First Step: Done!

Posted by Ellen at 1/1/2008 9:06 AM and is filed under Liberia,Adoption
Yesterday, the last day of 2007, I ran around trying to complete the first and second concrete steps toward adopting Sayfou and Maddie. This is what I was able to accomplish:
  1. The I-600A form: Completed! Mailed! This is the Advance Petition to Adopt Children Internationally. It goes to CIS, which is the old "INS." After they receive it, they will make an appointment to have all the people in our house fingerprinted. Then they will send us another form, the I-171H.
  2. Home Study: Initiated! I met with our social worker, Helene Nathanson of Nathanson Adoption Services, and she gave me additional forms to have filled out: medical forms for all of us, reference letters, financial forms. She is great and is looking forward to working with us. She told me exactly what to write on my I-600A to get it expedited, since we have already identified our children. Dave and I will meet with her twice in her office and then she will come to our house to meet with the girls. Her notes from those meetings will comprise our home study. I pray we can find convenient times for all of us to connect in the next three weeks.
  3. Dave and I met at lunch and got some of our forms notorized.
  4. I went to Kinko's and made copies of our birth certificates and our marriage certificate.
It felt so good to get the I-600A form sealed, stamped, and dropped in the mailbox! It's just the first step, but it is DONE and the ball is rolling! We heard that the birthmom's marital status may have changed. She is a widow of two years, but remarried on December 30. Our hope and prayer is that she still wants to place Sayfou and Maddie for adoption. Even though she's married, we don't think that alters the fact that she doesn't have the means to care for these kids. We are glad, however, that it seems as if the marriage will assure that she is taken care of.

Once our Liberian dossier is complete and she has signed relinquishment papers, we will then identify ourselves to her and to her kids as the Verhaagen family that wants to adopt them! I am working on a family scrapbook that I will send to them so they can see us and read our story... and hopefully be assured that we are God's choice for their new family.

Boy, is our life about to change radically! I can hardly wait!!

 

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