He's Ours...

We passed court on 10/13 and received Z's Birth Certificate on 10/22. It was so strange to see Zerihun Kathleen Owsiak... It's not quite fair to his first family to see that we've essentially rewritten his history by taking their names off of it. Anyway, our embassy appointment is 12/3. We will leave here 11/29 & return, hopefully on 12/12 if the paperwork gets processed in a timely fashion. Keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer. Both S & R are coming with. The school wasn't particularly impressed with S taking 2 weeks to go, but she's spoken with each of her teachers and they've all promised to work with her both before & after the trip to make sure she doesn't fall behind. She's also organized some fundraising efforts to get some donations to bring with us. It seems so strange that we leave in 4 weeks. I can't wait to have him home with us.

Dossier - DONE!!!

The good news is the dossier is done! The BETTER news is that it arrived at the agency's office Monday morning!! Woo hoo!!
It's so exciting, yet overwhelming to be done with this part of the process. While I was paperwork chasing, I was in control, kind of. Now, we wait, and I have no control over what happens. A very odd feeling for me.

Anyway, here's a cute Back to School shot!

TB Test - Check!

TB test completed! Just have to send the results to HS agency & I'm done with paperwork - for the time being at least! They tell me they should have the draft done next week! We are almost done! Yipee!

Adoption Update

With all the moving issues I haven't had much time to do or think about the adoption process. I let the HS agency know that the deal fell through & that I'd like to forge ahead full steam. I don't want to wait any longer in this 'holding pattern'. My brother & his beautiful wife were kind enough to send their reference paper work in. They were the last of the 5.. I have to get my TB test, then we're done. I think. I have to pull out my check list... I wonder if I packed it.

Dossier Packet!!

YAY!! The dossier packet from AAI arrived in the mail on Thurday!! How exciting! However when I opened and looked at all the stuff I still need to get done I almost fainted. I mean in my head I knew how much stuff I was going to have get done, but when you see the acutal list - Holy Crap!
Anyway, I'm going to get started on the easiest things tomorrow... It's supposed to be rainy & cold all day, so perfect for being inside & getting things done. I alreay have most of the stuff, so I know I'll be fine. One step at a time, right....?

Adoption Education

Ok - Sorry for the mini vacation there, I'm back. I have to do 10 hours of adoption education for DCFS requirements (need a foster license for adoption only), as well as adoption education hours through AAI, and one of the tools is a set of DVD's. The DVD's are broken into 4 sets of disks, and there are 4 sets of tests to take after each 'module'. So every night I load a disc into our personal DVD player and watch. Each mod is about an hour in length. I have watched 2 disks, a total of 3 mods, and taken 3 online tests. Each one is scored & the results are sent off, somewhere... So far, I've aced all 3!! Too bad I fell asleep in the beginning of the second one & had to watch the whole darn thing all over. Note to self - Don't watch them in bed after a long day at work! Anyway, it's going fine, but I want to finish soon! I have one more mod, one more test, but 2 discs left. The last disk you are not tested on, but they talk about a lot of resources & things, so I want to see that one too. Tomorrow I have a 6 hour adoption seminar that I have to attend. That will get me through the rest of my hours. The seminar tomorrow deals more with domestic adoption, but I am sure it will be helpful. It may even help with my youngest, as he has MANY questions & thoughts about his own adoption that are popping up now that we are going through the process, so it will be interesting to hear what they say. Anyway, the young lad has his first ever soccer game tomorrow! Great timing! Anyway, the girls are going to take him for me, hopefully someone will remember to take pictures for me. I'm sad that I'm going to miss it.... Well, there's another one next weekend, and the weekend after that, and after that...

Home Visit

The first home visit will be April 12th, while the kids are on Spring Break. Luckily enough for me (please note the sarcasm), it's on a Thursday, so I'm sure the house will be immaculate - NOT! Also, since I am planning on taking Thursday & Friday off from work, that means I most certainly will be working late on Weds., which means midnight cleaning! Can't wait. To top it off, she isn't coming until 1pm, which means I have to convince my son to eat breakfast & head right outside. Do not pass go and do not collect $200 either! Oh well, I'm sure she's seen a somewhat disorganized house ("What do you mean the PS2 controllers don't belong on the floor in front of the TV? Really?") before, right?
Now, I have to warn her about the 4 beers at the wedding two years ago story that my son repeatedly tells at the most inopportune times, or bribe him not to bring it up at all.... I don't normally drink, at all, EVER. At my cousin's wedding, I happened to drink a couple of beers. My lovely daughters happened to tell him that I had 4! To this day he still talks about, it must have made a BIG impression. Most times, like in the Kohl's dressing room, he just says loudly "Mom, I know you like to drink beer. You were drinking a lot at that wedding." I am sure everyone there thought I probably over indulge frequently. Which is why I feel the need to get my story out there before he does... We'll have to see

Envelopes...

Ok - I bought 2, count 'em, 2 boxes of envelopes today at the store! Now I can send in the fingerprint receipt & about 6 pages of paperwork so they can begin the background check. The girls had to fill out paperwork to, as they are over 13. I told the middle one that I hope I don't get a surprise when hers comes back - Ha Ha! She didn't find it quite so amusing. I cracked myself up.
Anyway, she kept me company on my journey to Arts to get printed yesterday, She also couldn't find the bathroom there on the 2nd floor after two trips upstairs. After we left, she reminded me she still had to go, so we stopped at Mickey D's. Then we headed back home to meet the other 2.
This evening I finished filling out some of the back ground check paperwork. I get to put those papers into the envelopes (yay!) I just bought & drop them in the mail tomorrow.
Now, if I have stamps, I'll be all set!

Fingerprints Today!

Today I got my DCFS fingerprints done at Art's. I have to send in the receipt & the first part of the paperwork, but first I must buy envelopes. Who runs out of envelopes, really? Oh well, we don't have lunch bags either this week - the brown paper variety & the small plastic ones that get filled & go into the brown paper bags. Ooooops. The kids have had to throw their lunches into plastic bags. It works.
Anyway, I digress... Now I just need to get my prints done to send in for the other background check as well as the clearance letter from the local police. I wonder how long that will take me?

We've Started...

OK - so I talked on the phone to the SW assigned to us last week. She seems to feel, without ever having met me and told me first thing in our conversation, that 1 child is better for my 'situation'. Whatever!
I still don't know how I feel about that whole conversation. My mind veers wildy from one end of the spectrum to the other. At times I feel she is absolutely right, I'd be out of my mind to take on 2 more, 1 is definitely enough. Then at other times, I feel that I should stick to MY original plan of 2. I don't really know where it will end up, but I do know that the final result will be whatever His plan is for us... We only get what we can handle. I pray for guidance every day.