Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the "official" start of our interview for the Home Study.  Dave and I will be meeting her at 4:15.  We were then told that 2 more will be scheduled after that.  One at our home and to meet with our kids.  The last one is for final interviews and to turn in the rest of the paperwork.

I have many of the forms gathered already.  Can you tell I'm a little excited about getting this show on the road!  It helps that Dave and I have lived in the same state our whole lives and I only work until 2:45 so it gives me plenty of hours of the day to gather it up.

I think the home study lady will be rather impressed that out of the 16 things on the checklist... we only have 5 left.  Two of those are our physicals (for us and for the kids) from our doctors and those are already scheduled.  One is for a letter from our local police station stating we are not criminals.  That has already been requested but takes a couple days.  Another one is all our financial statements... I want to make sure exactly what is needed before I go and gather those up.  And the last one is for a child abuse and neglect registry clearance that the home study lady will provide us with the form. 

All in all, I think we are doing pretty good LOL!  We are really looking forward to meeting with her and introducing her to our family. 

So, you may be asking... what are the next steps.

Well, we are just learning but from all the information that I am learning I think I have an idea.

First, we will start and finish the home study.

In the meantime, our placing agency recieved our first set of 8 notarized and apostilled documents.  Some of these were for the dossier to be completed later and some were to place Z on hold with his county. 

After the homestudy is complete... I'm hoping within like 4 or 5 weeks.. we will send in an official "request to adopt" I800A form.  After that is approved in his country, we can send in our dossier.  Then it's a waiting, waiting, and more waiting until we get to travel to meet him!  My guess is early summer.  This trip will be with just Hannah (unless of course she doesn't get better grades LOL).  This trip will be 5-7 days to meet Z at the orphanage and accept the referral. 

Then after the first trip, we wait more months (I'm guessing by the end of the year or early next year) until the courts approve us to pick him up! 

It seems like a lot of work and it seems overwhelming at times.  But, one step at a time.  I keep a picture of Z close at hand so that I have the motivation to keep on gathering!

I'll leave you with a comment I posted on an adoption blog of an online friend of mine way back at the end of August.  This was after we had already been praying for Z every night.  You can see how much he meant to me in my words way back then... long before I knew that the Lord would call us to be his parents.  God sure does move mountains :-). 

"I am so very overjoyed. I have been following your blog faithfully since November. My heart is so happy for your little guy. God is good and faithful. What a miracle in the works.
Every night our family prays for Z (A little beautiful boy that you posted on a page with your boy)… that he will be chosen as someones child. I wish so deeply that he can be our little boy. I am drawn to him and its sometime painful to accept that we are not in a position to adopt. I believe God will provide for all these children. I place Z in God’s hands and anxiously await His plan for him. If you have any updates, please post.
Thanks for being an inspiration to all of us readers. This is a true testimony of God’s work in many lives."