Uganda here we come!!

Well, we’ve been praying a lot and really feel that God is leading us to Uganda for Grace’s little sister!  We are super excited to at least have that much figured out.  What we have to decide now is whether to do it independently, as most adoptions in Uganda are done, OR to sign up with an agency who has started a pilot program there but has never completed an adoption.  Personally, I feel pretty comfortable doing it independently.  We haven’t had great experiences with agencies and I like the idea of having direct contact with the orphanage.  I think Chris likes the idea of an agency being the middle man for us.  One perk about working with an agency is that you have to be with an agency to apply for grants.  Most grants won’t give you money for an independent adoption.

So, that’s where we stand now – independent or not?  What are your thoughts, any advice?!  Know of any orphanages in Uganda that you would suggest?  (We have already contacted Amani, but they are not currently accepting any more applications.)

Another positive thing is that we are done with the home study!!!  Yeah!  The Social Worker is just waiting to fill in the blank that says what agency or orphanage we are working with….

 

Bye Bye Dillon

We have officially decided to leave our adoption agency.  That is all I know for sure right now.  We’re still praying about what the next step should be.  Please pray with us as we seek God in this decision.

 

on hold

our home study is now on hold.  it has not been sent to Dillon for approval b/c we are not sure that we will be continuing our adoption with Dillon.  Dillon does not accept credit cards.  the social worker is going to see if they can work something out for us, since we started with a different agency.  we’ll see what happens.

i posted about it on my blog too.

 

home study

we are officially done with our home study interviews!  yeah!  i’m so glad to have that huge task checked off the list.  now we wait for the social worker to write the document and then we submit it to dillon and wait for approval.  it seems like things are actually moving forward and that is so exciting!  at the same time it is hard not to get discouraged by how much more there is to do and how much longer there is to wait…

 

A slight change.

An agency change.  Yep, you heard me.  Our adoption agency, Buckner, has merged with Dillon for all their international adoptions.  We have known this for a few weeks, but I have not posted about it b/c I haven’t really been sure what it means for us.  Now I understand a little better. It means a new agency, new case worker, and our case has to be staffed and approved all over again with Dillon.  We have a new case worker who has to read our file and learn about us from scratch.  So when people ask us what agency we are using, the answer is Dillon.  Which is strange to me b/c they are not who we chose!  Now, I have heard nothing but good about Dillon and I’m sure they are a great agency.  Maybe this is where God wanted us the whole time.  Maybe He had to get us with Dillon this way b/c He knew they weren’t even on our top 5 list!  We are just trusting that He has a plan and the He “will work all thing for good of those who love Him.”

We are finishing our educational classes this week and home study interviews are scheduled for Sept. 1st.

 

in the buggy at Sams

last week grace and i were shopping at Sams.  for what, i do not remember   they have big buggies there, the kind with 2 seats in the front for children to sit in.  about half way through our shopping excursion grace randomly says “i want my little sister to sit right here” as she points to the empty seat beside her.  my heart melts and all i can say is “i do too, sweet girl”.  i do too.

we hope to start the home study interviews next week, waiting to hear back from the social worker.

 

Progress… kind of

We met with with the psychologist monday about the testing results.  It went well, he was very nice and easy to talk to.  He is going to “write a favorable recommendation” for us to adopt, great news!  But it will take a few days to write it up and he is going on vacation. We should have it by the end of the month!  I’m not surprised, why would any part of this process be quick?!  That would just be too easy, right?!  So here we are waiting… again.  We need this letter/test results to begin the home study, so I guess we will not be starting the home study interviews until august.  Oh well, I am encouraged that at least the testing is behind us and I have something that I can check off the list!!!!

 

A Good Book!

I just finished Attaching in Adoption, and it was a great book!  I highly reccomend it to anyone adopting, internationally or domesticly.  It was very informative and well written.  It covered any attachment problem an adopted child may have at any point in life and offered suggestions and real examples.  This could have been very overwhelming and depressing, but it wasn’t!  I feel very well informed and even encouraged going into our adoption. I feel like I could at least recognize an attachment problem and know where to look for answers to that problem thanks to this book.  An adoptive parents Must Read!!

 

where are we now?

well it’s been a couple of months since we posted and someone somewhere out there may be wondering where we are in the process now… 

some time after we submitted out 3lb application with Buckner, we found out that they don’t “accept” clients until after the home study has been submitted and approved.  that is different than most agencies.  most tell you after the application whether you’re accepted.  weird.  so we met with Miriam’s Promise (a local home study agency) and began our home study homework – which we are now almost done with.

currently we are looking into getting psych evaluations scheduled b/c they will be submitted as part of our home study.

also yesterday we ordered some books from our “required reading” list: Are Those Kids Yours?: American Families With Children Adopted From Other Countries, Parenting With Love and Logic : Teaching Children Responsibility, & Attaching in Adoption.  anyone have any other book recommendations?!

so that’s where we are now, getting ready for a summer full of required reading and home study interviews!  hopefully by the end of the summer we will be working on our dossier… i wonder how long the home study process usually takes?

 

Mailed it today!

Our application has been mailed to the agency and they should receive it by tuesday. The package I sent our application in weighed in at 3 lbs, can you even imagine that much paper?!  This application was no joke!  I’m so glad we’re finished with it.  We’re not really sure how long until we know if we’ve been accepted.  We are a little anxious and would appreciate prayers!