Today we worked on documents that are required solely for our "final application" for the agency that is handling our home study. (We decided to go with the first agency we met with, after all. These are not required for our dossier or for our adoption agency, just for the agency doing the home study.)
Overall, Michael is taking care of the general organization, the budget, and the information and document gathering portion of the adoption process, and I am taking care of the fundraising and "writing" side of things, along with the blog.
Here is what was completed and "checked off" today!
1) A one-page "Statement of Motivation" about why we want to adopt a child, about how we arrived at this decision, and about how our family and friends feel about our decision and how we handle it.
2) A one-page report on "Our Children" describing the children we would like to adopt, including nationality, gender and age range, and why we prefer those characteristics.
3) We EACH had to write an autobiography of at least 4 pages including answers to 2 full pages of questions about:
*our family dynamics as a child
*quality of our family relationships
*our childhood hobbies, interests, and problems
*our dating habits
*our courtship and marriage
*our current children
*people and events that influenced our lives
*medical history
*employment history
*religion and its influence in our lives
*decision to adopt
(Michael's ended up being 6 pages and mine was 7 pages.)
I have been sitting at the dining room table literally ALL day, but at least they are done!
My next writing assignment will be the application letter that is for the dossier and goes to the Ministry of Women and Children in Ethiopia and the non-employment letter explaining why I don't work outside the home.
Also, next week we will be completing our on-line adoption course that is required. We have done a lot of work over the last few weeks, and the list is getting smaller! ~YAY~!
Update: Today we received our official copies of our marriage license from the state of MS. We just mailed the request on Monday of this week. That was surprisingly fast! :) Amazing what makes us smile these days...
Showing posts with label Home Study. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Study. Show all posts
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Fingerprinting!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Update...
Michael spent about 6 hours "organizing" and filling out forms last night. And I can't even tell you how many times we had to sign our names! LOL More today, plus I'm going to be starting on all of our essays, etc.
Friday, February 26, 2010
The Home Study … oh, boy. – pt. 2
Okay, we’re learning a lot!
As we have been going through all the stacks of papers that are in our “inbox” waiting on us to read, fill out, copy, and mail in order to get our home study underway, we have noticed how the fees keep multiplying. Every in-state agency we checked into about doing our home study requires an additional application approval and, of course, additional application fees!
To be honest, that just did not sit well with us. We have already applied and been approved by our adoption agency and we’ve already paid application fees to them. And having to be approved by an agency who we just want to use to complete our home study seemed an unnecessary expenditure of money and time. We checked with a few in-state agencies and, apparently, it is standard procedure. We also noticed that those agencies all have several requirements that are not necessarily required by our adoption agency.
Since we’d rather not spend that extra money we don’t have to and would rather not spend extra hours filling out unnecessary papers, we called our agency this morning to ask some questions. (I must compliment them – they are the best.) I spoke with a social worker who very patiently answered all my questions and quieted my concerns. Then we spoke with one of the in-state agencies, and they explained some of the extra fees, legalities, etc. Bottom line is that we just have to do it...
We know God is leading us in this, and we’ll do whatever it takes to bring our children home. Besides, it’s not our money we’re spending – it’s HIS! And it’s not our time we’re using – it’s HIS! So we do what we have to do with JOY in our hearts waiting on the promise of blessings to come!
* * * * * * * *
Also, before dinner tonight we went across the street to our neighbors’ to have him witness our signatures on a form. Thanks, T!!
As we have been going through all the stacks of papers that are in our “inbox” waiting on us to read, fill out, copy, and mail in order to get our home study underway, we have noticed how the fees keep multiplying. Every in-state agency we checked into about doing our home study requires an additional application approval and, of course, additional application fees!
To be honest, that just did not sit well with us. We have already applied and been approved by our adoption agency and we’ve already paid application fees to them. And having to be approved by an agency who we just want to use to complete our home study seemed an unnecessary expenditure of money and time. We checked with a few in-state agencies and, apparently, it is standard procedure. We also noticed that those agencies all have several requirements that are not necessarily required by our adoption agency.
Since we’d rather not spend that extra money we don’t have to and would rather not spend extra hours filling out unnecessary papers, we called our agency this morning to ask some questions. (I must compliment them – they are the best.) I spoke with a social worker who very patiently answered all my questions and quieted my concerns. Then we spoke with one of the in-state agencies, and they explained some of the extra fees, legalities, etc. Bottom line is that we just have to do it...
We know God is leading us in this, and we’ll do whatever it takes to bring our children home. Besides, it’s not our money we’re spending – it’s HIS! And it’s not our time we’re using – it’s HIS! So we do what we have to do with JOY in our hearts waiting on the promise of blessings to come!
* * * * * * * *
Also, before dinner tonight we went across the street to our neighbors’ to have him witness our signatures on a form. Thanks, T!!
Monday, February 22, 2010
The Home Study ... oh, boy.
Since we live several states away from our adoption agency, we chose to have our home study done by an agency closer to where we live. It seemed like an easy way to accomplish this part of the process, but it is turning out to be more complicated than we expected.
We haven't even actually begun our home study yet - we've just been talking to different agencies about their process (and learning that everything costs more than expected). For instance, we didn't realize that in order to have another agency do the home study, we have to fill out an application with that agency and pay their application fee as if we were applying to adopt through them. That's an extra $250-$300 on top of the stated home study fee. Also, even though our agency gives a refund for the post placement study fees if they are turned in on time, we still have to pay the other agency those fees, so there won't actually be a refund. It will likely turn out to cost us closer to $3,000 rather than the $1,600 or so we first anticipated. (But we do know that even though we are surprised by this, God is not.)
We met with an agency located nearby on February 12th, but for various reasons we're not sure we're going to use them for the home study. So now we're looking into a couple of others. We're feeling pretty frustrated right now because it seems as if we are just spinning our wheels until we settle this matter and get the home study process going.
We are so excited about what God is doing and will do in our family through the adoption process. We know that our lives and the lives of ALL of our children will be changed forever. So, whatever we have to do, we'll do....
We haven't even actually begun our home study yet - we've just been talking to different agencies about their process (and learning that everything costs more than expected). For instance, we didn't realize that in order to have another agency do the home study, we have to fill out an application with that agency and pay their application fee as if we were applying to adopt through them. That's an extra $250-$300 on top of the stated home study fee. Also, even though our agency gives a refund for the post placement study fees if they are turned in on time, we still have to pay the other agency those fees, so there won't actually be a refund. It will likely turn out to cost us closer to $3,000 rather than the $1,600 or so we first anticipated. (But we do know that even though we are surprised by this, God is not.)
We met with an agency located nearby on February 12th, but for various reasons we're not sure we're going to use them for the home study. So now we're looking into a couple of others. We're feeling pretty frustrated right now because it seems as if we are just spinning our wheels until we settle this matter and get the home study process going.
We are so excited about what God is doing and will do in our family through the adoption process. We know that our lives and the lives of ALL of our children will be changed forever. So, whatever we have to do, we'll do....
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