Paper work is done! (for now)

Chris and I finally got all of our papers done this week (Thursday night to be exact) and sent it out this morning. The first set weighed just under 2 pounds and this set weighed exactly 1 pound. Talk about a lot of paper! All of our other papers (doctor report, references, etc) are in, or at least will be next week. One of our references didn't get their form out until yesterday, but that is okay with us as it was in the mail before our last set of papers! Buckner should have the package by 3:00 on Monday. Now we get to wait.

Chris and I were talking about the financial stuff this morning while running errands. We figured that we will need at least $35,000 for just one child. It will take around $45,000 - $58,000 to adopt up to 4 children. Right now our most pressing concern is the $8,000 that we will need for the home study process (Buckner fees, Immigration form fees, fingerprinting fees, etc).

When will the paper work end?

We are still working on the questionaires for the application. Chris finished his rough draft the other day and is almost finished with transcribing it onto the 'official' form. I finished my copy of the rough draft tonight and started transcribing onto the 'official' form, but didn't get very far. Talk about hand cramps! It has been hard to put into written words what is much easier to talk about. At least it is mostly finished! We just need pictures of the house (front & back), a credit report for Chris, finish the 'official' forms, make copies of every thing and then get it all in the mail.

Encouragement

One of the Assistant Principals at the school where I teach gave me some encouragement today. She and her husband are waiting to find out when they will be able to go to Korea to pick us their 2nd child that they are adopting through Dillon International. They have gone through this process twice and it was good to hear that she is also anxiously waiting for her son. It is nice to know that we are not alone in our feelings. Even though we are in the early stages, we are ready to bring our children home. I am beginning to feel that I am out of patience, and the process hasn't really started in earnest yet!

Still working on stuff

Gave out the reference letters at church yesterday. We didn't think it would be so hard to think of people to ask, but it was harder than we thought. Only a few more things to go and all the paperwork will be in: credit reports, pictures of the house (need to mow the lawn first) and the questionaires. Those seem to be the tough ones to write. We knew that they would ask personal questions, we just didn't expect the level of depth they would ask. Sometimes it is easier to talk about all kinds of personal things than to put it in writing. Everything should be sent out by the end of the month, then we get to wait. And wait. And wait.

More paperwork done!

Chris and I had our adoption physical on Monday and all is good! The tests required by Buckner all came back as expected: negative or normal. It is nice to know that we are healthy (at least on paper!). We still have the references to get out, credit reports pulled, pictures of the house and our questionaires to finish, but everything else is done. Wow. It has been a lot of work. The last of the papers should all be done and sent in by the end of the month (if not sooner!). Then we just get to wait and wait, and wait....

School is back in session and I am already looking forward to the 19th which is a holiday! Chris and I both started getting sick late last week (me on Friday & Chris on Saturday). It was so bad Sunday that we both stayed home from church. It is hard getting up at 5am when you are not feeling good and only have a few hours of sleep, but my students have been great about it. It will be nice when the meds finally do their job and I can breathe easily, not have a raw, sore nose from blowing it every 5 minutes and hacking up nasty stuff. It will also be nice to sleep more than 2 hours at a time. Chris took off this afternoon because of feeling so bad.

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas! Just got home from spending time with family. We had a great and relaxing day. Hope your day was as good as ours was. Hopefully we will be able to share the holiday with our children next Christmas. God bless!

Application sent out

I sent out most of our application today! Yeah! Of course, I had to make 2 copies of everything first (one to send to them and one for our records). I had to get help filling out the FedEx form (wasn't exactly sure which one was the correct one for my needs). I then realized that although I had the address, I couldn't remember the last name of the person it was to be sent to, so I called our church secretary; got the wrong number the first time; had to call back and have her look up the right one (different departments). Of course, that meant that I had to call the office to get the last name right to finish filling in the form for FedEx. The guy at the store was really helpful; he just laughed when I explained what I was trying to do. At least it is in the mail before the end of the year! We still have some forms to finish: references, credit reports, questionaires, pictures of the house, doctor report. I am so looking forward to getting it all submitted. Then we play the waiting game.

Chris is doing much better in writing out his answers to the questionaire than I am; I've had too much going on right now. I should have time tomorrow or Wednesday to work on it. I can really understand how this can be stressful to a marriage. If I wasn't so sure that this is the direction God is sending us, I think I would have given up about a week ago. At least most of the application is sent out, so that is less to worry about.

Chris' mom said that her church wants to have a shower for us when we find out who are children are, their ages and sex. Wow. Where to begin? We have looked at furniture, talked about different options. We've discussed some of the things we will need for them, but haven't gotten much further than that. I guess we need to start making lists of stuff to register for, but where? Wal-Mart & Target are always good, at least for the basics: towels, sheets, etc. Gift cards and cash are always great options! :)

I've started looking into financial aid options, although most of them won't even accept an application until the Home Study is completed. Oh well, at least I've started looking.