Our home visit went really well on the 22nd. Most likely we won't see our social worker again until after we are home with the little(s). We are still waiting for our FBI clearance to come in and my record check from IL. Other than that, our social worker has everything she needs to complete the write up. Our primary agency is very detailed (which we love), and very specific regarding the home study requirements. Our local agency will be working on the write up this month, and it should be sent to our primary agency for review by the end of this month. Our primary agency will send back any changes, if necessary, or the approved study. Our social worker thinks we can expect to have the approved home study in our hands by mid-September. WooHoo!! Once we have our approved home study, we can send in our I800A. That is the final step in completing our dossier.
We have all of our documents ready for our dossier except for the immigration clearance. The I800A that we have to send in to the USCIS is an application to get approval to bring a child into the US. Once this is sent in, we will receive an appointment date to go to the Homeland Security building in Milwaukee to have our biometrics done. Once that is done, we wait to receive our approval. Unfortunately, we have heard that this can be a long process - possibly up to 6 months. As soon as we have that we will have all of our documents apostilled, and send our dossier to our primary agency for review. Once everything is approved, it will be on its way to Poland. Poland will then review our dossier, and once they approve it, we will officially be "waiting" for our little(s)! We are praying this will all be done before the end of the year.
We have also fulfilled all of our adoption education requirements, and then some. So at this point, everything is kind of out of our hands. The hours at my second job have picked up quite a bit, and we are busy planning for the fundraising events (more to come on that). Other than that, there isn't much we can do for the adoption.
On a side note, I have to share with you that I had quite the surprise at work on Thursday. A group of co-workers from my department got a bunch of puzzle pieces, decorated them, and surprised me with them during a meeting. Any of you that know me well, know that it is quite difficult to surprise me, so I was very impressed by that. You can tell that they put so much time and thought into these pieces. It was so sweet!
As always, Wally and I want to thank you for your continued prayers and support. We ask that you keep the prayers coming. Lord knows we will need strength and patience to get through all of this "waiting"!
I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!
Matthew 25:40
