Last week we realized that we were very low on printer ink and ordered cartridges from Amazon.
Yesterday, our printer ran out of ink and refused to print another page. Our Amazon order was scheduled to be delivered this Friday.
Today, three days early, our printer ink was delivered.
An hour later, we received a supplemental questionnaire from our adoption agency that needed to be printed, signed, scanned, and emailed back.
God’s timing is always perfect.
中秋快樂!
Zhōngqiū kuàilè!
Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival in China, Vietnam, and Taiwan. We want to keep our daughter’s heritage alive and are making an effort to learn about her birth culture and holidays.
Kiki Bakery, a local Taiwanese bakery
Red bean paste mooncake
Lotus mooncake
Yummy!
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted an adoption update, mainly because we have had very little news lately.
The biggest news we received last week is that our home study is complete. Hurray! Our social worker finished it, had us fact check it, and sent it to her agency to get notarized. Our agency now has a copy of the home study and it is being translated.
Once the home study is translated, it will be handed to the orphanage director. He or she will then read the entire thing and decide if we are to be officially matched with the child we want to adopt. This process can take up to six weeks.
Now that the excitement of our home study finalization is over, we wait. And wait. And wait some more. Hopefully the next news we receive is that “she’s yours!”
We were surprised today to be notified that we will be allowed to Skype with our daughter once the dossier is submitted. That won’t happen for a few months yet, but at some point we’ll be able to see our daughter and hear her voice for the first time. I am thrilled about that but also nervous. If we were to “meet” for the first time in person, we could go out to eat or to the zoo or play games. We could do something while getting to know each other. Instead, we’ll be sitting in front of a computer, thousands of miles away! I can’t wait.
We’re hoping that our daughter will want to embrace both American culture and her own. I’ve read that a lot of older adopted kids reject their home culture but I’m hoping our daughter will want to hold onto hers.
In an effort to help her ease into our family, I’m finding recipes that will hopefully taste somewhat familiar. No forcing her to eat pizza on day 1!
This is my first attempt at a green bean stir fry. The store didn’t have snow peas so I doubled the green beans. Hopefully next time we’ll be able to use both green beans and snow peas. I also think mushrooms would be a good addition.
The recipe called for vegetable broth. Instead of using a can, I found a package of hot pot seasoning and made broth out of that. There was a lot of broth left, so I made ramen today with the broth, peas, and some soba noodles.
Both dishes turned out well! Hopefully our daughter will like at least one of them. Next week I’ll try another new recipe.
Now that our home study interviews are complete, I don’t know what to do with myself. We spent hours filling out paperwork, reading books, and preparing for interview questions. We went to two veterinary appointments, two doctor appointments, and fingerprinting.
All I have right now is a packet of information to fill out for our agency. Then we wait for our social worker to write our home study, which should be complete in about 2.5 weeks. I’ve finally had the opportunity to start reading parenting books, as opposed to those written specifically about the adoption process.
So what now? What do parents-to-be do while they are waiting for the next step in the adoption process? Hurry up and wait!
Tonight our social worker came over for our second home study interview. This interview only took two hours, much shorter than the last session. We talked about various special needs and challenges in adoptions. We also covered the parameters of the child we’d like to adopt – age, special needs, gender, etc. We also talked some more about marriage and child schooling.
We are almost done with the home study process! All that’s left is for the social worker to run our state child abuse checks and to write the actual home study document. We should have a copy in our hands by the end of the first week of September!
After that, we send the home study to the orphanage to get approval to be matched with our daughter. We can’t wait to receive the email that says she’s ours!
I’m so happy! I have a passport! It took only 13 days from the day I turned in my application at the post office to the day I received the passport in the mail. With routine processing!
Jeff received his passport two days after I received mine. I teased him for two days that I might just have to travel by myself to bring our daughter home! I’m relieved, though. I’ve never traveled outside of this continent and am a bit nervous about the very long flight to Asia.
God is good! All the time!
Thank you so much to everyone who prayed!
The home study interview was almost three hours long and went really well. We covered a lot of topics – marriage, our upbringing, parenting styles, corporal punishment, religion, and international adoption. Our social worker is extremely personable and was very easy to talk with. Even the solo section at the end was fairly easy; it’s Jeff’s turn to be interviewed solo next week!
We have a follow up meeting next Thursday night that will be shorter and then we wait for the home study to be written.
I know God’s timing is perfect but it’s always so humbling to see it happen. We had been promised photo and video updates “sometime this week.” We received an email from our agency one hour before the interview with our photos and the video link. What an encouragement, right before an important interview! I really wish I could share the pictures but I’m not allowed until further along in the process.
My heart really is in Asia! My daughter is over there and I can’t wait to bring her home!
In two and a half hours, we have our first interview with the social worker. She’s going to be talking to us about parenting styles, our preparations for adoption, finances, health, and look over our home for basic safety standards.
I wasn’t nervous but now I’m feeling it. I can see God’s hand all over our adoption process thus far and I know that He will continue to guide. I definitely need to spend some time in prayer before the social worker arrives.
Tonight she’ll be interviewing both of us together and then me by myself. Next week it will be my husband’s turn to be interviewed alone. I hope it’s an easy interview!
God is in control and He is moving mountains.
3rd party website said it would take 96 business days to receive my birth certificate; the CA.gov website said 4 weeks.
We received them in 13 days, from the day we dropped off the request at the post office to receiving them in the mail. I am awed by God’s hand in our adoption process.
