Monday, November 12, 2007

Home study done!

Our part anyway...We had the last of three meetings with our home study specialist (Mandy) today, and I'm pretty sure we've given her all the paperwork we owed her. So next week sometime she is supposed to email us a rough draft of the home study to review.

In our meeting today we discussed issues like attachment and bonding. She recommended not allowing anyone aside from ourselves to care for the child for the first month or two (i.e. no daycare, no church nursery). Which may sound ridiculous and extreme to some people I'm sure, but I've actually experienced caring for someone's recently adopted daughter...and she really did seem to be traumitized by the experience so I'm taking Mandy's word as golden. You know what that means- I will be one of those people who takes their child into the church service only to completely distract everyone else! I apologize in advance to our fellow Cliftonites!

Here are our next steps in the adoption process: we are currently waiting on a couple Letters of Reference. Once those are recieved, we will have obtained all of our paperwork (Yay!) At that time we will send EACH document back to their respective Secretary of State for authentication. We also need to apply to the USCIS (US Citizen and Immigration Services, formerly INS) to adopt internationally, but we're still saving for that fee. We're making good progress! I even got my passport last week (Matt said he thought I'd won the lottery by how excited I was by this).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats on moving ahead in the process! It's exciting to take steps forward like that!

Hey, since we're also AWAA Ethiopia families (& we're now in the waiting period--we'd love to give advice, if you need/want it!), I'd love to get together with you guys later this month... We live in Owensboro, but are coming to Louisville sometime during the Thanksgiving holidays--how does that sound? We have a BUNCH of friends & family in Louisville & even at Southern, but Ethiopia adoption acquaintances would be great to have! You can email me (if you want) at [markandkatieredfern at hotmail dot com] or find me on facebook!

elispeights said...

am i one of those references?? i seem to have a vague recollection of a form to fill out that got put in a to do pile. now if only i could find that pile. . . i kid i kid, well sort of. How soon do you need that?

Carpenters said...

Congratulations on all your progress with the paperwork! I completely understand your excitement about receiving your passport. For me that was the confirmation that I was indeed allowed and going to travel! Our social worker said the same thing about only Gabe or I caring for our children the first month or so that we are home. I definitely see good reasons to do so. I'm so glad things are moving along for you two. You're in our prayers.

With love,
Penelope