Sunday, December 18, 2011
Still waiting...
I've been asked how the adoption is going by several people so I just wanted to check in here to say we're still waiting. :) Not much to report other than the changes to our number of trips we'll take. We really have no indication of how long it will be before we hear about a match for our family. We really hope it will be complete one year from now but whenever it is it's all in God's plan! So for now, just keep praying for loving hands around our child!
Plans change (a little bit)
We knew we'd have to be flexible during this process. Well, the first change to our plans has happened. Not too big of a deal but noteable anyway. Originally, we were going to take two trips to Russia. The first trip is to meet the child after the referral. The second trip would be a longer one that includes a court date, a 10-day waiting period, and finally "gotcha day".
A few days ago, we got an email from our adoption coordinator. Here is a portion of the email:
A new law that is going into effect as of January 1, 2012 is the extension of the 10 day waiting/appeal period post court finalization. This waiting period will now be a mandated 30 days, thus turning the Russia adoption process into a three short trip process rather than two trips. We anticipate that each trip will be approximately 5-7 days in duration. We realize that a family’s first concern will be the additional costs of traveling, and while you will be making three round trips to Russia, we do want to highlight some positive aspects of this change:
A few days ago, we got an email from our adoption coordinator. Here is a portion of the email:
A new law that is going into effect as of January 1, 2012 is the extension of the 10 day waiting/appeal period post court finalization. This waiting period will now be a mandated 30 days, thus turning the Russia adoption process into a three short trip process rather than two trips. We anticipate that each trip will be approximately 5-7 days in duration. We realize that a family’s first concern will be the additional costs of traveling, and while you will be making three round trips to Russia, we do want to highlight some positive aspects of this change:
1. Less vacation and FMLA time will be spent actually traveling and more will be available to each family to spend in post adoption with the child(ren)in their new home, helping to make the transition better.
2. The old process required families to spend several thousand dollars actually living in Russia for up to a month, now, instead of expending money to reside in the country for several weeks you will expend approximately the same, if not less, simply on the travel portion. Theoretically, the overall cost of the adoption will not increase because of the change, the money will just be spent elsewhere.
3. Think of all the frequent flyer miles!
Friday, October 28, 2011
So sweet...
Our daughter is in kindergarten this year (exactly 5 1/2 today!) and she is very interested in writing little notes right now. She wrote this note about our future child all on her own today and I thought it was so sweet so I had her read it. (No, we don't know if the child is a boy or girl and we are probably not naming her Olivia, but she has wishful thinking anyway!)
You probably can't see her little drawing at the bottom but she said it was the baby all wrapped up in a blanket. There are also hearts above the head and that shows that she (the baby) is loving us. Awww!
Oh, and today has been our first really cold day of the season (like high 50's), hence the gloves.
You probably can't see her little drawing at the bottom but she said it was the baby all wrapped up in a blanket. There are also hearts above the head and that shows that she (the baby) is loving us. Awww!
Oh, and today has been our first really cold day of the season (like high 50's), hence the gloves.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Welcome friends, family, and facebook...
Now that we are officially registered in a region of Russia, we are announcing to everyone about our adoption. Welcome! We started this long journey back in April of this year so you may want to go back to the beginning and read backwards on the blog. I think you can also subscribe to the blog and it will let you know when we update it with any info we get. I should warn you though, neither one of us is a writer so our posts are few and far between especially since we are now in the waiting phase. It probably won't get very interesting until mid-2012. So for now, please just put us in your prayers, for our patience during the wait, for our preparations, but more importantly please pray specifically for our future child. The circumstances that this baby will be coming from are no doubt undesirable. Please pray that his/her physical/emotional needs are taken care of. Pray for the parents and family of this child and whatever circumstances bring that family to the situation they are in.
As a recap of what we may or may not have mentioned in previous posts:
We are adopting a baby from Russia between the ages of 0-18 months, most likely will be above 10 months old because they are not "released" for international adoption until that point. They want to give family and other Russian families the opportunity to adopt the child first. We have requested either gender, although boys are more common.
We have already completed the heavy paperwork portion of the process and are now in the probably 6-12 month waiting period. At that point, we will expect to receive a referral for a child that has been matched with our family. Once we get a referral, we will have less than a couple weeks before we take the first trip to Russia to meet our baby. That first trip will be about 10 days long. After that, we will come home and wait to hear about our court date. A second trip will be scheduled around that court date and will be about 3-4 weeks long. The court date is towards the beginning of that time and once the judge says "da" to us, we will still have a 10 day waiting period before we can then take our child to Moscow to do even more paperwork. Then we fly back to the US with our baby who will become a US citizen upon arrival in the US! And then the real fun begins!...
As a recap of what we may or may not have mentioned in previous posts:
We are adopting a baby from Russia between the ages of 0-18 months, most likely will be above 10 months old because they are not "released" for international adoption until that point. They want to give family and other Russian families the opportunity to adopt the child first. We have requested either gender, although boys are more common.
We have already completed the heavy paperwork portion of the process and are now in the probably 6-12 month waiting period. At that point, we will expect to receive a referral for a child that has been matched with our family. Once we get a referral, we will have less than a couple weeks before we take the first trip to Russia to meet our baby. That first trip will be about 10 days long. After that, we will come home and wait to hear about our court date. A second trip will be scheduled around that court date and will be about 3-4 weeks long. The court date is towards the beginning of that time and once the judge says "da" to us, we will still have a 10 day waiting period before we can then take our child to Moscow to do even more paperwork. Then we fly back to the US with our baby who will become a US citizen upon arrival in the US! And then the real fun begins!...
Kras-noslkjdsk-what?
We are going to Krasnoyarsk! According to Wikipedia, it is the 3rd largest city in Siberia. It's far, far from here, but will soon become a place very close to our hearts. Somewhere over there our child may or may not have been born yet. We really don't know but hopefully sometime in 2012 we will be becoming very acquainted with the Kras region.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Out of our hands...into His.
Up until this point, the paperwork "ball" has been mostly in our court. Our home study report was finished by our social worker on August 10. It was then sent to her supervisor in Dallas to get some other docs (agency and social worker's license, among other things...) attached to it. I'd like to say that it all went perfectly smooth but nope. We have to remind ourselves that all of the delays we encountered are in His plan for this adoption. Most of this info may not matter (and be quite boring) to those reading this but I'm writing it here more for our records.
The first issue occurred when we received our home study and licenses from our in-state branch of our agency (mostly run by part-timers with other jobs) but were missing several documents that needed to be included for our dossier. We contacted both our regional coordinator and social worker to get those rushed to us. We received what we needed quickly and thought we were going to finally be able to send our papers to get apostilled (checks that the notaries are valid) in Austin. But as I was compiling the papers, I noticed the Certified Copy of an Original for our social worker's license was the photocopy and not the original! Another delay. She lives 1.5 hours away but luckily was coming close to Houston for a dr appointment so she could meet J with the original. As soon as he got that paper, we sent our papers to get apostilled. The original plan was for me to drive the 3 hours to Austin with both boys while M was at school and then drive 3 hours back in the same day. Not my idea of fun. We found out that the UPS store right next to the apostille office will provide an overnight service for $10 per document. Well worth it considering the price of gas and temperment of two little boys strapped in their car seats for hours! So the papers were in the hands of the UPS store getting apostilled in Austin on Friday afternoon, scheduled to arrive back in our hands on Saturday. J gets a call from the UPS guy saying one of our notarized documents (the home study signed by the social worker, not us) was signed by the notary but not stamped. Our other original copy did have the stamp but that was not the copy we sent to get apostilled. Fortunately, they took us at our word that the other one was stamped and they were still able to get the apostille for that document as long as we got that page stamped afterwards. Okay, we can do that. So, as soon as we dropped M off at kindergarten, my day today was spent driving 1.5 hours both ways (with two boys in tow) to go to the Bank of America where it was originally notarized. It took longer to get the boys out of the car and strapped into the stroller than it did inside the bank getting her stamp. Thankfully, both boys did great on the drive and we were back to Houston in time to have lunch with J. Before lunch, though, we were able to put everything together finally send our Dossier to our agency in Virginia! Phew, that's a big load off our backs. Once they get our Dossier tomorrow by 3pm (we wanted it to get there fast!), our family coordinator will review everything (which she's mostly done via email already) and on Friday of this week, it will get sent to RUSSIA! From that point we just wait! Once we are registered in a region, it could take anywhere from 6-12 months before we are matched with a child and get a referral.
So this process has been a little frustrating with mistakes made that could have been avoided but the way each obstacle was so easily resolved reminded us that although this process is not going according to our timeline, it is going perfectly according to His timeline. God has a plan for this adoption and we need to trust that He is taking care of the details!
The first issue occurred when we received our home study and licenses from our in-state branch of our agency (mostly run by part-timers with other jobs) but were missing several documents that needed to be included for our dossier. We contacted both our regional coordinator and social worker to get those rushed to us. We received what we needed quickly and thought we were going to finally be able to send our papers to get apostilled (checks that the notaries are valid) in Austin. But as I was compiling the papers, I noticed the Certified Copy of an Original for our social worker's license was the photocopy and not the original! Another delay. She lives 1.5 hours away but luckily was coming close to Houston for a dr appointment so she could meet J with the original. As soon as he got that paper, we sent our papers to get apostilled. The original plan was for me to drive the 3 hours to Austin with both boys while M was at school and then drive 3 hours back in the same day. Not my idea of fun. We found out that the UPS store right next to the apostille office will provide an overnight service for $10 per document. Well worth it considering the price of gas and temperment of two little boys strapped in their car seats for hours! So the papers were in the hands of the UPS store getting apostilled in Austin on Friday afternoon, scheduled to arrive back in our hands on Saturday. J gets a call from the UPS guy saying one of our notarized documents (the home study signed by the social worker, not us) was signed by the notary but not stamped. Our other original copy did have the stamp but that was not the copy we sent to get apostilled. Fortunately, they took us at our word that the other one was stamped and they were still able to get the apostille for that document as long as we got that page stamped afterwards. Okay, we can do that. So, as soon as we dropped M off at kindergarten, my day today was spent driving 1.5 hours both ways (with two boys in tow) to go to the Bank of America where it was originally notarized. It took longer to get the boys out of the car and strapped into the stroller than it did inside the bank getting her stamp. Thankfully, both boys did great on the drive and we were back to Houston in time to have lunch with J. Before lunch, though, we were able to put everything together finally send our Dossier to our agency in Virginia! Phew, that's a big load off our backs. Once they get our Dossier tomorrow by 3pm (we wanted it to get there fast!), our family coordinator will review everything (which she's mostly done via email already) and on Friday of this week, it will get sent to RUSSIA! From that point we just wait! Once we are registered in a region, it could take anywhere from 6-12 months before we are matched with a child and get a referral.
So this process has been a little frustrating with mistakes made that could have been avoided but the way each obstacle was so easily resolved reminded us that although this process is not going according to our timeline, it is going perfectly according to His timeline. God has a plan for this adoption and we need to trust that He is taking care of the details!
Thursday, August 11, 2011
A Good Sweating...
Well, it wasn't "a good sweating" in the classical sense but it was somewhat invasive. Actually, the home study wasn't that bad. A lot of fuss and bother for a few hours at the house, coffee at Starbucks and then a 3rd meeting. B cleaned the house like a spec of dust would have forced the social worker to call CPS and take the kids away. There were lots of questions about our pasts, presents and futures. And, there was the "scared straight" session discussion anything and everything that could go wrong with the child.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Home Study Prep
After what felt like too long, we were finally contacted by our home study social worker to set up the home study interviews. J was on a business trip to Scotland but would be getting back the afternoon! before she wanted to come visit our house. (Eek!) Now I keep my house mostly clean most of the time but I wouldn't say I am comfortable with visitors just dropping by because there is usually something that needs dusted or vacuumed ALL THE TIME. (Seriously, I will just have vacuumed our living room and five minutes later, there will be cat hair, pieces of cheerios, and just random dirt just where I cleaned. I think it creaps out from under the rugs when I'm not looking.) So anyway, J was gone and I was freaking out about getting the house ready while being a single parent of three. The weekend comes (which is the worst when hubby is gone because that's when we miss him the most). I'm finally feeling like I've got a handle on things around the house and know J will be home on Wednesday. She comes on Thursday. I've worked on picking up the little piles of things around the house, changed light bulbs, done some deep cleaning that I'd previously avoided... Then Sunday comes. I was looking forward to dropping the kids off at their Sunday school classes at church and heading to Starbucks going to my class and the service. And then it hit me. Some kind of bug wanted every piece of food out of me in any way it could go, to put it mildly. So we stayed home and the kids played around me as I moaned on the floor most of the day. They were lucky they got fed. I was not even able to keep down water most of the morning. I was so worried that this was just the beginning of a domino effect and the kids would all be next. I was feeling so weak - a diabetic that can't keep food down is in big trouble. I eventually called J and asked him to come home two days early. I felt so bad knowing I was messing up his meetings but I was also very worried for my kids that I wouldn't be able to take care of them in my condition, especially if one of them became sick too. And the wonderful husband I have simply said, "I'll make some calls." He didn't ask if I was sure this wasn't going to pass. He didn't give me reasons why he couldn't come. He just made it happen. About 24 hours later, he was landing a few miles away from me and I was just so happy he was here. By the time he could get here, I was feeling much better although still weak. I felt a little guilty that he didn't need to hold back my hair or anything like that but I think just knowing he was here helped me get better faster. And thanks be to God that none of the kids got sick. He got back Monday afternoon and we had until Thursday afternoon to get ready for the social worker's visit.
By Wednesday, I was feeling so much better and was able to do the final cleaning that only I felt was necessary. She came Thursday afternoon to do our individual interviews, family interview, and the kids' interviews (yes she even asked our 3 year old questions). She was really easy to talk to and now I know it wasn't as necessary to clean every nook and cranny because she hardly looked around - just a short tour of our house to make sure it wasn't a death trap.
There's probably more I could say about the interviews but not much pops out as a highlight to me.
We have to drive up to where she lives two times in a couple weeks to do our couple interview and then another meeting that covers some other information. After those two meetings, we will be finished with our portion of the home study and will just be waiting on her to write her report on us and then we can put all of that info into our Dossier that gets sent to Russia.
It is the day after the home visit so I was looking forward to a nice normal (and healthy) weekend with the family and guess who comes home early from work with tummy issues? :( Poor guy. At least I know how he feels!
By Wednesday, I was feeling so much better and was able to do the final cleaning that only I felt was necessary. She came Thursday afternoon to do our individual interviews, family interview, and the kids' interviews (yes she even asked our 3 year old questions). She was really easy to talk to and now I know it wasn't as necessary to clean every nook and cranny because she hardly looked around - just a short tour of our house to make sure it wasn't a death trap.
There's probably more I could say about the interviews but not much pops out as a highlight to me.
We have to drive up to where she lives two times in a couple weeks to do our couple interview and then another meeting that covers some other information. After those two meetings, we will be finished with our portion of the home study and will just be waiting on her to write her report on us and then we can put all of that info into our Dossier that gets sent to Russia.
It is the day after the home visit so I was looking forward to a nice normal (and healthy) weekend with the family and guess who comes home early from work with tummy issues? :( Poor guy. At least I know how he feels!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
You Don't Need to Be Arrested to Have Your Fingerprints Taken
We went to the Houston Police Department this week to get fingerprinted. We need these prints to send to Qatar and get our "Certificate of Good Conduct" for the 4.5 years we lived there. It went fine and nothing wsa really unusual except for the hair on the police woman that checked us in. That was some wild hair.
First, we must ignore the fact that if we had committed a crime over there, they would have jailed us then kicked us out, not let us leave on good terms. To get the clearance from Qatar, we've got to get our fingerprints, have them notarized that we confirm they are ours, get that apostilled in Austin and then have that authenticated in D.C. Then, we can submit the fingerprints to the Consulate of Qatar in Houston along with pictures, photocopies of passports, residence visas, a letter stating why we want the police clearance. Then, they will put in the mail to Doha and we'll get the certificate back (probably in Arabic) in 6-8 weeks.
Fortunately, our friend O in Qatar will expedite the Doha leg of the paperwork but this is still a months long process.
As for the number of times I've been fingerprinted, I think it now stands somewhere around 2-3. I know we were fingerprinted in Qatar upon arrival for our residence permits and just last week but I'm not sure if I was printed at the bike rodeo in elementary school.
First, we must ignore the fact that if we had committed a crime over there, they would have jailed us then kicked us out, not let us leave on good terms. To get the clearance from Qatar, we've got to get our fingerprints, have them notarized that we confirm they are ours, get that apostilled in Austin and then have that authenticated in D.C. Then, we can submit the fingerprints to the Consulate of Qatar in Houston along with pictures, photocopies of passports, residence visas, a letter stating why we want the police clearance. Then, they will put in the mail to Doha and we'll get the certificate back (probably in Arabic) in 6-8 weeks.
Fortunately, our friend O in Qatar will expedite the Doha leg of the paperwork but this is still a months long process.
As for the number of times I've been fingerprinted, I think it now stands somewhere around 2-3. I know we were fingerprinted in Qatar upon arrival for our residence permits and just last week but I'm not sure if I was printed at the bike rodeo in elementary school.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Licensed to Kill Trees
Home study paperwork has been shipped to Dallas!
What type of stuff was included? Well, it was a whole bunch of stuff including 28 pages of parental questionnaires, copies of birth certificates, driver's licenses, copy of house deed, marriage certificate, pictures of the house, verification of employment, financial statement form, medical clearance for everybody in the family, vaccination records for the pets, notarized commitment to cut the grass weekly, apostilled copy of my "PERMANENT RECORD" from elementary through high school (who knew!!!!), record of hair styles from age 7 to present with photos and descriptions of exactly what I was thinking, tapes of my high school Quiz Bowl matches 1994-1997 and proof of voting in every school board and judicial primary since age of 18. Well, maybe not the last few but everything before the grass was included.
For other great news, I've been proven to be free of infectious diseases including HIV, Hepatitis, Syphilis and many others...such a relief. Through the process we have begun to read our assigned materials (I hope there aren't book reports due at the end of the home study) and started leaning toward adopting just one infant at this time. More prayer and contemplation to come on that one.
J
What type of stuff was included? Well, it was a whole bunch of stuff including 28 pages of parental questionnaires, copies of birth certificates, driver's licenses, copy of house deed, marriage certificate, pictures of the house, verification of employment, financial statement form, medical clearance for everybody in the family, vaccination records for the pets, notarized commitment to cut the grass weekly, apostilled copy of my "PERMANENT RECORD" from elementary through high school (who knew!!!!), record of hair styles from age 7 to present with photos and descriptions of exactly what I was thinking, tapes of my high school Quiz Bowl matches 1994-1997 and proof of voting in every school board and judicial primary since age of 18. Well, maybe not the last few but everything before the grass was included.
For other great news, I've been proven to be free of infectious diseases including HIV, Hepatitis, Syphilis and many others...such a relief. Through the process we have begun to read our assigned materials (I hope there aren't book reports due at the end of the home study) and started leaning toward adopting just one infant at this time. More prayer and contemplation to come on that one.
J
Monday, May 16, 2011
Paperwork
Home Study paperwork is in progress. Doctor appointments are set for Thursday. Employment verification letter has been requested and is due this week. I think we'll be all set to turn in the pack to the social worker this weekend. We're starting the process of building our Dossier at the same time now. We just got that package and are still making the to-do list. I do love planning. It has been challenging to get things done this week since there has been some late evening phone around the world for work but I'm satisfied with how we are progressing.
It is sobering to think that the children that God has for us have likely already been born and are likely enduring some tough times now. I pray that God will give them comfort and peace. I pray that the birth families of those children can turn to God in their diffucult times.
It has been very sweet these past several nights since we told M & L about adopting. As we sit down together in preparation to pray, I'll ask each one of them what they plan to pray for that night. For the past several nights, M has prayed for the "kids without mommies and daddies, for God to protect them and that they will sleep good and have a good day tomorrow." I'm not sure how much she understands about a kid not having a mommy or daddy but it still makes me well up like a little girl each time.
Tomorrow is one day closer, and as every good Klingon accountant says, "It is a good day to compile and copy paperwork."
J
It is sobering to think that the children that God has for us have likely already been born and are likely enduring some tough times now. I pray that God will give them comfort and peace. I pray that the birth families of those children can turn to God in their diffucult times.
It has been very sweet these past several nights since we told M & L about adopting. As we sit down together in preparation to pray, I'll ask each one of them what they plan to pray for that night. For the past several nights, M has prayed for the "kids without mommies and daddies, for God to protect them and that they will sleep good and have a good day tomorrow." I'm not sure how much she understands about a kid not having a mommy or daddy but it still makes me well up like a little girl each time.
Tomorrow is one day closer, and as every good Klingon accountant says, "It is a good day to compile and copy paperwork."
J
Friday, May 13, 2011
Lots to do...but first a cool story
J called me while I was out and told me we already heard from the social worker via email this morning with a pile of documents to fill out to prepare for the home study. Guess what we'll be doing this weekend?
J and I decided to meet for lunch and as baby A and I were driving downtown, I was listening to Steven Curtis Chapman's song called "Beauty Will Rise". It is a beautiful song about beauty rising up after the ashes. Tears came to my eyes thinking about his story and the pain that he's gone through that led him to write this song...(look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about). His loss of his daughter and the words he sang in the song reminded me of our loss of our first child, Isaac, (see "About Isaac" on the sidebar) and the beauty that rose out of the ashes when we continued on with God's hand on us and the growth of our family with M, L, and A. And I promise that not a second later, six white birds flew across the highway right in front of our path. Six. I have no idea if it was intended this way but I'd like to take that as confirmation from the Lord that we are meant to have six children. I, M, L, A, and then two siblings*** from Russia. We'll see!
(But I have to laugh and I'm not quite sure what to think of this but five minutes later, five army type helicopters crossed the highway in the same way. ;) )
B
***edited 10/13/11 - We are no longer seeking to adopt two siblings after reading more about issues that could arise and considering the ages of our bio children.
J and I decided to meet for lunch and as baby A and I were driving downtown, I was listening to Steven Curtis Chapman's song called "Beauty Will Rise". It is a beautiful song about beauty rising up after the ashes. Tears came to my eyes thinking about his story and the pain that he's gone through that led him to write this song...(look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about). His loss of his daughter and the words he sang in the song reminded me of our loss of our first child, Isaac, (see "About Isaac" on the sidebar) and the beauty that rose out of the ashes when we continued on with God's hand on us and the growth of our family with M, L, and A. And I promise that not a second later, six white birds flew across the highway right in front of our path. Six. I have no idea if it was intended this way but I'd like to take that as confirmation from the Lord that we are meant to have six children. I, M, L, A, and then two siblings*** from Russia. We'll see!
(But I have to laugh and I'm not quite sure what to think of this but five minutes later, five army type helicopters crossed the highway in the same way. ;) )
B
***edited 10/13/11 - We are no longer seeking to adopt two siblings after reading more about issues that could arise and considering the ages of our bio children.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Agreements Processed!
That’s one of two bits of good news we received today. We got an email from AWAA letting us know that our agreements we sent have been processed and we will be contacted within a week by a Social Worker to start the Home Study process and also a “Family Coordinator” to help walk us through the process of putting together the dossier paperwork. I must admit I’m a bit nervous about the home study part. Not because I’m afraid they’ll find anything wrong but because we are still in the process of settling in to our house and things are not quite put away yet. (We just moved back to the US from the Middle East and our sea shipment just arrived last Tuesday. The boxes have sort of exploded all over the house.) And cleaning? Who has time to clean, or even motivation to do so when the boxes are in the way? I guess the timeline for the home study may be much longer than I anticipate so it may not even be an issue at all. Or, it may be the motivation we need to get it all done. (I say that after a lazy day of not accomplishing much around here. I need a motivator.)
Second bit of good news is that I heard back from my endo doc today letting me know some test results relating to my diabetes. My A1C hasn’t been checked in too long for many reasons…newborn, Christmas travel, moving back to US, etc… So I finally just picked a new doctor here based on reviews on the internet and went to see her on faith that she was a good doctor. She seemed very nice but my first visit was rather quick. But really, she can’t change any of my meds without having test results so that was the first step. All this to say, my A1C was a little elevated but not too bad for me at 7.4%. I really feel like I haven’t had good control during all these changes so I was expecting much higher (less than 6% is ideal). I was very happy with that result although I know it should be lower. She even said my thyroid meds were probably affecting that number since they needed tweaked. So hopefully that will help too. After living in the Middle East for 4.5 years, I knew I was getting good medical care there but it feels good to get back to the US and on US meds with names that I know.
Why is all this info important for the adoption process? Some regions in Russia will not adopt to us simply based on my health, specifically diabetes. There are regions there though that will allow it so we are very concerned with keeping the diabetes under control (which it has been ever since I was diagnosed in 2007). We are praying that it will not be an issue at all. I am healthy and not overweight so hopefully that is what they will see more than my diabetic label.
Oh, and I almost forgot…both J and I got our birth certificate copies in the mail today. We’re trying to get some paperwork out of the way early if we can. J was ragging on Indiana in an earlier post so I have to say how it’s funny his didn’t have very far to go since he was born in the state we live in but mine had so much farther to go yet got here quicker. Hmmm.
B
Second bit of good news is that I heard back from my endo doc today letting me know some test results relating to my diabetes. My A1C hasn’t been checked in too long for many reasons…newborn, Christmas travel, moving back to US, etc… So I finally just picked a new doctor here based on reviews on the internet and went to see her on faith that she was a good doctor. She seemed very nice but my first visit was rather quick. But really, she can’t change any of my meds without having test results so that was the first step. All this to say, my A1C was a little elevated but not too bad for me at 7.4%. I really feel like I haven’t had good control during all these changes so I was expecting much higher (less than 6% is ideal). I was very happy with that result although I know it should be lower. She even said my thyroid meds were probably affecting that number since they needed tweaked. So hopefully that will help too. After living in the Middle East for 4.5 years, I knew I was getting good medical care there but it feels good to get back to the US and on US meds with names that I know.
Why is all this info important for the adoption process? Some regions in Russia will not adopt to us simply based on my health, specifically diabetes. There are regions there though that will allow it so we are very concerned with keeping the diabetes under control (which it has been ever since I was diagnosed in 2007). We are praying that it will not be an issue at all. I am healthy and not overweight so hopefully that is what they will see more than my diabetic label.
Oh, and I almost forgot…both J and I got our birth certificate copies in the mail today. We’re trying to get some paperwork out of the way early if we can. J was ragging on Indiana in an earlier post so I have to say how it’s funny his didn’t have very far to go since he was born in the state we live in but mine had so much farther to go yet got here quicker. Hmmm.
B
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
"The Cost of All Documents is $50"
That is what the phone message at the US Department of State Vital Records Section said. FIFTY DOLLARS FOR A SHEET OF PAPER WITH A FANCY EMBOSSED STAMP AND SIGNATURE!!!! That's right. To get a copy of the Consular Report of Birth Abroad for L & A, it is $50/copy.
What is a Consular Report of Birth Abroad? It is the official birth certificate issued by the State Department for our kids L and A. They were born in Doha, Qatar. Pop Quiz: Does being born in Qatar disqualify my sons from being elected President?
In other news, we've started talking with M & L about adding some potential brothers & sisters. L was okay as long as there would be at least 2 more brothers. M said it would be best if there were a total of 4 girls and 4 boys. I'll guess we'll see how it works out.
At least JJ at the office said she would do all of our notarizing for free. That woman is top-notch.
What is a Consular Report of Birth Abroad? It is the official birth certificate issued by the State Department for our kids L and A. They were born in Doha, Qatar. Pop Quiz: Does being born in Qatar disqualify my sons from being elected President?
In other news, we've started talking with M & L about adding some potential brothers & sisters. L was okay as long as there would be at least 2 more brothers. M said it would be best if there were a total of 4 girls and 4 boys. I'll guess we'll see how it works out.
At least JJ at the office said she would do all of our notarizing for free. That woman is top-notch.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Accepted to Attempt!
J got a call at work today from the adoption agency telling us that we've been accepted to begin the adoption process with them! Yeah! Soon after, we were sent an email with many forms to fill out. We've already signed them and filled out the first of several checks and have it all ready to take to the UPS office tomorrow! (It's not necessary to send via UPS but we want to get it there asap.) Once they receive our papers and payment, we will be assigned a Family Coordinator and the Dossier and home study process will begin!
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Paper Pregnancy
Paper Pregnancy, it is a new term for me too. The agency folks used it to describe the process. It is probably like regular pregnancies: fun at the beginning but pretty painful and messy at the end.
Did you know that it is harder to get a certified copy of one's birth certificate from Indiana than it is from Texas? Indiana made us fax B's driver's license.
Back to the Paper Pregnancy concept. I wonder if the average weight of paper required for an international adoption is greater than or less than the average weight gain during a typical pregnancy. According to the authorative guide to pregnancy weight gain (Wikipedia), the average weight gain is 25-35 lbs. I think that is equivalent to about 2400-3300 pages of paper. My bet is that we won't have 2400 sheets of paper. That would be pretty painful and messy.
J
Did you know that it is harder to get a certified copy of one's birth certificate from Indiana than it is from Texas? Indiana made us fax B's driver's license.
Back to the Paper Pregnancy concept. I wonder if the average weight of paper required for an international adoption is greater than or less than the average weight gain during a typical pregnancy. According to the authorative guide to pregnancy weight gain (Wikipedia), the average weight gain is 25-35 lbs. I think that is equivalent to about 2400-3300 pages of paper. My bet is that we won't have 2400 sheets of paper. That would be pretty painful and messy.
J
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Would Somebody Just Give Me a List
Just a little insight into the difficulty my hubby is having waiting for things to start - and we haven't even been offically approved by our agency yet...
Written by J:
Where is the list of things that need to be done with approximate timing and cost? How hard is it to say, "J, get these things and do such and such with them?" Get those birth certificates and those vet records and have them stamped by Willy Wonka, Bilbo Baggins and Voldemort and then mail them back. How hard is that?
How am I supposed to take comfort in a spreadsheet if I have no basis to build the spreadsheet from? Especially if I have to use the new version of Excel to do it. I hate that version. They've hidden all of the buttons and I can't figure out how to do any of it. I was once a full Jedi on the previous version of excel, but on the new version, I feel like the young Skywalker when he first meets Obi Wan.
Well, this will probably teach some patience if nothing else.
Something we need, huh? J is very organized and analytical in his approach and wants a checklist that he can tick off. Hopefully we will hear back from the agency tomorrow that our application has been accepted and they will provide hubby with his desired to-do list. I have a feeling though that a lot of this is going to be out of our control. There will be a lot of waiting that will definitely cause us to rely on the Lord for the details. We've already started stressing a little about the age(s) of the child(ren) and how they will fit into our family. We are reminding each other that God already has the child picked out for our family and none of our worrying about it will change His plan for us. It's just a matter of the people involved figuring out how to get that child or children to us.
B
Written by J:
Where is the list of things that need to be done with approximate timing and cost? How hard is it to say, "J, get these things and do such and such with them?" Get those birth certificates and those vet records and have them stamped by Willy Wonka, Bilbo Baggins and Voldemort and then mail them back. How hard is that?
How am I supposed to take comfort in a spreadsheet if I have no basis to build the spreadsheet from? Especially if I have to use the new version of Excel to do it. I hate that version. They've hidden all of the buttons and I can't figure out how to do any of it. I was once a full Jedi on the previous version of excel, but on the new version, I feel like the young Skywalker when he first meets Obi Wan.
Well, this will probably teach some patience if nothing else.
Something we need, huh? J is very organized and analytical in his approach and wants a checklist that he can tick off. Hopefully we will hear back from the agency tomorrow that our application has been accepted and they will provide hubby with his desired to-do list. I have a feeling though that a lot of this is going to be out of our control. There will be a lot of waiting that will definitely cause us to rely on the Lord for the details. We've already started stressing a little about the age(s) of the child(ren) and how they will fit into our family. We are reminding each other that God already has the child picked out for our family and none of our worrying about it will change His plan for us. It's just a matter of the people involved figuring out how to get that child or children to us.
B
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Alternate Titles
Alternate titles for the blog:
"Enlarge your tent" from Is 54:2 - ruled out due to spam concerns
"We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat" - taken by some guys in the UK
"We're Gonna Need a Bigger Car" - not catchy enough
We were in agreement on the Bigger Boat one until it was already used. Well, that and we don't own a boat at all.
J
"Enlarge your tent" from Is 54:2 - ruled out due to spam concerns
"We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat" - taken by some guys in the UK
"We're Gonna Need a Bigger Car" - not catchy enough
We were in agreement on the Bigger Boat one until it was already used. Well, that and we don't own a boat at all.
J
It Has Begun
Well, after years of saving, and praying, we have finally selected an adoption agency to begin the process of adopting a child (or two) from Russia. Who knew it could be so complicated and that people cared so much about how healthy you are.
Currently we are a family of 5 with a 5 year old, 3 year old and 7 month old, all of which are our biological children. We have felt the calling for a couple of years that this was the right path for continued growth in our spiritual and family lives.
We wonder what folks will say (verbally and facial expressions) when we inform them of our decision.
The engineer in me wants to set up a spreadsheet to begin tracking cost and schedule. But, in my heart, I know that it will end up costing what it costs and getting done when it is done and there is little Excel can do for me there other than provide the comfort of a familiar tool. Oh, wait. I hate the new version of excel.
We've talked over the phone with several agencies, all of whom were nice and some of whom have spent hours on the phone with us. The responses varied from no, you can't adopt from Russia with diabetes (wifey) to "Sure, of course you can." It has helped to talk rather than to read on the internet because we were able to get so much more information from casual conversation.
Basically, we've been told that particular regions in Russia will not allow diabetics to adopt but other regions will. We ended up selecting the agency based on the consistency of the Christian message throughout their program and their ability to do the adoption with our medical status.
We have just submitted our application and plunked down the first chunk of money so now we wait to kick off the "paper chase" and tour through the beauty that is the American Bureaucracy to obtain all sorts of things that prove we are who we say we are.
J
Currently we are a family of 5 with a 5 year old, 3 year old and 7 month old, all of which are our biological children. We have felt the calling for a couple of years that this was the right path for continued growth in our spiritual and family lives.
We wonder what folks will say (verbally and facial expressions) when we inform them of our decision.
The engineer in me wants to set up a spreadsheet to begin tracking cost and schedule. But, in my heart, I know that it will end up costing what it costs and getting done when it is done and there is little Excel can do for me there other than provide the comfort of a familiar tool. Oh, wait. I hate the new version of excel.
We've talked over the phone with several agencies, all of whom were nice and some of whom have spent hours on the phone with us. The responses varied from no, you can't adopt from Russia with diabetes (wifey) to "Sure, of course you can." It has helped to talk rather than to read on the internet because we were able to get so much more information from casual conversation.
Basically, we've been told that particular regions in Russia will not allow diabetics to adopt but other regions will. We ended up selecting the agency based on the consistency of the Christian message throughout their program and their ability to do the adoption with our medical status.
We have just submitted our application and plunked down the first chunk of money so now we wait to kick off the "paper chase" and tour through the beauty that is the American Bureaucracy to obtain all sorts of things that prove we are who we say we are.
J
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