Our Journey Begins

We are very new to the whole "blog" thing, but we believe that it is time to jump into the process. Bryan and I have wanted to have a family for some time. God did not plan for us to have our natural children, but that did not deter us from considering many different options. After 14 years of infertility, infertility treatments, and surgery, we decided that we needed to listen a little closer to God's plan for us. We went to a local adoption agency that was recommended by a close friend. She had no experience with adoption, but her daughter knew someone who worked there. The adoption agency had an information seminar that discussed both domestic and international adoption. Prior to attending the seminar, Bryan was about 90% in favor of international - I, on the other hand, was sitting on the fence between domestic and international. We left the seminar and both agreed 100% that international adoption was for us. It is not that we weren't interested in domestic adoption, but that I could not get over the movement of "open" adoptions. I understand that it works for some people, but we were not comfortable being posted like a dating service waiting for someone to choose us. We were also not comfortable with the amount of sharing that we would have to do with our child and the natural parent. I guess it is ok for some people, but we knew that it was not what we wanted.

From that day in early November 2007 until now, we have been compiling paperwork almost daily. It started with information to begin the adoption process with our agency. We were pleasantly surprised with the homestudy. It was pretty easy. I will post more information in detail about the homestudy later. In late December, I was a maniac. I had read so many adoption books that I could think of nothing else. We were waiting on the homestudy to be completed, and since I knew we would need several copies of forms such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc., I began calling all of the agencies to procure all of these documents. I filled out paperwork for a passport, and Bryan renewed his. I was begging him to allow me to put a rush on the passport, but Bryan swore that the government was running at full speed and there were no delays. He happened to be right. Bryan received his passport within a month. I received my passport a few days later. I was amazed at the speed.

The next detail was to submit the I-600A. I thought that I had read the paperwork correctly (that I did not need to submit my homestudy right away). Anyway, about 2 weeks after submitting the I-600A we received our homestudy. I planned on submitting the homestudy at a later date (as the paperwork stated that I could do), and I waited. After 3 weeks, I began to get impatient. I know....... crazy...... So, I went to the USCIS website and immediately became disappointed. On the website, it stated that they were just now (January 08) processing I-600A's from July 07. I nearly hyperventilated. Did this mean that I would have a 6 month wait to get a piece of paper in order to get my fingerprints? The more I thought about it, the more ticked off I got. So, yes, I went a little manic!!!! I emailed every US congressman, congresswoman, and state legislature that I could find to let them know that this kind of wait was ridiculous. I did not receive any response from any of them...... AND it is election year!! Anyway, two weeks later I received notice from USCIS that I needed to send in the homestudy to move our paperwork from pending to complete. I mailed the homestudy right away and we are now waiting for our fingerprint date. Hopefully, we will get word soon.

That is all for tonight! There is so much to say, but just not enough hours in the day. Stay tuned.