Home Study Interview: July 31, 2009

We have our home study interview date! It's July 31, 2009 at 1 p.m. It's in Seattle, and there will be three interviews all in the same day: one with both of us, and one each by ourselves.

Please pray for us!

40+ hours; 83 pages; Our home study application is complete!

Yes, you read it right: 40+ hours and 83 pages! That sums up our home study application! It is done! This is a huge step to complete, and we are SO excited! The pictures you see with this blog represent our breakfast last Saturday as we headed into a long weekend of working on the home study. We figured we'd make an amazing breakfast to get us started. So, my amazing chef-husband, made: yogurt with homemade raspberry sauce, pistachios and mint; buttermilk blueberry pancakes; maple sausage; and fresh squeezed orange juice. I brewed the DOMA coffee. :-) The other picture is the final home study before we packed it up and sent it off.

Once our social worker has reviewed all of our home study stuff, she will call us to set-up our interviews. We have two interviews, and one home inspection. In the meantime, we will begin to work on our requirements for the dossier. The dossier is what will eventually be translated into Nepalese, and sent to Nepal for approvals, etc. We also need to set-up our psychologist interviews, and exams.

Thank you so much for your prayers and amazing support. Please continue to pray that the process would go smooth; we would receive all of our approvals; and most of all--please pray for our beloved baby.

Soon-to-be-mommy & daddy,
Heather and Andrew

11 Things You Must Know about International Adoption

11 Things You Must Know about International Adoption

1. You will be expected to jump through hoops. When something is requested of you do not ask why just do it and do it fast! YOUR adoption will not happen without work from YOU.

2. Nothing is impossible. It may be difficult to obtain a document in one day with an authentication but it is possible and you will find a way. Be creative!

3. Delays are inevitable. All time frames in adoption are estimates but there will always be speed bumps and delays in the process. Do not let it get you down, roll with it.

4. Changes always happen. Changes to paperwork requirements, time frames, length of travel, dates of travel, etc. CAN and DO happen. It is important to be flexible!

5. Attention to detail is a must. Please double and triple check your dossier paperwork. Keep track of dates, notaries, expirations and numbers. All documents must be consistent in spelling of names, financial information, age of child desired, etc. Every detail matters.

6. There will be a waiting period. No matter what country you are adopting from or what age of child there will be a period of time where there is nothing to do by wait. Use this time to live your life, spend it with friends and family, prepare for your child and keep educating yourself about adoption.

7. Almost everything is out of your control. This is a scary thought but a fact of the process. You are at the mercy of the foreign government where your child lives – they will work at their own pace and by their own rules. You do not have to like it but you have to accept it!

8. Be aware of cultural differences. The rest of the world does not do things exactly like Americans. During this process and especially when you travel to the foreign country be respectful of the differences and understand that there is more than one way to do things.

9. Entitlement. The foreign government acts in the best interest of the children, not the adoptive parents. You may not view it this way as it does not always match American standards of “best interest” however the other governments believe they are protecting the children. The foreign government is not asking American families to come adopt their children. They are under no obligation to release confidential information or expedite the process. Until the adoption is finalized - families do not have rights to the child and are not entitled to confidential information about the child. Adoption is not a right and not an entitlement – rather a privilege, a gift and blessing. It is understood that from American perspective that you are spending a lot of money and time to help a child so may feel like you deserve all the rights and information however the perspective of the foreign governments is much different so understanding this may help your mind frame.

10. No child is perfect but they all need families. Any child that spends time in an orphanage will be exposed to illness, will have some delays, and will have come from a difficult background prior to being institutionalized. Please be aware that these children need love and attention but may also need medical care. Educate yourself on common diagnoses of orphanage children and find a good international adoption doctor to help you evaluate. The more informed you are about what to expect – the less scary it will be when you receive your referral or meet your child for the first time.

11. Adoption is worth it every time. The journey is long and hard and takes strength, perseverance and love but once your child is home you will agree – all the hard work was worth it.

Our Case Manager, Alina Radoslav = My Favorite

“Adopting one child won’t change the world; but for that child, the world will change.” This is the way Alina closes each of her e-mails. I love the quote, and it certainly seems to depict her perspective. It’s wonderful having a case manager with such a perspective.

Taken from Adoption ARK’s website, “Alina Radoslav was born in Romania. She graduated from a prestigious University in Timisoara with a diploma in Psychology and Pedagogy. She also received a Master of Arts Degree in Educational Management. Alina decided to learn and work in this field because she loves children. Alina began her career as a high school teacher and then moved into a psychologist position at a private counseling center in Romania. These experiences helped Alina better understand children's minds and hearts. For her, helping children is not work; it is a life style. Alina feels best when doing work that changes lives forever and brings happiness to so many families. Having the opportunity to work in the adoption field is the most rewarding and noble mission ever!” If you’d like, you can see Alina’s picture by going here: http://adoptionark.org/public/pag8.aspx. Scroll down about halfway. She is beautiful, and has a beautiful daughter!

I’ve talked to Alina several times over e-mail. We officially got to meet on the phone last Thursday, 4/30. She is wonderful! She talked through the process with me and shared more about Nepal. Nepal was on hold for adoptions for 18 months as they (Nepal) fine-tuned their processes. Things are back up and running and there are 10 families at Adoption ARK that have completed their paperwork for 2009 and are waiting to receive their referral. (Oh Jesus, bless them!) Alina said that Adoption ARK is VERY familiar with all of the details that Nepal requires, and she will walk through each one of them with me in this next year. She also said that as the 10, 2009 families, complete their adoptions this year, she will send us their names/e-mail addresses (with their permission) so we can talk with them about their experiences.

Alina gave us our marching orders. She said there is a lot to work on, but she wants me just to focus on the things she assigns to us. The reason is because we are on the 2010 list for adoption (the Nepal quota for 2009 has been met—they only allow 10 adoptions per year, per agency), and she doesn’t want things done too quickly to ensure they don’t expire before we receive our referral in 2010. In most cases, things expire after 1 year. So, right now, we are to:
1. Determine a home study agency, and get it approved by Alina.
2. Upon approval, start our home study.
3. Get our psychological exams done. We are required to be interviewed by a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, and to take two psych tests: the MMPI-2 and the Rorschach Ink Blot Test.
4. Start our 10 hours of required adoption education.
5. Get our FedEx account set-up and send Alina the information. (This is done; just need to send it to Alina.)

All-in-all, Alina said she wants everything done by October/November. This means everything: the home study, psych exams, FBI fingerprints, adoption education, USCIS I600A stuff. All of this stuff will be put into our full dossier, except the psych exams. (The psych exams are not a requirement for adoption; they are a requirement of our agency.) Alina will send our dossier for translation in December, and than in January 2010, she will send our translated dossier to the orphanages in Nepal. Then we wait for our referral! All of this stuff takes about 6 months to accomplish, and we have just that, which means we don’t have to rush anything! That’s a great feeling.

The Home Study Phase

We found out great news on Thursday, 4/23. Our contract has been received, is being processed, and we get to move into the next phase -- the home study! From what we understand, this is the biggest phase.

And we were assigned our case manager. She e-mailed us on Friday, 4/24, and she sounds amazing.

Also, we received our first baby gifts!! My friend, Felicia, had made us baby blankets this last January (unbeknown to us) and prayed over them while she made them, asking for Jesus to bring us babies. WOW. After we told her about the adoption, she went home and got the blankets and surprised us with them, along with a beautiful letter she wrote after she had completed them (on 1/09/09).

Today, we came home from church, and waiting for us was a gift from our dear friends, Kari and Steve Potter. Kari bought us baby shirts, three books, two stuffed animals and a toy, along with a lovely card and balloon. So fun!! By the way, one of the baby shirts had a monkey on it. How appropriate is that? They must know us well. :-)

Bringing the Nations Home

We were having a student leader's meeting at our house on Sunday night, April 12 (Easter). We had just served a Thai dinner from a local restaurant, and were enjoying some great conversation. As we moved into the "meeting" part of our evening, Andrew said to the students, "I want you to pray for 30 seconds, and then prophesy [share an encouraging word from God] to the person sitting across from you." The student leaders went right into praying and the 30 seconds turned into a few minutes because no one could stop praying. Andrew then said, "OK -- let's start!" and he had each person go one by one and share the encouraging word they felt from God. It came to Olivia, who was sitting across from Andrew. Olivia shared some encouraging things for Andrew, and then ended with saying to him, "And then, I saw a little Asian boy sitting next to you. Both of you were praying with your hands together in a certain way and then I heard the Lord say, 'You are bringing the nations into your home.' " None of the student leaders knew we were adopting from Nepal. Olivia later described the child that she saw as part Indian, part Chinese, which is exactly what the Nepalese people look like!! Also, the way she saw them holding their hands in prayer is the exact way the Nepalese people greet each other when they say "Namaste".

A few weeks later, on Monday, 4/20, I was having lunch with a friend. She said, "When I saw you at church yesterday, I saw that you are a mommy." And then later on in our conversation, she said, "And during the sermon, I felt to give the scripture to you that's in Isaiah, 'My house will be a house of prayer for all nations.' "

Wow...talk about some confirmations! Thank You, Jesus! We can't wait to bring the nations into our home.

Our First Baby

We are excited to share the wonderful news that we are in the process of adopting a baby from Nepal! We are working with an agency called "Adoption ARK" and we started our process in early April. So, we are just at the beginning! They say that it'll take about a year. We have asked for an infant, 6 months to 12 months old, boy or girl. (You can’t adopt a baby less than 6 months old.)

You may wonder—why Nepal? We first looked into India, but India is currently closed for adoption unless you want to adopt a child with extreme special needs (i.e., cerebral palsy). We also looked into Guatemala but they are currently closed as well. Lastly, The Philippines was of interest to us, but you can only adopt kids 2+ years, and Indonesia was of interest as well, but you have to live there for 2 years before you can adopt from there!

So, Andrew brought up Nepal and the rest is history. And the Lord truly has put Nepal deep in our hearts since we have begun this process! Right now, I can't imagine adopting from anywhere else because we already feel connected to the people of Nepal. It's amazing what Jesus can do!

When we first pre-qualified for adoption from Nepal (Wed., 4/8), we were put on the waiting list for 2010. There is a waiting list because Nepal only adopts to 65 agencies in the entire world, and only 10 children per agency, per year. That’s just 650 kids a year, and Nepal has 100,000 orphans. Anyway...with just 10 kids per agency per year, we expected to be on the waiting list for awhile. I personally didn’t think we’d hear anything until the end of this year. But, to our blessed surprise, we heard from the agency on Thurs., 4/16, just 8 days after we were on the waiting list. Our adoption consultant e-mailed us saying our name came up for the 2010 Nepal Adoption Program waitlist, and we could officially begin our paperwork for an adoption to be submitted in 2010.

We were elated!! We received the contract Mon., 4/20. We were required to turn it around, along with a payment, within 72 hours. They have to put a timeframe on the turnaround time of the contract to ensure that you are serious about it and to not keep others waiting that are on the list in case you decide not to do it. We completed our contract review and application (35 pages!) by Wed., 4/22, and sent everything off. We received news on Thurs., 4/23, that our contract was accepted, is being processed, and that we can start our home study. We were introduced to our case manager on Fri., 4/24, who is going to walk us through the rest of the process all the way to the point of having our new baby in our arms.

Here is the agency we are working with: http://www.adoptionark.com/public/pag24.aspx.

You can see photo albums of one of the agency's Nepal visits by clicking here: http://www.arkmission.org/.
Then click on photo/video album and then you'll see the various Nepal photo albums that you can click on.

You can also YouTube “Nepal”, as well as Google “Nepal” and “Nepal Children” to see and learn more.

Thank you for sharing in our joy, and joining us in this amazing journey!

Photo captions
First photo: Me and Andrew skyped his brother and sister-in-law in Atlanta to share with them the good news. (I love that you can see the picture of the orphanage in the background in this photo!)
Second photo: Our first official step in the adoption process: Reading, filling out and signing the Nepal adoption contract.