"And what is a home study?" you may ask. Well, it's basically the story of our lives; who we are, why we want to adopt, what kind of child we are trying to adopt, what our home, marriage, parenting style is, etc., etc. It's our lives laid bare and basically telling the authorities that we are okay people and would make potentially decent parents. In order to have the home study completed we had to fill out over 80 pages worth of paper work, have our physicals done, meet three times with social workers, take adoption/parenting classes, have two sets of fingerprints done, give them three letters of reference, wait 11 and a half weeks for our background check to come back clear from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and of course, pay the fees involved for all the above. Now our home study, once proof-read and corrected, will be sent to three different organizations. It'll be sent to Immigration/Homeland Security, Adoption Options and Colorado Human Services. Well, actually, it'll also be sent to a fourth. It'll be sent to our adoption placement agency, WACAP, in Seattle, WA.
On Monday we received the call that our background checks had come through. On Wed., Apr. 4th we got a call from our social worker telling us that she was writing up our homestudy and would be sending it to our adoption coordinator at Adoption Alliance in Denver. On Friday (yesterday), Apr. 6th, we received a preliminary copy, by e-mail, from our coordinator, Marcia. We've looked it over and e-mailed back the corrections we want Marcia to make. Once approved, we'll need to sign eight copies of the last page and mail them in to Marcia. So, that'll probably happen on the Monday following Easter.
Meanwhile, during naptime at school, I've been reading books about adoption. I've been reading about the adjustment for older children. Of course, it'll be much more difficult for most of these kids. So, it sounds like we'll just need to be patient. There's no way for us to know what challenges will arise with our child, since each kid is unique with their own personality and background. But, we do know that the Lord is alive and will be with us. It continues to look like He is directing us towards adopting Penny. It's still too early for me to post her picture or give her name over the internet. But, I can tell you that she will turn 12 years old in June and shares the same birthdate with her hopeful future cousin, Linnea. If you'd like to understand more about adoption I was recommended to tell you about a booklet called, "Supporting an Adoption" by Pat Holmes.
No comments:
Post a Comment