Starting Paperwork

We're now in the beginning stages of the Home Study process. Every type of adoption requires a Home Study. As quoted from Wikipedia, "a home study is a lengthy document prepared by a social worker who meets with the family and inspects the dwelling to verify that the family would make suitable adoptive parents. " Before we can send any paperwork to Haiti (aka, the dossier), this first needs to be completed. We've been told that it typically takes 3-4 months through our agency and during that time we'll also be filling out the dossier.

This weekend, we spent several hours answering numerous questions for the Self-study essay. 17 typed pages and, in our opinion, one well written paper later we finished that part. Basically, the questions covered most everything in our lives :-P From reading this our social worker will now know details ranging from our childhood favorite sports to disciplining strategies to our pet-peeves and lots of misc info. in between!

We have our first meeting with our Social Worker, Diane, in early March.

Why Haiti?

Most of the time when people adopt internationally they start by choosing a country and then finding an agency that specializes in adoptions from that country. We went about it backwards; we didn't have a country preference so we started by choosing an agency and then choosing from the countries that they worked with.

We decided that ideally we'd like to work with a local agency. I found some agency names and started calling around. Eventually we ended up at an agency about a mile from our home. We had heard their name mentioned before and had heard only positives. Their references and history were impressive, and the representative we met with was very willing to work with us. It was a good fit!

The agency gave us a list of the countries that they worked with (~10). All along we have felt that God wanted us to adopt from a country with high need. Each of those 10 countries obviously had a need but two countries in particular stood out to us: Haiti and the Philippines. The agency representative we talked with thought these would be a good match for us due to many reasons, and we decided to focus on them. (If you'd like to know more about why the other 8 countries weren't ones we looked into, just ask)

There was a slight problem though. Out of the 10 countries, those 2 and China were the only ones that had specific requirements that we don't meet. (For Philippines both spouses must be >27 yrs. old: For Haiti both spouses must be >30 yrs. old and married for >10 yrs.) So we had to get special permission from the countries. Our agency was optimistic though (hence, why they suggested them in the first place). But we couldn't move forward until we knew for certain.

• Within the week we heard that their Haiti contact and Philippines contact did not think it would be a problem but they needed to check with their higher-ups.
• Another week later we heard that the Philippines higher-up said our ages would not be a problem (yea!) but they needed to double-check with their higher-up (we've heard that this trail of waiting is pretty typical with all international adoptions).
  
• Our wait continues. A hurricane in the Philippines delayed communication and the meeting in Haiti was pushed back. More waiting.
  
• We receive news that Haiti has accepted us! We're excited, yet now are faced with 'how will we decide between the two countries?' It sounds like we are able to adopt from either one so we have a challenging decision to make.
• The following week we hear the final word on the Philippines: Josh's age has to be 2 yrs. older than our adopted child, meaning we'd have to wait at least 3 more years before the Philippines will okay us. The decision is easily made -

We're adopting from Haiti!

"We will go and ransom our child" Reworded from Isaiah 50:2