Where? What's next?

Hello!

Thank you everyone for your overwhelming support this last week! Your prayers mean so much to us!  As you can imagine this week has been the beginning on a rollercoaster ride. We are surrounded by so much love from our family and friends. I was surprised on Monday by two amazing friends who wrote letters of recommendation for us and who started a Go Fund Me account. More information will be shared about that soon. Then today, as I was writing this blog the doorbell rang and it was a sweet package from another dear friend who sent baby Campbell his/her first book (among other things). This week, I have cried, laughed, smiled, and been overwhelmed with the love people have for our baby and us.  Thank you so much! As we continue this journey we ask for prayers for us, for baby Campbell, for God’s path to be clear, for Holt International, for the birth families of baby Campbell and for the people that will be loving and taking care of our baby until we can be together.

We have been asked many questions in the last few days and we are going to take the next couple weeks to answer some of those questions.

Where are you adopting?

We do not know where we are adopting. We chose a few countries that we are looking into. Different counties have different requirements. For example, some countries require 4-6 weeks of travel time. Other countries require you to be married for 5 years and both parents to be over the age of 30. There are a lot of things we need to look into for each country. We aren’t at the point of doing that quite yet. First we need to finish our home study. That brings us to the next question.

What is your next step?

We are currently completing all of the requirements to have our home study. A home study is when a social worker reviews all of our paperwork, comes to look at and approve the house and area that we live in, and meets us to ensure that the baby will be going to a safe, healthy, clean, happy family. Before the social worker comes our files need to be reviewed. We have a laundry list of things that need to be completed before our files are reviewed. To give you a look into what we are working on I have included the list. All of these things cost money and take time. Once they are completed we will have our home study. Next week I will be answering questions about money and what each payment goes to.

*Adam and I both need to have updated clearances for our home study. (FBI, child abuse, PA and Michelle needs FL)

*We both need to have a psychological evaluation completed

*A map of our house and directions needs to be created

*Copies of legal documents (birth certificates, marriage licenses, etc.)

*We each have about 50 pages of questions to answer about our past, parents, family, marriage, and how we want to raise children.

*Financial paperwork (fee schedules and household compensation) and personal data forms

*We both need to have physicals done with blood work and TB tests

*We both need to have our employment verified

*We have other forms that need to be signed about legal things and finances

*Residence forms need to be filled out with every address we have lived at since childbirth

*We need to complete training courses

*And finally, we needed to select what medical conditions we would be willing to “accept” in a child so that if/when we do get approved we can be matched with a child!

PHEW! That’s a long list and everything takes time and planning. So this is where we do a lot of behind the scenes things and try to hurry as quickly as possible to get to the next step. There is of course cost involved in each of these things so we are unable to do them all over night J. We have been told to expect between 4-6 months from the time you start the paperwork until it is finished for this step. We know that in God’s timing everything will be complete and we will be eager and waiting for our journey to continue!  The reason I am sharing this isn’t to overwhelm you but to help share where we are without having to repeat all of those steps and overwhelm ourselves over and over. 

Please do not hesitate to ask us questions. We will do our best to answer them in person and on the blog for everyone to read. We are so happy to have you along for this amazing journey we are on to find our baby!

Have a blessed day!

Michelle, Adam, and baby Campbell