Homestudy Tomorrow!

I'm just about done cleaning everything I want to clean, for the most part. They tell you not to worry about having every detail scrubbed and polished, so thankfully I have not felt the pressure to do so this weekend. I took my time starting yesterday morning working on the couple of rooms that almost never get touched like our bathroom and our third bedroom (which at this point is known as our "stuff" room). I organized it a bit better than it was and vacuumed. I waited until tonight thought to work on the downstairs portion of the house b/c I knew it would only get messed up. So my kitchen is clean now and everything is picked up - just need to vacuum. It's about 20 til 10:00pm and all I've left to do is pick up our bedroom and we'll be good to go!
Bethany - the social worker - should be here at 9:00am. They said the homestudy should take anywhere from 4-6 hours. Not sure where eating lunch will fit in there. ???

Other than cleaning there's not really anything else I can do to prepare. Obviously, they're not going to give you the questions before the interviews. The only things we knew ahead of time was to make sure we had working smoke detectors (check), a fire extinguisher in the kitchen (check) and a semi-thought out emergency escape plan (check). Now how many families, yourself included if you're reading this, actually have those three things set and ready to go?

Anyhow, so if you happen to be reading this, please be praying for us. I know we'll do just fine and will pass with flying colors, but I for one am pretty anxious.

Fingerprinting Round 1

It's Good Friday! And I don't have to go to work!

Perfect day to get things done!

Both John and and I had our appointments to go get fingerprinted for the state background check for our dossier. Thankfully there are several locations in the area to pick from so I was able to go somewhere on our side of town and John was able to take his lunch break and go to on place by his work. It was pretty simple...just walk in, verify you are who you say you are and they fingerprint you. (I had the same routine done for my work, so I knew the drill).

So our prints will be run and we should receive the results in anywhere from 7 to 14 days. I'm praying for the former.

We will have to go get fingerprinted again later down the road, but the second time will be for CIS (immigration). It'll have to be done through FBI files or whatnot. Something like that. But we'll be given our appointments by CIS and even then, those won't be scheduled until immigration received our homestudy from Gladney. Which actually won't be too far away. I'm told it will take the social worker at least a week to complete the homestudy and then they should be sending a copy to CIS right away.

I'm still praying for speedy results though!

Dossier Papers 2

Our follow-up email for the rest of our dossier paperwork came in today:

Medical Forms: We knew in advance that these were going to have to be done so we scheduled to have them taken care of at the same time as our appointment for the Gladney paperwork. Well, of course, the forms Kate sent us are different from what Gladney gave us. I've forwarded the one from Gladney to Kate to see if we can use it or if we'll need to use the one she gave us. It shouldn't be that big of a deal if we need to use the new one - John's doctor has a notary on staff so all he would have to do is take in and no problem. I, however, am going back in tomorrow to get another TB test so I'd like to know asap whether I'll need that paper signed instead. Since I have to hire a notary, I want everything set and ready to go and I don't want to have to retrace my steps.

Psychological Evaluation: We have to go see a psychologist for them to write a report on us saying that we're sane, normal, able to parent a child...I have aboslutely no idea where to start looking for a psychologist. No one in my circle of family or friends (that I know of) has ever been to a pschologist. So I emailed Beth at Gladney to see if she has any recommendations and I'm thinking about sending out a mass email to people I know to see if they know of any Christian psycologists out there.

That's it for the second round of dossier paperwork - it actually seems pretty simple this time around. Either that or maybe I'm just used to all this by now after being in the process for about 2 months.

Oh and we received a letter from immigration yesterday! It's just a receipt stating that they received our application and blah, blah, blah...I'm so glad they sent it though! I wasn't told by anyone whether or not they would acknowledge receiving it or not which made me kind of nervous.

Countdown to the Finish Line!

Our latest email from Gladney stated that all we have left to complete for our application is my medical form and our homestudy! All in all, it should be two weeks total and then we'll have everything in!

I'm going to the doctor this Wednesday for another TB test, they'll see me again on Friday and I'll be able to have the ppwk signed and done! A week from today is our homestudy. Afterward, the social worker will probably take a week to write up the report and turn it in. Once it's reviewed, Gladney can finally approve us!

Dossier Papers 1

Kate emailed us Tuesday with the first list of requirements for our dossier:

Employment Verification Letters: We'll have to get these again from our HR departments. The first ones were for Gladney. It would have been nice to know ahead of time that we'd need to, but not that big of a deal.

Bank Verification Letter: Basically something stating that we're in good standing with our bank and we do have accounts. I stopped by our bank after work yesterday and we might have some issues getting this because they aren't able to or allowed to just type up a letter on letterhead like we need and have it notarized. They have what's called a Deposit Verification Letter, which would have the info we needed, but the problem is they say no one on there side is able to sign it and have it notarized. So we might have to reword a cover letter of sorts and have mine and John's signatures notarized for it.

State Background Check: Kate provided us with a website to set up appointments to go get fingerprinted. This is for the state of TX though - the federal fingerprinting comes later for immigration after our home study has been completed.

Pictures: These are already in a folder and ready to go - basically we'll use what we sent to Gladney.

3 Reference Letters: These are separate from what we did for Gladney. For the dossier we need three individuals to write a letter of recommendation, have their sigs notarized and then have the letter sent it.

That's it for now. Kate is working with our case worker at Gladney for the next round of forms to get started on which will include medical stuff (something we've almost got in the bag already) and a psychological exam.