Initiating Adoption Home Study Phase Two
Merrily we roll along. Making our list and checking it twice. We now find ourselves in the midst of the adoption home study.
Adoption Home Study Phase One Recap
Phase One of our home study consisted of paperwork (imagine that) which briefly covered the following topics:
Finances
Family background
Education and employment
Criminal background
Personal relationships
Experience with children
Daily routine/lifestyle
Religious beliefs
Health issues
Home environment
Parenting style
We also asked some close friends to submit references for us, vouching for our ability to care for a child. Those were submitted directly to the agency, so there was no chance of us influencing their honest thoughts!
Adoption Home Study Phase Two
The Home Visits
And thus, we have lift off into the next portion of the home study which is just a more intimate and thorough version of Phase One. We'll be diving deeper into the topics listed above and our first home visit is later this week!
A social worker from our agency will be visiting us, interviewing us, and checking out our home environment. We are trying to be totally chill about it.
While we have been reassured that our home doesn't have to be or look perfect, it's still nerve-wracking to have a stranger enter the home and "judge" us. And of course our A/C is making weird noises this week. And of course our guest bathroom toilet began leaking.
We will also be laying new flooring in the child's room, so we have yet to furnish it.
We feel unprepared, we ARE unprepared. But as so many people have shared over the years, is anyone ever really prepared? Even with the lengthy timeline of adoption, there's no way to be fully prepared for expanding a family.
Required Education
Phase Two also consists of required education materials that Nelson and I must complete separately. First up, a 10 hour course on the Hague Compliant Intercountry Adoption Journey.
Phase Two came with an $1,100 fee.
Just to recap, once we complete the home study, we will have a dossier that is sent to Taiwan and we await a match. That timeline is unknown and is due to many factors, such as availability, government entities, translation, etc.
Christina Health Update
June 1 will mark my third anniversary of my Whipple surgery which means it's also my third anniversary of being cancer free! Thank you, Jesus! I am still feeling pretty well aside from what I assume are aches and pains from getting older, fatigue that will always be with me due to my rewired innards and chemo, and all the digestion issues that come along with that too.
I have a scan mid-June to check that I am still free of cancer. While I feel confident that all will still be well, I could use your prayers that it is INDEED the case and that my anxiety will remain at bay. This scan has me a little more concerned, because if anything were to pop up now, it would throw the adoption option out the window, perhaps indefinitely.
Thank You!
Thank you very much to those that have donated to the adoption fund! All donations made at the link below go directly to the agency, specifically to our adoption case, and even more specifically to bringing our child home. Donations are tax deductible.
Nelson and I have currently contributed over $8,000. The next large chunk will be a foreign fee of $2,200. We appreciate any and all donations and encouragement you can give!
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