And waited for the call to set up our first Homestudy. Of course I had to accidentally get to the post office on President's day (insert forehead hit DOH!) so it took a few more days than usual.
Well this morning we had our first homestudy via phone interview and it went great! It lasted over 2 hours and was filled with tons of information (4 pages of notes) and we got asked tons of questions. It was great because it also gave us the opportunity to return with all of our questions that we had. We were given a basic timeline and it is amazing to think that by next summer, if not sooner, we will have another little one running through our house:) I would like to say we passed with flying colors and hope our social worker feels that same too!
Here is our basic timeline for those of you not familiar with the process.
We will begin the official Homestudy process on March 17th with an in-home interview. They will tour our house to make sure it is a safe environment and that we are ready! This will be followed by 3 more homestudies (one on one and some education training on adoption). All the while we will be completing a TON of paperwork, getting our fingerprints (multiple times), writing autobiographies, getting physical & mental checkups, etc. This entire process take about 3-4 months.
Once our homestudy is complete our SW (social worker) will take about a month to write her report. This is when we will apply for our I800A application which is basically us applying to adopt. This acceptance takes a few weeks and will go in our Dossier along with all of our other paperwork that is submitted to China for approval. (Dossier = fancy word for paperwork packet)
Once our Dossier is submitted we wait for China to send our LID- Log In Date and wait for our LOA- Letter of Acceptance.
side note......I was especially grateful for this phone call to figure out what all of these acronyms were that I had seen over and over...now I know...anyway....
Then the real "patience game" comes into play as at the end of every month the shared list is published and that is when matches are made. There are various ways that matches are made but this shared list is the most common. Once you receive a referral, you will have 48 hours to make your decision. Brett and I have decided to adopt what they call a "special needs" child with a minor/correctable need (there is much more detail about this that I may write about at another time) This could be anywhere from a heart defect to an orthopedic need or even a cleft palette. This will be a crucial crunch time as we will have 2 days to review their medical file and consult our doctors to ask any questions. Luckily, because of Brax, we have great relationships with all sorts of specialists and most of them know that we are adopting and have been more than willing to be on standby for an file review needed.
If a match is made we then submit an LOI- Letter of Intent and then proceed with applying for our I800 which is our application to adopt a specific child, or OUR CHILD!!! At this point we will have to have a name picked out as well....whooo hoo! Once this is approved we will then get TA- travel approval and will plan to travel to China within a few weeks to get her.
And then when we enter a restaurant from this point on we say....
"Munkel, party of FIVE!"
There are many more detailed steps in between but this is the basics!!!
So, thank you all for your prayers thus far and thank you in advance all for the future prayers over the next months/years as we go on this journey!
I will keep you all posted:)
Bless you all! God is good!!
Kelli
LOVE! Can't wait to see this beautiful story unfold!! Hugs! Thank you for sharing and being such an inspiration!
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