Home study - Check

Dear Victoria,

The Home Study is DONE!! I can't tell you how great it feels to say that. The official copies are in the mail and should arrive tomorrow or Thursday. When they get here I'll be sending off our USCIS I-1600A form (Petition to adopt a foreign orphan), One to our placing agency for the Home Study Review and two copies will go with the Dossier to your country.

Last night I got a few more forms to fill out and instructions for the Dossier and I'm happy to tell you that they are about all done, just waiting for a few answers to finish them up. I love having tasks I can get busy on, rather than just waiting for things to come in. I know there will be lots more waiting to do, but when there is work to get done I feel good. It means we are making progress and getting even closer to you! Once I get all the documents together for the Dossier we will need to get everything notarized and apostilled up at the State Capital. My goal is to get that done sometime next week. Then we can send everything in to get registered with your country. Once all that is done we can start talking about scheduling our first travel date! So exciting, it's starting to feel even more real and I can't wait to meet you.

So in regards to the home study I have to tell you something, another miraculous piece of this story. The day after we were told we could move forward to adopt you I got on the computer to find someone to do our home study for us. We needed it done quickly, so I knew I needed Heavenly Fathers help to find the right people to help us. I sat down at the kitchen table, said a silent prayer knowing that I would need to be led to the right place. I began my google search for a company to do our home study. The first company I called took down some information and said they would be in touch.

I didn't want to waste any time so I kept searching. I got ahold of an adoption advocacy group or something that dealt more with domestic adoptions, but the really nice gentleman gave me the name and number of someone he thought could help me out. So I called the guy he mentioned. Even though he was on vacation at Disneyland when I called, he still answered and we got the ball rolling. I told him that we needed to move as quickly as possible and he assured me that he would be able to. We scheduled our first at home visit for as soon as possible and got started. A few days after we set up our appointments the person from the first agency I had called got back to me. I told them that I had already chosen another agency and I thought that was the end of the story.

Just recently I found out that 2 others families that I have met and are also adopting from your country, were working with that company on their home study. It turned out after they had put A LOT of time and money into the process, that the company was not licensed to do international adoptions and sadly they had to start all over. It breaks my heart to know that they went through all of that, but I pray that things will get moving quickly. I think they are both now working with the agency we went through, so I know things will get taken care of quickly. If anyone out there is adopting internationally from Utah I would highly recommend Wasatch International Adoptions to do their homestudy and if possible Josh to be their social worker. They are so on top of everything and have been so great to work with. From start to finish it took us 6 1/2 weeks to finish our home study and 2 of those weeks were just waiting for our background checks to come back from the state. From what I hear this is really fast for a home study.

I'm just amazed now looking back that I truly can see God's hand in lining me up with the correct people to do the home study. I know that He was with me that day while I was searching and calling around. He truly is guiding this process, I'm sure even more than I realize. You are so important to Him and he wants you home with your family. We are coming little girl, we are coming.

Love Mommy