Next Steps...

We’re adopting! We are still very excited at just the thought of it!

So what is our next step? What is the next mountain we need to climb?

First of all, I would like to say that we think we are doing GREAT! In the short time since we started this journey, we have already had some discouraging moments (the first of many, I am sure) but we are marching forward with joy and perseverance.

The first discouragement came in the form of a deadline. The adoption agency we are signed up with wanted $5,500 by March 1^st, for the home study fees ($2,000) and for the initial domestic payment ($3,500). (Eep!) We had no idea that such large sums were going to be due so quickly! We had barely felt any time to bask in the warmth of our impending parenthood! But after some negotiating of timelines with the agency, we managed to rearrange our payment schedule to allow us some time to gather our wits and the funds necessary. We now will pay for the home study when we finish the related paperwork. After the home study is complete (it will take about 3-6 months), we will have to pay the initial domestic payment. So hurrah! We can move forward at a more realistic pace!

Another discouragement was the gigantic stack of home study paperwork that is sitting on the desk at home right now. It doesn’t look all that intimidating at first glance, but then, when you get up close and personal with it, you start seeing the phrase “attach additional pages as necessary.” We have to write as many essays for this home study as we did for a full semester of classes in college! And all “due in thirty days of receipt.” Aghhhh! But once again, a frantic phone call induced the agency to give us an extension and we can move forward at our own pace. We are still in the middle of the stack, but great progress is being made!

“Home study?” you say, “What’s that?” Well, good folks, this is the next mountain we must climb. It is the first of several levels of intense scrutiny that our little family will undergo in order to be approved to adopt a child. We will be poked and prodded, have every detail of our family life gone over with a fine tooth comb, and examined and cross-examined, both as a couple and separately. It will include medical exams, detailed background investigations, and an inspection of our apartment, in addition to answering 1001 questions on our lives, our work, our marriage, our families, our childhoods, our culture, our future hopes and dreams, and what is our favorite flavour of Jelly Belly. While it seems like quite an ordeal, it is necessary to keep children safe from evil people. And since we are not evil people, we should be just fine in the end. The home study will also determine what level and type of special needs that we are equipped to handle.

Thanks to some very generous people and our own miniscule savings account, we almost have enough to pay the home study fee. We hopefully will have the full amount in a paycheck or two more, just in time for when we will have the paperwork finished. Then we will schedule our medical exams and our home study visits and let them fire away with their questions! And yes, it is still very exciting!

Next mountain, fundraising… but more about that later.

Rodopi Mountains, Bulgaria

A little steeper than the mountains we are climbing now!

Thanks for standing with us, folks!

Donate to our adoption fund!