And We're Off...

Since our last post, we have been ankle deep in paperwork and tasks.  Starting next week, we will be knee deep! 

Our agency sent us a list to get started on while we were selecting our home study agency and waiting on our dossier instructions.  We have started gathering our references, ordered copies of our birth certificates and marriage certificate, and had our fingerprints done and sent in to the FBI.  Selecting our home study agency wasn’t quite as easy as we had hoped.  Our agency recommended a person/agency for our area to conduct the home study.  After communicating with them, Wally and I didn’t feel that they were the right fit for us.  This person is going to be spending a lot of time dissecting our lives – I think getting off on the right foot is pretty important.  We ended up reconnecting with an agency that we had originally considered as our primary agency, and has worked with our primary agency in the past.  After some very honest conversation with the director, we knew it was the agency for us.  Our home study packet is on its way and we will be getting started with that next week!  On top of that, our primary agency let us know that they will be sending out our dossier packet next week as well!  The paper chase has officially begun!

Wally and I are also required to do 18 hours each of adoption education courses.  We are doing 11 hours online through a program that our primary agency requested we use.  We will be working with our home study agency on the last seven.  Wally and I just started our classes and are really enjoying them.  Right now we are learning about bonding, attachment, and issues that can be expected from a child having been institutionalized. The courses offer lots of tips on overcoming and dealing with any issues that may occur.  We are actually looking forward to more classes!

 

Wally and I went to Polish Fest in Milwaukee last weekend!  We had so much fun exploring the cultural village, watching the dancing and taking in the music.  The food and beer were great too!  Of course I had to do some shopping while we were there.  We found a bilingual (english/polish) numbers book and a cute t-shirt (pictured below) for our little.  We can't wait until we can take them with us!

 

We can’t believe how quickly everything seems to be going.  I know at some point I will be complaining about nothing happening as fast as I would like, so right now I will enjoy the rapid pace!  Thank you all for the continued support and prayers.  We are so lucky to have so many people celebrating our adoption with us!