MADLY TRYING TO FINISH ALL OUR PAPERWORK FOR THE HOME STUDY!!!
{pat is taking today off to do all of this...after the crazy day yesterday it's making today even that much crazier...}
this is insane.
you don't have to read it.
it's more for me...
5:15 Courtney up - run and read
5:45 Pat up - to church for men's morning thing
6:30 C make lunch for Rebekah and get breakfast set up
7:00 Kids up, dressed and fed
7:30 C and 4 kids take Rebekah to school
7:35 C home - take shower {while Sawyer takes everything out of the bathroom cabinets and drags it all over the upstairs}
8:00 P home from church
C leave for dr - have TB test read from Monday and get bloodwork drawn for physical
8:30 C at dr {they open at 8:30}
P leave home with 3 kids and meet C at dr.
9:00 P get physical including bloodwork {you have to fast...they didn't tell me that...}
C head home with 3 kids
9:30 Home - Sawyer nap
10:00 Mom arrives {!} and stays with 3 kids at home for the rest of this madness...
P gets home {hopefully}
C and P leave together for post office
10:30 and 10:45 Passport appointments {praying for no "hey, you needed to fast" surprises here...form printed off and filled out but not signed...}
11:15ish leave post office and head to sheriff's office
by 12? C and P at sheriff's office getting fingerprinted
1ish C and P grab lunch somewhere and run by grocery store to get a couple things for meal C is making for someone tomorrow...
2 C and P get home
2:15 C go up to school to pick Joshua and Rebekah up from school
P wade through emails from work
2:50 C (and Rebekah and Joshua) get home
2:50 C and P leave to go back up to school for parent-teacher conferences
3:05 Conference with Joshua's teacher ("he's very quiet"...)
3:30 Conference with Rebekah's teacher ("she's a little too talkative"...) :-)
4 C and P home
Mom gets to leave! {THANKS SO MUCH, MOM!!!!!!!!!!!}
Homework
Kiss sweet kids
Hear about their days
Make dinner
Eat dinner
5:45 Leave for Joshua's soccer practice
7:15 Home from Joshua's soccer practice
Baths
Bed!!!
and at the end of this day all our paperwork should be done for the homestudy!
hoping we will be moving quickly through the rest of the homestudy.
trying to be patient.
trying not to think about who's kissing their faces when they are sick.
who's losing sleep about them when they don't seem "right?"
this will be a crazy day.
but i would do it again in a second if i had to...for them.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Why Wouldn't I?
as we have been talking about our adoption we get asked a number of questions over and over.
"Why Rwanda?" is a hard question to answer...
but the hardest question to answer is:
"Why are you adopting?"
i hope to talk about this some over the next few days...some thoughts i have from some of the conversations about that question.
but, for now, why wouldn't i?
"Why Rwanda?" is a hard question to answer...
but the hardest question to answer is:
"Why are you adopting?"
i hope to talk about this some over the next few days...some thoughts i have from some of the conversations about that question.
but, for now, why wouldn't i?
Thursday, October 8, 2009
the bottom line
this picture has nothing to do with this post.
i just love every part of him...even his back-fat rolls :-)
i'm talking money.
and i think this is the only time i'm going to address it.
adoption is expensive.
talking about money/finances/etc. is always a little dicey.
i'm an open person.
i enjoy sharing my life because it's not my own and i love to share His goodness and mercy.
the best way i know to do that is to share how it plays out in my everyday moments.
but i'm not sure sharing the minute details of the financial aspect of our adoption is the wisest thing.
i always (naively) assume that people understand my intentions behind saying things.
i would share specific amounts out of a desire to educate and inform.
i would never want to come across either flaunting ("look at this huge check we wrote!") or woe is me ("feel so sad for us that we just wrote a huge check.")
God has called us to this.
we are confident in that.
and we trust that He will provide.
we can't wait to see how He will do that!
adoption is expensive.
it will probably be close to $30,000 once we have these precious kids home.
but we will pay it in (large!) bits at a time as we go in the process.
some have mentioned that the cost is ridiculous.
but we just come back to the fact that all this paperwork and money is done mostly to make sure our home is a safe, loving home for these children that deserve nothing less.
our government has rules.
the Rwandan government has rules.
and we'll jump through all the hoops to get to our children.
(even if we think some of the hoops are a bit ridiculous or exorbitant)
we are careful with our money.
but we don't have that kind of money sitting in a box ready for this.
we are trusting and trying our best not to stress about it.
God has provided for us in so many ways over the years that it's hard to doubt Him in this.
anyone can request more details from any adoption agency if you are interested.
each country is a bit different.
the financial part of adoption is a HUGE thing for people...but i want to encourage people that if God is calling you to adopt...don't let money be the thing that holds you back.
and i am glad to share with anyone any details that you'd like to ask me in person (or email).
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
the homestudy is starting!
we had our first homestudy meeting last night.
we have to have 4 meetings with our social worker as part of our homestudy.
then our social worker will put together the homestudy that will be submitted to our government to give us permission to adopt.
it's basically a description of us...pat and i, our kids, our home, and nothing is off-limits.
i'm not nervous.
i know that God has us where we are...so i'm not scared about this part of the process.
i'm going to back up a bit.
for those that are interested in the details.
and tell you what, exactly, we've done so far in this process.
once we decided to adopt, we chose an agency.
this wasn't easy.
my only criteria as i began looking was one that worked in the continent of Africa.
i searched blogs, google, websites.
emailed strangers asking them their experiences.
and we were led to America World Adoption Association.
{did you know that i found out this past weekend at the seminar we went to that the CEO of America World goes to our church?? God...you are so funny! here i think I am doing all this stuff...and You are SO in control :-)}
we met with them in person.
and loved them.
we were given an application to fill out.
it wasn't long.
8 pages.
but we had to put a LOT of important info in that application:
the country we wanted to adopt from, how many kids, the age range, all our financial info, give names of references for them to contact, health info.
it wasn't just "we want to adopt"...you really had to be serious.
and you had to submit $250 with the application.
once that was approved we were sent TONS of attachments in an email.
the majority of it was the "Rwanda Overview Packet"...but there were also some agreements we had to sign and return...with $1500 (our first of 3 payments to our agency for what all that they do).
we had to do this in order for a Family Coordinator to be assigned to us so that we could begin our Home Study.
we weren't doubting anything at this point.
but it was feeling very REAL.
and, remember, God sent a $1500 check in the mail that week.
just a little confirmation to push us along.
we also had to complete an online course that took 8 hours.
{just basic stuff about adoption...the process...the terms...all the transitions...}
we somehow managed to finish it in 1 weekend...during naptimes and after the kids went to bed.
after that we received another phone call {LOVE those phone calls!}
and were officially accepted into the Rwanda program and assigned a sweet girl to help us along.
after the phone call, we were emailed TONS of attachments...about the homestudy, about the dossier, articles we had to read, forms to fill out, agreements to sign...it was VERY overwhelming to me.
but i printed it all out and started organizing.
and filling out.
and it slowly became manageable.
none of it is HARD...it's just tedious.
we have 22 items that we need to gather to be a part of our homestudy.
things like:
*a form of every place we've lived
*marriage license
*birth certificates
*medical forms for Pat and I (we have to go get physicals) and medical forms for each kid (they each have to get new TB tests!)
*FBI clearance...with fingerprints
*State police clearance
*Child Protective Services clearance
*Employment letter
*and we have to each write an autobiography (can i just give them my blog address?? :-))
we've submitted maybe half of the paperwork so far.
and another big check.
and i feel like i've been working so HARD!
we need to get fingerprinted and physicals done.
once we get ALL our paperwork in, they will move on to Visits #2, #3 and #4 of the homestudy.
Visit #2 is with our whole family. at our house.
Visit #3 is with Pat and I. individually. at our house.
and Visit #4 is basically the social worker presenting us with our completed homestudy and us signing it.
so...we have lots of work ahead of us.
the ball is in our court right now...finish the paperwork for the homestudy.
but we're ready to take it on.
there were 3 other couples at the homestudy last night.
each of us were adopting from different countries.
it was so neat to hear how God works so clearly in such different ways in each person's life!
this journey is amazing.
i'm in awe of Him.
we have to have 4 meetings with our social worker as part of our homestudy.
then our social worker will put together the homestudy that will be submitted to our government to give us permission to adopt.
it's basically a description of us...pat and i, our kids, our home, and nothing is off-limits.
i'm not nervous.
i know that God has us where we are...so i'm not scared about this part of the process.
i'm going to back up a bit.
for those that are interested in the details.
and tell you what, exactly, we've done so far in this process.
once we decided to adopt, we chose an agency.
this wasn't easy.
my only criteria as i began looking was one that worked in the continent of Africa.
i searched blogs, google, websites.
emailed strangers asking them their experiences.
and we were led to America World Adoption Association.
{did you know that i found out this past weekend at the seminar we went to that the CEO of America World goes to our church?? God...you are so funny! here i think I am doing all this stuff...and You are SO in control :-)}
we met with them in person.
and loved them.
we were given an application to fill out.
it wasn't long.
8 pages.
but we had to put a LOT of important info in that application:
the country we wanted to adopt from, how many kids, the age range, all our financial info, give names of references for them to contact, health info.
it wasn't just "we want to adopt"...you really had to be serious.
and you had to submit $250 with the application.
once that was approved we were sent TONS of attachments in an email.
the majority of it was the "Rwanda Overview Packet"...but there were also some agreements we had to sign and return...with $1500 (our first of 3 payments to our agency for what all that they do).
we had to do this in order for a Family Coordinator to be assigned to us so that we could begin our Home Study.
we weren't doubting anything at this point.
but it was feeling very REAL.
and, remember, God sent a $1500 check in the mail that week.
just a little confirmation to push us along.
we also had to complete an online course that took 8 hours.
{just basic stuff about adoption...the process...the terms...all the transitions...}
we somehow managed to finish it in 1 weekend...during naptimes and after the kids went to bed.
after that we received another phone call {LOVE those phone calls!}
and were officially accepted into the Rwanda program and assigned a sweet girl to help us along.
after the phone call, we were emailed TONS of attachments...about the homestudy, about the dossier, articles we had to read, forms to fill out, agreements to sign...it was VERY overwhelming to me.
but i printed it all out and started organizing.
and filling out.
and it slowly became manageable.
none of it is HARD...it's just tedious.
we have 22 items that we need to gather to be a part of our homestudy.
things like:
*a form of every place we've lived
*marriage license
*birth certificates
*medical forms for Pat and I (we have to go get physicals) and medical forms for each kid (they each have to get new TB tests!)
*FBI clearance...with fingerprints
*State police clearance
*Child Protective Services clearance
*Employment letter
*and we have to each write an autobiography (can i just give them my blog address?? :-))
we've submitted maybe half of the paperwork so far.
and another big check.
and i feel like i've been working so HARD!
we need to get fingerprinted and physicals done.
once we get ALL our paperwork in, they will move on to Visits #2, #3 and #4 of the homestudy.
Visit #2 is with our whole family. at our house.
Visit #3 is with Pat and I. individually. at our house.
and Visit #4 is basically the social worker presenting us with our completed homestudy and us signing it.
so...we have lots of work ahead of us.
the ball is in our court right now...finish the paperwork for the homestudy.
but we're ready to take it on.
there were 3 other couples at the homestudy last night.
each of us were adopting from different countries.
it was so neat to hear how God works so clearly in such different ways in each person's life!
this journey is amazing.
i'm in awe of Him.
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