That Was Painless!

So, our social worker came yesterday to our house. The visit was pretty simple and was over before we knew it. She collected more of our paperwork and answered any questions that we had. We also showed her around our house and showed her where the baby would be sleeping. We were not expected to have it looking like a nursery yet. However, we are going to start planning that out in the next few months. That will also help us feel more like a child is coming (See Retail Therapy Part 2 below).

Now we have only one more home study "visit" left. We are going to a training session, which is coincidentally going to be held at our church. This counts as a visit, so we will be done with our part by November 10th. Besides that "visit" there is only one document that we need to have for our home study to be complete: Ohio Child Abuse and Neglect Registry Results for each of us. It takes 6-8 weeks for them to find out that we do not have a record of being child abusers. We are at 6 weeks now, so it should be here any day. So, please pray that it comes this week!

Also, we are anxiously waiting our fingerprinting appointment from the United States Citizen and Immigration Services office in Cleveland. Yes, we have to get fingerprinted again. The State of Ohio needed them done and now the Federal government. I guess they cannot share the results. ;) We need this to happen ASAP. It will move us one step closer to being approved to adopt by the United States, so we can send our dossier to Russia. It would be nice if we could have our dossier translated and sent to Russia by January. I hope I am not too optimistic about this timeline.

Onto Retail Therapy Part 2 . . . I guess Evan also struggles with feeling like this adoption is real. I purchased a small amount of items for the baby last weekend and this weekend was his turn. Please see the pictures below.

Kristin's Retail Therapy

Evan's Retail Therapy

Evan has an easier time spending money than I do. While it is nice to buy a few things here and there, I did remind him that we will have a baby shower in the future. :) In reality, I am happy that he is excited.

Kristin

Retail Therapy

I am not a shopper by any means. I love to save money, not spend it. However, this past weekend I found that spending a little bit of money actually made me feel a little better. My sister and I had talked about heading over to Babies R Us for the past month. I wanted to get some ideas of the things I would need and get some ideas for the nursery. Also, we have a baby shower coming up soon, so we decided on Sunday to kill two birds with one stone. After leaving the store with some toys and a pair of overalls for my baby, I never felt better. I know it will be a while until we head to Russia, but doing small things, such as buying a pair of overalls, makes me feel like my child is really on his way.

Onto paperwork news . . . We are still trying to get the fire inspector to come to our house. It turns out that when he said he was "part-time", he meant "barely-any-time". He only works 5 days this month!!! So, hopefully, we will get an appointment on one of his many days. :)

Also, I have decided to teach myself Russian. Even though we will have a translator with us in Russia, it will be nice to be able to read signs and menus on my own. It may also help initially to speak to our son in Russian a bit. Although, I am sure the pronunciation may be a bit botched. Even with all of my years of Spanish (7 1/2 - No, I am not fluent!) I was always better at reading and writing it than I was speaking it. But, I am determined to at least master the basics.

So, that is what is going on right now. I will update more after our social worker's visit on Saturday.

Kristin



UPDATE: The fire inspector is coming at 1:00 PM today!!!

Is this real?

Since this adoption process has started, I have really struggled with feeling like this is real. Are we really adopting a child? Sure, we are filling out a lot of paperwork, but there really is no other evidence of a child. It is not like a physical pregnancy where your body is changing. I am having physical symptoms too, but mostly from stress.

When we started this process, I decided that I wanted to deal with any issues that I had that may stop me from being the best mom I could be. I asked God to bring them to light and boy, did He! So, if you could just keep me in your prayers as I go through this refining process. I know that as parents we can pass down to our children good traits and habits, but also a lot of our bad traits. I do not want my son to come home and learn from me how to be fearful or to be a worrier. I decided that I want to deal with all my "baggage" now. It has not been easy, but I know that the rewards will be great later.

For all of you early birds with the Discovery Health Channel, I have a show for you. At 6:30 A.M. (yes, A.M.), is "Adoption Stories". They follow the journey of parents adopting children, both domestic and international. Watching these parents meet their children for the first time really helps me have hope and excitement for when we meet our son. So, check it out (or use your DVR, if you have one)!

Well, that's all I have for now. We meet the social worker again in less than two weeks. Once our Home Study is done, we will start on our dossier. That will be another step closer, to meeting our son.


Kristin

I Am Still Alive

My sister has gently reminded me several times that I have not updated in awhile. Not too much has happened with the adoption. We are just working on getting the last bit of paperwork done for our Home Study. Our Social Worker is in Africa for the next two weeks, but I made sure we set up another visit with her when she comes back. So, she should be coming to our house on October 20th. Our agency is holding a "training day" on November 10th where they will be talking about attachment/bonding and cultural issues. Since, the home study is also about educating us, this will count as our last visit. After the seminar, we will be done with our part of the Home Study. So, that's all the adoption news right now.

Onto the rest of our life . . . this past Thursday was a very eventful day. I had been having trouble with my sinuses and especially my ears, so I made a doctor's appointment before work. Evan and I had already planned on taking my car in because the brake light kept coming on. Well, on the way to the doctor's office the "check engine" light also came on, followed by a horrible noise. So, we were glad we planned on taking the car in that morning. Fast forward a few hours . . . I was at work when Evan called to tell me he had some bad news. My car no longer was safe to drive. Basically, we needed a new car right away. That really wasn't what I wanted to hear since we have a lot of expenses with the adoption.

So, goodbye 1998 Sable




Hello, 2007 Taurus

It is nice having a safer, more reliable car. The Taurus has almost 100,000 miles less than my Sable. The only feature that I required was that my new car had a CD Player. That just goes to show you how old my last car was.

I will try to update more regularly. Any day now we should be receiving Evan's passport. If he says it is okay, I will post his passport picture. Let's just say that Evan made sure his eyes were wide open! We think that may have had something to do with the delay. His picture may have been passed around the passport office. :)

Kristin