Raising Purity

I want to share an updated resource for parents and soon-to-be parents written by Gerald Hiestand, the Pastor of Adult Ministries at our church. His book, Raising Purity, will help parents and children think clearly, biblically and practically about the God-ordained purpose of human sexuality. Check out his website to read the first two chapters online. You can also purchase the book through Amazon.com (don't forget a portion of any Amazon.com sale through our website goes to our adoption fund).

Dossier Submission, Take Two

I stopped at the Secretary of State's office yesterday to have one more document apostilled. The downtown Chicago office accepts walk-ins. I arrived at the end of the work day and was told that walk-ins are accepted until 3:30p! The clerk had a brief discussion with the worker responsible and they decided to process our document. Did you know that the IL apostille department received an award for being ranked #2 among all IL departments for customer service? There was a big poster reflecting this but I did not notice it last time. Our home study social worker prepared the remaining pages and the corrected documents were sent to our adoption agency yesterday. We'll keep you posted as to when our dossier finally arrives in Russia.

Six Months

It's been about six months since we decided to answer the adoption call for our family. So much has happened during this time from picking an agency to putting together the paperwork. Somewhere in between we mixed in some fundraisers and created a website. Many people consider this paperwork stage of the adoption to be the "paper pregnancy." I'm not so sure this is completely accurate but we are experiencing the emotional roller coaster that goes with a physical pregnancy. If we were pregnant for six months there would be physical signs (a big bump by now), some financial strain (although not nearly as much as an adoption), and anticipation (lots for both). At least a physical pregnancy has a due date, which at most is off by a few weeks.

Another issue for us is the travel. Russia requires two trips - the first trip is approximately one week long, the second trip could be up to four weeks. We don't plan on taking N and C with us on trip one so there are issue of child care. We intend to take N and C with us for trip two so if it's during the school year they will miss up to one month in school! We also have miles with American Airlines that might help reduce the cost - except AA's Russia service is now discontinued....

Before N was born we received this book What to Expect the First Year. Is there such a book for adoptions?

Dossier Drama Part 2, Day 4

We just got word from our social worker that she sent us the revised documents we need. It seems that DCFS/USCIS approval will not be required before sending to our adoption agency and then off to Russia. If we receive these docs tomorrow it's possible to have them apostilled on Thursday. This is a benefit to living in a big city where the Secretary of State accepts walk-ins for this service.

I follow several adoption blogs and was excited to see another Illinois family get a referral call last week. They are adopting siblings - check out their blog here.

Dossier Drama Part 2

We should have expected that there would be issues with the dossier. Our family coordinator sent us an email with some items that needed to be corrected. This will cause some delay as our home study agency needs to process these items but it is only time at this point and a few extra dollars to get these items apostilled. N brought up a good point that perhaps this delay is because our daughter is not yet born....

On another note we are planning a big fundraiser on December 5 in Palatine. Keep your calendars open if you can help, or just an hour or two if you want to stop by and shop. Details to come!

Dossier Sent

A big day for us! We received all the documents for our dossier, had them notarized and apostilled and sent them to our adoption agency today. Our agency will have our documents translated and sent to Russia - this is when our official wait begins. We were a few weeks behind my estimated schedule/plan but I was reminded of this verse this morning:

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." Proverbs 19:21

We also sent three checks for $6,700 in fees. This depletes our adoption fund substantially and we'll need to raise more funds before the next payment is due, which is approximately $14,000 when we receive our referral and make the first trip.

Picture

C drew this picture for school today. Could this be us one year from now?

License is In

Great news, our home study agency received its new license, the last document we need for our dossier. We should receive it this week and our dossier should go out soon!

Marathon Packet Pick-up

[Editor's Note: Courtney is training for the Chicago Marathon and looking for sponsors to raise money for the adoption. Click the link to the right for more information.]

Sally and I took an extended lunch hour to pick-up our race packets today. We shared a taxi with my friend Nate and arrived at Chicago's McCormick Place ready to go. We received our bib numbers and T-shirts and walked the expo floor checking out the latest running apparel and accessories (and picking up some free stuff!). I've got mixed feelings at this point: anxious, nervous, excited! You can track Sally and me as we run by clicking this link and signing up.

We've been encouraged by the donations that have come in the last few days before the marathon. Thank you!

Apostilles and Mail

I went to the Secretary of State office to get what paperwork we have apostilled. The SOS verifies the notary or county clerk that certified our documents. The workers there were really nice and we had our documents done with no issues. All that is left is to receive our home study agency's license and immigration approval.

But wait, there's more...

Sitting in the pile of mail today was a letter from the USCIS. We received our approval!!! Magical form I-171H is now in-hand and waiting to be copied, notarized and apostilled. One more doc to go before we send our dossier to Russia!