On our Way!

Well our papers are on their way anyway! Our social worker has now completed our home study report and we have turned in our dossier materials along with our I-600A. Our fingerprints are on their way to the FBI and hopefully we'll get cleared quickly. We hear it can take 8-10 weeks =( In my mental timeline I'm hoping we get approval from everybody by mid-November. Then we wait... =) I'm hoping to be "paper pregnant" by Thanksgiving!
This all started on the last days of school in June and we're wrapping it up in the first days of school! Time flies when you're paper chasing!

Papers Papers Papers!

So we are doing our Home Study, I-600A and Dossier all at the same time! Normally you do one at a time but we're being considered a "rush" family! =) We are now done getting everything we needed for our I-600A (our petition to the USA to adopt an orphan); I plan to drop it off tomorrow to our social worker. Then on Tuesday we'll hand in our part of the Dossier and of course writing out some BIG checks!
After that we wait.......... we wait for the FBI to approve our prints and we wait for our appointment to get printed AGAIN. And we wait for everyone to look over our stuff and say Yes or No. Then once everyone says "Yes, you can be parents" we officially wait again, but this time for THE CALL. The call that says "We have child waiting for you".

Please pray for us that this is it. Please pray that everyone says yes and we can start that exciting wait - just like a pregnant couple waiting for their child to join their family. And Please Please pray for the scared, worried pregnant woman in the Marshall Island's who is coming to the difficult decision of making a birth plan for her child. I don't know who she is yet, but she is constantly in my thoughts. No, not that she chooses adoption so we can raise her child - but that she is getting the support she needs with this difficult decision that will change her life. I pray that she is turning to her faith in humanity and in God to guide her. I pray that she is safe and accepted and comforted by someone when talking about her decision.
I pray for her because she is after all family, she just doesn't know it yet :)

Home Visit Done and MORE EXCITING NEWS!

Our social worker (and an intern)came out to the house today! We took a quick tour of the house and showed off all the clean rooms and floors before sitting down in the living room and chatting for 2 hours. (Note to other families who are starting the process- she will not look in closets or open closed doors unless you open them first BUT they are looking at your decor and knick-knacks and apparently will question you about them later!) She commented on our multicultural decor and liked the fact that it wasn't just American and Mexican. We have Japanese paintings, Chinese fans, Swedish art and other things that i think may be Scandanavian. I think they felt we'd be more likely to incorporate Marshallese culture into our decor since we were open to other cultures already. We talked about our discipline style and our families again. We talked about religion and what we're going to raise the baby. Then they tried to say that Shawn and I have been together for so long and are used to it being just the 2 of us that it might be hard to add a 3rd person to the mix... ARE you kidding?? We tried to explain that we spend so much time together because we like too and BECAUSE it's only the 2 of us. We are obviously ready and willing to add a 3rd person to our family!

Then we talked about the BIG NEWS! Apparently the Marshall Islands is in need of families to adopt so they're giving us permission to speed things up! I can't give out to many details but basically we're going to cut our wait time by a few months!! Holy Buckets!! We now have 16 documents we need to gather and get notarize and send to the agency in about 2 weeks! Shawn says we have more then 2 weeks but I say GO GO GO!!

Well I'm off to research how to get the papers we need! I love having paperwork because it makes me feel like something is happening and I have control over something! =) Did i say this already in a previous post??

Take care and good night!

what to write about??

So I promised I'd write a little more often so here is my attempt =). Shawn and I still need to complete a packet of questions before our next home visit, it's about multiculturalism and diversity within our family. I think since we're an interracial couple we're not to worried about it but what if they say we hang out with the "latinos" too much?? But we hang out with them because 1) they're my family and 2) my sisters are Hilarious!!

I've been following a blog of a family that is currently in the Marshall Island's and I'm starting to get really nervous about the bugs! Apparently there are bugs called palmetto bugs that are the size of LIZARDS! I don't care if they're talking about small gecko lizards---NO BUG SHOULD BE THAT BIG!!! AND they look like cockroaches! What the heck am I going to do?!?! I hate hate hate bugs!

Ok I'm going to attempt to load pictures of the remodeled room but I think they might be a little dark. We just painted and put down the carpet squares. I figured carpet squares = easy clean up! I added before and after pictures.
Thanks for reading!

1st Homestudy visit done =)

Well we meet with our social worker today! We started with a brief run through of what we needed to accomplish from that visit, then we dove right in. She first asked Shawn all kinds of questions about his "family of origin". Parents, brothers, sister, relationship with them, childhood years, education.... Shawn talked about himself for an hour! I'd never seen that before (well besides with me of course!)
Then I talked for an hour about myself (same type of questions), if you know me, you know that's not very difficult for me =P I'm very open and I love talking about my family! We both decided that it was very hard to sit quietly while your spouse is missing key points! Luckily she gave us a chance at the end to add anything we felt she should know that we didn't say. After we left of course, we thought of better answers or things we STILL forgot to mention.

It's funny because Shawn had to describe himself then I had to describe him and vice versa, I don't think she believed us when we talked about how positive I am or how Shawn is super patient and willing to talk about his feeling-LOL. Oh well, we know its true and our child will too.

So the next visit is the big HOME VISIT! (insert suspenseful musical interlude here) She'll come over for a couple hours and we'll get to talk about our relationship and how we work and communicate with each other, how we resolve problems and our parenting styles. She'll tour our home and make sure we have enough space for a child. I guess we'll get to talk about discipline and expectations and stuff like that too.
Again I don't think she'll believe us when we tell her we communicate really well together. Seriously we do! We scored 100% on our communication portion of our marriage preparation course! I wonder if I can get a copy of those results from the Archdiocese?? That would probably be good to submit with the Dossier, right? (Dossier= paperwork that gets sent to the country as our petition to adopt from their country. If they approve our Dossier then we get placed on the waiting list for a child)

Oh last bit of news- The Marshall Islands have now approved finalization paperwork to bypass Hawaii and go straight the the Philippines. What the heck does that mean?? It means that if we get approved and when we go get our child, we only have to stay an average of 3 weeks instead of 6!!! And I was really getting used to the idea of 6 weeks on a beautiful island getting to know our new family members and culture. However, 3 weeks on an island 40 miles in length and 1/2 mile wide (at it's widest point) will probably be suffice too =)

Ok well, I've been told that I need to post more often, so I will try. I'll also try to post picture of our newly remodeled "extra" room soon. (I'm still weary of calling it "the baby" room :/ )
Thanks for reading
-T V de N

The sales are over and we're hanging tight waiting for our first visit with our social worker for our Home Study!

In other good news: We made enough from our Garage Sale Fundraiser to cover our apartment rental for our 6 week stay on Majuro!! Thank you everyone so much for the donations and support!

Not a whole lot to report, hopefully there will be more soon after our Home Study stuff really starts.

So much love!

All the pieces for our application were officially submitted. We had a couple things on hold because Shawn had to get his fingerprints and medical forms done. Work had been crazy busy for him lately so we had to wait until he had free time to make those appointments. But they're now done and handed over! One step closer!

Shawn and I both have part-time jobs now and are starting to plan fundraisers to get the remaining balance that we need. Luckily we'll have 6 weeks together in the Marshall Island's when this is all done to reconnect! We're basically not going to see each other on weekends anymore =(

We've also announced our need to fund raise to family and friends. It's very humbling for Shawn and I to 1) see how much support we actually have and 2) to ask for financial help. We've always prided ourselves with being able to manage on our own but in times like these you learn how much support you have around you and how many people are willing to pitch in to make your dreams come true. It's amazing and the only word I can use to describe it is Humbling, brings you to your knees with gratitude humbling. Amazing. Thank you all so much for everything, even writing to say you'll keep us in you thoughts is what we need right now. Thank you.