Back to the drawing board...

Just got our HS draft from our HS agency caseworker and there are STILL many questions and several things we need to review and correct. Wow, this is definitely been our longest HS process! Well it's back to the drawing board, oh and they also need more documentation. WHEW! I just have to keep my eyes on God's promise!

Another mistake...

NOPE… our HS was actually not at the placement agency yet and in fact it has not even been completed by our HS agency! It is actually still being reviewed by the HS agency (I know this has to be confusing, LOL!). Anyway that means our placement agency made a mistake again and our documents confused with another clients paperwork, again.

I must confess this is not creating confidence in me as far as my dossier documents! Well with 700 people in the program and 250 in the waiting list for a referral I guess this is to be expected. At least they did confirm they have our second application on file.

Well gotta keep a good attitude. I know this process is all in the Father’s purposes, even if it is one step forward, one back. Sometimes it seems as if it is a miracle I can keep all this paperwork straight, let alone someone who deals with so many families.

Big News...

Our caseworker at the placement agency just emailed and said our HS draft is already at their approval person! Wow! I did not even think our HS agency had completed the draft yet. Woo hoo!!! Now to wait for them to approve it

Pierce my heart...

So we have a little piece of good news, we found out yesterday that our application has been found and has safely arrived in Minnesota.

As far as today well how to put it. Well if you have ever had a baby in the hospital you may understand my post for today. I have been dealing with the Application Coordinator of our agency and well lets just say I can’t wait to be past this point so I can deal exclusively with our caseworker. Adoption is such a roller coaster ride of emotional experiences and I am sure you need people to deal with clients who are, well, constant, but please let them at least make you feel like they are happy for you. Reminds me of one of those sour faced nurses in labor and delivery who rain on your birth parade. More importantly, though, it reminds me to be joyful with those around me, even when their happiness can be difficult (and dealing with infertility I have been confronted with that a lot), not interesting or just come at the wrong time in MY life. What selfishness on my part.

Father pierce my heart. Let me be like you Abba, rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep...

Dreaming...

So as I watch Annelise and Kaytlin (my niece), who are both 4, and Amelia and Courtney (my other niece) who are both 1, I can't help but imagine what it would be like to have twins. When I was getting pregnant I would always wonder if that blessing would befall us as it runs in my family. I used to think it was the craziest thought, I mean double the work, but now I think it would be amazing especially since we are adopting a boy. Anyway twins are a rarity so I doubt it will happen, though if we had been with another agency we might have asked for 2 baby boys!!! Well that's not possible as our agency will not allow for the adoption of 2 unrelated babies at once. Oh well, God is in control, and I guess if he wanted us to have 2 he would have given us 2 names.

One step forward, one back???

Well today we discovered that our second application (the long one ) which we sent to our placement agency and which they need before they can proceed to review our HS (which hopefully will be done very soon) went to Wisconsin instead of Minnesota! We are presently attempting to track it down and have it re-routed to Minnesota.

I know all these little things that keep happening are just that, LITTLE things, but with so many little things happening it sets my heart to wondering if God isn't trying to say something. Well I will make sure my heart is open and willing to receive and yielded so I can hear!

Final call...

Well I made a final call for any straggling papers the agencies might need. So far we are in good shape for our HS and they have all they need.

Also we got word from our caseworker at our HS agency that her computer had been down but that she expected to have the draft of our HS completed by next week!

Where is it.???

So here's our update for the last few days..:
5/15 We sent reference letters to be review by our placement agency.

5/15 We were told by the Application Coordinator that our HS agency had never sent in necessary documents to them. There are 7 documents in all so I will contact our HS agency to see what is going on.

5/16 Hmmm, just talked to our HS agency and they stated everything was sent out a while ago.

5/16 We completed our second application for our placement agency!!!

5/19 I went back and forth with the Application coordinator today. Amazingly they have "found" the documents. Actually she acted like they were never lost and there was never any issue. It felt like a twilight zone conversation. What it really boils down to is working with a gigantic agency with gears spinning everywhere. Our caseworker has been great so far but beyond that I don’t like the feeling of being one grain of sand on the beach.

Interesting conversations for the past...

Today I found an some interesting email conversations I had with some people when we were adopting Amelia in 2006. It was during the time things were up in the air with adopting from Taiwan and we were praying for the Lord's direction. One person asked if we had considered Ethiopia. At that time we responded: "Thanks. We actually had looked at it in the past but are still feeling like our baby is in the far east." Of course our baby was in the east, in Viet Nam, and we can't imagine our lives with out her.

Another person who wrote said they knew we were open to God leading us to our child/children wherever he, she, or they may be. We are so blessed that God has given us that testimony through faith, grace and willingness to wait upon Him. It has not been easy but we are so blessed by the outcome. Anyway, who would know where we would be 2 years later. Isn't God awesome!

Dossier no go...

Our placement agency told us not to send any dossier items to them just yet. They must approve our hs draft and then want all the dossier items in at once.

Busy bees...

We have been busy bees gathering documents to send to our HS agency. It is amazing how many pieces of paper and signatures and notaries have to come together to complete an adoption. Just a few: bank statements, credit information, IRA, insurances (health and life) income verification from a CPA, birth and marriage certificates, 1040's from 3 years, reference letters...

Next week???

We just got word from our caseworker at our HS agency that our HS should draft should be done by next week!

Our last visit...

Today was our third interview with our caseworker. It was spent with Samuel and I together. It was great to discuss issues with adoption, our expectations and share about our concerns. We know we will one day be able to share with others about issues we have seen in adoption. One major one is that fact that too many people adopt for the wrong reasons, such a adoption as the replacement of a missing child or the fulfillment of personal needs. Unfortunately we have seen these motivations met with many issues once the child is home and realities of adoption set in. We are committed to opening our lives and beginning an adoption support group here locally to encourage families in this area.

More stuff...

We found out today that our homestudy agency needs a 7 year criminal check to meet the new Hague requirements. This could have been an issue because Florida takes forever for this to be done but our old FL sw was on the ball and had copies of our documentation from our other adoptions. Praise God!

Second visit...

Today we had our second visit with our caseworker. She interviewed both of the girls and Samuel today. It went very well and the girls were quite at ease with everything. It really is wonderful to have someone you enjoy doing these interviews.

What a blessed day!!!

Today is an incredibly special day. Today 12 years ago our lives were blessed by our now 12 year old daughter Olivia and just one year ago, on this very day we became a family of six when Amelia arrived home.

See if you can find Amelia in this youtube video of another family picking up their girls...



Here she is just a couple a month before our GOTCHA day!

Cancellation...

Our second homestudy visit, which was scheduled for today, had to be canceled as our caseworker/social workers's daughter is ill. Looks like we need 3 visits total so we are rescheduling for Monday and Tuesday of next week.