The title of this post pretty much sums up the last month of our lives! HOME STUDY HOME STUDY HOME STUDY! We have been diligently working away at it. And man oh man is it a lot of work. We have read books, websites, articles. We have written about 30 pages each (15 of which was an autobiography) about ourselves answering various questions about ourselves, our views on adoption, parenting, parenting cross racially. I have not written this much since grad school! We have also gathered and sent documents off to our social worker. It has been tough going but we are taking it a little bit at a time! I think that's the only way to do it and still keep your sanity (granted I think Ryan would beg to differ, since I don't think he thinks I have any sanity left)! However, through it all we see a light at the end of the tunnel. Ryan just needs to complete his autobiography and we both need to finish 2 ten hour required trainings. One is required by our adoption agency called Crossings. We have started that one and it has been very interesting and informative. I really do appreciate what I have learned so far. The other is the Hague Training that is required for all international adoptions, I am not sure what that one will be like but am interested to find out.
After we finish the paper work for the home study we can schedule our home visits with our social worker. I am hoping that we can be done with all of this and have our home study submitted to our agency by the end of August. I don't know if that is an unrealistic timeline or not, but I am praying that God provides us with tons of extra time to get all of it done! You can join me in that prayer as well if you would like.
After our home study is completed we file for immigration (and have to send our completed home study along with that paper work). While that is being processed, it takes about 3 months, Ryan and I can start compiling all of the documents needed for our dossier. When we get our immigration approval back then the goal is to be able to submit that in our dossier to Ethiopia.
Please be praying for us during this paperwork process. It has been hard work and hard to find time to get it all done. We know that it is a long process, but we also just want to be able to be on the wait list. We don't get to be on the wait list until our dossier reaches Ethiopia. Then the waiting period starts. This is why we are doing a big push to get everything done! We know we have a long wait ahead of us after our legal documents are completed and we don't really want to make the process even slower!
Some good news about our adoption agency is that the past few months has shown a record number of referrals (Children being matched with families). The Ethiopian courts close for the rainy season from the beginning of August through September. I know that this big push to get court dates scheduled and children referred is due to the upcoming court closure, but it is still so exciting to see children getting matched with their forever families! And to see the joy of these families who have worked so hard and waited so long for these little ones!! Our adoption agency is also really trying to match a lot of the older waiting children with families right now. There is a big need for families to adopt older children and so the Ethiopia team is working hard to get their paperwork ready so they can come home when they get matched with families. This is also super exciting to us to see!! Prayers for these families who are open to older, waiting children, that they will also be able to join their families soon!
