Home Study Document Complete

We found out this week that our home study document is complete! We are now eligible for a child referral. I (Jenny) will have my phone on me at all times waiting for a phone call from Dillon Southwest. Referral times can be anywhere from weeks to months so we may be waiting for a bit. Thanks everyone for your support and prayers we appreciate them more than you know!

Trip to Arizona

Last weekend Mike and I drove out to Scottsdale, Arizona for adoption preparation classes at Dillon Southwest (our international adoption agency). We learned a bit more about the time line for adoption as well as what to expect when bringing a baby home. We met other couples adopting and bonded over some great Korean food. It was great to meet our social worker with Dillon Southwest and learn about how the agency matches families with children. Right now we are continuing to wait for our homestudy document to be complete. At that point we will be eligible for a referral. We will continue to keep you posted, thank you for all your prayers!

Trip to Oxnard

Well believe it or not I (Mike) am making a post! or writing a post! or posting a post! (however you say it). Things are moving forward with the adoption process. Two weekends ago we got up early on a Saturday and drove down to Oxnard (2.5 hrs South of San Luis Obispo) to get fingerprinted at an immigration office. We were expecting it to be a long wait in an office but Praise the Lord we were down before 9am and on our way back to SLO.

The highlight of the trip, other than getting to spend time with my wife, was our pit stop to a small Dutch town called Solvang. On our way there we saw an ostrich running around in a field. I tried to convince Jenny to let me chase it but my request was quickly denied :(

All this to say that the process is continuing and we find ourselves having to be patience and trust in the Lord's timing. This weekend we head to Arizona to meet with our referral agency. We are looking forward to the time together and a chance to learn some more about Korean adoption. We appreciate your prayers. God bless you mucho!

Home Visit Complete

We have made some progress in the last few weeks yeah!!!! Today we had our home visit with our local adoption agency and last week we had our individual interviews. We also found out today that Dillon Southwest approved our application and we signed our official contract with them. Now, we wait for the social worker to write our home study document; this takes about six weeks. Once the homestudy document is written it will be submitted to Dillon Southwest and Immigration services. We will also be eligible for a referral with a child!!!! We are very excited and would appreciate prayers for patience as we will just be waiting for the next few weeks. We are also waiting for Immigration to process some paperwork now, so prayers for the paperwork to be processed and to hear from them would be much appreciated! Thanks to everyone that filled out reference forms we really appreciate it!

Where We Are and Where We Are Going

Yesterday we completed the first packet of paperwork for our local adoption agency, yeah!!! Last week we also found out we were approved by Korea to continue working with our second adoption agency in Arizona, praise God! Here's a review of where we are and what's up next. The next step with our local adoption agency is to complete individual interviews and a home visit with a social worker. Once those are complete, our homestudy will be written and submitted to our agency in Arizona and the US Immigration department. Currently I am completing our application packet for the adoption agency in AZ. Once that is submitted and our homestudy is complete we will be eligible for a referral for a child (probably in June). Once we accept a referal more paperwork (yes more!) is submitted to immigration and we wait for permission to travel to Korea to pick up our child. We can't wait! Any questions?

Moving right along!

So on Saturday we attended a parenting class in lovely Fresno, CA. The class focused on international adoption and parenting issues. We talked about bonding with the baby, expectations of the baby and parenting in general. The class was interesting and kept our attention for most of the time. It made me (Jenny) all the more antsy to get on with the process! Good news this week, our pre-application at Dillon Southwest was approved and we received permission from Korea to adopt. The next step is another stack of paperwork for Dillon and turning in our completed paperwork to Family Connections Christian Adoption in San Luis Obispo. We're moving along and trusting in the Lord's timing.

Just an update

So Mike and I are slowly but surely moving along in the adoption process. About 2 weeks ago we took "family" photos (see below) to give to our adoption agencies. That was okay even though I hate having my picture taken!!!! Last week we had our intake interview with the local adoption agency and got a stack of paperwork to start on. The paperwork, actually isn't that bad. I have set a date for Mike to complete his portion to keep us on task. Next weekend we are looking forward to attending an all day class on international adoption in Fresno. I know we'll learn a lot of valuable information and that going to this class will increase our anticipation even more. So that's our update for now, we'll keep them coming! Thanks for all your prayers.