Alaska

Our vacation to Seattle and a cruise to Alaska was just what we needed! We had a great time! Unfortunately, I spent the first few days sick...but took lots of medicine and was better by the 2nd day of the cruise.


An anniversary cake greeted us in our cabin


Killer whales we saw in Juneau, AK

A group of whales on a feeding frenzy for herring


Glacier Bay, AK


A special anniversary dinner at the French bistro on the cruise

Social Worker Assigned!!

We are so excited because we have been assigned a social worker!!!! Mark and I will have individual appointments in a couple of weeks and then the home study. If all goes well, we will be able to send of documents to India.

Smiles and Tears

Two videos brought opposite emotions this week. If you didn't catch either, take a few moments...

This video brought a smile and laughter to my day, what a way to start a morning!





Dancing is so beautiful and this one brought tears to my eyes. My family has been touched by breast cancer and this was just amazing....

Fingerprints

The only thing we are waiting for is my fingerprint clearance from Dept. of Justice. Odd that it is taking so long since I am in the system as an educator. We were told it could take up to two months...time we just don't want to waste. Our home study agency has allowed us permission to move forward while we wait for the clearance. This way we have a social worker assigned to us and can begin the home study process. If my prints do not clear, we may have gone through the home study for nothing. I would have definitely fingerprinted much earlier on if I knew about the delay. We submit our form tomorrow to give the approval to move forward. I am hoping we will soon be announcing we have a social worker!

Bringing ???? Home

Our buddy family shared the title of this book so of course I purchased it (thank you one-click Amazon)!
The plot warmed my heart and am hoping we will soon be saying we are bringing our little one home.

Bringing Asha Home

Buddy Family & 4th of July Aftermath

Today we met our assigned buddy family. Kathy and Graham Master adopted a little girl from India 8 years ago. A prerequisite to the home study process is to meet with our assigned buddy family and ask them any questions we have.
Our visit included information of what to prepare, adjustment periods and support groups. We both felt the visit made everything a bit more real for us. Kathy has lots of cultural groups she belongs to and I was impressed since I am Indian and had no idea! We are looking forward to keeping in touch with them and asking questions along the way.
Now that we've made our buddy family visit, we are officially done with the prerequisite items. We wait for my fingerprints to clear and then our social worker is assigned! We are anxious and wish there was a way to speed up those fingerprints. But, if there is anything we've learned from the process, other people do not work on our time.

So, since we were so excited to have met our buddy family, it was very disappointing when we came home only to have our neighbor tell us at 6:45 pm that the fence between our two homes had caught on fire at 1 this morning. The tree above it is completely burned. Thank goodness it did not catch the roof which was just seconds away. They decided to put it out themselves and tell us 17 hours later. Did I mention that Mark and I were sleeping down the way of the fire. They did not call the fire department or come knock on our door. Instead, they fought hard to put the fire out and had their area completely cleaned when we went to take pictures. Hmmmm, detective Shana is already on it!

A Visual Reference

This is our adoption process (minus all the wonderful particulars)! Want to guess where we are? Think far left...blue section. The flow chart will help any of you wondering where we've been and where we need to go.

Almost to home study

We are so close....2 items away! Once those come in, we will have our social worker assigned and then do the home study. Once the home study is conducted and passed, we can notify our main adoption agency and then send in the dossier. Then it's in the hands of the Indian courts. Sounds easy and fast, but the work to get to each stage is the tough part.

We have to say big thanks to our friends and families that took the time to write letters or fill our referral forms on our behalf. Thank you Carolyn, Dennis, Sean, Faye, Judy, and Jeremy! Your support and time is very much appreciated!

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday marked 5 years for us! Love you B!

20 Questions

I feel overwhelmed by the last few weeks. Time is flying by and I don't feel like I am making any progress!

We are so close to finishing all the steps and paperwork to do the actual homestudy and have our social worker assigned! This has taken way longer than I anticipated. Things like having to redo my fingerprints 3 times is a bit frustrating! Mark has made about 6 trips to the doctor's office to have them redo forms because they are rushing through. It is so difficult relying on others. One thing we have been so grateful for are the friends an family that have taken the time to write letters and fill out reference forms on our behalf. We've been working through out last two big forms, here are a few of the questions...

How would you handle a child who couldn't trust you?
What would you do if this child became disruptive influence on your marriage?
What would you do if your child wanted to see their biological parents?
How do you feel about adopting a child who has been sexually molested?
Will your friends and family accept a child from a different culture?
What do you and your spouse disagree about?
Describe communication with your spouse?
Etc....

All the questions are clearly to know the environment where the child will be going. But, it is difficult to expose your whole life to strangers.

We are looking for support groups of other couples that went or are going through the adoption process. If you know of any, please let us know!