We're Adopting!

Doesn't have quite the same ring as "we're pregnant" but who cares, because we're adopting! One of the objectives of this blog is to document our adoption journey and progress so other people could follow if they choose. We realize not everyone cares as much about this process as we do but we thought this would be a good way for progress reports. We are also using part of this blog to help us document our journey for our new son or daughter that will be part of their Lifebook we are creating for them. There are of course things for just our son or daughter we won't share but we thought this would help us remember some of the details and some comments from friends/ family to share with them later. More to come about the Lifebook in the future. Hopefully some of you can be a part of it! If you have any questions, any at all please ask us through this process. There are a lot of misconceptions and fears people have about adoption and we want all of our family and friends to feel as comfortable about the process as possible.

Our adoption agency is Holt International (www.holtinternational.org). They are a national non-profit organization that has one of their branch offices located in Omaha! Which is awesome. They pretty much started the international adoption movement and have tons of experience and support. In a strange twist of fate the branch director and our assigned social worker is the wife in the couple we bought our house from. Crazy! She actually will be doing a home study in her old home! Everything with our home sale went down well and she's knows it's a good house for kids so we felt comfortable with it.

We are doing the China Child of Promise Program. It is a program for children that have correctable physical conditions. Common conditions are cleft lip/ palate, missig digits, club foot, minor heart defects, etc. We get to choose what conditions we are willing to take on. Most children are between 12-36 months but we have requested a child 18 months or younger. We did not preference gender. While girls are more common from China due to their one child policy, in our program there are both. The wait time is anywhere from 12-18 months from application to when your bring your child home. We have heard the wait might actually be lessening so in our perfect ideal world we will have a child home before Christmas next year but that is best case scenario. Really what's another year after having been at this for 2 already.

Our application was sent in on 11/9. The journey started at the gorgeous Elmwood Park Post Office!

A brief overview of the process: Our application was ......
accepted a few days later and we received Round 1 of paperwork to be filled out before our home study. After we submit all of that and our background checks come back and our references are in we will start our home study, probably in January. We also are taking our adoptive parenting classes in December. The home study includes several visits and interviews with us as well as education. Then once the home study is finished we start putting our dossier together which includes tons and tons of documents, photos, government clearance, etc.! It goes over to China and is logged in and then we wait!