We will be starting our home study on May 4th at 9am!!! Bonnie is planning to spend a couple of hours with us that morning visiting and touring our house--I better get to cleaning. :) Then we have two more days set to meet after that; the 10th and 19th. I am so excited to be starting another phase.
In the meantime, since I tend to go crazy when I feel like we are just waiting, we have been getting a jump start on the Dossier paperwork-the phase after the homestudy. Hopefully getting a jump start will save us time down the road.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Next Step...Home Study
We are making more progress! Our paperwork went in the mail last week and this week we put a check in the mail to start our home study. Our paperwork took 6 stamps to mail and was about an inch thick when all was said and done. Lots of hard work. We made copies of all of it, so that some day we can share it with our child. As we started this process, I'm sure I complained more than once about all the paperwork we had to fill out. Now looking back, what a blessing...they asked some hard questions that Matt and I had to process through and discuss now and not wait until after our child comes home. Hopefully all of our discussions and decisions will help things go smoother when actually faced with certain situations down the road.
So the next step is setting up meetings with our social worker for the home study. It looks like Bonnie is going to be our social worker through this process. We haven't met her yet, but I am sure we will get along great.
Prayer Request: As many of you know, if congress cannot come to an agreement on the budget there is a chance the government might "shut down" until they can agree. This is scary (and frustrating) on many levels, so I hope that you are already praying about this situation. What this specifically means for us however, is that no travel visas will be approved from any US Embassys until there is a budget agreement. For us, this will not matter until after the home study; at which time we will be contacting the US Embassy in Ethiopia to get our travel visas (part of the dossier). If matters are not resolved by then this could mean a major delay until it is resolved. My heart is saddened thinking about those families who are ready for this step and now have to wait. Their hearts must be breaking. My prayer is that congress will be able to work cohesively and make the best decision for our nation and in a timely manner.
I realized that I have not updated you all on the situation in Ethiopia and their possible decision to reduce adoptions by 90%. At this time, adoptions are continuing with only a slight decrease in numbers. It sounds like we will have to fill out a few more papers, but it doesn't seem like a big deal on our end. In Ethiopia, they are trying to put into place a better system in which to make sure the birth fathers are properly notified before the child can be adopted. In the US this is done by contacting the birth father if the mother knows who he is and giving him the chance to decide if he wants to be involved. If the birth father is not known, a notice is posted in the paper giving information about the situation and giving him a chance to step up. So in Ethiopia, they will start doing some form of the same. Adoptions have been on hold for a while there while they re-interviewed birth mothers and located birth fathers, but things seem to be moving now. All of this will help to ensure ethical, thorough adoptions out of Ethiopia.
So the next step is setting up meetings with our social worker for the home study. It looks like Bonnie is going to be our social worker through this process. We haven't met her yet, but I am sure we will get along great.
Prayer Request: As many of you know, if congress cannot come to an agreement on the budget there is a chance the government might "shut down" until they can agree. This is scary (and frustrating) on many levels, so I hope that you are already praying about this situation. What this specifically means for us however, is that no travel visas will be approved from any US Embassys until there is a budget agreement. For us, this will not matter until after the home study; at which time we will be contacting the US Embassy in Ethiopia to get our travel visas (part of the dossier). If matters are not resolved by then this could mean a major delay until it is resolved. My heart is saddened thinking about those families who are ready for this step and now have to wait. Their hearts must be breaking. My prayer is that congress will be able to work cohesively and make the best decision for our nation and in a timely manner.
I realized that I have not updated you all on the situation in Ethiopia and their possible decision to reduce adoptions by 90%. At this time, adoptions are continuing with only a slight decrease in numbers. It sounds like we will have to fill out a few more papers, but it doesn't seem like a big deal on our end. In Ethiopia, they are trying to put into place a better system in which to make sure the birth fathers are properly notified before the child can be adopted. In the US this is done by contacting the birth father if the mother knows who he is and giving him the chance to decide if he wants to be involved. If the birth father is not known, a notice is posted in the paper giving information about the situation and giving him a chance to step up. So in Ethiopia, they will start doing some form of the same. Adoptions have been on hold for a while there while they re-interviewed birth mothers and located birth fathers, but things seem to be moving now. All of this will help to ensure ethical, thorough adoptions out of Ethiopia.
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