Salem friends and family! I finally
have an update on our amazing journey to our son. There has been a lot
happening in our lives since the last update. Our family has been through so
much in this last month. I would like to start by saying, we have all paperwork
done for our home study now. The paperwork in this process is so intense,
although our son is completely worth every page we had to fill out! At the end
of this update I will list everything we had to do up to this point. We have
had so many roadblocks here lately, but with our friends and family, we have
gone around them and are moving right along. In the middle of all this
paperwork my entire family had to have physicals. Everyone did fine on their
physicals (well except me)! My doctor was a little concerned with my blood
count. My hemoglobin had dropped very low. Dr. Miller thought that this was a
quick fix with some iron pills. That wasn’t the case. After running further
tests my doctor figured out that I may have a problem. Dr. Miller had now
decided to send me to a specialist. Now it was time to pray even harder. I have
never been so scared. Everything kept running through my head. What is going
on? How can this be? Why now? Is this just a lab mistake? Is this just how my
body is? Is this a genetic disorder that I have gotten from my dad (whom I know
nothing about)? Or just maybe this is CANCER? This is something I didn’t expect,
so I kind of shut down and worked as many hours at the shop as I could. I realize
now that I needed to just stop running and reach out to God. With him all
things are possible. My husband and family were here for me every step of the
way. We all prayed and asked our Lord and Savior to please step in. I’ll never
forget about 3 days of waiting for news on my blood work from Dr. Miller, I
just crumbled with a meltdown. My two friends who don’t even know each other
picked me up and put me back on my feet, these friends were Meggie Jackson and
Brandi Halter. These two women mean so much to me! Thank you so much Brandi and
Meg! I would like to thank all my friends and family who have prayed for me!
There are so many that I would have a list a mile long to thank. All your
prayers worked. The tests for cancer or a genetic disorder came back negative.
I still don’t have all the answers but I trust in my new Dr. at St. Rita’s to
get me back up to 100%.
With all this going on we had
received an email from our adoption agency that there were some problems with
Ethiopia adoption. Some of the problems are making sure every orphan is legally
an orphan. So therefore, because of the new updates and all the legal issues
with the orphans over there, our agency informed us that it now could be a four
year wait for our child. My heart was broke! Could anything else go wrong?
First, my health and now another roadblock. Nick and I watched an online
seminar on all the changes with Ethiopia adoptions. We were so torn, four years
is such a long wait! I can’t imagine my child in an orphanage waiting on his
family for four years. I have to tell you, we did consider looking into
adopting from Uganda (the wait is a lot shorter). Then my heart said to me what
about your child that you, your family and friends have been praying for in
Ethiopia? With that, we pressed on with Ethiopia. That is where our son, whom
God has chosen for us, is. We had another conversation with our case worker and
she has given us hope. Since we are asking for an older child our wait may not
be four years. Waiting on God’s timing is the most difficult thing to do. It
seems like, the more you want something, the harder it is to wait and we even
get impatient with God. We need to remember that God’s timing is different than
our own. He sees the whole picture. Not just what we want, but what is best for
us in the grand plan he has for our lives. Of course when you are hoping,
praying and waiting for something as special as our child, it’s easy to forget
this. I will end this blog with a story from the bible. In the bible it says
that the wise men traveled for two years to see a child that a star had told
them about! That baby was Jesus! These
wise men never questioned God’s timing and just kept moving on, trusting and
believing in him. I’m here Jesus, waiting on your plan and timing. I trust in you,
believe in you and most of all, love you!!!!!!
This is the list of paperwork we have completed:
Photo of
Applicants & Family
Duty of
Candor/Statement of Accuracy
¨ Client Information/Consent for Services
¨ Grievance Policy
¨ Discipline Statement
¨ Client Rights Statement
¨ Post Placement Requirements
¨ Adoption Education Requirements
¨ State Adoption Law
¨ Services Provided Form
¨ Criminal and Child Abuse Checks Form
¨ Other States/Countries of Residence
¨ Personal Profile Father (50 pages)
¨ Personal Profile Mother (50 pages)
¨ FBI Criminal Check Father
¨ FBI Criminal Check Mother
¨ State Criminal Check Father
¨ State Criminal Check – Mother
¨ Local Criminal Check – Father
¨ Local Criminal Check – Mother
¨ Child Abuse Checks – Father
State/Countries:
□ _________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________
¨ Child Abuse Checks – Mother
State/Countries:
□ _________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________
¨ Medical – Father
¨ Medical – Mother
¨ Child Medical(s)
Children: □ _________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________
¨ Family Reference List
¨ Father’s Family Reference: __________________________
¨ Mother’s Family Reference: __________________________
¨ Friend Reference: __________________________
¨ Neighbor Reference: __________________________
¨ Spiritual/Community Leader Reference: __________________________
¨ Co-worker Reference: __________________________
¨ Reference: ________________________________
¨ Reference: ________________________________
¨ Guardianship Statement
¨ Financial Worksheet
¨ Employment Letter – Father
¨ Employment Letter – Mother
¨ Bank Letter
¨ Birth Certificate Copies
Father
Mother □
_________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________
¨ Naturalization/ Citizenship Document Copy
¨ Death Certificate Copy
¨ Marriage Certificate Copy
¨ Divorce Decree(s) and Custody Agreements Copies
□ ____________
□ ____________ □
____________ □
____________
¨ Driver’s License/ID Card Copies
□ Father □ Mother □
____________ □
____________ □
____________
¨ SSN Card Copies
□ Father □ Mother □
_________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________ □
_________
¨ Copy of most recent 1040
¨ Veterinarian Letter
¨ Copy of Health Insurance card
¨ Proof that Health Coverage includes pre-existing conditions of the
adopted child
¨ Proof of Life Insurance (copy of summary page)
¨ Copy of auto insurance cards for each vehicle
¨ Previous Adoption Documents
□ Adoption
Decree □
Home Study □
Post Adoption Reports ________________
□ Re-Adoption
Documents (Date: _____________)
¨ Military Discharge Form
¨ Well Water Test
¨ ALP Education Certificates (7 online classes)
¨ Workbook Completion and Approval Date: __________________
¨ Any Additional Documents: ______________________________________________________
Also we have our first home visit with our caseworker next
week!
