A CHI Picnic in St. Louis 7/15

While at the last Parent Education Meeting we found out the annual nationwide picnic was going to be in St. Louis on 7/15 from 10:30 to 3. Since we already had plans to be in St. Louis this weekend we registered to attend. There were a TON of families there. We sat with a couple with a biological daughter and a daughter adopted from Russia. We also saw Dr. Baysa-Ng and her family there (who had recommended CHI to us) as well as Nikki, our social worker. There was a puppet show that Shawn really enjoyed as well. It was really hot so it was great that the whole event was indoors. Here is Shawn and Daddy sitting watching the puppet show.

First Educational Meeting 7/10

Well we went to our first educational meeting tonight. A speaker talked about some of the issues adopted children encounter in development once they come home. A lot of it was similar to things we learned with our foster care training, but the best part was that we got to meet other families that are adopting from Vietnam too. We didn't realize, but child care was provided and of the three other couples we met who are adopting from Vietnam all of them had children less than a year older than Shawn. It'd be wonderful if we are able to start and maintain friendships with other local families whose children will all be around the same age. Next time we will bring Shawn so he can play with the other potential adoptive siblings.

Home Study meetings 6/27, 6/28, 6/29

Well we dove right in with the home studies. We had given Nikki our autobiographies and at our home study meetings she asked us more questions to further understand what we had written. We also got her copies of lots of necessary things, like passport photos, 1040 from last year, financial statements, and birth certs, marriage certificates, etc.Outside of the home study meetings we set up an appointment to get our physicals done on 7/18 and got copies of our criminal records done and notarized. Employment letters have been notarized already too. This is just the beginning of the notarizing of so many documents. There are lots more notarizations to come.

Initial Official Meeting 6/23

We got our paperwork to sign to begin the adoption process and met with Nikki again on 6/23. We went over a few expectations and set up our appointments for our first home study meetings.

Hurray, our first approval! 6/19

On Monday June 19, Nikki called me at work to let us know we had been approved. We were thrilled and excited to find out the next step.

a hold up 6/16

When I originally spoke with Nikki she said it would take 1-2 weeks for the application approval. On 6/16 (17 days after the application was sent) we were told we needed to fax something else again. So we did and waited some more.

Application in 5/30

Well we finally decided on an Agency, Children's Hope International, and filled out an application on 5/30/06. I met with Nikki, our to be social worker, and she was enthused for us. She told us for a boy it usually takes 9-10 months and for a girl about 21-22 months. We will accept whichever comes first, so most likely Shawn will have a new brother in less than a year.