Philippine group

Dave and I waving to our friends, Andy and Tyler, from good old Okoboji

I joined a Yahoo group specifically for families adopting from the Philippines. I still haven't decided if this was a good idea or not. On the one hand - I love love love reading the stories about the families uniting. There was a beautiful story about how a mother couldn't take her eyes off of her new 1-year old daughter who she was just united with last week. She wrote that she is the most beautiful, and most loving little girl she could have imagined. I can't wait until that day comes for us. Even cooler was the fact that this little girl was from the little children's home in Manila. This is the orphanage that our very good friends, Andy and Tyler, volunteer at, and it is also the orphanage that Louis came from (the little boy we met at our adoption training). My favorite part was knowing that in some way, Andy and Tyler touched this little girl's life. (We also thank our new friends - Andy's parents - for the pictures on today's post!!)I've also been reading updates from a family waiting to be able to pick up their little 1-year old boy from the little children's home.

The reason I'm not sure if it was a good idea to join this group or not is because I also read about the problems people have experienced through their adoption process. I know that it is good to be prepared for whatever may come by reading about other people's experiences, but I also don't want it to feed into my fears about the adoption. The psychologist already assessed that I am a fearful person during our adoption assessment - do I really need more fodder for that?!

Dave and I have decided that we want to make a conscious effort not to be spazzes about this adoption. I don't want to be the nag who continually calls Karin asking for updates, and demanding that they try to push this process to go faster. We understand that the Philippines is completely different from the US, so we can't come at this with an American frame of mind. Americans expect immediate results, and it just doesn't work that way in the Philippines. We completely trust that Karin will give us updates as soon as she receives them - she has told us this numerous times. Our adoption dossier was sent over to the Philippines on Friday, August 3rd. We haven't heard any news that they have received it, but after hearing a story about the Philippine postal service this weekend we are now praying specifically that our dossier moves smoothly through the Philippine postal service and lands on the right desk of the right person at ICAB (the government adoption group for the Philippines).

Our good friend Nikki gave me a great idea last night. She told me that when they were pregnant with Sammy (the cutey-pie in the picture), they prayed specifically for him to be a cuddler, as well as other personality traits. She asked me for things that she could pray for specifically for us. I had never thought about praying this specifically to God for our children! So Dave and I are in the process of making our list and praying over it. Like Aaron and Nikki, we do pray that our child is a cuddler - we are touchy-feely kinds of people! As we think of other specific prayer requests, we will list them.

Thank you for reading along with our blog. It is encouraging to hear that you are reading about our journey with us, and to know that you are thinking of and praying with us!!

What a cutie-baby!! Sam-a-lamb

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow!!

Today we sent in our next payment which covers the dossier preparation on our agency's side, and part of the Philippines fee. I e-mailed Karin to let her know that I mailed the check via Priority Mail. She e-mailed me back to tell me that she would mail out our dossier TOMORROW!!! AWESOME!!

We are only 3 weeks behind the inital deadline that we had set for ourselves. I think a little part of me thought we would never get to this point. I kept thinking something would come up that would prevent us from finishing the dossier, or sending it out. I guess it's that part of me that feels like I don't deserve good things. God keeps continually reminding me that I'm his beloved, and He wants good things for me. I feel His blessings pouring out on us as we wait on His timing for our children. Not to say that I have been waiting patiently, but I feel like His blessings are better than I can imagine because I constantly remind myself that my babies are in God's hands.
Dave and I got to attend the annual Hand in Hand picnic last Friday. It was such a fun evening!! Karin was right, it was like going to a United Nations party. There were kids from all of the different countries that Hand in Hand adopts from. It was so beautiful!! We saw another couple from our training sessions. We got to catch up with them and meet their little girl who they had biologically. She was such a cutie!!

While we were waiting for the line to go down for the food (we figured since we are kidless, we can wait to eat), Karin introduced us to MaryLee (the founder of Hand in Hand). MaryLee was just up visiting from FL for a little while, and timed it perfectly so that she could come to the picnic. I got tears in my eyes when I was talking with her - I'm so grateful for her, and for the strides she has made in making adoption from the Philippines happen for so many people. She is the one who helped the Philippine government write their adoption laws - WOW!! She also introduced us to her son, Jeremy and his wife. MaryLee adopted Jeremy from the Philippines years ago. He was such a nice guy - he told us that he thought we were pretty great people for adopting from the Philippines. He is so grateful to his mom for adopting him. We felt a huge surge of encouragement from his words, and had a good time getting to know him.

While we were eating we were sitting near a family and their three teenaged boys. We learned from them that they had always wanted a little girl, and they were adopting an infant girl from Guatemala!! We had a great time getting to know them and hearing their stories. They were able to go meet her a few days after she was born!! How cool. The process takes a long time there, though, so they are hoping she will be here with them by Christmas. They already had pictures of her, and she is so beautiful. In Guatemala, they require that the birth mother take a picture with her baby. That small little Polaroid packed such emotion as I stared into the eyes of this 18-year-old woman. She looked so very sad to be saying good-bye to her daughter, and my heart broke for her. It made me realize that in addition to praying for my babies, I need to make more of a conscious effort to pray for the birth mother of our children as well. Birth parents make such a brave choice when they make that adoption decision.

We also got to see little Louis (the little boy who gave us hugs and kisses during our first training session). It was so fun to see how big he had gotten and his eyes sparkling as he played with the other children. There were lots of games for everyone, and there was even a pinata!! My favorite thing to watch was how intent those kids were on hitting that pinata, and seeing even the little ones smacking that pinata with all they had!! As we were leaving, Karin gave us a hug, and told us that she couldn't wait until we were one of the couples chasing around our little ones. I can't wait either!!!

Thank you!!

We have nothing new to report on the adoption front. We sent our paperwork in to Karin on Monday the 16th, and she is currently compiling everything needed to send in to the Philippines. Our home study was written up and completed, so Hand in Hand is routing the dossier around to get the appropriate signatures from the head honchos of the agency. We are thinking it will only be another couple of weeks before everything is ready to be sent to the Philippines. Yay!!

I wanted to send out a thank you to all of you who read our blog. Your support is felt, and very much appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings, it's good to get it down in writing. God bless!!!

At Les Mis for my birthday. Fun times!!

Home Study

On Friday the 13th (spooky, I know), we had our home study with Diane the social worker starting at 12:30. It went really well!! Neither of us were sure of exactly what to expect, but we had met Diane at one of the Hand in Hand training sessions, so we were glad that we knew who she was. Diane made us feel at ease right away with her smile and genuine interest in who we were.
She started out by explaining that the process will take a few hours, and that there are questions that the Philippine government wants to know, and questions that the State of Minnesota wants to know. She showed us that there were 34 pages of questions to ask us!! Some of them we had answered in our autobiographies, but there were other ones that she needed to ask.
We talked about everything with her. We talked about our families and extended families, what experiences we had growing up, what our jobs are like, etc. And then we got into questions about marriage and our views on parenting. There were lots of questions asking about how we have prepared ourselves for parenting an adopted child. By about 4:00, Dave and I both were getting very tired - it is hard to be thinking of the best answers you can possibly think of for 4 1/2 hours!! We were finished by 5:00. Diane was very encouraging, and she was full of praise about how much we have thought through our parenting styles. She and Karin are two people who know absolutely everything about our lives now, it's kind of a strange feeling, but at the same time I'm glad I trust them so much!
For those of you who are parents who read our blog - thanks for letting us peek in on your parenting styles. We've been watching and taking notes in our head for different approaches we will use with our children. We've taken a lot of advice to heart, especially the advice Karin and Diane had for us through the Hand in Hand training. They had many great issues that we discussed on parenting adopted children. So thanks for preparing us that much more to be parents :)

On Saturday the 14th, Dave and I completed the last piece needed for the adoption. A new background study came out, and we had to go get fingerprinted for this background study at a jail. They actually used the ink on our fingers and everything, it was pretty cool.
So now everything is complete! We just have to mail in our forms to Karin, and wait for Diane to write up the results from the home study. At that point Karin will send around the dossier to get the appropriate signatures from the Directors of Hand in Hand. Then everything will be ready to send in to the Philippines!!! For now we are finished, and are on to waiting. You're prayers for patience during this time will be much appreciated.


Dave and I posing with our fingerprints

27

Well it's official... I am now 27 years old and we can adopt children from the Philippines. Back in September of last year I thought this day would never come. I can't believe it's here. We are finished with everything except for the home study, which will be finished on Friday. Wowsahs!! I can't wait to see who God has chosen for us!!!

Home Study

Happy 4th of July to everyone!! We hope you all had a blessed day as we celebrated the grand old U.S of A!! We got great news tonight, the social worker from Hand in Hand (Diane) e-mailed us to schedule our home study. I hadn't been feeling well this afternoon, but this really brightened up our day!!! This home study is one of the last steps that we need to take in order to send our dossier into the Philippines. Our goal was to send this paperwork to the Philippines on my birthday (July 11th), and it looks like we'll only be 2-4 weeks behind that self-imposed deadline!!

Dave and I in action at the St Peter Farmer's Market

Dave and I as the host and hostess at cousins Lucia and Zach's wedding

Smiley

I cannot stop smiling today. I'm sure Dave thinks I am a geek - I keep calling him to tell him how happy I am. I got an e-mail from Karin (our adoption coordinator) telling us that she received all of our paperwork that she needed in order to schedule the home study. She is sending it on to our social worker today - the social worker will take a week to review it, then call us to set up a time to do our home study. We even got our first invoice from Hand in Hand (the adoption agency) - this invoice is to pay for the home study, and even that made me smile and giggle!!

It is feeling so much more real this week. We have almost finished the paperwork, and what we have left is easy-peasy paperwork. It looks like we won't be too far off from sending in our dossier right after my birthday in July - which was our goal date. Yay!!!