Homestudy Packet Sent to CASI

Huray!  we complete all the homestudy paperwork for CASI.  Placed in envelop and sent to Boise today.  Hopefully, we can get our social worker going and finish this step up quickly!

Off to the Doctor for Physicals

Today (6/20/11) we went to the doctor for our physicals and bloodwork.  Had to do all the standard things, but also had to get HIV test.  We went to Community Care and had Doctor Brumsfield.  This was one of Robin's past students dads.  It was kind of nice to have someone we know.

We received the results of our physicals today (6/22/11).  We were both "normal" and did not test positive for HIV!  One more step complete on our "paper chase".

I'm not Teaching Next Year!

After lots of prayer and talking.  We have decided that Robin will not teach next year.  If we get matched early next year, we will have to travel to China for 2 weeks.  Once back, she can take additional time for maternity leave, but most likely, not enough to finish out the year.  Once we have our daughter, Robin will stay home and raise our family.  We believe it wouldn't be fair for the school district or her students to have to find a new teacher that late into the year.

Last Day of School for Robin!!!!

Schools out!!!!!  Now the big decision - will Robin teach next year?  Have till 6/17 to decide.  Need lots of prayer.

Fingerprinted!

Today Robin and I went down to the State Building to get fingerprinted for our background checks for our homestudy.

Application Approved by CCAI

Notified by CCAI that our application was approved on 5/16/11.  We downloaded the service agreements, signed, wrote additional checks, and mailed back to CCAI on 5/17/11.  On 5/20/11, notified that CCAI received our service agreements and now we are able to log into "family" part of their web site.  A lot of good information on their site.  We downloaded their guides for completing our dossier and homestudy. Looks like our homestudy is just a small part of the big picture.  No wonder it takes 5 to 6 months to complete our dossier for shipment to China.  Looks like it will be a busy summer!

Homestudy Packet from CASI

We received our homestudy packet in the mail today from CASI.  Oh My!  This may take some time to complete.  Numerous forms to complete, police background checks, physicals, bloodwork. etc...  We'll have to work through this over the next few weeks.  Robin is deep into end of school, so we'll have to wait for a lot of this till schools over.

Medical Condition Checklist Approved!

Received an email from CCAI that they reviewed and approved our Medical Conditions Checklist.  It is now on file.  We could be matched anytime, but most likely not till we get our paperwork done and logged in China (LID).

We Hear from CCAI

Received an email from CCAI today.  They received our application and Medical Conditions Checklist.

We Hear from CASI

Talked to CASI today about our application.  Answered a few questions.  They will review our application and send paperwork to complete for our homestudy along with a service agreement.  Can hardly wait - more paperwork to fill out!  But things are moving......

Application Completed !!!!

Just finished completing the applications for CCAI and CASI.  We also had to fill out a Medical Conditions Checklist for CCAI.  We were careful on what we picked - nothing to difficult.  Bought some large envelopes at Staples to mail the applications to Boise and Colorado.  Loaded the applications in the envelops and fees and went to the UPS store to mail.  The "Paper Chase" has begun!!!!!!!!!!

Information Phone Call with Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI)

This past month we have been investigating other international adoption agencies.  We will have to go with CASI for our homestudy, but we don't feel they will be a good fit for us to adopt from China.  They haven't done too many adoptions with China.  We have looked at Bethany Christian Services, Children's Hope Internation, Children's House International Adoptions, World Association for Children and Parents (WACAP), Chinese Children's Adoption Internation (CCAI).

We were impressed with CCAI.  We emailed them requesting references and we received a number of names of families we could contact.  One family (Doug and Suzie Daley) lived in Ammon.  We emailed them and found out they have adopted 3 from China - just returning in January with a little boy with cleft lip/palate. They were extremely positive about their experiences with CCAI.  CCAI has placed over 9500 children since they started in 1992.  Apparently, there are two additional families that have used CCAI that Suzie knows in Idaho Falls area.  We called Suzie and spent over an hour talking about their experiences with CCAI.

We just completed a conference call with CCAI.  The founder, Josh, spent over an hour talking about how he started CCAI with his wife Lily.  Apparently, he was one of the first students allowed out of mainland China in the early 1980's to attend universities in the US.  He attended a Christian college in South Carolina and then completed his seminary studies in Denver Colorado.  It was at this time they read about China opening up their doors to allow international adoptions.  Lily was a lawyer trained in China.  They felt God calling then to start CCAI.  Since then, they have assisted in the adoption of over 9500 children.  Seems to be a committed christian and has a strong testimony.  We feel very comfortable using them as our primary adoption agency.  We will use CASI in Boise to complete our homestudy.  They are the only Hague accredited agency in Idaho.

Starting off the Adoption Process

We went to Boise this weekend to checkout adoption agencies.  We visited New Beginnings and CASI adoption agencies.  Both agencies do adoptions from China.  We really enjoyed the folks at New Beginnings, however, during our trip home, the gal called and informed us that China had changed their requirements for adoption agencies.  Adoption agencies must be accredited by "Hague".  The only agency in Idaho which is Hague accredited is CASI and New Beginnings would not be able to help us.  We were disappointed!  The folks at CASI were pretty nice, but we really liked New Beginnings.

We will have to decide on how to proceed.  CASI hasn't done a whole lot of adoptions from China.  Adopting healthy children from China is taking over 5 years now since China adopted the Hague requirements.  The only real way to adopt a child is to look at the special needs kids.  We'll have to do some more research.