Homestudy Woes

I thought I'd write a note about our journey to get our homestudy completed and sent to CCAI.  It took a little longer that expected with Rebecca to get us a draft of our homestudy for review.  She was involved in church camp and didn't get us a draft until 8/1/11.  We reviewed it that night and had quite a few of comments.  Rebecca didn't follow CCAI's instructions very well.  They wanted specific words in specific sections.  She didn't use their wording so I had to edit her writeup to include the appropriate words.  Rebecca updated our homestudy with our comments - used most, but not all our recommendations.  Rebecca sent our homestudy to CASI in Boise for their concurrence.  A draft was sent to CCAI for their review and concurrence on 8/14/11.

On 8/19/11, we received comments back from CCAI.  As expected, CCAI wanted Rebecca to put their wording in certain sections (just as I had marked up!).  Rebecca was a good trooper and updated her report and sent it back to CCAI the very next day!

On 8/23/11, CCAI approves homestudy by CASI!!!!!!  Now we just have to get all the signatures and notaries done on the report.

On 8/31/11, we received 4 copies of our homestudy in the mail.  Another piece of paper completed!

Completed CCAI's Online Training

CCAI notified us today that we have successfully completed our 12 hours of online training.  Hague adoptions require adoptive parents to take on-line training classes.   They had training on international adoption, history/culture of China, bonding with adoptive children, etc. We received our certificate from them.  We have to have this in order to get final approval by China to adopt.  This will become part of our dossier that gets sent to China.

Fourth Homestudy Meeting

YEAH!!!! we complete our last meeting with Rebecca.  Very short meeting - less than 10 minutes.  She said she had all the information she needed to complete our homestudy.  She said it shouldn't take too long to get it written and back to us for review.  Hope she is right!

Third Meeting with Social Worker

Today we had our third meeting with Rebecca.  She was only here about 45 minutes.  Today she did individual interviews with each of us - criminal background checks, etc.

Second Meeting with Social Worker

Today we had our second meeting with our social worker Rebecca.  Seems to be a nice lady and we get along very well.  She spent alot of time today asking questions about our personal histories and families.  She asked about our parents and siblings.  How we were disciplined, relationship with parents and siblings, etc...  She spent about an hour with us today.  Two down, two to go!

First Homestudy Meeting

We had our first of four meetings with our social worker (Rebecca) today.  She spent about 1.5 hours at our house.  I was quite interesting - she checked out our house to verify that we had smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detector, hot and cold running water, a bedroom for our new child, etc.  Went over our forms we filled out for CASI and asked alot of questions.  Seemed to go real well.  We set up the remaining three meetings - July 15, 18, and 20.

Pictures at Wahlgreens for Dossier

Today we went to Wahlgreens to get passport size pictures taken for our dossier.  We had to get  6 copies - 3 for dossier and 3 for visas later in the process.

Robin's Birth Certificate Sent to North Carolina for "Authentication"

Today we sent Robin's birth certificate off to the North Carolina's Secretary of State for Authentication.  It's amazing what you have to go with our paperwork.  Our mounds of paperwork has to be notarized, then "authenicated" by the Secretary of State (NC for some, ID for others).  We then have to send them to the Department of State in Washington D. C. for review and approval.  It then goes to the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. for their stamp of approval!  Of course, each one of these reviews/approvals costs $.  In D.C., we also have to pay for a courier to hand carry our paperwork around - more $$.  I thought the INL had a lot of red tape, but immigration has us beat hands down!!!!

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.