1st Homestudy Visit Completed

It's funny how laid back you become on a second adoption. We had our first homestudy visit last night. I barely cleaned although the kids did get baths and were in PJ's! We were not asked any questions about disipline, etc like on our first homestudy. It was also nice because we didn't have to go back in time to give our whole life history! It lasted about an hour and she asked a handful of questions about our preference of sex, age, etc.

We did specify girl although some days I think boys are easier and less whinny!! We also specified ages 0-4 yrs old, however, we realize there aren't really any babies over 18 months, but we figured we would write it down just in case! It is best to include EVERYTHING you would accept to avoid having to update your homestudy and CIS paperwork!

Our main reason for a girl is because Leah will be almost 3 yrs old whent he new baby comes and it will be nice for them to be close in age and share the bond of being adopted. Davis will be almost 6 yrs! A 12 month old and 6 yr old is a huge age gap! It will also making sharing rooms easier. We have been thinking about sleeping arrangements and think we will bunk Leah and Davis until the baby is about 3 yrs old and then bunk the girls together.

Davis told the social worker he wants a brother and not a sister! We keep telling him maybe next time :> He loves Leah and as of right now I am not sure he even knows she is a girl (or is only 21 months old)!

I have a list of names that we are toying with but nothing is concrete yet. Milon and I are not on the same page with which ones we like! The ones I like he doesn't! Oh well, we have several months to nail it down.

All paperwork is completed for our agency, CIS, and homestudy agency! Can you believe it! Nothing notarized or apostilled! I mailed our 1600a on Tuesday and they said it was averaging 2 months. I need the I171h approval and homestudy completed before we can officially wait for our referral. Wow, this is too easy!

Nothing else is new. I signed Davis and Leah up for preschool next year. Leah will go Tues/Thurs and Davis will go Tues-Thurs. Davis should really be in Prek since he just misses the kindergarten cutoff, but he has the rest of his life to go 5 days a week! Plus, it is very pricey to send 2 kids to preschool!

We are going ski tubing next weekend with Milon's brothers family. It should be a good time for all of us!

Face to Face

We just got back from the long drive to Maryland and back. We met with our agency and we have been approved by them as well as our homestudy agency. We have the name of our social worker who will visit our home and write our homestudy. I plan to send the 1600a off tomorrow. I have to write a "dear birth mother" letter and supply pictures of us having fun with our children. In addition, we need copies of birth certificates, marriage certificates, employment letter, biographies for both of us, medical forms and that's about all the paperwork required! Imagine that! Kazakhstan required so much more!

We are really looking forward to a hopefully seamless adoption this time. From meeting with the agency, it seems that best case scenario we will be home with our daughter in 15 months from now and worst case is 18 months.

We learned a lot about the adoption process. Apparently, there is a huge stigma in Korea to have a baby out of wedlock. Most of the relinquished children are not necessarily from poverty. Babies are available for Korean to adopt from newborn to months of age and then they are available for international adoption. Usually the referrals are for 5-6 month old babies. They predict we should get a referral 6-9 months from the time our dossier reaches Korea. We can send our dossier to Korea once we have a completed homestudy and our I171h back from the government. Once we have a referral, we contact a physician to make sure we accept the health conditions. Apparently, we will receive very detailed information on birth parents, reason for adoption, any known health conditions, alcohol use, and monthly medical information from doctors in Korea. After we accept the referral, we have to fill out more government forms and wait for our travel letter to arrive. Then we can leave in a day to a week for Korea! The minimum amount of time we stay in country is 3 days with about a week being the norm. We will have custody of our little girl the night before we fly home. We will visit her at her foster family's home a few times before we gain custody.

And the Paper Chasing Begins..

I spoke with our agency this morning and they said our application looks good and we should be fine to adopt from Korea. Believe it or not, Korea is very strict on who they let adopt. Here are some requirements.
Who can adopt from Korea?

• Couples married three years or longer are accepted. Each parent can not have more than one divorce. No more than a 10-year age gap between spouses.
• All adopting parents must be at least 25 years old and must have their dossier submitted to Korea by the time they are 44 years old (both parents must be 44 years old or younger.)
• All adopting parents must be in good health physically, mentally and emotionally with a maximum permissible Body Mass Index not to exceed 30 percent. Medical situations reviewed case-by-case.
• Adopting family cannot have more than four children already in the home.
• Minimum household income of $30,000

I thought we would be approved but still had a question about Milon's lapse in judgement with letting fireworks off on the beach when he was 17! It was in question during our Kazakhstan adoption and thought it might be for this one as well.

Our face to face meeting in DC with Barker is set for January 14th. We have to drive their to meet them in person before getting the final approval. Meanwhile, I am scheduling the homestudy interviews and our medical appointments.