Where in the World is Africa?

At the boys' school, they have this thing called Passport Club. Every month they do a Passport Check-in, where they have to point out and name anywhere from 5-15 different countries.

Breckin apparently was going strong today until it came down to the last two countries--Pakistan and you guessed it, Africa.

Let's just say, he's going to learn very quickly where Africa is on the map.:)

Can't Wait to Wait

So it feels like we're experiencing our first real wait with the process. Our home study report should be getting drafted right now and while it's just been over a week since our final home visit (she told us it would be about two weeks until we received the report), we're getting pretty anxious. Once we get the report, we're just about to the point where we have everything we need for our dossier. Then we send it in and the real paper pregnancy begins.

Last items needed for our dossier include:

• Passport pictures (doing tomorrow, thanks for Costco)
• Home pictures, every room (snapping tomorrow, after Saturday cleaning)
• Police background check letter (planning to drop by the station next week)
• Statement of reason (I'm typing up right now)
• Family financial statement (need to write that up)

We're getting closer...

Open to Readers

Today I will invite friends and family to read our blog.  To answer some questions, you may want to start at the beginning of the blog and catch up to now.  We are happy to share this experience with you.  Most posts say they are from me- Sierra but Dave usually edits them and adds to them.

Home Visit

Tonight we had our home visit for our home study.  We had our social worker come for dinner to check out the house and meet the kids.  It went really well.  The kids were great.  "PHEW"  I'll let Dave tell more about this later.

My Home Study Visit

Today I went to Seattle for my visit.  It was really good.  Dave and I wrote a ton in our auto- biography so our social worker said she didn't have too many questions for us.  We did talk for and hour and a half however.  She asked me all about how I was raised and how we raise our children.  This whole process has been rather interesting.  It really makes you think.  She asked me what I thought my parents did really well.  My response-  their support for all of us kids. Especially as we were growing up.  There was not a single sporting event or anything where my parents weren't there.  We knew how much they loved us by their support of us.  THANKS mom and dad!!  She asked what Dave and I do well and my response-  TEAMWORK parenting. I think that we work so well together with these boys.  We approach this "effort" (parenting) as a team.  We support each other and are there for each other.  Dave is the best co-captain.  :-) Love you!!  

The other part that was fun when reflecting on my childhood was the fact that I NEVER got in trouble.  I even asked both of my parents if this really was the case and indeed they did agree.  I never got in trouble.  I am so glad I was a good kid for them.  :-)

Another visit down.  Now for the home visit tomorrow.

Our Paperchase Folder

This is my folder that goes with me everywhere. We picked it up at a Microsoft Adoption Fair. I put all adoption paperwork in it. So far, it has kept me organized and on top of everything.

Clean Bill of Health...Almost

Both of us went into the doctor today to review the results of our blood work and have him fill out some paper work we need to send in (basically confirming we're physically "fit" to adopt). All's really well for both of us, except that I'm showing higher cholesterol numbers than I should be. I'd like to think that maybe it's a result of this past year, the move and transition and all that junk food I ate while I was alone out here and Sierra and fam hadn't joined me. But that's a little hard to entertain when you think about all the running I do. So I called my parents and lo and behold they both have high cholesterol too. So that leaves two options...change the lifestyle a bit with a better diet (can do that) and more exercise (already doing fairly well there) or start popping some pills. I'm going to go the lifestyle route first, and then we can evaluate in about six months.

On the positive side though, other than that, we're very healthy individuals and we've got the doctor's approval to keep moving forward.

Home Study: Interview 1

Phew! One down, two more to go. Today, we had our first interview with our social worker. The way it works is that we do the adoption classes and then you have a series of interviews with one of the social workers from the home study agency. The first is with the two of us as a couple in their office. Then the second round is with each of us individually. And then finally, they visit us in our home and do one last interview, including conversations with our kids and checking out our home/how we live.

It's funny, we've read a lot on the different forums out there and in others' blogs who are adopting from Ethiopia, and people get pretty wound up about these interviews. I don't think we were too concerned, except that we did get the impression from our adoption classes that there was a little concern there on the part of our social worker given that we already have five children. Understandably, without knowing us and understanding who we are and how we parent, the prospect of a family taking on two more young children could seem like a real challenge.

But after an hour and a half today, we feel really great about how the interview went. It was a great visit where we were able to explain a bit more about ourselves, our backgrounds, and why we've chosen to adopt. The social worker said it really helped that we had produced such a thorough response to our home study questionnaire (the long bio we wrote).

While this is quite a feat we're planning to take on, I feel, we feel, really good about the way things are going and the support we're receiving.

Next up: Sierra gets interviewed next week, and then we're also going to do my interview and the home interview next week. That means if all goes well, she'll begin to write up the home study report, and then in a couple weeks we'll be able to ship it off to our agency with the rest of the materials for our dossier.

Dave

The Worth of Souls

We received the Deseret Book catalog in the mail and came across this picture. We love it. We had to have our own print to put in the house. It helps me visualize just how important each of us our to our Heavenly Father. I am grateful for the love the Savior gives to all of us.

Here are the artist's thoughts:

When Mothers Without Borders approached me about going to Africa, I told them I was not interested. For me Africa was a world away, “and besides,” I thought, “I am too busy.” Imagine my surprise when I found myself on a plane to Zambia in June 2007.

One of the first children I met was Kennedy, the little boy you see in the painting. At three years old he has lost both of his parents to AIDS and was found living alone with his six year old brother and ten year old sister. When I thought of those three children struggling to survive and the millions of others across Africa in similar circumstances, I felt an overwhelming hopelessness and said to myself, “No amount of money can fix this.”

Later that day while we were filming, Kennedy jumped into the arms of the man portraying the Savior. As I stood watching them, Kennedy turned towards me and our eyes met. At that moment I knew it wasn’t hopeless. I realized that the Savior can fix not only the problems of Africa, but of the whole world…and we can be His hands to do it.

Looking back I realize that my reasons for not wanting to go to Africa are likely the same as yours. We are busy and feel like we cannot make a difference, but I know now that neither is true. We are never too busy to lift another and every good work is known to Him who said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of…these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” - Liz Lemon Swindle

We certainly live a busy life...but not too busy for this journey!

Adoption 101

It's funny, a year ago when I turned 30, Dave threw this amazing surprise party for me. I mean he really pulled out all the stops. He had flown out my mom, both my sisters, and my best friend Susan from UT out to VA. So while I thought we were going out to a nice dinner with some of our friends, instead when we dropped by to pick up our friends, I was completely surprised by probably 40 of my closest friends and family. It was really special.

Now a year later, we spent my birthday on a Friday night in three hours of adoption class. My sister Crystal was coming to town for the week so we sacrificed some "fun play time" to have her watch kids so we could get our "adoption training" classes done. Now we did stop for a really great dinner beforehand, so can't complain there.

We were in class Friday night from 6-9 and all day Saturday. We learned a lot about kids who are adopted and talked about becoming a multi racial family. While we've had quite a bit of parenting experience already in our lives, it did really open our eyes to many things--how these children have lost everything they've ever known, issues and challenges they'll encounter growing up, and how they'll fit into the community and our lives.

We were the unusual couple there as we already had kids. For me, I know I have to be sensitive to those who are adopting because they cannot have kids due to infertility. I am VERY grateful that I have had kids and am still able to adopt. The other couples in our class are adopting from the Philippines and another single woman from Haiti. They were great couples and we all share this special bond because of our adoption desires. Another great experience we had during the classes was to have another couple join us who is at the very end of the process. They actually just visited the two little girls they're going to adopt over in Kazakstan for nearly a month and now they will be returning to pick them up in just a couple weeks. Their story was moving and after feeling their sense of fulfillment and such anticipation, I can't wait until those days come for us.

FINGERPRINTS

Today we went in to get our fingerprints taken for the FBI background check. Check off another item from a long, long list. All these fun new experiences.:)

Dave remembers giving his prints back when he was like 8 or so. This was a first for me. Guess they can keep better tabs on us now.