Where we are now...

Guess what came in the mail yesterday??  Our totally complete and notarized home study!!  Yay!  In my last post I mentioned that we were at the end of that and were having our in-home visits with our social worker.  Those visits went so well, and now we are DONE with that portion.  We have also completed our Psychological Evaluations and have only a few more forms to complete our dossier that will be translated into French and sent to Haiti.  Just a refresher for those of you who don't know what a dossier is--it is a compilation of MANY documents that show who we are and reveal just about everything about us to a foreign government so that we can be cleared to adopt from that particular country.  Our dossier requirements include things like medical forms/tests; marriage/birth certificates; bank statements; tax forms; fingerprinting; government clearances (federal ones); verification of employment/income; letters that state our motivation to adopt (written by us to the head of the foreign gov't); personal reference letters; etc....  It is daunting, to say the least!  And everything has to be done just right--with the proper notarizations/authentications, or it might have to be done all over again!  Our new agency that we chose, All About Adoptions, Inc., has a dossier specialist on staff, so hopefully everything will get her stamp of approval!

We are growing more and more excited as we get closer to being done with our portion.  Then we just wait on the orphanage (we did go with GLA --see previous post) to refer us to the child/ren that they have for us, and we wait for our documents to make it through the Haitian courts.  People ask me often about how long this will take.  I wish I knew for sure!  If we get our documents there in the next month or so, we could have a referral by the end of this year, or early January.  Then, it's up to the courts on how long it all takes to process.  We did just hear a few weeks ago that files are making it through in about 8 months right now--that is WAY faster than before the earthquake!  The Lord knows the timing, and we are trusting that He also knows how we are going to pay for this, because I am still a little in the dark on that one!  We know that this is what He has called us to do, so we will trust that He will provide. 

Along with trying to gather the last documents we need, I am also beginning another school year!  I have 22 first grade students this year, and our first week went swimmingly!  Aside from the heat that makes my room almost unbearable by the last couple of hours, the kids did great.  Each year I find that I have just a few more tricks up my sleeve to get the results I am looking for in performance and behavior.  The keys that work best for me are extreme organization (everything in it's place and no extra clutter), and taking the time to really TEACH and practice all of our routines.  There might not be a whole lot of actual lesson teaching at first, but taking the time to show the class what is expected at school will pay off all year long.  I know that even though I have to watch where I step so that I don't trip over all of the MANY bodies in my little room, we are going to have a great year of learning together.

The first two months of school also bring volleyball season for the 2 big girls!  With Alli being a senior **sniff, sniff!**, we are trying to go to many of her games.  Thankfully, this year Alli and Erica's games aren't always on the same days like last year.  That was crazy!  So, I will be jetting out of school as early as possible to drive LONG distances (seriously--some are 3 hours away!) to watch my kiddos play.  I love it! 

God is doing great things!  Can't wait to share more...