We had our second meeting with our social worker (Judy) tonight. This homestudy process has been so much easier than we were anticipating! No trick questions! Personally, I think Rocky is responsible for how easy Judy has been on us. Judy has 3 rescue cats and a puppy. Once she met Rocky and we shared how we had chosen our crabby cat with behavior problems from the shelter's secluded "special" room and nurtured her through the emotional trauma of her troubled past, we knew we'd impressed her.
So, now Judy writes her report, we turn in a few more documents, and our homestudy should be complete in about 2 weeks! We're scheduled to get our federal fingerprints on June 8th. (We already got local fingerprints). Once the homestudy and the fingerprints are in to USCIS, they will process our I-600A. While USCIS notified us the processing time is "within 90 days", we've been told the actual processing time is about a month.
One small step closer to Brett coming home!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Meet the Social Worker
So, we spent hours cleaning the house from top to bottom and weeks trying to get projects around the house completed to make a good impression on our social worker...
...and she didn't step foot outside the living room! But, we think the meeting went well. She mostly discussed issues we can expect to face in a transracial adoption. None of this was at all surprising to us as, of course the two nerds who don't like risk, have done the research! Our next meeting is scheduled for the tuesday after Memorial Day. So, our homestudy is progressing quickly (and so are our house projects!)
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Celebrating 4 Years of Bliss...
...okay, so maybe it hasn't been all bliss, but without a few vallies, we wouldn't have mountaintops!
The weather was perfect! So, we grilled hamburgers in the park and made sure we were home by 7 to watch The Office...
The weather was perfect! So, we grilled hamburgers in the park and made sure we were home by 7 to watch The Office...
Sunday, May 13, 2007
We're Adopting!
We discussed. We prayed. We researched. We dreamed. We saved $. We discussed some more...prayed some more...researched some more...dreamed some more and saved some more $. And, on April 25th, we finally officially started the process!
For those of you who are unfamiliar with adoption, here's how the process works: we are currently in the process of getting our homestudy completed. Because we selected an international adoption agency that is based in Wisconsin (Acres of Hope), we also were required to select an agency in our state to do our adoption homestudy (Summit). The homestudy basically includes tons of background checks, family and financial history, interviews, physicals, fingerprinting, letters of reference, and education-all in an effort for our social worker to determine if we are prepared to be parents! On Friday, we submitted our application (I-600A) to USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services). Basically, through this form, we are requesting permission from the US government to bring an immigrant into the US. Once our homestudy is comple
te and we receive approval from USCIS (estimate about 4 months), we will be ready for a referral, which is done through Acres of Hope, who operates an orphanage in Liberia. A referral can take one day or six months. Since we are requesting an infant boy in relatively good health, it will probably be closer to 6 months. Then, once we accept our referral, the wheels start turning in Liberia for the adoption to take place. We expect this process to take another 6-9 months. And, then, our son comes home!!!
Some questions we get asked:
Why Liberia? Good question. We knew we wanted to adopt internationally and transracially. Still tons of countries to choose from…let’s start eliminating some. There’s the countries where we don’t meet the criteria…not old enough…not married long enough. There’s the countries that you cannot specify a gender preference (hey, let’s adopt a boy since we can!) Let’s look at the practicalities. Cost. Wait time. Travel requirements. Conditions and care orphans are receiving. That eliminates a bunch. Then, there’s the heart of the matter. The heart leads us to Africa. There are only half a dozen countries in Africa who have programs set up for international adoption. Ethiopia is the main country, Liberia is a distant second. And in looking through the orphanage websites, our hearts know Acres of Hope is the one.
Are you going to have any children of your own? We know people who ask this are just being curious and are not intentionally being insensitive. But, our adopted son will be our own. So, yes we are going to have a child of our own...he just isn't going to look (ANYTHING!!!) like us! As for bio children in the future...maybe...we'll see...
Is he going to be a US citizen? Yes. Currently, Liberia does not allow dual citizenship, so he will only be a US citizen. He will be adopted in Liberia, and then, we will readopt when he comes to the US. At that time, he will receive a new birth certificate.
Isn't adoption expensive? Yes, but our son is priceless!
When will he come home? Refer to the "process" paragraph above. There are no guarantees in adoption. Many factors play into this one. But, we are hoping our son will come home by summer 2008.
What about a name? Bryan long ago decided (without my input, by the way!) he would name his first son Brett. Bryan, his daddy's first son, was named after a famous Green Bay Packer player, Bart Starr (his real name is Bryan). In keeping with tradition, Bryan will name his first son Brett after famous Packer player Brett Favre. We will probably use Brett's name given at birth as his middle name.
Come home soon, Brett!
For those of you who are unfamiliar with adoption, here's how the process works: we are currently in the process of getting our homestudy completed. Because we selected an international adoption agency that is based in Wisconsin (Acres of Hope), we also were required to select an agency in our state to do our adoption homestudy (Summit). The homestudy basically includes tons of background checks, family and financial history, interviews, physicals, fingerprinting, letters of reference, and education-all in an effort for our social worker to determine if we are prepared to be parents! On Friday, we submitted our application (I-600A) to USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services). Basically, through this form, we are requesting permission from the US government to bring an immigrant into the US. Once our homestudy is comple
te and we receive approval from USCIS (estimate about 4 months), we will be ready for a referral, which is done through Acres of Hope, who operates an orphanage in Liberia. A referral can take one day or six months. Since we are requesting an infant boy in relatively good health, it will probably be closer to 6 months. Then, once we accept our referral, the wheels start turning in Liberia for the adoption to take place. We expect this process to take another 6-9 months. And, then, our son comes home!!!Some questions we get asked:
Why Liberia? Good question. We knew we wanted to adopt internationally and transracially. Still tons of countries to choose from…let’s start eliminating some. There’s the countries where we don’t meet the criteria…not old enough…not married long enough. There’s the countries that you cannot specify a gender preference (hey, let’s adopt a boy since we can!) Let’s look at the practicalities. Cost. Wait time. Travel requirements. Conditions and care orphans are receiving. That eliminates a bunch. Then, there’s the heart of the matter. The heart leads us to Africa. There are only half a dozen countries in Africa who have programs set up for international adoption. Ethiopia is the main country, Liberia is a distant second. And in looking through the orphanage websites, our hearts know Acres of Hope is the one.
Are you going to have any children of your own? We know people who ask this are just being curious and are not intentionally being insensitive. But, our adopted son will be our own. So, yes we are going to have a child of our own...he just isn't going to look (ANYTHING!!!) like us! As for bio children in the future...maybe...we'll see...
Is he going to be a US citizen? Yes. Currently, Liberia does not allow dual citizenship, so he will only be a US citizen. He will be adopted in Liberia, and then, we will readopt when he comes to the US. At that time, he will receive a new birth certificate.
Isn't adoption expensive? Yes, but our son is priceless!
When will he come home? Refer to the "process" paragraph above. There are no guarantees in adoption. Many factors play into this one. But, we are hoping our son will come home by summer 2008.
What about a name? Bryan long ago decided (without my input, by the way!) he would name his first son Brett. Bryan, his daddy's first son, was named after a famous Green Bay Packer player, Bart Starr (his real name is Bryan). In keeping with tradition, Bryan will name his first son Brett after famous Packer player Brett Favre. We will probably use Brett's name given at birth as his middle name.
Come home soon, Brett!
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