Adoption stories on NPR

NPR recently ran a series on adoption in America:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12184872

The above photo is of Susan Cox who was adopted from Korea in the 1950s and is one of the interviewees in the series. All the interviews are really good - listen if you get a chance.

I also found this interview which is a bit older (2004), but Marie Spark and Mohan Vemulapalli succinctly summarize our reasons for choosing international adoption (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4237836 ).

And, a bit of an update - we have our first home study visit with our social worker on Wednesday!

What a difference a week makes!

When I set this blog up last week, it seemed like we were at a standstill until we had our home study completed. That is not the case!

In addition to gathering our birth certificates - we need 3 each - our social worker has advised us to file our I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition before our home study is complete because the fees increase next week. First I was worried about submitting a document that did not have all the supporting material required, but I was reassured by some other adoptive parents that this is okay. Second, I spent the entire afternoon yesterday trying to figure out WHERE to send it! The USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) has a customer "service" line but it is all recorded information . . . no person in sight. The website is as vague as possible - "this office processes some forms but not all, check the form." But, the form itself did not state exactly which office to file the paperwork. The office listings don't have phone numbers! I finally figured it out in a really roundabout way.

Now, I REALLY have a great deal of respect for those who have completed the process! It took me an entire afternoon to fill out and find out where to send a 2 page form.

Luca needs a passport and Scott needs to get his renewed. Scott took Luca to Walgreens to get his picture taken yesterday (see above) and, apparently, that was a challenge. Luca did not want to hold his head the way he was supposed to and the clerk did not know how to use the camera. I'm glad I missed that outing : ).

I enjoy looking at others' adoption blogs. It has become a hobby! It is so encouraging . . . it definitely gives me hope. A couple of list serves through Yahoo! groups have also been invaluable so far.

And, we loved reading and hearing from so many people. I can't tell how much your words of support mean to us. Thanks so much!

Introduction

Today, I am excited and hopeful about our adoption plans. It actually feels like it is going to happen, so I thought I would take the momentous step of starting a blog to chronicle the process from the very beginning.

This afternoon I plan to send out our self-study to the organization that will do our home study. The self-study is a bit of a challenge and we have been working on it for a while. There are lots of questions about every aspect of our lives. They literally want to know everything beginning with our first memories (mine is sitting on Grandma Reinoehl's kitchen table getting my hair done, by the way). It is difficult to answer all of these quesions, but at the same time it has given us the opportunity to inventory our lives so to speak. I feel a sense of satisfaction looking at who we are and what we have accomplished and how we got to this point.

Of course this is just the beginning of the paperwork. There are lots of forms - forms that prove we have a house and a job and are alive. We will compile a dossier of all of these forms which can be 300 pages long! I guess it will be a paperwork pregnancy. If all goes well, we hope to travel to Kazakhstan next summer.

But I am getting ahead of myself! I intended for this to be an introduction. Scott and I met about 18 years ago - could it be that long ago?! - while we were a Indiana University. We married in 1995. Both of us teach at Southern Illinois University. I am in the School of Art & Design and Scott is in Political Science. In 2003, our son Luca was born. We absolutely love taking care of Luca and watching him grow and flourish. Becoming parents is the best thing that ever happened to us. In February of 2005, we found out we were pregnant with triplets. But, tragically, Hope, Meret and Annalisa were born prematurely at 22 weeks.

Since we lost our baby girls we have been thinking about adoption. We chose Kazakhstan because it seems the orphans there are very well taken care of. The program also seems very stable. We are requesting a girl as young as possible. More than likely she will be Kazakh, which is generally a mix of Asian and European. Here is a link to a page that outlines the process: http://www.worldpartnersadoption.org/kazakhstan.html.