK-a. Meaning, of course, "This is our dog!" Anyone surprised by that?? :-)

Oh, and I found out today that there is a Russian Winter Festival in DC this weekend. If our schedules allow it, we may head up again on Saturday to check it out!

Redecorating & HS update

I was bored tonight - and home study and dossier'ed out (is that a word??!!) - so I decided to play around with the blog design a bit. I created the new header using Macromedia Fireworks because I wanted something that looked a little Christmasy. Did I achieve it??

For those of you who aren't visiting for the first time & remember the old design, let me know what you think of the new one. If you're new here, WELCOME!!, and feel free to chime in anyway!

Okay, so on to where we are in the paper chase...

Our SW and I traded emails on Friday. She received our clearances from CPS, as well as Judy's criminal history that had to be resubmitted a few weeks back. The only thing she is waiting for now is Judy's fingerprints. We're not sure what the hold up with that is since hers were mailed at the same time as ours. The SW said she "placed a call about it" but didn't tell me what the result of that call was. So, I wait....

She did email a draft of the HS to our agency for their review and approval. Hopefully they had a chance to look at it on Friday, and if not then I'm REALLY hoping they will on Monday. Also, she emailed the same draft to her committee members for their review prior to their meeting on Tuesday. Once the committee approves it, it is sent to their Regional Director for his/her authorization and signature. Then, we have a completed HS!!!

I've been praying that we have our notarized copies of the HS by Friday, 12/14 so we can have our Dossier apostilled asap. I resigned myself today to the fact that my deadline may be unrealistic... I admit that I'm very disappointed but there is nothing I can do about it but pray and ask all of you to do the same.

I did have encouragement today after reading Randy & Susan's blog. Susan unfortunately ran into some unexpected snags with her HS as well (and NO that is not the encouragement I am referring to!!). A comment left on Susan's blog explained that had it not been for some of the delays that person experienced in her own adoption, she wouldn't have received the referral she did because her daughter wouldn't have been off the registry yet. So it all comes back to God's timing being better than our own. Very difficult to understand sometimes, but so very important to remember!

On a different note, I had a wonderful conversation a few days agao with "Linda" at the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office in regards to have our dossier apostilled. Since the HS is taking longer than we expected, I wanted to know if we could hand deliver our dossier and wait for it to be apostilled. "Linda" was so excited to hear about our adoption and she is so friendly! She assured me that we could bring it in person and wait for everything. So, believe you me, there's a trip to Richmond in my near future! Thankfully it's only about an hour from my house - even better!

Home Study Update - Where We Go From Here!

Last Tuesday, Nov. 27, we were able to review the first draft of our HS. Other than a few typo's it looked great. That, plus we're still waiting for 2 clearances to come back: CPS (Child Protective Services) and fingerprints. Both of these items were mailed to their respective agencies on Oct. 31 and we were told that typically it takes a month to get the reports back. Please join us in our prayer request that the SW receives these reports in the next few days, along with Judy's criminal history that we had to resubmit a few weeks ago. I don't know if the Thanksgiving holiday will cause any delays...

Once the missing reports are received, our SW will bring the HS to her committee for review and final approval. After that approval, our HS will be DONE!!!! Normally the committee meets on Tuesdays but I'm hoping they can (and will!) call a special meeting as soon as the SW plugs the missing info in. I am really hoping we can have our copies of the HS in our hands by Friday, Dec. 14 at the latest.

As soon as the HS is complete, we can finally submit our I600A - the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition - to the US Immigration office. Unfortunately our state will not begin processing the I600A without the finalized HS attached. Some states will begin processing the I600A while waiting for the HS. We're not that lucky.

When I first heard about the delay with filing our I600A I was super discouraged. I was even more discouraged when our immigration field office told my husband that it would take them 4-5 months to process our form once it was submitted. Now, however, it appears that they have shortened that time to 3 months. Still a long time, but I can deal with 3 months better than 5 months!

I didn't realize that we could travel on our first trip without having submitted our I600A but we can!! After my agency explained this to us, they also told us that our current timeline could mean that we make our first trip as early as February. Woo-Hoo!! I never imagined traveling to Russia, much less smack in the middle of winter. So my CHRISTmas list this year definitely includes hand warmers!

Before we get our travel dates, though, we need to complete our Dossier...

Okay, take a deep breath with me & we'll continue on -

I've mentioned the Dossier briefly in another post but I don't believe I went into much detail. I know you're all sitting on pins & needles to see (1) what the heck a dossier is if you don't know already and (2) where we are in THAT process! I'll leave the specifics of our Dossier for tomorrow. Just know for now that at this point, we are responsible for cutting down a small rain forest... Bad as a closet tree hugger but VERY GOOD as a mom to be!

4 Down - NONE to go!

Despite the lack of posting, we have been pretty busy on the adoption front this week. We had our final visit with the SW - at our house - today. Here's a brief overview of what we covered with her:

• Signing a few new forms: the first had to do with interstate adoption which is necessary in case we decide to adopt domestically instead of internationally. Let's say a birthmother in another state somehow hears of our intent to adopt and would like to place her child with us. If we choose to switch to a domestic adoption rather than IA, we may do so and our HS agency will support us in that decision. However, the interstate agreement states that we need to follow the laws of BOTH states, not just the laws of Virginia.
• By signing the second form, we both acknowledged and agreed that there are alternative forms of discipline other than corporal punishment.
• We then discussed our desired child at great length. We are still asking for a relatively heahtlhy child under the age of 2. With that said, however, there are realistically some conditions that our child may have but won't present themselves until he/she is in school. We also stated that we would be open for twins or a sibling group. We are still going with our original decision to not specify a gender.
• She then took a tour of the house, met and interviewed Judy for the first time, and also met our wonderful dogs. Somehow she missed the cats. Not sure how that happened since they were sunbathing on our bed when she walked in our bedroom... But I'm sure they were much happier not being noticed!
• She gave us a list of things she is still waiting for such as: (1) one personal reference letter, (2) our pastor's reference letter, (3) our clearances from CPS (child protective services), (4) Judy's criminal history, which as I explained a few days ago had to be resubmitted.
• I was THRILLED to find out I completed the dreaded 5 page financial statement correctly.
• Norm completed the Fire Escape Plan, which we submitted today
• We both completed our Daily Schedules and also submitted them today.

I do have another homework assignment to keep me busy. She asked me to make a list of everything we have done, read, or whatever to prepare and educate ourselves on adoption issues. A few days ago I ordered our child's first books - "Mishka" and "When I Met You." Both of these books are geared specifically towards children adopted from Russia or Eastern Europe. I received them today and they're great. I also have a ton of books and magazines that Norm and I have been reading over the past 2 years. So it shouldn't be that difficult to prepare this list and I've given myself a deadline of Sunday to email it to her.

Depending on how closely you've been following our journey, you may have noticed a new slide show on the right sidebar. Last weekend Chef Judy, Norm & I went to BabiesRUs just to "look." Yeah....right! We saw a beautiful crib that we all actually agreed on, which of course meant we couldn't pass it up. We also all agreed on the bedding, the border and the valance... WOAH! Now this was just fate! So, the new slideshow depicts how we spent our evenings this past week. Hmmm...maybe I shouldn't say "we" because Norm and Judy really did the vast majority of the work. I'm allergic to paint so I couldn't help much with that part. I helped by staying out of the way!

Now, I know many of you may be thinking it is way too early in this process for us to be setting up the nursery, painting, putting up borders and assembling cribs. I must be honest and tell you that at first I thought the same thing. However, after having a few stressful days this week I can say that it is inspiring to have that room set up and simply waiting to be occupied. It is my assurance that this WILL happen, even if we encounter bumps along the way. It is my reminder that while God and I have the same goal, we do have different time lines. His time line is not only going to trump my own, his time line is much better than I can even begin to imagine right now!

There's more to write but I'll sign off for now and catch you up on the rest of the week's happenings tomorrow. Hope you enjoy the nursery photos!

4 Steps Forward, ½ Step Back

I think the last time I posted was on Wednesday after Norm had his personal interview with the SW. Since then we’ve checked a few more things off of our “TO DO” list and had one very minor setback. First, the good news…

Progress!

• Thursday our SW visited one of our personal references in their home. I had no idea what to expect for our friends, J & M, during this visit or how long it would take. After seeing the form our other personal references had to complete (4 PAGES that weren’t even multiple choice or “yes/no”!!), I expected the worst for poor J & M. Well, I’m not sure if I expected the worst FOR them or FROM “J”!! J You see, they are great friends of ours but “J” and & I constantly pick on and harass each other. He is more like a big brother and I LOVE to pester him! He had been teasing me up until Thursday with things he supposedly had planned to tell the SW…all wonderful things about Norm but not so good things about me. Of course, I knew he was kidding around (and made it very clear that he BETTER be kidding around) and I’m proud to report that he did indeed behave himself! Thank you, J!
• Our SW emailed me on Friday to tell me that she had already received our criminal histories back…and neither of us are criminals!
• Norm completed his daily schedule
• And finally….I COMPLETED THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT!! I plan to reward myself with a hot fudge & peanut butter sundae from Buster’s Ice Cream tomorrow! Yum!!

Now, I do have a financial statement that I have to complete for the dossier but surprisingly it isn’t as complicated as the one I just completed for the home study. (The HS form was 5 pages long!) I should be able to just copy the info that is the same onto the dossier statement and we’re good to go.

And now for the setback :-(

• Our SW also wrote in her Friday email that the criminal history form she had us fill out for Chef Judy was apparently the wrong form. We need to redo it, renotarize it, and remail it. This really is a relatively minor issue. Oh, and for those of you who may not know who Chef Judy is, “meet” Norm’s mom. She has lived with us for the past year and as an adult household member, there are certain forms and steps she needs to take as well.

As far as I’m concerned, my finishing the financial statement far outweighs having to redo Judy’s criminal history forms.

I think that about covers it for now. We had a pretty full day of activities today – but I’ll wait until tomorrow to bring you up to date on all of that fun. Here’s a prelude though…color schemes, patterns, hex wrench, and stuffed animals!

Oh, and does anyone remember this line from a movie –

“THE DINGO’S GOT MY BABY!!!” Stay tuned…

Have a blessed evening!
Tig & Kar

3 Down 1 To Go

Wow - it seems like just yesterday I posted about our first official HS interview, and here we are with only 1 visit left now. Norm had his individual appointment this morning at 9am. I couldn't concentrate on anything at work until he called me at 10 to let me know he was headed back home. (He works from home - lucky him!) Once again my anxities proved to be unfounded. All went fine but we do have a few minor homework assignments.

• I need to finish the dreaded financial statement
• We both need to complete our "desired child" profile
• Norm needs to finish the fire escape plan
• We both need to complete our daily schedule outlines

Tomorrow our SW is making a home visit to one of our 3 personal referrals. Then, next Friday, she comes out for the interview at our house and well, we're done after that! She is still waiting for replies from some of the outside agencies. Once she gets all of those responses, she writes her report and the HS is done! So far all of it is going much quicker than I thought it would. Let's hope the journey continues to go so smoothly!

I Survived

Hey everybody!

Let's take a quick poll...how many of you remembered that today was my personal interview with the SW?! I'm sure you are all sitting on pins & needles waiting to see how it went. Well, as the title of this entry suggests I did, infact, survive!

As with our joint interview it wasn't bad at all. She referred to my autobiography and "filled in the holes" that were needed to complete her report. We talked a little about how Norm & I met, our "courtship" (BTW - does anyone actually use that term anymore??), my hobbies and interests, clubs I'm a member of, etc. I was perfectly at ease and started to actually enjoy our conversation. Imagine that...

She then asked questions about my family and childhood. All good of course - you did an EXCELLENT job daddy! Rob, of course you are an EXCELLENT seestor as well!

She also asked a lot of questions about my mom, who sadly lost her battle with cancer in 2003. I held up well in the interview but now that I'm home, I have to admit that I'm feeling pretty sad that my mom and my child will not know each other in this life. I really wish my mom were here to share this experience with. I am comforted knowing she is in heaven - - playing and cuddling with the two little ones I lost in 2006 & 2000. I know all 3 of them are restored and healthy, as are Great-Grandmother, Grandmother, Grandma, Grandaddy, Uncle Buddy, Uncle Bill, Auntie Nedra, Ti Lidia, Meme, Ti Alice, and all of our other loved ones who have passed before us. (I apologize for those I didn't specifically name.) Each of these family members and friends is watching over Norm & me as we immerse ourselves into our adoption miracle. Your and their love is felt, is needed, and is so very appreciated!

We're off to our Small Group Bible study. Enjoy the rest of your evening!
Kar

More Than Just Talking...

There is more to the HS (home study) than the 4 visits with the SW that I mentioned a few days ago. We were given a rather lengthy list of documents we needed to round up as well. Our SW will use the info from the interviews, as well as the items listed below, to write a report and determine whether or not we are suitable parents for our little one.

For Us To Do
Recent, close up photos of us
Require Reading - Raising Adopted Children
Fire Escape Plan
Description of our Daily Schedules (Hmmm…BEFORE, DURING OR AFTER home study/dossier prep work??!!)
Financial Statement w/ Verification Documents


Waiting on Outside Agencies
References: 3 personal friends and family members – names given to SW to contact
Child Protective Services Release of Information – mailed 10/31/07
National Background Checks – mailed 10/30/07

COMPLETED Home Study Items
Complete physicals for all household members
Autobiographies (5 pages!!)
Copies of Birth Certs
Copy of Marriage License
Life Insurance Verification
Income from Previous Year
Driving Transcripts for last 10 years
Criminal History Records
Sworn Disclosure Statements
References - Employers
DD214 for both of us
10 Hr. Online Training as per Hague Treaty
Require Reading - How it Feels to be Adopted
Releases of Information for International Agency & USCIS (2)

So, we’re doing a pretty good job on this stuff. The financial statement is going to cause me the most grief though because you need back up statements/verification for each & every expense or asset you have. It’s just going to be a bit painful to get through but we’ll manage. Or, I should say I’LL manage because Norm is staying far, far away from this particular document. Instead, he’ll busy himself with the Fire Escape Plan. Lucky him…he gets to draw! Grrrr……

1 Down - 3 To Go! :-)

Hellooooo!
For those of you who aren't familiar with the International Adoption ("IA") process, I decided to post entries for the different steps Norm & I will need to take over the coming months. First is the Home Study.

The Home Study is a series of interviews with our social worker ("SW") during which EVERY aspect of our lives in scrutinized. We're asked very personal questions about our marriage, our families, our finances, our beliefs, our work experience, our pets, who we went to the prom with, who our Kindergarten classmates were, what type of deoderant we use, why I like the color purple....blah blah blah!

Okay, so it's really not quite THAT bad, but some of the questions are pretty intrusive. We will have to meet with the SW for a total of 4 times - the first is a joint interview, the 2nd is just me, the 3rd is just Norm, and the 4th she comes out to our house.

Yesterday was our first "official" interview. I had been pretty nervous about the meeting but as it turns out, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. She asked us a lot of questions about our military background (she's not very familiar with the military AT ALL!). She then asked us about our strengths and weaknesses. And then...it was over! Sheesh - why did I get myself all worked up??!! In between the military & strengths/weaknesses, our conversation did take a few turns and we covered a lot of ground in that 60 minutes, but again it wasn't what I expected at all.

So, my personal interview is next Monday, and Norm's is next Wednesday. Wish us luck! Before those meetings we each have to write a 5 page autobiograpy. Oh joy! Actually, mine is already done, but I love to write! (As if you haven't figured that out yet...)

The autobiography asks questions about your family, childhood, etc. Sooooo, Robyn, now U.S. and Russian officials will know exactly how you tortured me growing up and why I'm so freaked out by eyeballs!! JUST KIDDING SEESTOR! :-)

Anyway, it's good to have this first interview done. Hopefully the next 3 will go just as smoothly!