Tonight we completed our 2nd home study visit with our social worker. Only one more visit to go and she'll be able to finalize her report!! Today she interviewed Rob and me separately and it was more like an informal conversation than a tense interview. She said that we had been so thorough in our answers on our autobiographical form that she already feels comfortable approving us. She is just the nicest person you'd ever hope to meet. We can't help but feel God's hand in all of this. Throughout this entire process, it's as if He's directing our path and putting us in touch with the right people.
We only have a couple more documents to turn in to our social worker and those are the septic tank inspection letter, our certificate of completion for our online adoption course and Grandmother's medical report form (still haven't heard if her doctor’s office is gonna try to charge $25 to fill out that form....THE NERVE!!! I'm holding out hope that it will miraculously arrive in the mail. We'll see). We meet with our social worker again in two weeks and then we can cross the home study off the list. WOOHOO!!
This week we're also submitting our I-600A form which is required by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service in order for us to be approved by the U.S. government to adopt children internationally and bring them back to the U.S. The fee for that is $755.00 ($545 application fee plus $70 per person for FBI fingerprints) so "ker-ching" [that’s the sound of more money flying out the window].
After sending in the I-600A, we’ll receive a letter in a few weeks telling us the day of our FBI fingerprinting appointment. Every person living in our household will have to be fingerprinted so that means Grandmother too. Not sure how that will work just yet. On long outings we usually take her wheelchair which makes things easier in some ways but more difficult in others. I'm not the best at navigating that contraption and have even come close to dumping my poor Grandmother out onto the pavement whenever there's the slightest bump in our path. A lot of it I’m sure is my fault because I walk really fast and push her a million miles an hour. I admit I need to work on that, but it's partly the chair's fault too. Even the tiniest pebble in our path will jam the wheels, causing the chair to come to an abrupt stop while I'm pushing her at warp speed. Not a good situation. Grandmother is a good sport though and just goes along for the ride, however bumpy it may be. :-)
Yesterday, we scheduled dental appointments in July for Rob, me, Olegs and Kristine to get our teeth cleaned. One thing we learned about Latvia is that most dental offices don’t use novocaine. Can you imagine getting a filling without novocaine??!! Since the kids are most likely frightened of the dentist, we thought it would be a good idea if we all went together so they could see us get our teeth cleaned first. They’ll probably need a filling or two so we’ll have to coordinate a translator to explain to them that things are much different here and it won’t be painful. Luckily, our dentist, Dr. Stephen Hutchins in Canton, is extremely gentle so his fillings are never painful at all. If you live in our area and need a good dentist, he is WONDERFUL! Once the kids learn about laughing gas, I have a feeling they’ll be wanting to go to the dentist every day. I know I love that stuff. I even tried to schedule an appointment for a “laughing gas treatment” but unfortunately they wouldn’t help me out with that. Oh well. LOL!
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Sunday, May 28, 2006
5/28 - Still Pluggin' Away
Things are quiet this afternoon. Winston is asleep at my feet, Grandmother is doing her laps back and forth on the porch and Rob is downstairs on the couch recuperating from a softball injury he sustained during last Monday night’s game. Seems he got a little overzealous in an attempt to make one of his diving plays and wound up hitting the rock hard Georgia clay on his way down, cracking his rib in the process. So needless to say he’s been in some intense pain for the last few days, so it’s good that we have this long holiday weekend for him to get some much needed rest. He just had to go through one of those realizations that we all must experience at some point. Even though we may feel in our hearts and minds that we can play sports like 20-year-olds, our bodies will always let us know otherwise. In my case, it's usually bruises sustained from bumping into furniture or tripping down stairs. Not much you can do except pick yourself up, hold your head up high, put a smile on your face and keep on moving forward through this journey called life.
Last week, we turned in our money to cover the airfare for Olegs’ & Kristine’s trip from Latvia, which came to about $2,300.00. The total fee to host them is $3,120.00 so airfare makes up the bulk of the hosting fees. The children now know that they are coming and have most likely seen a picture of us. We can’t help but wonder what they must be thinking about taking this huge trip to the United States. We’re allowed to write to them now, so Rob and I plan to send them a letter and some fun pictures of us with the animals. One of our friends let us borrow her Latvian picture dictionary so we could make flash cards to help the children with their English. We also found out about a neat website where you can actually listen to the pronunciation of Latvian words. In addition to the flash cards, we’re gonna also stock up on post-it notes so we can label things around the house.
This Wednesday we’ll have our second home study visit from our social worker. During this meeting, she’s supposed to interview Rob and me separately just to talk more about our individual backgrounds and our plans for raising our children. Thankfully, our social worker is a super nice person and we have nothing to hide so we’re not concerned. We’re still working on gathering some more of the paperwork she’ll need. Rob and I already got our medical reports completed, but now we're waiting for Grandmother's doctor to complete hers. I dropped Grandmother’s form off at her doctor’s office last week and they had the nerve to tell me that their office charges $25.00 to fill out a form!!!! I’m hoping they’ll find it in their hearts to waive this fee. The lady who handles the form processing is gonna see what she can do to help us out. Then there are the employment letters we need to get. I have to get one from my company and then Rob will have to have our accountant do one for him since he is self-employed. They just have to say how long we've been at our jobs, what our positions are and how much we make. These things aren’t necessarily difficult. It just takes time to gather certain documents.
In the next couple of weeks we’re gonna get back to focusing on our fundraising efforts. Our garage is overflowing with items we plan to sell at our next garage sale. Looks like our next garage/bake sale fundraiser will be on June 10th or 17th. We'll post the exact date once we know for sure. I think we’ve sufficiently recovered from the last sale so we’re ready to do it again. So many of you have already donated items for us to sell and still more of you have said you’ll be dropping things off!! We can’t thank you enough!! We'll be needing a bunch of tables this time, so if any of you have tables you wouldn't mind loaning us for the sale, please let us know. Also, I can’t forget to thank those of you who placed Mary Kay orders this past week so we can continue to add those profits to our adoption fund.
That’s about it for now. Hope you all enjoy the beautiful Memorial Day weekend and don't forget to fly your flags tomorrow in support of our veterans!
Last week, we turned in our money to cover the airfare for Olegs’ & Kristine’s trip from Latvia, which came to about $2,300.00. The total fee to host them is $3,120.00 so airfare makes up the bulk of the hosting fees. The children now know that they are coming and have most likely seen a picture of us. We can’t help but wonder what they must be thinking about taking this huge trip to the United States. We’re allowed to write to them now, so Rob and I plan to send them a letter and some fun pictures of us with the animals. One of our friends let us borrow her Latvian picture dictionary so we could make flash cards to help the children with their English. We also found out about a neat website where you can actually listen to the pronunciation of Latvian words. In addition to the flash cards, we’re gonna also stock up on post-it notes so we can label things around the house.
This Wednesday we’ll have our second home study visit from our social worker. During this meeting, she’s supposed to interview Rob and me separately just to talk more about our individual backgrounds and our plans for raising our children. Thankfully, our social worker is a super nice person and we have nothing to hide so we’re not concerned. We’re still working on gathering some more of the paperwork she’ll need. Rob and I already got our medical reports completed, but now we're waiting for Grandmother's doctor to complete hers. I dropped Grandmother’s form off at her doctor’s office last week and they had the nerve to tell me that their office charges $25.00 to fill out a form!!!! I’m hoping they’ll find it in their hearts to waive this fee. The lady who handles the form processing is gonna see what she can do to help us out. Then there are the employment letters we need to get. I have to get one from my company and then Rob will have to have our accountant do one for him since he is self-employed. They just have to say how long we've been at our jobs, what our positions are and how much we make. These things aren’t necessarily difficult. It just takes time to gather certain documents.
In the next couple of weeks we’re gonna get back to focusing on our fundraising efforts. Our garage is overflowing with items we plan to sell at our next garage sale. Looks like our next garage/bake sale fundraiser will be on June 10th or 17th. We'll post the exact date once we know for sure. I think we’ve sufficiently recovered from the last sale so we’re ready to do it again. So many of you have already donated items for us to sell and still more of you have said you’ll be dropping things off!! We can’t thank you enough!! We'll be needing a bunch of tables this time, so if any of you have tables you wouldn't mind loaning us for the sale, please let us know. Also, I can’t forget to thank those of you who placed Mary Kay orders this past week so we can continue to add those profits to our adoption fund.
That’s about it for now. Hope you all enjoy the beautiful Memorial Day weekend and don't forget to fly your flags tomorrow in support of our veterans!
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
5/17 - Adoption Home Study Under Way
This evening we had our first adoption home study visit by our social worker. This is the first of three visits she'll make to our house before she writes her report. We were instantly put at ease when we met her as she turned out to be the most friendly and kind person. We had imagined some big rough and tough woman that was gonna tell us we were doing everything wrong. We got exactly the opposite!! She went out of her way to make us feel at ease. We'd spent days and days cleaning like mad so we'd be prepared for her to look in every nook and cranny of our house. She just did a walk through and thankfully didn't need to look through our drawers and cabinets. We were prepared just in case though.
The animals acted up a little bit as usual. I guess it's good practice for dealing with misbehaving kids, right? Midnight, our dear sweet Midnight, was his usual annoying self and jumped on the table and strolled right across the papers we were reviewing with the social worker. Ugghh! That was when we found out the social worker is allergic to cats...[sigh]!! We locked Midnight away upstairs for some much needed quiet time so we could continue with our discussion. Next, there was Winston, our black lab puppy, who barked and whined for attention every few minutes which was mildy distracting while it lasted. Then there was Mickey, our drama king, who appeared a couple of times to let out a bloodcurdling death howl which is his way of communicating that he's starving to death. Don't feel sorry for him though...he always thinks he's dying from starvation even though he has an endless supply of food. I guess our most well behaved feline "child" was Maverick who didn't make a sound. That's only because he's scared to death of anything and everything and was probably hiding under Grandmother's bed.
We introduced the social worker to Grandmother who immediately began telling her "cat suit" story before introducing the poor woman to her talking prayer doll, the Precious Moments angel doll that says a prayer when you press her belly. It's actually a sweet doll but the sweetness wears off when you hear it TWENTY GAZILLION times a day!! Whenever Grandmother gets out the doll to pray with people, Rob and I affectionately refer to it as getting "prayer dolled." Rob and I have been prayer dolled many, many times...so much that we now disappear faster than David Copperfield whenever anyone even goes near that doll or the two other prayer dolls she has. Yes folks, she has an entire prayer doll family!!! We are all for the idea of praying, but can't we just do it without all the dolls? Dolls and clowns have always kind of creeped me out anyway. LOL! Grandmother chatted and chatted with the social worker and fell in love with her...that's a good thing except now she thinks the social worker is a new friend who's gonna start coming over all the time to visit with her. What do I know? Maybe she will.
Tonight's meeting was basically an orientation to go over the documents we've already submitted and to discuss the additional documents we'll need to provide. Basically, so far we've had to provide copies of our birth certificates, marriage certificate, medical reports, various releases for background checks and a down payment of $600 (1/2 of the home study fee). Among the items we still need to gather are reference letters from our family members, pet vaccination records, employment verification letters, financial forms, etc. We'll also need to take an online adoption preparation course which shouldn't be too bad.
It's just such a relief to know that the home study is nothing to worry about now. Many times the pictures we create in our minds turn out to be ten times worse than the actual experience. Luckily, that appears to be the case with the home study. Our next meeting is in a couple of weeks so we'll keep you posted.
Another bit of good news is that I got my time off from work approved and I didn't even have to resort to crying. :-) Thankfully, my managers were extremely accommodating. I'll be taking about 15 days off during the hosting and will work 1-2 days per week depending on the week. Rob will be able to be with the kids on the days I have to work and then a couple of the other host families have volunteered to act as backups if we get in a bind. It's a good feeling to have that covered now too.
It's so exciting that everything is actually coming together. We expect there to be glitches along the way as we move towards the adoption phase of this, but so far things are moving so smoothly that it's a little scary. No, I take that back, it's not scary. More like divine intervention at work behind the scenes.
The animals acted up a little bit as usual. I guess it's good practice for dealing with misbehaving kids, right? Midnight, our dear sweet Midnight, was his usual annoying self and jumped on the table and strolled right across the papers we were reviewing with the social worker. Ugghh! That was when we found out the social worker is allergic to cats...[sigh]!! We locked Midnight away upstairs for some much needed quiet time so we could continue with our discussion. Next, there was Winston, our black lab puppy, who barked and whined for attention every few minutes which was mildy distracting while it lasted. Then there was Mickey, our drama king, who appeared a couple of times to let out a bloodcurdling death howl which is his way of communicating that he's starving to death. Don't feel sorry for him though...he always thinks he's dying from starvation even though he has an endless supply of food. I guess our most well behaved feline "child" was Maverick who didn't make a sound. That's only because he's scared to death of anything and everything and was probably hiding under Grandmother's bed.
We introduced the social worker to Grandmother who immediately began telling her "cat suit" story before introducing the poor woman to her talking prayer doll, the Precious Moments angel doll that says a prayer when you press her belly. It's actually a sweet doll but the sweetness wears off when you hear it TWENTY GAZILLION times a day!! Whenever Grandmother gets out the doll to pray with people, Rob and I affectionately refer to it as getting "prayer dolled." Rob and I have been prayer dolled many, many times...so much that we now disappear faster than David Copperfield whenever anyone even goes near that doll or the two other prayer dolls she has. Yes folks, she has an entire prayer doll family!!! We are all for the idea of praying, but can't we just do it without all the dolls? Dolls and clowns have always kind of creeped me out anyway. LOL! Grandmother chatted and chatted with the social worker and fell in love with her...that's a good thing except now she thinks the social worker is a new friend who's gonna start coming over all the time to visit with her. What do I know? Maybe she will.
Tonight's meeting was basically an orientation to go over the documents we've already submitted and to discuss the additional documents we'll need to provide. Basically, so far we've had to provide copies of our birth certificates, marriage certificate, medical reports, various releases for background checks and a down payment of $600 (1/2 of the home study fee). Among the items we still need to gather are reference letters from our family members, pet vaccination records, employment verification letters, financial forms, etc. We'll also need to take an online adoption preparation course which shouldn't be too bad.
It's just such a relief to know that the home study is nothing to worry about now. Many times the pictures we create in our minds turn out to be ten times worse than the actual experience. Luckily, that appears to be the case with the home study. Our next meeting is in a couple of weeks so we'll keep you posted.
Another bit of good news is that I got my time off from work approved and I didn't even have to resort to crying. :-) Thankfully, my managers were extremely accommodating. I'll be taking about 15 days off during the hosting and will work 1-2 days per week depending on the week. Rob will be able to be with the kids on the days I have to work and then a couple of the other host families have volunteered to act as backups if we get in a bind. It's a good feeling to have that covered now too.
It's so exciting that everything is actually coming together. We expect there to be glitches along the way as we move towards the adoption phase of this, but so far things are moving so smoothly that it's a little scary. No, I take that back, it's not scary. More like divine intervention at work behind the scenes.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
5/14 - A Mother's Day to Remember
Do you ever have those days where you wish you could suspend time and live in a moment forever? Today we celebrated Mother's Day by taking Grandmother to brunch at Red Top Mountain lodge. That's become one of her favorite places and Rob and I have been so busy lately that it's been far too long since we've taken her there.Today we decided to put everything else aside and just spend the day with Grandmother. At brunch we enjoyed a smorgasbord of omelets, waffles, pork tenderloin, ham, stuffed chicken breast, various vegetables and a vast selection of desserts until we were so stuffed we could hardly move.
We were able to muster up enough strength after our meal to take a stroll on the trail that winds down by Lake Allatoona. It's a beautiful scene and it's always fun to greet the many puppies and their owners along the way. We weren't brave enough to bring ours on this outing because he's too much of a handful right now but someday soon we'll give it a try.
We spotted an empty bench right down by the lake's edge and stopped there to take a rest. Grandmother was so sweet as she took everything in. The wind was blowing through her hair and the sun was shining on her face as she just smiled and breathed in the fresh air. We chuckled as we watched a little boy fishing on the bank and splashing around so much that we knew all the fish were long gone, but he kept on trying nevertheless. Then there were the pair of geese honking loudly as they swam across the glistening lake. It was just special to see things through her eyes. She was just so thankful to be there and we were so glad that we had the opportunity to bring her. That moment just reminded us how important it is to stop and enjoy the beautiful world around us. Sometimes we get so busy that we spend all of our time rushing to be places and get things done. Grandmother is constantly saying how there is beauty all around us if we could just stop and enjoy it. She's so right!
I hope all of you mothers had a special day today too. I look forward to joining your ranks very soon!
Friday, May 12, 2006
5/12 - Orientation & Mini Home Study Done!
We’ve had a few things happen this past week. Last weekend we finished our hosting orientation meetings and missions training. We had to attend missions training because hosting is actually considered a mission. It’s good that we got that extra training under our belts because it’s required if we ever decide to travel to Latvia with one of the mission teams to help select children for a future hosting. That’s way down the road though. Right now, we’re getting ready for Olegs and Kristine who will be here June 27th!! Oh, we found out that they both had birthdays recently so they are each 11-years old now.
Yesterday morning, we had our carpet installed in the basement so that was a big accomplishment. We still need to paint the baseboards and doors but once that's done it'll be perfect. It's great to now have some extra living space we'll be able to utilize with kids in the house.
We had our mini home study (the one for the hosting) last night which was pretty painless. The social worker was very nice, asked us a few questions and took pictures of various rooms of the house. Of course, our animals always have to make themselves the center of attention so last night’s star of the evening was our cat, Midnight. The art of being annoying is his specialty. He repeatedly jumped on the social worker and put his tail in her face so she’d have to stop our interview every few seconds to shoo the dummy away!! She seemed to take it all in stride though. Next we took the social worker out on our back deck so she could see our backyard. As we were coming back inside, Mario, our outside cat, got his share of attention by plopping himself in front of the door as we were trying to go back inside. That was much easier to ignore. We simply stepped over his fat belly and kept going.
We also introduced the social worker to Grandmother who gave her the tour of her room, telling her the life history of each and every family member whose pictures are displayed on her bookcase. Those of you who know Grandmother know that she can tell those never ending stories that have many tangents which never seem to relate back to the original story…just one of her many endearing traits. Rob and I chuckled when the social worker asked Grandmother if she was excited about the children coming. Grandmother thought she was asking about her children at which point she guided her over to my dad’s picture and began to tell the story of her younger days when she was raising her son. Oh and she just had to tell her favorite story about how she's waiting for us to get her a cat suit so she can become one of the cats. Don't ask! That's actually her version of a joke but you should see the puzzled looks on people's faces when she tells that one. Too funny!
Yesterday morning, we had our carpet installed in the basement so that was a big accomplishment. We still need to paint the baseboards and doors but once that's done it'll be perfect. It's great to now have some extra living space we'll be able to utilize with kids in the house.
We had our mini home study (the one for the hosting) last night which was pretty painless. The social worker was very nice, asked us a few questions and took pictures of various rooms of the house. Of course, our animals always have to make themselves the center of attention so last night’s star of the evening was our cat, Midnight. The art of being annoying is his specialty. He repeatedly jumped on the social worker and put his tail in her face so she’d have to stop our interview every few seconds to shoo the dummy away!! She seemed to take it all in stride though. Next we took the social worker out on our back deck so she could see our backyard. As we were coming back inside, Mario, our outside cat, got his share of attention by plopping himself in front of the door as we were trying to go back inside. That was much easier to ignore. We simply stepped over his fat belly and kept going.
We also introduced the social worker to Grandmother who gave her the tour of her room, telling her the life history of each and every family member whose pictures are displayed on her bookcase. Those of you who know Grandmother know that she can tell those never ending stories that have many tangents which never seem to relate back to the original story…just one of her many endearing traits. Rob and I chuckled when the social worker asked Grandmother if she was excited about the children coming. Grandmother thought she was asking about her children at which point she guided her over to my dad’s picture and began to tell the story of her younger days when she was raising her son. Oh and she just had to tell her favorite story about how she's waiting for us to get her a cat suit so she can become one of the cats. Don't ask! That's actually her version of a joke but you should see the puzzled looks on people's faces when she tells that one. Too funny!
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
5/2 - Things Are Moving Right Along
Well, we sent in our initial home study paperwork last week and had been waiting to hear from the home study agency to find out the next steps. Yesterday, we got a call from them telling us the name of the social worker assigned to do our home study. YIKES!! Now the panic is setting in!!! We've gotta get our house in tip top shape and SOON!! We're shifting gears now to work on painting the basement and having carpet installed down there so we'll have more living space. Oh yeah, we still need to get beds for the children!!
We also had our first hosting orientation meetings this week and got to meet some of the other host families. It's neat to hear about the paths that others traveled to arrive at the same place we did. Who knows...maybe some of us will wind up traveling to Latvia together for adoption court dates. That would be too cool! I can't think too far ahead though or I get stressed, so back to our projects at hand. I need to remember we're focusing on the hosting right now.
We learned all kinds of interesting tidbits about the children like some will speak Latvian, others will speak Russian or both. Many of them get car sick when riding in cars, so we'll need to have baggies on hand for them when driving around. They probably won't like our fast food, but most love chicken cooked just about any way. Families who hosted before told us to have lots of fruit on hand because the children will eat it by the pound since they don't get much fruit in Latvia. Most of the children only own two outfits: a dress outfit and a play outfit. We'll need to be careful not to go overboard and buy them too many things while they're here. We will, of course, get them a couple of outfits and some toys but if we do too much it gives them the wrong impression that this is what America is all about. We were reminded that the purpose of this program is to give them the sense of what it's like to live in a Christian family and to basically, love them unconditionally.
This week, we're also sending away for our vital records (apostilled birth/marriage certificates) from Florida to be used in our dossier. I'm told that those documents won't expire so that's one thing we can do now and cross off the list. Many things expire within a year so we have to wait until we're absolutely positive we're adopting to do those things. We're so thankful to have met new friends who have already traveled this path before us. All of the adoptive parents we've met have offered so much valuable advice and they're all so eager to help guide us through the maze of paperwork and red tape. Rob and I have no doubt that divine intervention guided us towards hosting and adoption.
It's starting to hit us that the children will be here before we know it. Now that it's May, that means they'll be here next month!! YIKES!! Now I need to figure out how I'm gonna tell my boss I need to take a big chunk of vacation soon. We'll worry about that later. :-)
We also had our first hosting orientation meetings this week and got to meet some of the other host families. It's neat to hear about the paths that others traveled to arrive at the same place we did. Who knows...maybe some of us will wind up traveling to Latvia together for adoption court dates. That would be too cool! I can't think too far ahead though or I get stressed, so back to our projects at hand. I need to remember we're focusing on the hosting right now.
We learned all kinds of interesting tidbits about the children like some will speak Latvian, others will speak Russian or both. Many of them get car sick when riding in cars, so we'll need to have baggies on hand for them when driving around. They probably won't like our fast food, but most love chicken cooked just about any way. Families who hosted before told us to have lots of fruit on hand because the children will eat it by the pound since they don't get much fruit in Latvia. Most of the children only own two outfits: a dress outfit and a play outfit. We'll need to be careful not to go overboard and buy them too many things while they're here. We will, of course, get them a couple of outfits and some toys but if we do too much it gives them the wrong impression that this is what America is all about. We were reminded that the purpose of this program is to give them the sense of what it's like to live in a Christian family and to basically, love them unconditionally.
This week, we're also sending away for our vital records (apostilled birth/marriage certificates) from Florida to be used in our dossier. I'm told that those documents won't expire so that's one thing we can do now and cross off the list. Many things expire within a year so we have to wait until we're absolutely positive we're adopting to do those things. We're so thankful to have met new friends who have already traveled this path before us. All of the adoptive parents we've met have offered so much valuable advice and they're all so eager to help guide us through the maze of paperwork and red tape. Rob and I have no doubt that divine intervention guided us towards hosting and adoption.
It's starting to hit us that the children will be here before we know it. Now that it's May, that means they'll be here next month!! YIKES!! Now I need to figure out how I'm gonna tell my boss I need to take a big chunk of vacation soon. We'll worry about that later. :-)
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