We've been pretty busy since my last post! Fundraising has been going amazingly well thanks to the help of my mom and my awesome friend, Courtney! Together the 3 of us have sold over 50 scarves and counting! (Well technically 4 of us because, Charlie, Courtney's husband has helped sell them too!) It's been a lot of work and a lot of fun. A huge thank you to everyone and anyone that has bought a scarf. We truly have an amazing support system of friends and family! Courtney and I are actually trying to make up a few different items, as well, to sell at a craft fair in April. I've also started making some different patterned scarves and I'm using a new material that is jersey knit, like t-shirt material. I'll post some pics soon!
We have also been prepping our home to add another little one...we've been cleaning up the basement by sorting out garage sale items, lots of purging, and organizing. We are making great progress! Also in line with prepping the house, we've been cleaning out the spare bedroom...and by cleaning out I simply mean selling the current furniture and prepping what used to be Cooper's crib, then toddler bed. We have to take a picture of the room to include in our dossier.
Speaking of our dossier, we are getting closer! We've both already met with the psychologist and will meet with him in a couple of weeks to go over his report. We have all of our certified documents, we have all but one reference letter back, all medical forms completed, and our police clearance letter. We still have a couple of questionnaires to finish and the pictures to put together and then we just need our home study report to add! Just today I spoke with our social worker and scheduled our meetings with her!! It's so exciting for us to be getting closer to "The Wait"! (Waiting to be matched with our child!)
So as silly as this sounds, I have to say that I'm thankful for movies like Despicable Me and Meet the Robinsons. It has really helped Cooper grasp the whole idea of adoption even better. Just the other day I mentioned something about our social worker and Cooper says, "Is she going to make sure our home is suitable for children?" I couldn't help but laugh because that is directly from one of the short films on the Despicable Me DVD! Kind of makes me think God can use anything to teach us if we listen!
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Saturday, January 19, 2013
We Have a Psychologist & Let the Fundraising Begin!
We are continuing to make progress! Our criminal checks from Pennsylvania and Nebraska are in and all but one of our reference questionnaires! That means we will be able to start our home study interviews very very soon!!
These are the knitted scarves:
Please get in touch with me if you would like any or have any questions! Of course if you would simply like to donate money at anytime we would be so blessed and honored by your support! Thanks again for all your prayer and support!
On the dossier front we are making very nice progress as well! We received our certified copies of our marriage lisence, one of our church reference letters, our "Guardian's Letter of Acceptance" (if anything were to happen to us the guardian's of our children have to say that they would accept our adopted child and are in support of the adoption), and Jonathan's boss' reference letter! Most importantly...we found a Psychologist! And awesomely enough we got an appointment for Monday already! Even more favor! Things are definitely coming together!
So I've been saying that I'm going to have a fundraiser and I'd post some pictures...here it is...
I'm making and selling infinity scarves and my sweet friend, Courtney, is knitting scarves as well. All scarves are $20 and all proceeds go towards our adoption fees. I can make scarves out of almost any fabric (as long as its wide and long enough) so the options are endless. If you don't see one you like I can always do something to fit you better. These are the infinity scarves I'm making:
Here are the patterns up close and what it looks like on...
These are the knitted scarves:
Please get in touch with me if you would like any or have any questions! Of course if you would simply like to donate money at anytime we would be so blessed and honored by your support! Thanks again for all your prayer and support!
Friday, January 11, 2013
We Have a Social Worker!
It has been another successful week! First and most importantly, we received our Home Study invoice...I've never been so excited to receive a bill before! LOL! Basically our invoice is prepayment for our home study interviews and the home study report that will be part of our dossier to the Philippines. With the invoice we found out who our social worker is and we are so excited that it is the same social worker who taught our classes last weekend! She has such an amazing heart and we are thrilled to go through this journey with her by our side. She just went to the Philippines in October as part of an ambassador program for our agency. They become ambassadors for older children that need forever families. Now she is working to adopt two of those children herself!
We still haven't found a psychologist that can perform both of the evaluations we need BUT in the process of looking, we found out that our health insurance will cover all the time we need with an in-network psychologist and we only have to pay a $30 copay! This is a major answer to prayer as we were expecting to have to pay it out-of-pocket which is very expensive.
I was also able to get a phone number for someone at our sheriff's office to help us get our police clearance letter. A dad at our the boys' preschool is a sheriff, so he gave us the phone number. The Captain that I got a hold of is being so helpful and is ensuring the day we come into the office to get it that either he or one of his Lieutenants will be there and ready to assist us. We talked on the phone for about 5 minutes just "chatting". Yet another example of the favor that God has given us in this process!!
Our dossier is coming along and references and other documents are slowly starting to trickle in! We are already learning so much from this journey...every step requires faith and complete trust in God! I hope by next week to have some pictures of what I'm making for a fundraiser...I'm excited to see what everyone thinks. Thanks so much for your prayer and support!
In Him,
Alaina
We still haven't found a psychologist that can perform both of the evaluations we need BUT in the process of looking, we found out that our health insurance will cover all the time we need with an in-network psychologist and we only have to pay a $30 copay! This is a major answer to prayer as we were expecting to have to pay it out-of-pocket which is very expensive.
I was also able to get a phone number for someone at our sheriff's office to help us get our police clearance letter. A dad at our the boys' preschool is a sheriff, so he gave us the phone number. The Captain that I got a hold of is being so helpful and is ensuring the day we come into the office to get it that either he or one of his Lieutenants will be there and ready to assist us. We talked on the phone for about 5 minutes just "chatting". Yet another example of the favor that God has given us in this process!!
Our dossier is coming along and references and other documents are slowly starting to trickle in! We are already learning so much from this journey...every step requires faith and complete trust in God! I hope by next week to have some pictures of what I'm making for a fundraiser...I'm excited to see what everyone thinks. Thanks so much for your prayer and support!
In Him,
Alaina
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Making Progress
We have had a very successful past few days! We had a couple of mini-miracles that I can't really give details about but have been major wins for us and have just continued to show us God's favor and grace!
We have completed the last of our current paperwork for our home study!! We also learned that all of our background checks have come in except for Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and our criminal checks for Nebraska (with FBI fingerprinting). Yesterday and today we took a "Parents in Process" class at our agency's local branch office that had to be completed before we can start the next steps. They were great classes that helped us to start preparing our hearts and minds for what is ahead of us and becoming a multi-cultural family. It was also an awesome opportunity to meet with a local social worker and 5 other families in the process. We are excited to continue building those relationships in the future as we met a lot of really great people. Lastly, we are still waiting for 3 of our 4 references to complete their questionnaires and then we can start our home study interviews!! It's very exciting!
We are making progress on our dossier as well. We have ordered extra copies of our birth certificates and marriage certificate (we need 2 or 3 certified copies of each!) We put out requests to our current church and our past church in Ohio for our pastoral references and to our bosses for our employer references.
We've also been trying to track down a psychologist or psychiatrist that can complete our psychological evaluations. We've had multiple references from our church but so far none of them do both of the tests we need to have completed. Please keep in your prayers that we will not just find one but the right one! We may have to spend quite a bit of time on this so we are believing it will be another person that God puts in our path for a reason.
Hopefully my next update will be that we have a social worker assigned and are starting our interviews! I have a fundraiser coming up that I'll share too once I get some made and can show some pictures. Thanks for all the prayers and support!
We have completed the last of our current paperwork for our home study!! We also learned that all of our background checks have come in except for Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and our criminal checks for Nebraska (with FBI fingerprinting). Yesterday and today we took a "Parents in Process" class at our agency's local branch office that had to be completed before we can start the next steps. They were great classes that helped us to start preparing our hearts and minds for what is ahead of us and becoming a multi-cultural family. It was also an awesome opportunity to meet with a local social worker and 5 other families in the process. We are excited to continue building those relationships in the future as we met a lot of really great people. Lastly, we are still waiting for 3 of our 4 references to complete their questionnaires and then we can start our home study interviews!! It's very exciting!
We are making progress on our dossier as well. We have ordered extra copies of our birth certificates and marriage certificate (we need 2 or 3 certified copies of each!) We put out requests to our current church and our past church in Ohio for our pastoral references and to our bosses for our employer references.
We've also been trying to track down a psychologist or psychiatrist that can complete our psychological evaluations. We've had multiple references from our church but so far none of them do both of the tests we need to have completed. Please keep in your prayers that we will not just find one but the right one! We may have to spend quite a bit of time on this so we are believing it will be another person that God puts in our path for a reason.
Hopefully my next update will be that we have a social worker assigned and are starting our interviews! I have a fundraiser coming up that I'll share too once I get some made and can show some pictures. Thanks for all the prayers and support!
Friday, December 28, 2012
You Can Check Off That Box!
It was a very successful day on the adoption front! This morning we were able to get our fingerprinting done at the state patrol office. Let me just tell you how amazing technology is nowadays...as if you didn't already know. I was thinking we were going to go into the office and they would stick our fingers on an ink pad and then on the form...no sir...everything is done on the computer now. I don't know why that surprises me but it does. Then they just print our fingerprints right on the form. They look like the good ole fashion fingerprints when printed off but we didn't have to get all messy. It took about 5 minutes and we were done! We went straight to FedEx and mailed them to Lincoln where they will be run through the FBI database. Maybe I'm so surprised that it's done on computer since they had to be printed and mailed...if its all done on the computer why can't they just run them right there?
Anyway, after that we were off to the doctor's office where we had our physical exams and had blood drawn for our HIV tests. We also had to have TB tests...which is another thing I knew nothing about. So, they take tuberculin and inject it under your skin. It looks like you have a bug under your skin for the first little while. It's kind of creepy looking if you ask me! We go back on Monday to have them read the test...they will look at our arm and if the bump is still there and red then we have TB. If its pretty much clear then we are good to go!
Lastly, we were able to send in our in "Personal Information Data Forms" today, which are 22 page questionnaires that we had to each fill out. They ask you how you feel about your parents, the way you were raised, how you are raising your children, how your marriage is, what you think about the birth parents of the child you will adopt, and just about everything under the sun. But, ours are finished and we are making progress!
Anyway, after that we were off to the doctor's office where we had our physical exams and had blood drawn for our HIV tests. We also had to have TB tests...which is another thing I knew nothing about. So, they take tuberculin and inject it under your skin. It looks like you have a bug under your skin for the first little while. It's kind of creepy looking if you ask me! We go back on Monday to have them read the test...they will look at our arm and if the bump is still there and red then we have TB. If its pretty much clear then we are good to go!
Lastly, we were able to send in our in "Personal Information Data Forms" today, which are 22 page questionnaires that we had to each fill out. They ask you how you feel about your parents, the way you were raised, how you are raising your children, how your marriage is, what you think about the birth parents of the child you will adopt, and just about everything under the sun. But, ours are finished and we are making progress!
Thursday, December 20, 2012
What does the adoption process look like?
It looks like a ton of paperwork to start! I thought I'd post on what we are currently doing to move along in our adoption...we submitted our official application to our agency on Friday, December 7th. Just with the application alone you have to submit a picture of your family and one of your home, your last 3 years of tax returns, the medical checklist (what medical conditions you are willing to accept and how severe), lots of other personal information, and a 12 paged initialed, signed, and notarized adoption agreement.
On a side note...we have lots of little testimonies along the way and I want to share them as they come! This may seem like a small one but we have someone at our work, who we didn't even know before but someone told us her name, who has volunteered to notarize all of our documents through the adoption process for FREE! Seeing that we've already had to have 3 things notarized in the first two weeks, we are feeling truly blessed! It is saving us money and time because she is in the same office building as Jonathan.
So our agency has a local office here in Omaha that will handle our home study and the Philippines program office is in Eugene, Oregon. We have already received lot of paperwork from both offices! Before our home visits can begin we have a lot of things to complete! Here are just a few to give you an idea:
On a side note...we have lots of little testimonies along the way and I want to share them as they come! This may seem like a small one but we have someone at our work, who we didn't even know before but someone told us her name, who has volunteered to notarize all of our documents through the adoption process for FREE! Seeing that we've already had to have 3 things notarized in the first two weeks, we are feeling truly blessed! It is saving us money and time because she is in the same office building as Jonathan.
So our agency has a local office here in Omaha that will handle our home study and the Philippines program office is in Eugene, Oregon. We have already received lot of paperwork from both offices! Before our home visits can begin we have a lot of things to complete! Here are just a few to give you an idea:
- Background checks from every state and country we've lived in since we were 18 (that's 6 for us if you haven't been keeping track of all of our moves!)
- We have to get fingerprinted and have them run through the FBI database
- Lots of agreements and financial statements (how much it will cost for us to adopt...how does $25,000 sound?)
- Financial worksheets (showing how much we make and how much we spend monthly)
- Physicals by our doctor including HIV and TB test results
- References from 4 people not related to us
- Adoption classes (We will be taking these Jan 4 & 5)
- Copies of our birth certificates, marriage certificate, etc., etc., etc.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
And So It Begins...
Well, this is our first blog but we thought we better start one to keep everyone updated on what is going on in our lives...especially since we are going to have a lot of updates coming on our adoption! Yes, for those of you who may not have known, we have started the international adoption process!! We are adopting from the Philippines and couldn't be any more excited about it. I'll try to give a quick background to get everyone caught up on where we are today...
Back in April we really started to feel like it was time to start looking into the process..."looking into" ended up being the start of the process! We really felt like God was leading us down this path and that the timing was right. Almost immediately we ran into a roadblock that had us questioning our timing...the Philippines was not open for adoption of children under the age of 9 unless they have special needs.That definitely seemed too big for us...it's a good thing that nothing is too big for God! God lead us here for a reason and we knew we should proceed. Little did we know, proceeding meant sitting around for 6 months without making any progress...at least that is what we thought!
It ended up that God was doing things behind the scenes and we were informed on December 3rd that the Philippines had opened for adoptions of all ages! They would only be allowing applications from 5 families per adoption agency so we weren't "in" just yet. But by the 7th we had word that we would be one of 5 families from our agency! So, here we are a few days before Christmas and officially starting the adoption process!
Back in April we really started to feel like it was time to start looking into the process..."looking into" ended up being the start of the process! We really felt like God was leading us down this path and that the timing was right. Almost immediately we ran into a roadblock that had us questioning our timing...the Philippines was not open for adoption of children under the age of 9 unless they have special needs.That definitely seemed too big for us...it's a good thing that nothing is too big for God! God lead us here for a reason and we knew we should proceed. Little did we know, proceeding meant sitting around for 6 months without making any progress...at least that is what we thought!
It ended up that God was doing things behind the scenes and we were informed on December 3rd that the Philippines had opened for adoptions of all ages! They would only be allowing applications from 5 families per adoption agency so we weren't "in" just yet. But by the 7th we had word that we would be one of 5 families from our agency! So, here we are a few days before Christmas and officially starting the adoption process!
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