Application Accepted

Well we heard back from Children's Hope International and our application has officially been accepted. We are very very happy! We have started the paper chase and are currently working on the following:

• CIS application - this is an application to the federal government that allows us to bring an adopted child to the US.
• Homestudy - this is being done in conjunction with a social worker from our agency and basically is an in depth analysis of our family to make sure we will be good parents
• Dossier - this is all the various documents that Kazakhstan officials will need to see.

So, lots of paperwork but if you stay organized and take it one thing at a time but keep on moving forward it should not be too bad.

We have also started making a list of all the big ticket items that we need to purchase; baby furniture, camcorder, new digital camera, car seats, strollers, etc. It is very exciting.

Application Delivered

Dusty went ahead and took our application to the local Children's Hope office in Brentwood. He figured this way it would be done. He was able to meet with the director who went ahead and took a look at the application. She did not see any red flags and said they would go ahead and send the application to the corporate office in Seattle. It should be a couple of weeks before we will hear if they are going to accept us. She told Dusty we could go ahead and schedule the home study and attend the next home study workshop this month. Hopefully that is a good sign about our application.

We went ahead a couple of weeks ago and got some of the paperwork that we will need out of the way. That being the FBI background check and our passports.

FBI background check: Each of us went to the police station in Nashville to get our prints. It was pretty easy. We each purchased three copies of prints so that we don't have to go back downtown again - just in case. We are learning to get multiple copies of things for future paperwork requests. She gave us our cards on the spot. We then headed over to the UPS store where we mailed them next day AND included a return shipping label for the FBI to use. It helps speed up the process. One very huge tip we learned is to make sure and write URGENT for International Adoption on the outside of the package and on the cover letter that you will have to include.

Passport Application: We checked our local post offices and found one that would process the whole passport on site. One thing I recommend is going online and filling out the paperwork and printing it out. Just DON'T sign it until you are with the post office official. We went ahead and did the whole expediting of the passport for an additional fee. We probably wont' travel for a year but you have to have this for your Dossier and I am glad to get it out of the way.

Sending in Application

Dusty and I have been gathering the paperwork for our initial application. We have chosen Children's Hope International in Brentwood, Tn. We initially went to their information session in December of 2006. We were interested in China but learned that they had put forth some new requirements that were eliminating people from being able to adopt from there. We could have continued forward with China but would have had to wait until March of 2008. So we started looking into other countries and after many months of research we have decided on Kazakhstan.

We will be turning in our application Monday, July 16 and should hear back as to if they are going to accept us by sometime in August.

Blog Starts Today

This will be our first entry to keep our friends and family updated on our process of adopting a child. More to come later...

Dusty and Steph