In the mail

Finally, the home study will be mailed! We had our first visit on February 2nd so all this paperwork took about 6 weeks. A lot of it was done in the first and last two weeks.

Here is what is included in the packet.

*Birth certificates for all family members
*Marriage certificate
*Income tax return

*W-2 forms
*Statement of income difference

*Medical insurance verification
*Photos- immediate family and home

*Driving directions

*Reading agreement (We must read 5 books each)

*Home Study application (14 pages)

*Autobiographies (J- 7 pages, mine- 8 pages)
*Criminal check waiver

*Confirmation of employment

*Reference forms (6)

*School reference form (3)

*Health physicals on all of us

*Preference form (identifying the special needs we would accept)
*Release of information

*Authorization form

*Identifying documentation

*Fee agreement

*Fee!

I forgot to add that some things went directly to our agency. That would include:

*Fingerprinting results
*Child abuse clearances from 5 states and 1 country

*Current state criminal record check

*Federal government criminal record check

Tape, tape and more tape

Thanks to the government (states and federal) I have successfully had 2.5 hours sucked away from my life. Here is the tape I navigated through this morning.

TN-
Criminal records check, notarized $29
County clerk certification- verify that the notary is valid $2
Secretary of State- Authenticate that the notary is valid and the county clerk is real $3
US Secretary of State- Apply an authentication to say- Yes, this is the signature of the TN Sec. of State. $8
Chinese Embassy- Authenticate to say this document can be accepted in China because all these signatures and seals are legit. $20

GA-
Criminal records check, notarized $10
County Clerk certification- $2
Secretary of State- $10
Houston Chinese Consulate- $20

It took phone calls to each office except the consulate and embassy to verify the address, amount charged and correct procedure. Every office requires a cover letter and self-addressed envelope. The embassy and consulate require overnight delivery and the same for returning the documents.

I guess all this had to be figured out eventually so it is 2 hours now or then but you nearly need a degree to navigate all this! I think I need to write a book.

Delay

We were scheduled to attend our training workshop this last Friday but due to low attendance (read-only us!) they had to cancel it. We were fairly bummed because J had gotten 2 days of leave, my mother-in-law took a day of vacation to keep the kids and we had reserved a hotel near the agency to stay. The next workshop is in April but we have already paid for our oldest son to have a sleep over with school so we will now have to wait until May. The delay is upsetting but I try to think that the timing isn't up to us; we are just along for the ride.

We had planned to participate in our neighborhood garage sale to raise money for our adoption but the May workshop is scheduled for the same day.

We received our last reference letter in the mail this weekend; Yippee! My wonderful, procrastinating husband is nearly finished with the autobiography questions and when he prints a final draft we can finally send in our entire packet!

Moving along

Since posting last we have sent out all of our child abuse clearance and police report clearance requests. Those go directly back to the agency so I'm hoping they have made it there. I've spent 4 solid days doing nothing but paperwork, figuring numbers, tracking down information, etc. to finish all the forms.
J, Emily and I have our physicals scheduled for this week and the boys' physicals are scheduled for next week.
We have received all of our reference letters except one and I am going to call today and gently poke him to send the last one along.
I have my autobiography nearly complete and my procrastinating husband hasn't started his. :)

Once we all get our physicals, get our last reference letter and finish the autobiography we can send in the completed packet and move onto the next step-- Our official home visit and tour! We will be traveling to the adoption agency's office next week for a 8 hour workshop so our goal is get everything completed and hand carry the packet to the workshop so we do not have to rely on the mail.

In the last couple of weeks we have also changed our mind on probably the biggest aspect of our adoption- we changed agencies. We hadn't formally applied to WACAP (we had submitted the pre-application) but did have the full application filled out with the check, addressed, stamped and sitting on the table. It sat for 3 weeks when I finally took it out and shredded it this weekend. For some reason I just had a hesitant feeling about WACAP and despite the wonderful recommendations I've received, something just didn't feel right. I went with my gut and decided to pursue information about other agencies. Several people recommended Families Through International Adoption (FTIA). They are smaller, more personable, have cheaper travel rates and are less expensive for children under 7. WACAP will subsidize adoptions for children aged 7 and over and this was our initial pull to WACAP; this made the adoption much more affordable. But if we decided on a 6 year old little girl we would be paying the full adoption rates and in that case, FTIA was more reasonable.
I have absolutely no doubt that WACAP is a wonderful agency; many people have had wonderful adoptions fulfilled with WACAP and been completely pleased. For us though, I did not feel WACAP was the right agency.

I've spoken with a few people from FTIA on the phone already and they have all be so helpful and eager to answer all of our questions. I have the application filled out, with a check in a stamped envelope and it is going in the mailbox today! We also sat down with the checklist this weekend to mark what special needs we would be willing to accept. We put down our desired child is a 2 to 6 year old girl. We could be a few short months away from seeing our new daughter's face! I thought last night that she is in China now, waiting for us and has no idea we are getting all of our ducks in a row to come pick her up. I can't wait to see the face of the daughter God has chosen for us!
www.ftia.org

Fingerprints

Jeramie and I went for our fingerprint appointments yesterday; check another box on the long checklist. It was all very official; we couldn't even be in the same room together. I politely told the man "he is my husband, he's seen my fingerprints before" and he responded with "having someone else here is distracting to the one getting their fingerprints done." HA! So maybe that is why I can't get a room clean when someone is in it- it is too distracting! So we each had to sit in the hall while the other one was in the office.

The visit

Every thing went very well with our initial visit with our social worker. We received our folder with loads of paperwork to sort through and went over the process. Turns out, the social worker lives right around the corner from us!

I think the funniest part of the entire night was the one with the most needs ended up the dog. He wanted off his bed, then he needed to go outside, then let back in, then wanted his water which was in the closet I closed, then he drug the water bowl out into the kitchen because it was all gone. Good grief, couldn't he take the same suggestions of quietly playing like the kids did?!

We jumped in with both feet once the kids went to bed. Books are on reserve at the library, reference forms have been mailed, fingerprinting appointments are made for tomorrow, child abuse clearances are mailed and I've started my autobiography. My goal is to have the packet mailed back to the agency by the end of the month.

Visit #1

We have our first visit with the social worker this evening. She will be coming by for about an hour to drop off and go over our paperwork packet. I'm interested to see all the documents and letters we will need for the home study. She sounds very nice on the phone; I hope all goes well!
But now I must get back to cleaning.