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!!!