Where We Are And Where We're Going

The adoption journey has already been a very time intensive process.  We officially submitted our "Pre-Application" to our agency on the 2nd of January 2012.  This application was a quick summary of who we are and allowed the agency the information to decide on whether or not they wanted us to formally apply for adoption approval.  We were pre-approved quickly and moved into the "Formal Application".  The formal application was submitted a few days after our pre-application.  We were pleased to be approved by our agency and were sent a "Welcome Package" with all of the information on our specific program as well as all of the initial documentation to enter into an agency agreement with our agency.  The first round of paperwork was pretty straightforward, but still took some time and a notary public to complete.  This was also the first round of significant adoption costs.

After the actual adoption agreement was signed between us and the agency, we were sent everything we needed to get ready for our "Home Study".  The home study is a combination of social interaction with a social worker, verification of income and assets, lengthy essays filled out not only by us, but by our references, and much more.  This process is typically what takes the longest.  It's the "second leg" of the 3 leg journey.  We are fully immersed in the home study process right now and have completed a lot of the paperwork, have had our fingerprints & criminal background info sent to local, state & federal authorities, and have sent out our letters of recommendation to family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, our pastor & the boys' teachers.  Once all of the documentation has been processed, fingerprints and background checks are done, and reference letters are in, we will be scheduled for the visit with our social worker.  She will spend a total of 6 hours with our family in either one 6 hour session or two 3 hour sessions.  Once the home study is complete, we will be able to get our "Family Album" together and ready for prospective birth mothers.  Our family album will be a general description of our family, our lives, our likes and dislikes, work, extended family, etc.  We will also include a lot of pictures of us that represent who we are and what we like to do.  This will begin our "third leg".

The third leg can sometimes be the must frustrating (as we've been told) because there's really nothing for us to do to speed up the process.  We will have our family album shown to prospective birth mothers that are in their 3rd trimester.  Once we are chosen, we have the opportunity to get information on the birth mother, her family history, etc and we ultimately get to decide on whether or not to move forward with the birth mother.  If all goes well, we will then be in a holding pattern, waiting for our new baby boy or girl to be born.  Once the baby is born, we will be required to travel to Georgia to formally take possession of our baby.  We must wait there up to 10 days after the baby is born for the birth mother to fully relinquish her parental rights and for the interstate transport papers to be filed and approved.  Once that's all clear, we can head home and begin to adjust to the newest member of our family.  The adoption agency will set up visits at the 2 month, 4 month and 6 month marks of us formally arriving at home.  If all goes well after the 6 month visit, the final adoption papers are drawn up and sent to the State of Oregon for their final approval and we're good to go.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog.  We know that you may have many more questions and would also like to know where we're at in this journey.  The blog will be updated regularly, but if you have any questions, feel free to e-mail us at snogolf@hotmail.com.

The Beginning

Many of you may be wondering why we've decided to adopt a 3rd child.  The reason is that we both feel strongly that we've been called by God to have another child.  We both feel as though having 3 children will complete our family.  When we began talking about having a 3rd child, inevitibly the discussion came around to Aidan & Gavin and how they were both born premature.  Aidan, being 6 weeks premature and Gavin being over 2 months premature.  We felt as though there were potentially incredible risks and long term health issues for our 3rd child if we decided to have another biological child.  We also factored in the unbelievable physical, mental & emotional stress for us and our extended family & friends in that scenario.  With a lot of prayer and discussion, we decided adoption was the best option for us.  We feel that there are so many babies that are born into this world that need a loving, caring, safe home and we know we can provide that.

When the decision was made to adopt, the natural questions was: where from?  We researched domestic & international adoptions and also did a lot of research on several adoption agencies.  Initially, we were thinking of adopting from China, but that idea quickly turned when we found out we'd have to potentially wait for up to 6 years to adopt there.  We researched other countries such as Hong Kong, Vietnam, Eastern European countries, African countries, South American countries and felt as though none were the right fit for us.  Then we turned our focus to domestic adoptions.  We researched going through the foster care system and fostering and eventually adopting a baby from Oregon.  The downside of that for us was the fact that we could have this little baby and raise it for several years, only to have the baby eventually taken from us and returned to his or her birthparents.  We came to the conclusion that the Oregon foster program wasn't for us either.

As some of you may know, some very good friends of ours adopted their little boy a little over a year ago.  They adopted him through the African-American Infant program.  Seeing their family and how blessed they have been put a soft spot in our hearts for the program.  After much prayer, research and discussion, we have decided to adopt from the same program.  Although we would prefer to have a little girl to go with our boys, we feel as though any child God blesses us with will be an incredible gift and will be loved and cherished as our own.

Family & Friends

To our family & friends:

We decided to create this blog to inform you of all of the happenings with our adoption.  This blog will be updated regularly with status updates & information that we want to convey to you in regards to our exciting journey to complete our family.  We will also be attaching a fundraising chart to show everyone how fundraising is going and upcoming and ongoing opportunities for our family & friends to participate in this journey.  Thank you for taking the time to be a part of this with us.