Hello all. We’ve received our paper work for our Homestudy and for our Dossier. Wow! We’ve begun wading through it all, and trying to work in little time slots here there and yonder. We’re getting there. I went today, 1/22/08, to get our criminal record reports from the courthouse. I got there and realized they don’t take checks, debit, or credit!! WHAT? Who doesn’t? But, thankfully, they did have a teller, and believe it or not, there was no charge for using it. That was the first blessing. I went back up to the correct floor, and stood back in line. I got the paper work I needed for this, but when I got home, got to thinking, I’m not going to be able to use one of them. On the first report, mine, I didn’t realize we needed to use one sheet per record, or that they would use this sheet for the actual report. I thought is was just for their use in finding our information. Anyhow, I had written both Brent’s name and mine, and then crossed his out when she told me one name per paper. So….. I without thinking, crossed his name out. I know I knew better. So… off to the court house I go again tomorrow, to see if I can get them to just write it up for me again, without incurring another charge. We’ll see.

The other blessing we had today, was a big load off my mind to set me at ease. At school today, one of our friends, who Brent went to school with, came and asked me about our “news”. I told her that we were adopting from Russia, and she of course was excited. She has adopted a little boy from China not too long ago. But anyway, I told her about the paper work, and how I was worried about finding a notary. Brent had told me not to worry, since we’d be sure to find one in our church. But I just wanted to go ahead and nail down in my mind who. So, she told me she was a notary!! Her seal doesn’t expire until 2011!! Yay, plenty of time left!! (Have to have at least 2 years left on their seal) So I confirmed with her, asking if we could just go ahead and rely on her, and she said she’d love to do it!!! It’s a double blessing really, since one, she’s a friend and we’ll feel comfortable with her, and two, she’s been through it all and knows the ins and outs of the process.

Brent took care of his proof of employment today, I took mine to my boss today. Hopefully we’ll have that nailed down quickly. We’ll be waiting on our birth certificates and marriage certificate. We’ve already scheduled our physicals so we’ll have paper work for our homestudy. We’ve also taken most of the pictures for our Photo page. Just need two “family life”.

Be praying that we can get this taken care of in the next week or so. The clincher I believe will be our birth and marriage certificates.

I’ll post again when we hear about our criminal records and certificates.

Joy

I called AWAA today, to just check to see how things are coming along. I was able to speak with our family coordinator. Her name is Kristen, and she was able to send the dossier paperwork. It is quite a bit, but there was good advice sent along with it. Pray, and then begin working. Yes, I definately need to do that, I can already feel my blood pressure increasing!! I know we can get through this though, with the Lord’s help and timing.

I have heard from two different people we used as referrals that they were sent paperwork for someone else from AWAA, so I’ll have to call in tomorrow to check that out. Hopefully it will be easy enough to fix.

I keep reading there is a possibility that once we get our paperwork completed, and it arrives in Russia, it could take 2-12 months to receive a referral. WOW. There goes my blood pressure again. :~O As best as I can tell, we have to fill out the paperwork, make copies, have them certified, send them to AWAA, then they’ll send them to us if everything looks in order. We then send them off to be apostilled (not apostled!!) , then make copies of those, and off they go again to AWAA. It helps me get it in my mind when I write this out. Hopefully we can work on these papers in the next few days, and have them ready at least by Friday, if we’re really good, Monday at the latest. Be praying.

I called AWAA on Thursday to just check in to be sure they had indeed received our agreement form, and to see if there was any word on how things were coming. When I was able to speak with someone, she told me she had processed our information on Wed., and that we had been assigned to a family coordinator. She said the coordinator would be contacting us, possibly tomorrow (Friday). I of course was anxious to hear from them, so we could get on with the next step. There was no word, so hopefully we will hear something on Monday.  ;)  It was a blessing to know our information had been received, and that they were busy processing it.

We began our process the Saturday after Thanksgiving when we submitted our application to America World. We had originally selected El Salvador as the country from which to adopt, but after some research and questions, we decided we would like to redirect to Russia.

On Tuesday, Dec. 11, we confirmed that this was indeed the country from which we would like to adopt. On Friday, Dec. 21, we received confirmation that we were approved by America World to adopt. They sent our adoption agreement paper work on Friday. Boy did I start praying! I wanted to be able to work on the paperwork and have it sent in by Wednesday of the next week, Dec. 26. The Lord answered my heart’s prayer, and the paperwork arrived on Monday, Dec. 24. What a wonderful Christmas gift. We had everything filled out and ready to mail by Wednesday, Dec. 26, just before leaving for Winston-Salem to spend Christmas with Brent’s family. So now, we are waiting to hear back from America World for our next set of paperwork. This phase is called the “paper pregnancy”.

I wanted to also share a few wonderful blessings from the Lord already. Soon after our decision to adopt, the Lord used a special couple to help encourage us financially through the gift of money as well as through prayer. You know who you are, and well, words just are not enough to express my heart’s joy over your encouragement.

Just before we began this process, we had received word that where Brent works, they would no longer cover employee’s wives’ health insurance if they could be covered by their employer. As you can imagine, we were a bit disappointed. But, once again, the Lord was at work. We discovered by me being covered by my employer, we would save quite a bit of money.

After receiving the final word on approval, I needed to go down and get my passport since I had some free time. My dad was looking through his box of files for a certified copy of my birth certificate, and while looking, found a savings bond with my name on it. It was 20 years old!! I took it down to cash it, and found that it pretty much payed for my passport! Again, see how good He is!

We have been blessed again by another couple who have allowed God to use them in providing finances toward our adoption. Thank you to you guys for blessing our hearts so with your generosity.

I am so excited to see what the Lord will do throughout this process. I share this all with you, to help encourage you, and be a witness of His goodness to us. I know that this process will only come to fruition through the Lord. In the end, the glory will be completely His.