We are still in the "waiting" part of this adoption. We are waiting on our home study to be approved by Beacon House (the Russian agency that works here in the U.S.). They are located in Iberville Parish in Louisiana and they work with adoption agencies like ours (Building Blocks Adoption Service) here in Ohio. We chose Building Blocks because of their Christian facilitation of adoptions and because they were a "one stop shop," where we could be guided and provided home study services as well as help and guidance through forming the paperwork (called dossiers) for Russia. Two of these packets are required for Russia. One of them is submitted before we meet our little Katie Allison and the second is submitted after our first trip to the region in order to schedule a court date.
We wanted the process to be as simple as possible and though there is A LOT of paperwork, they are awesome at guiding us through it and are always there when we need to talk to them via phone. I even got to visit the agency the other day when I went up to Cleveland (their offices are located in Medina--about 45 minutes outside of Cleveland). I saw a bunch of bulletin boards with babies and children that they have placed in "forever families." We can't wait to add our Katie Allison's photo to that board when all this is final. Well, now on to the actual real purpose of this note.
So, Aaron and I had a wonderful day today! We took a walk around the block near our apartment because it was SUCH a beautiful day today with so much sunshine!!!! As most of you know, we have been living here in Beavercreek for over two years now (going on three) and we did not even know about this little furniture store around the corner called Woodcraft. It is awesome!!! Apparently, a lot of their furniture is made by the Amish and the quality is amazing. Plus, how could it get any better?
The prices are phenomenal and they will stain almost anything to match other items in your furniture. Her furniture is mostly Cherry colored, with her dresser being a darker version of Cherry...but I don't mind so much if there are some variations of the wood colors.
I now have an official wish list of stuff from this place for Katie's room and for her in general. We purchased the rocking chair below, but here are some other things I spied that I want for her room and her little play areas:
1) Armoire (since Katie doesn't have her own dedicated closet, we will need a place to hang all her pretty little dresses). We fully intend on dressing her in cute little dresses as often as possible. Aaron said, "You're going to make her a girly, girl aren't you?" To which I replied, "I certainly am."
2) Wooden Toy Chest (this is nice because it has a safety feature on it where the lid locks into place and won't come down on her little hands or head).
3) Shelving unit (my plan for this is a place to put pretty colored canvas fold-out boxes to store diapers and her personal things...maybe bath stuff, etc.) and then the lower shelves can be used for books and her toys
4) Her own "Katie size" rocking chair!!!
Man, if you had seen this place and you were expecting or adopting, you'd have felt like you were in furniture heaven!!! I can't wait til' we get some more stuff for her room and our house for her arrival. I guess the beauty of it is that we have a few months before she will be our forever baby girl!!!!
I have to say that I am not the most patient person, but this has really taught me patience....this whole adoption process. I've recently read many people's blogs and they say it really is ALL worth it in the end when you walk through the door to your home with your child! So, our first dossier is complete and should be in Russia by now. Now, we just wait for a referral. The first step, as I understand it, once they receive your documents is for them to be translated into Russian. Then, they have to be sent to region in Russia where you will then receive a referral. Some people get lucky, but for most, this process takes 3-5 months from the time your documents are submitted. That would put us at getting a referral (info on our baby girl) at around the September/October time frame. Our agency still thinks we could get our little one home before Christmas!!! We're praying for that...and that we can be a family of three before or by Chr...
I found an article online while researching adjustment periods post-adoption and thought it quite interesting because it makes a very pivotal point in saying that adoptive parents are not the only ones who are abusive to their children....or to the extreme even kill their children. I was researching this because I did not understand WHY someone who go to such great lengths to adopt a child (emotionally, financially, etc) and then allow these things to happen. This article explains a lot. It also interested me because in college (yes, I studied a particular area of Sociology) and that was Sociology of Childhood. I guess it saddens me to think that other prospective adoptive parents may never get the chance to love a Russian baby because of a handful of people's actions. Should Russia close adoptions to the U.S., Aaron and I will choose another country. We don't plan on waiting for them to iron everything out because that could take a long time....
So, today was one heck of a day! I was down in the dirt and worried about what that woman in Tennessee did with sending her child back unaccompanied to Russia. And, we got a call and our home study was approved by Beacon House!!! We are SO happy!!! So, from here, we just have to wait for the home study to be sent back to us, notarized and certified then we can send it on to immigrations. We have to wait for our I-171H approval before we can officially submit our first set of dossier documents!!! We are half way there, according to our agency!!! I can't believe it! This is one of those "small victories" that life sends us on days when we really, really need it!
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