Homestudy.....COMPLETE :)

Hi everyone. Hope you all had a nice and restful Easter! We ended up staying in Hampton and spending it with some friends....so it was a quiet one for us, but nice! Since our last post we have completed all of our home study visits. After we met with our social worker together, we each had our individual visits/interviews. They weren't bad at all....Dennis went first (I think I was more nervous for him than myself) and then I had mine 2 days later. She just asked us about our childhood, our families, our relationship, our parenting/discipline styles, etc. Then today (TUESDAY), she came to our house for the final "pre-adoption" visit. She had a couple more questions about some information they were asking for in the report, then we showed her around the house, she asked about our plans for the child's room, met Maggie (our dog) and then she was done! So, what happens next, you ask???? She will finish typing up the report, submit it to our home study agency (ABC Adoption), submit it to Gladney, hopefully we are recommended to complete the adoption and then we finish up our dossier requirements and begin waiting for the referral. Dennis and I are calling this our "half-way point"....we've made it through the first part of the paperwork and waiting and are ready for Round 2!

Visit #1....COMPLETE :)

We had our first visit with our social worker today. This was basically a visit to get to know us and see how we have gotten to this point of deciding to adopt. I think we were both nervous (even though we told each other we weren't) because it was silent the entire 30 minute drive to her office...ha ha ha....but it was pretty easy. It was kind of a question and answer session, we went over some paperwork, she gave us some things to think about and our next visits are booked. She is meeting with Dennis on Tuesday (3/18) and Nicole on Wednesday (3/19) for the individual visits - stay tuned for the details on that!! Then she comes to our house on Saturday (3/29) to do the last and official "home visit". She assured us that we do not have to have our home "babyproofed" yet - she is just looking to make sure we live in an environment suitable for a child. After that, she writes up our report, sends it to Gladney for approval and then we submit it to our dossier send that off to Russia and then the waiting for a referral begins. Once the dossier is submitted, they estimate to have a referral within 6 months - so hopefully by October or November (at the latest) we should get our referral - if everything goes smoothly! We have enjoyed sharing our journey with all of you so far and can't wait to share the rest of it alongside with you.....please continue to keep us in your prayers! Love you all and hope everything is going well!

Finally.....something new!!!!!

Hey everyone! We hope this note finds you all doing well. Things have been busy with us. Between work, running our online business and waiting for news on the adoption - we have kept ourselves busy! A lot of you have been asking about any news....well, we finally have some! It's not much, but it is a start! The reason for the hold up for the past couple months is the Home Study Agency is waiting on our background and child protective services checks to come back. The reason it is taking longer than normal is that they are doing more extensive checks/searches and there are quite a few people going through the process (according to our social worker). But, we just got an email from her last night and even though they haven't received our checks yet, she wants to go ahead and start our home study visits! So, let the interrogation begin :) So, our first meeting with her is March 12th and 6:00...please keep us in your thoughts at that time - I'm sure we will be a little nervous! We will keep you updated as things change! Take care.....