Week ending February 1, 2004...
Well, it's finally begun! After months of uncertainty, the journey has officially started! On January 28th, I was notified by the World Partners Adoption organization that they had received my application for adoption! For those of you who don't know, I'm about to have a child! (Well, 'about' is really a relative term!) The road will be a long one -- approximately 11 months from when I sign the contract, until I actually come home with the newest member of our family. Over the coming months, I'm planning on journaling here -- so that all of you can keep in the know, on my journey.In the coming weeks I'll be telling you about the progress of my Home Study, and also my INS paperwork (fingerprints & and other government stuff).I'm more excited than you can begin to imagine!So! The status this week is that I'm just waiting on my final personal references to reach the agency, and then I'll be signing my contract!
Week ending February 8, 2004This week was full of paperwork (something I'm hearing I should get used to!). I managed to complete my I-600A, (which is a government form that requests approval for you to bring an orphan into the U.S), and my initial Home Study packet.I'm using Families First for my homestudy, which basically entails lots of clearances (ie: police background, sex abuse database clearance, etc.), a short autobiography, financial information, and several visits to my home by a social worker. The I-600A will kick off another process which will allow me to submit my fingerprints to the FBI for a background check, this process as a whole takes the longest out of anything I'll be doing (6weeks to 3 months), depending on the backlog.Hopefully I'll have more news next week on my contract, and my first home visit from the social worker.
Week ending February 15, 2004...
On Monday the 9th, I mailed both my Home Study application, and my I600A application. On Wednesday I got a call from Families First, and my first visit from the social worker that will be doing my homes study is scheduled for Thursday, February 19th! There will be 3 visits in all, and this first visit will be spent allowing the social worker to view my house, and get to know me a little better.I traveled to Ohio for work this week, and when I got home, I had my contract from World Partners Adoptions waiting for me! That means that all of my personal references have been received and approved, and the agency is willing to accept me as a client. I will be signing and returning my contract early next week, and that will officially allow me to be put on the agencys waiting list for a child. It will take about 8 months for me to receive a referral of a child.I'll let you know next week how the first visit with Families First goes!
Week ending February 22, 2004
Well, this week brought my first visit from the social worker who is doing my homestudy. We met on Thursday evening at my house. Most of the time for this first session was spent getting to know each other. We talked about how I came to decide on adoption, what experience I have with kids, what I know about adopting internationally, and then Cathy (that's her name!) gave me lots of good info. on resources here in Atlanta who will be able to help me with any issues I encounter.I am very impressed with how many resources are available. There are several agencys here in Atlanta who offer courses specific to the issues you encounter when adoptiing (both domestically and abroad).We have scheduled my next visit with Cathy for Wednesday the 25th -- there will be 3 visits in all, the final one probably being the week after next. At that point, it should only take 1-2 weeks to finish up the official written homestudy and forward onto my adoption agency.I did get some disappointing news this week -- it used to be that the Georgia INS would allow you to get your fingerprints done for your I600A prior to having your homestudy -- they've now decided that can't happen, so I'll have to wait until my homestudy has been sent to them (INS) before I can be fingerprinted. Completion of the I600A will then take about 90 days.Oh! I almost forgot -- my contract was received, and I'm officially on the waiting list!
