The Paper Chase

First off, Robert and I want to thank everyone for all of the well wishes and kind words regarding our little guy. It is so amazing to see him welcomed with so many open arms of our family, friends, and supporters. We even got several offers for future babysitters... though once this babe is home, it'll be a while before I let him out of my arms! 

But, THANK YOU. Thank you. Thank you. 

Thank you for seeing the beauty in Adoption and Down Syndrome. 

Now, this adoption has already been a blessing in so many ways because it has provided me a platform to educate and inform on both Adoption and Down Syndrome. While many people have greeted our journey with positivity, almost all people have questions. And, given the stigmas associated with both, we have also received some not so positive reactions. However, they are both responded to the same way: INFORMATION. The facts. 

There is still SO MUCH that I am learning and all adoptions are different but I want to share the process that we are going through in Eastern Europe:

The first step in any adoption is a home study. A home study is basically when a licensed social worker gathers information about your life and assesses whether you are an appropriate fit for an adoption placement. The home study is one of the biggest and often most difficult parts of the process. They can range in time, for a variety of reasons, anywhere from 3-12 months to complete. We had to complete our home study with an agency in the United States, specifically in Illinois. Our specific home study was broken down into 3 major parts. 

First, the application... 

Homestudy Application 

 After our application was accepted, we had meeting number 1 with the Social Worker. This meeting was the intake where she asked us basic questions about our intentions and motivations for adoption, background information, and gave us a BIG stack of paperwork. The paperwork included: background checks, fingerprinting, doctor physicals, financial information, contracts, letters of recommendations, information about our specific international adoption, and a VERY lengthy questioner for each of us to complete. Once most of that paperwork was completed, we were welcome back for visit number 2. 

(Always hungry after these road trips! HA!)

Home study visit number 2 consisted of individual interviews with the Social Worker that covered information that we talked about in our individual questioners. These questioners were about 50 questions each and after answered were about 10-12 pages long. They covered it ALL. The questioner asked information about us an individuals, our relationship, our families, how we were raised, how we intend to raise our child, our mistakes, our greatest accomplishments, and so much more. Our social worker knows more about us then most people do. 

We were then sent home with homework to complete online trainings for adoption certificates that covered important topics such as attachment, medical issues in international adoptions, grief in adopted children, and conspicuous families. We were also given several books to read that have been super helpful. 

Sending our application to HHA

In the meantime, we started the process of working with:

Reece's Rainbow (http://reecesrainbow.org) 

&

Hand of Help in Adoption (http://www.handofhelpinadoption.org/p/home.html)

Reece's Rainbow is an incredible advocacy organization for special needs adoptions, it originally started with Down Syndrome, but has grown to include ALL special needs. This organization helps to advocate, educate, and assists families in raising the funds to cover adoption costs. This is where we first saw our little man. 

Typically, you would work with an International Agency for your adoption too. But, for the specific country that 'D' is in we work with Facilitators instead. (And, this team is AMAZING) Honestly, I don't know if I could have overcome all of the fears that come along with International Adoption if it wasn't for this team who is there to help EVERY step of the way. This team is Hand of Help in Adoption (HHA) and they help us with all of the paperwork, the finances, travel, translation, and will be our guides once we make it to country. 

One less orphan 

After our application was approved, we were able to sign commitment papers for "D"!!! 

This was the BEST. POST. EVER! 

(Again, keep in mind, that we can not be formally and officially committed to him until we are in country according to their law) 

After this, there was a quick interruption in our adoption process for a very important and amazing step...Our MARRIAGE! YAY! Along with this came name changes, applying for passports, and new fingerprints. 

For those of you wondering... yes, this means we started the process before we were married because its a lengthy one!! Many places will not work with you prior to marriage (unless you are completing an adoption as single), however, since we had already been together 8 years and were so close to our wedding day all of the parties involved were happy to get us started. 

Final step of home study 

After our wedding, we dove back into the process and were able to complete home study number 3. This step consisted of the social worker coming to our home and checking it for overall safety, space to raise a child, and they also consider your community. This is often the most daunting part of the home study and our house has been under major renovations so I was a little nervous but we PASSED with flying colors. Since this was our last meeting until our little guy is home, we had to complete some final paperwork and now we wait for the final write-up of our official home study. 

Formal Announcement to our Parents!

At this point, our immediate families were already aware that we were beginning the process of adoption but it wasn't until this formal announcement that we shared their future grandson, nephew, and cousin with them! I couldn't wait to share his sweet face with them! 

Passports are HERE!

Now that our passports are here and our home study is being wrapped up, we can start our paperwork for his country! There will again be 3 major steps in paperwork before we are invited to his country to formally accept his referral and be considered committed to him there. We just finished our first packet and are preparing to send it with an AWESOME fellow adoptive family who is traveling there next week! 

This is where we are currently at in our journey. We have had a few minor bumps in the road so far but are still moving strong. Of course, the wait is the HARDEST PART.