Well, since I last posted, we've offically accepted our boy's referral (the document that has all his medical information along with the very important dotted line that we sign saying we choose this child)! We couldn't officially accept it until our homestudy was completed and approved by our placing agency. So now we are waiting for yet another approval of our homestudy, this time by the state of Illinois. That approval should be coming along any day now. Then we can mail our homestudy to immigration to get approval to bring an orphan into the country. All these approvals!
So while we are busy working, fundraising, waiting and just living life with our other two children, we are beginning to prepare for our new son. We attended an excellent training seminar last weekend sponsored by our homestudy agency. We've been reading books about the unique challenges of toddler adoption and the extreme importance of being an agent of healing for this child who is entering our family through trauma. We're also gearing up to switch our big kids' rooms around so that Aidan and baby A can share a room. It'll be Ava's turn to have the smallest bedroom now. As we are preparing, I'm surprised at how much I feel like I've forgotten about the toddler stage...those days weren't *that* long ago, right?!
yay!!! congratulations on the "official" acceptance! C can come over and remind you sometime and also help you know what you'll need to baby proof :).
ReplyDeleteSuch exciting news, Babes!! Has Lifelink given you any idea on how long USCIS will take? We sent our home study a month ago and when I emailed to ask how long it might take to receive approval, they said "they are working with processing times of 60-90 days." I keep thinking it can't be that long since we've already been fingerprinted, but who knows. Just curious if you had heard anything...
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