Our First Baby Gift!

We just got home after our first of three visits in the home study process. Beth, our case worker, was very nice to arrange her schedule to meet with us on Sunday, because otherwise we would have had to wait until the 17th to have our first meeting (I am out of town for business most of this week).

Beth had given us a home study worksheet to fill out before our first visit. So, last night after dinner, we sat down to do it and did not finish until 12:30am. It was long and made us think through many issues like: descirptions of our childhood; how we were disciplined; defining events in our lives; our relationship; how we handle conflict, criticism, grief; our finances; our budget; our feelings about adoption; trans-cultural issues; our feelings about the birth parents; our thoughts on religion; our careers; our education....

Then, this morning, we met with Beth at the adoption agency, and we talked about many of those issues with her. It was more draining than I expected. Beth is great, but it is more stressful than I expected to tell a virtual stranger all of the details of your life. We just got home, and I was feeling really tired. But, when we got home, our neighbors (who have adopted 2 girls from China and knew that we were having our first home study visit this morning) had left us a gift at our door. They left us a vase with pink and white roses and a hand made changing pad (for changing diapers)! The changing pad is really soft with a water proof layer and is made by a woman in Des Moines. It is our first baby gift!! It really made me feel better about doing all this work to go through this process.

We have our next home study visit at our home on the 17th, and then our final visit is on November 1. By that point, I hope to have all of the home study documents done (including financial statements, a property statement from the county, employment verification letters, physical exams...). Once Beth finishes drafting the home study (and gets all the documents from us), she will send it to the CIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service) and it will complete the I-600A that we sent to CIS last week. Once the CIS has the home study, we will wait to get our fingerprint date and after the fingerprinting is complete and check, we will wait for our I-171H (U.S. government permission). The I-171H and the home study are then included in an even larger package of documents (our Dossier) that is sent to Vietnam.

Beth also gave us a video tape of required education on adoption issues: transcultural families, attachment and bonding, and adjustment issues. So, we will start our education!