Stump removed! :)

About 7 years ago, we had to cut down a huge tree in our back yard b/c it had Dutch Elm Disease. We had made the stump the center of a flower bed since it was so big. Now that we are adding on, we need the dumb thing removed. (or have it as the night stand) Well--today we had a very determined neighbor that thought a tractor with duals could pull it out. The first attempt and the chain broke without the stump even budging. We then had the one of the City guys bring the pay loader. One pushed and one pulled. We weren't sure if that was going to do it. Finally it was successful!!!! Thanks to Justin, Shane, Lawerence, Jon, and Stan for your help. It was pulled out by the roots so we don't need to wait to have the stump ground out. :) Jason will be filling in the hole and we hope to have cement poured by next week. We are so thankful for people being so willing to help out. We appreciate it so much!

Travel shots

We have to get certain shots in order to travel to Ethiopia. We will not be traveling any time soon, but I wanted to get these shots taken care of. With both of us being teachers, it is much easier to do it now during the summer. We will have to go to Sioux Falls for these shots. There are only 4 clinics in SD that even give these shots. (3 in SF and one in Rapid) We were hoping that we could get these shots when we went to SF for our fingerprinting appointment. I called one of the places today to see how far in advance we would need an appointment. They are currently booking for July! I don't know how much warning we will get for our fingerprinting appointment, but I don't think it will be that long. I was kind of disheartened thinking we would have to make 2 trips to SF. (4 hours one way times 2...yuck) I called another one of the numbers I had. There you don't need appointments!! YIPPEE!!! I love getting good news and love it when things work out! :) I was able to leave a voicemail with the main nurse. I told her that we would need shots for Ethiopia. I told her I'd let her know when we know that we were coming. God provides for us once again! I didn't even have time to get myself into a tizzy. :)

Approved!!!

Our Home Study was APPROVED!! (pending fingerprint results) Yippee!!! So, now we just wait for the fingerprints to come back so the date can be added to the Home Study. It would be awesome if our prints came back before next Friday as that is the last day our case worker is working. I'm not counting on that though. It took 6 weeks for the other couple she was working with to get results back. I think we are only at 3. Time will tell. What is meant to be will be!

Home Study revisions

I got an email from our case worker yesterday. Since she is going on maternity leave after next week, she is trying to get our Home Study finalized. The date our fingerprint results come back will have to be included in our Home Study. Our case worker will come into the office to add the fingerprint date, run copies, notarize all of them, and drop them in the mail. How nice of her to do when she is on maternity leave. Anyway--she had sent our Home Study to AGCI for approval. They needed more information about a few things. We got right on it and sent it to her. She was going to make the revisions as soon as she could and get it sent back to our agency.

The construction begins (kind of)

We have made the decision to add a bedroom on to our house. We could always have our girls share a bedroom, but that doesn't sound fun with them being the ages that they are. So--Jason now has "building a bedroom onto the house" as a summer project. He tore off the siding of the back part of the house for the new addition. We have a huge tree stump that needs to be removed. We had the tree cut down a long time ago, but didn't want to pay to have the stump removed. Well--now we must get the stump removed unless we want it for a night stand. :) We thought we were going to be able to pull or push it out. No luck. So now it will have to be cut out and then ground. Bummer. :( Jason removed the sidewalk from that side of the house too. So--the progress has started, but it will be slow. Someone is coming on Monday to give us a quote for cement. Jason is going to try to do most of the work himself. He has many other commitments in June so we'll see how far or how fast he progresses. Thanks bunches to Justin and Sarah for allowing us to use your tractor. That sure has made it much easier. We are truly blessed with great friends. Stay tuned for more construction updates. :)

Home Study

Our Home Study was today. I really wasn't worried about it, but did manage to get a tiny bit worked up over getting the house in order. (even though I knew it really didn't matter) Our case worker is AWESOME!!! It is great that we feel so relaxed with her. She will come back to our house for post placement reports at 3, 6, and 12 months after bringing our little one home. It sure has made this journey so much easier with someone that is so easy to work with. She is going to add the stuff from today into the partially completed Home Study. She will then send it to AGCI for approval. Then we wait for our fingerprint results. She will come into work during her maternity leave to put the fingerprint date into our Home Study, sign it, and get them all off in the mail. Too bad we have to wait for these fingerprints. Oh well. I plan on getting all of my things ready so as soon as we get those results back, we can send in our Dossier. Hopefully by the end of June we can be on the wait list. I know the waiting is all part of the bigger picture. We might have to wait a little while longer than we would like to get these results back, however....it also helps to have things fall into place. Maybe we will get a younger child b/c of it. No matter what....it is all part of the bigger picture. It is in God's hands and in His time!

Pediatrican chosen

I've been doing some research on pediatricans in the area. By saying "in the area," I'm meaning basically an hour away in Aberdeen. I did some searching on the Internet. Man what a tool. What did people ever do without it? I emailed a couple of people via the Sanford and Avera websites. I inquired about if any of their pediatricians had worked with international adoptions. None. :( However, the one lady from Sanford was amazing! She was very helpful. Here is the deal. When we get our referral we will have a couple of days (if that) to decide if we accept the referral or decline it. In this time, we'd like to have a doctor look at the medical information we have on our child. They might see some possible red flags. They certainly will know way more than we know. When we return home with out new child, we will take him/her to a pediatrician. We want to have someone that specializes in children to examine him/her to make sure we get a totally accurate report. So--I emailed this lady and asked her if she would ask their pediatrician if she would be willing to look at this information we'd receive. The lady told me that the doctor had some questions and that we should call her. I was so totally impressed. Not very often do you get to call and talk to the doctor. I called her today. What an experience!!! She wanted to know if we had put in for a healthy child or a child with special needs. We have requested "as healthy as possible." She also asked where we were in our process. Even though she hasn't done any medical work with an international adoption, she is familiar with the process as her sister just adopted from China. Crazy!! :) She is more than willing to look at our medical information at the time of referral and she knows it is a time sensitive case. She was concerned about what might happen if she was gone for the weekend or something. They are getting another pediatrician in their office this summer so hopefully b/t the 2 of them we will be just fine. What a huge relief!!! I know it isn't needed for awhile, but it is great to know we have someone on board with us. I'm to contact her when we get closer to the top of the wait list and then we will get a plan in place for when that referral comes.

Home Study coming up

Our Home Study will be Wednesday at 1:30. I've been cleaning things in this house that probably have never been cleaned before. :) Lots of things won't even get noticed, but it is good motivation. Our social worker is amazing and as of now, I'm not one bit worried about it. I'm sure it will be a bit nerve-racking just b/c. It will be nice to have it done. WOW!! Look how far we have come. Some days it seems we have been on this journey forever and other days it seems as if we have just started this journey.

Calling all adoptive parents

My head is starting to spin. What happens after our Home Study and Dossier get submitted to AGCI? I know that they look things over, let us know what corrections need to be made, and we get put on the waiting list. They will also translate everything too. However...I'm wondering how they go about things in Ethiopia. I know lots of us "bloggers" have an extended family of other adoptive parents. This posting is to all of you. If anyone can tell me anything about court, I'd love to know. I'm starting to panic that we won't pass. What do we all have to do? Do we get approval from the Ethiopian courts to adopt and then they match us up? I mean, we will get approved and then much later we get a referral? How does this all go together? Anyone that can help, please email me at: carebears_rule2005@yahoo.com. Thanks much!!!

Thanks for the support

We appreciate everyone's help through this process. Whether it be an inquiring mind, listening ears, encouraging words, or even the quiet prayers. It is all so very greatly appreciated. We know that we cannot do this alone. We know that God's placed this on our hearts and in our minds. We know that He placed each of you in the place you are in following our journey. I must say I'm amazed at the out-pouring of graciousness from people. A special thanks to the absolute strangers that take time out of their day to share their stories which in turns encourages us. How blessed we are! Thanks to all of you for being part of "the bigger plan."

A new look

I'm trying to add stuff and change things on my blog. Too bad I have never blogged before and it is quite the challenge for me. I know many people have amazingly cool blogs. Well--I guess that isn't going to be the case with me. The reason I created this blog is in order for you to follow our journey. Cute and fancy or plain and simple, I guess you still know what is going on. :)

Deep breaths required

Anyone that knows me very well, will know that I can get myself into a "tizzy" quite easily. I have been so calm about all of this adoption stuff which proves to me that this is God's will. I know He is giving me the peace. Well--I think I've been calm for too long. :) First of all, I got an email from our Home Study case worker. She told me that she has a couple that sent their fingerprints in the beginning of April and they haven't heard anything back yet. In my binder that I have from our agency, it says that it generally takes 13 weeks to get results back. However, it also says that adoption takes priority and that it could be back in 2 and 1/2 weeks. So----bottom line is that our Home Study cannot be completed until we get FBI clearance with our fingerprints. Our case worker is going on maternity leave the 1st of June. After much searching on the internet, I was able to find a number for the FBI in Washington, DC. They gave me the number for West Virginia. (which is where our fingerprints were sent.) I called them and they said the average turn around time currently is b/t 6-13 weeks. I asked if priority was given to adoptions. He didn't know, but gave me the number of someone that would know. Of course, they had left for the day. The part that bothers me the most about all of this is that I could have had this done a long time ago, but didn't realize we needed to. :( Like previously posted, when our binder said we needed fingerprints I thought it was what we already did. So--this hold up could have been prevented if I would have asked someone about it. So it goes. It is done and over with.

We also got a letter in the mail from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. It said that our application was received. I called to see if we would then be receiving our fingerprinting appointment. Things have changed as of April 1. We knew that they needed our Home Study. However, in the past they have had people do their fingerprinting and then they don't process it until the Home Study gets to them. Well--we will not get our appointment for fingerprinting until our Home Study arrives. Clear as mud, huh? I did find out that we will FOR SURE get to go to SF. :) I'd think that it wouldn't take as long getting a fingerprinting appointing in SD as opposed to other states.

The other day I did ask our agency what the current "wait time" was. Of course things are kind of up in the air with the 2nd trip having been added. We can officially get put on the wait list when our Home Study and Dossier papers get sent to our agency and we get the proper corrections made, etc....We were thinking this would be possible by the middle of June, but that doesn't look as hopeful now. Anyway--current wait time from the time you get your paperwork filed until you get a referral (matched up with a child) is 6-7 months for a boy and 7-9 months for a girl. I'm sure these numbers change quite often, but that is the current status. It is nice to have a little bit more of a POSSIBLE time frame. Of course after being matched up with a child, we have the first trip. Then we come home for awhile and then we go on our second trip and then bring our child home. No real idea b/t referral to travel #1 and how long until travel #2.

I'm trying to remain calm. So if things get held up for another month or two...it happens. I know it is all part of God's plan. Maybe we are just buying time to be matched up with our special little one. :) I'd have to say that so far things have been fairly smooth sailing, so we shouldn't be surprised by the bumps in the road. It wouldn't be me if I didn't get in a tizzy a little bit from time to time. :)

God provides once again

Friday we had another office visit for our Home Study. All went well. We found out that we need to get yet another fingerprinting done. I feel really bad b/c I didn't do this sooner. I thought the ones we already sent it was what it was talking about in our binder of information. Turns out that was just for SD and we need to do another set for something else. Then we will still need to be fingerprinted for our immigration paperwork. I don't quite understand why we need to have it done so much. Just another thing to do. Well, I was kind of in a tizzy about things. I didn't want our home study completion date to be held up b/c I didn't realized we needed to be fingerprinted again. Too late...nothing I can/could do about it. We were trying to figure out when we could go some where to get fingerprinted. With Jason coaching track, it was going to be hard to get our schedules to work out so that both of us could go and still work out for the place we would go for fingerprinting. I was thinking it might be still yet another week. :( We had decided we would just have to make 2 different trips. Jason would have to go when it worked for him and I would have to go when it worked for me. This wasn't the ideal situation, but I didn't want to wait another week. Jason had called Ipswich to see when/if they could do fingerprinting. We ended up being able to go TONIGHT!!!! :) God does provide!!! I will be able to get this in the mail Monday or Tuesday. Yippee!!!