Okay, so I quickly and excitedly posted last night about us finally receiving our home study approval. Today, I'm going to give you a bit more detail on how it happened.
I had just posted earlier Friday morning about us having good news and bad news. The bad news was, our home study still hadn't been approved. The good news was, we had our USCIS paperwork and Dossier all ready to go. It was about 3:50pm on Friday afternoon when I decided to post on our portal (our personalized adoption website) inquiring about the home study approval. I didn't think I'd hear anything back that day since it was already almost 4 o'clock. I got ready and left work at about 4:20 and headed home. To be honest, I wasn't even thinking about the home study. I was in Tontitown when my phone buzzed. It was 4:43pm I glanced down and saw it was a text from A - our social worker - and all I saw was 'home study approved'. I. Freaked. Out. I called her back because I wasn't 100% sure if that's what the text said. Well, it was. She was JUST as excited for us. She said she kept giving subtle hints to the International office asking if it had been approved yet.
So, I pulled in the driveway and KC came out to meet me like he does everyday when I get home. He opened my door for me and I was still talking to A and I kinda yelled 'It's approved!' Now, KC isn't the type that shows excitement, but man, he was excited! He yelled to A 'Thank you A!!!!' She laughed on the other line and said she was glad to be able to finally give us that news. We hung up and KC and I may or may not have danced a bit in the driveway. haha! We went inside and told the boys and explained what it meant. All they know is it means that we're closer to bringing Effie home.
We then tried to figure out a way to take a picture to tell everyone about it. After a lot of failed attempts at using my camera timer, KC astutely reminded me about the PicStitch app on my iPhone. He's also the one that suggested posting one word at a time. Yeah, he's pretty brilliant. So again, here's the picture we used to tell everyone:
-Sandia
I had just posted earlier Friday morning about us having good news and bad news. The bad news was, our home study still hadn't been approved. The good news was, we had our USCIS paperwork and Dossier all ready to go. It was about 3:50pm on Friday afternoon when I decided to post on our portal (our personalized adoption website) inquiring about the home study approval. I didn't think I'd hear anything back that day since it was already almost 4 o'clock. I got ready and left work at about 4:20 and headed home. To be honest, I wasn't even thinking about the home study. I was in Tontitown when my phone buzzed. It was 4:43pm I glanced down and saw it was a text from A - our social worker - and all I saw was 'home study approved'. I. Freaked. Out. I called her back because I wasn't 100% sure if that's what the text said. Well, it was. She was JUST as excited for us. She said she kept giving subtle hints to the International office asking if it had been approved yet.
So, I pulled in the driveway and KC came out to meet me like he does everyday when I get home. He opened my door for me and I was still talking to A and I kinda yelled 'It's approved!' Now, KC isn't the type that shows excitement, but man, he was excited! He yelled to A 'Thank you A!!!!' She laughed on the other line and said she was glad to be able to finally give us that news. We hung up and KC and I may or may not have danced a bit in the driveway. haha! We went inside and told the boys and explained what it meant. All they know is it means that we're closer to bringing Effie home.
We then tried to figure out a way to take a picture to tell everyone about it. After a lot of failed attempts at using my camera timer, KC astutely reminded me about the PicStitch app on my iPhone. He's also the one that suggested posting one word at a time. Yeah, he's pretty brilliant. So again, here's the picture we used to tell everyone:
One thing A also told us was we needed to sign the home study and then mail it to her supervisor to be signed. She mailed it out yesterday evening and look what came in the mail today!! HUGE blessing to get it so quickly! We weren't expecting it until Monday at the earliest.
Monday, we'll be sending this bad boy off to Tennessee! Once he signs it, he will send it to the office in Little Rock to be notarized. Then, it will come back to us and we can submit it with our Orphan Petition to USCIS. Once they receive it, they will schedule a time for us to be finger printed in Fort Smith at the USCIS office. Once we receive the official finger printing and the approved Orphan Petition back, we are ready to include it all together in the Dossier.
Once the Dossier is completely compiled, we send it to Little Rock to be State Sealed making it all nice and official like. (Are ya still with us? Haha!) Then, it's ready to go to Ethiopia and we can officially be waiting to be matched with our daughter! Guys, seriously - it's THAT close!
Now, as far as how long it'll take to be matched with Effie - that's up to God. The wait time right now for a child between the ages of 0-2 with possible special needs is up to 11 months. But I follow two adoption blogs - and one couple just received their referral after 19 months of waiting (but I don't know if they were open to any special needs) whereas another family received their referral after only 1 month (they were open to special needs). So, there is really no way to predict how long it will be.
But we're just trusting in God and waiting on Him. He hasn't let us down yet. <3
{P.S. Don't forget about our chance to win a $1,000 grant from Ordinary Hero to help with the adoption. Just chose Sandra Collins as the affiliate when you check out!
www.ordinaryherostore.org }
www.ordinaryherostore.org }
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