Home Study and Dossier

I'm excited to report that our first home study visit is scheduled for Oct 13th!! After the initial visit to our home we will then meet with her at her office for our second visit and then she will finalize the report. The list we had to get together was pretty lengthy and I felt so accomplished after I had it all together. I literally carried the bag around with me with all the paperwork in it, ha ha.

But today I received all the dossier paperwork. A dossier is sort of similiar to the home study in that you have to gather all this paperwork, get it notarized and put it together in a packet. Although I'm excited to start working on the dossier I feel a bit defeated that I have to start gathering more paperwork again.

Not to mention the next two weeks are full of football games, craft fairs and general up keep. You should see my house right now, things have definitely fallen to the way side.

I've been preparing for the past two weeks for the Autumn Street Fair. I'm selling t-shirts, bracelets, lion pillows, bows, African coffee and wreaths that I have made. Next Saturday is Applefest which is another craft fair that I'll be participating in. These will be great ways to sell the crafts and earn money but I'm just plain tired!

Fundraiser Spotlight

An extremely pleasant suprise that I have experienced is that there is a HUGE adoption community out there. People who understand your frustrations and what we are going through in this process. They are willing to listen and actually understand what you mean when you talk about home study's, state clearances and all the paperwork!

I have met several "virtual friends" who I have emailed with or talked with over the phone and Amy is one of those great people. She features families on her blog every Monday to spotlight their fundraising efforts and today is our day!!

An Update

I know, I know, it's been quite awhile since I've posted anything.  To be honest, we have been super busy with a few upcoming events.

I received our adoption contract from CCI a few weeks ago and was finally able to go through it and read it.  We had to sign, initial and notarize about 30 pages in the contract.  Along with that we sent in our adoption fees, a home study review fee and a mandatory humanitarian donation.  As Tommy and I were signing the pages he said "That check makes this very real."  It was the first BIG check I have written since this adoption started and I was flooded with excitement and fear at the same time.  The check wiped out about half of our adoption fund!  Ekkk

In the mean time I have been gathering all the paper work I need for the home study agency. Just to give you an idea of the things we have to get,  here's a small list of items:

-Copies of all our birth certificates
-Copy of marriage license
-Copies of drivers licenses
-Medical forms for each person in the family filled out by a physician
-Financial information form
-Letters from employers
-Copy of front page of tax return for the past 3 years
-Statement from bank
-Letters of recommendation
-Criminal background checks from TN Bureau of Investigation
-Background check from local police department
-Residentail history from the last 10 years

Needless to say I've been on a paper hunt!!