Well, we've been in Idaho for almost a week now and it is so beautiful! I can't believe how much snow there is and how cold I am. We've had a wonderful christmas with our families and are still trying to get everything settled for our move to Tooele, UT! As far as the adoption process, we'd be a lot further if we weren't such procrastinators! We still need to mail in our profile pictures and birthmother letter. Anyway, we hope everyone has a wonderful new year!
We had our 3rd adoption meeting/class last night and it was really good! They had a panel of 3 birth mothers come and share their experiences of placing children for adoption. It was interesting to see how different each of their experiences were and reminded me that there is someone out there who really will be looking for us. It helped us understand that we don't have to try and sound like we are the perfect couple, we just have to be us and everything will work out the way it is supposed to. We are going to re-write our birthmother letter now that we have a better understanding of what the purpose of it is and one of our forms came back incomplete so we have a few more things to do, but we're still waiting for the FBI check so it's not a setback or anything. We are a little crazy here right now still trying to get ready for christmas and moving. The moving part is the crazy, tense, hecktic part. We'll be rolling into Pocatello next Saturday though, and can't wait to see all of the family! xoxo~J & L
Well, we had our 2nd class last night for adoption and it went well. Last night's class was a lot different than the first one. The first was all warm and fuzzy and full of hope and this one was like a reality check. We learned about the new adoption credit on our taxes and then we heard from our social worker about a lot of the things that we have to do that aren't really fun. He talked to us a lot about financially preparing for our adoption and to make sure we plan to have more money than we expect, he talked about wait times, special needs adoptions, interstate adoptions, moving in the middle of the process (which he said won't really effect us because it's such a short time and we'll be coming back to the same house, so we don't need to transfer to the Utah office, unless we received a baby in 2 months which is very rare), home studies, bumps in the road, failed adoptions, openness with birth mothers...wow there was a ton of stuff they covered. All in all we felt good about it. We turned in a lot of our papers, we actually lost Jeff's physical form so we have to get a new one and we forgot to get a money order for our FBI background check so anyway after we turn that in we will be able to schedule our home visit and interviews and then the FBI check takes 8 wks to get back. So we won't actually be approved for adoption until the end of January. Lots to do and wait on, but it will be totally worth it in the end!!!
Our meeting from last night actually got canceled and moved to the week after thanksgiving so we really don't have anything to tell you about. I do know the next thing that has to be done is our FBI background check and we had to turn in 6 non-family references that they have to check. The classes that we are going to are mostly informational and we are required to attend at least 3 of them. We are getting ready for thanksgiving next week, Jeff's whole family will be here and we'll be going to the temple with Michael to take his endowments out! That will be awesome. We'll also be having some pretty exciting flag football games while everyone is here, I should probably stock up on ice and ibuprofen for us. Anyway, we wish everyone a happy thanksgiving and hope the weather is as beatiful as it is here!!!!
Just a quick update really quick tonight. First I just want to say how truly thankful we are to have this opportunity to adopt. We are also so thankful to have such wonderful families. We got a call today from our social worker that they have all of our online information and next they need to get our fingerprints and our reference list, which we have already and just need to turn in. We will be turning them in on Wednesday when we go to our next adoption meeting. We went to the airshow at Nellis Air Force Base on Saturday with some friends of ours who are also starting to adopt and it was so nice to get to talk to them about the whole process. The more and more we do to learn about adoption, the more and more excited and grateful I am for such a wonderful gift. We really do have thankful hearts this month!
As of today, our paperwork is complete!!! Unless of course when we take it in, we've missed something. I took my paper to the doctor yesterday to have her fill it out and she was like "this is it? Usually the adoption papers I have to do are like a book!" I know this has seemed like a lot of paperwork to us, but I guess other agencies have WAY more. Anywho, just wanted to keep you posted, all of our papers are done and now we can start with more meetings and evaluations. Small steps lead us to great destinations!
Our next monthly adoption meeting is the 2nd Wed of November. I really enjoyed going to the 1st meeting. It was nice to be able to hear from people who are at different stages in the adoption process with us. It is really helpful in answering questions that we have and helping us to think about some of the difficult things we will have to deal with. We left there feeling even more excited about the decision we've made to adopt. I hope if any of you have questions about it, you'll ask or attend a meeting there or read some of the articles from the Ensign or New Era about it. We are still pretty on track for our October 31 paperwork deadline and I'll be happy to have that part out of the way...it makes my brain tired. : )
Liz and I attended our first monthly adoption meeting at the LDS family services center here in Las Vegas last night. It consisted of several other couples preparing to adopt some for their first time and others for the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time. A lawyer who has spent 14 years primarily woring on adoptions was there and spoke about what needs to take place to finalize everything. It is basically a two-fold process. The first step is the termination of parental rights by the birth parents which can't occur for the mother until 72 hours after the child is born, but varies somewhat for the father. If the father is not married to the mother his parental rights can be terminated at any time. If the father is married to the mother than it cannot occur until 72 hours after the birth. The kind of tricky part is if the father is unknown. In this case, all children placed for adoption with unkown fathers are listed in a legal publication here in Las Vegas which serves as notification and if no father responds to the listing within a short time period than the paternal rights are terminated and the adoption can be finalized. The second part of the process is the actual adoption. The adoption can be finalized 6 months after the child is born. It takes place in a family court and altogether takes about 5-10 minutes. It is the only time cameras and children are allowed into the courtroom and the lawyer said it is almost as much of a celebration for the judges and bailiffs since they spend 95% of their time dealing with broken families. The rest of the meeting included a panel of 4 adults who had been adopted, 1 of which has since adopted 3 of her own, and another who is attempting to adopt her first. They each shared their eperiences and answered several questions.
It was a learning experience for Liz and I and we are looking forward to the next meeting. We have all of our questionaires done and just have a few things left to do such as physicals, fingerprints, and a picture collage. We are truly excited for the possibilities that lie ahead and know that the Lord's hand has been present throughout this process.
We have a goal set to have everything completed and turned in by the 31st of October. I know, some of you are thinking why the heck is it going to take that long? Well, now we're down to the hard stuff that I have to think about a lot. Which means I have to concentrate which I'm not very good at. So anyway, we still have one of our meetings on the 17th which Jeff will be posting about. The weather is great here and I've been riding my bike to work all week, it's pretty fun. I'm gonna have buffer legs than Jeff!!! Talk to you all soon, Love liz
Well we have been continuing to fill out paperwork for our adoption, and the further in to the questions, the harder they get. We really have to think deeply about some of the questions they ask because they are things we have never gone through. Today I have been thinking a lot about how hard it will be for the birth mother to give up the baby she has carried and how much strength she will need to have the courage to go through with it. I know we have a long way to go still to even be approved as an adoptive couple, but would you all please try to keep the special young woman who will choose us in your prayers. We hope and pray that the Lord will direct our paths that we may be ready for the special spirit that will be in our home and become our family. Thanks everyone for being so supportive. We go to our first adoption meeting on Oct. 17th. We'll keep you posted...and maybe Jeff will update it!
Still not much to report here about the adoption process, we are still working on paperwork. I did just want to ask if you all could keep Ian our nephew in your prayers. He's having a pretty rough time waiting for a new heart. He sure is a tough little guy and his parents are the most incredible people I've met. Thanks and if you want to check them out go to emilyandian.blogspot.com Love, Liz
Well Jeff finally met w/SS on Monday and had a good visit, so much was discovered when speaking to a human! We got an account set up for us and for FHE we started the paperwork. HOLY COW! I'm really glad it's all online now because I would have serious carpal tunnel! Anyway, thank you all for telling us all your info like height, eye color, education, etc. You are all wonderful. Now it's the really hard part of the process like deciding what we want and can handle. Just reading through the questions makes me feel guilty and selfish. It's kind of hard to explain. Anyway, thanks everyone for answering the phone last night! -Liz
Well, we did our first background check (the local one) and luckily we are clear. We went to city hall on Sat. to have them run it, but they didn't have a notary working so we have to go Monday to pick it up. Next, we have to get fingerprints done and send in for an FBI background check. We tried getting ahold of LDS SS Friday, but only left a message, so we'll try to get in touch on Monday. A few things we're worried about are 1) I'm quitting my job in Dec. and 2) we are moving to Utah for 3 months. We don't know if that will affect the part where we show financial stability and if by chance we got a baby before Dec, if they could do the home visits in Utah for 3 months. All questions we need to ask as soon as we can speak with the social worker in person. Jeff has 2 weeks left at his rotation at Health South, then starts right up at Sunrise Hospital. That's about the only update right now. love you all, Liz
Well, we're off and running! We have finally received information on the adoption process we are starting and it's pretty exciting with LOTS of stuff to do. We still need to meet with LDS Social Services, but have a lot of paperwork we need to do. It ranges from background checks to our marriage licence to health exams. We are a little worried about getting it all done and going to Toelle in January, but all of those questions will be answered when we meet with social services. Thanks everyone for being so supportive and encouraging of our life. We really honestly have the greatest family and friends in the world.
I thought we'd set up this blog spot to keep up with change! So, we'll do our best to keep this updated and hope everyone enjoys seeing a part of our crazy, and sometimes boring life!
