We are NOW Number 4!!!

NUMBER 4!!!

After 1 year, 7 months, 3 weeks and 4 days we are finally down to NUMBER 4!!

If has been SEVERAL months since I updated this blog - so I will try to give some updates now - although the biggest update is WE ARE NOW NUMBER 4!!

If is very likely looking like a June referral for us - which would have us traveling to Thailand to pick our little girl up and bring her home sometime next Dec/Jan/Feb timeframe.  We will be traveling to "balmy" Thailand during DC's winter.

New Thailand dossier requirement - Psychologist Interview
Since we originally submitted our dossier in Mar 2012 there has been an update to the Thailand requirement.  We are now required to submit a letter from a Psychologist saying "Individual appears to be in good mental health and is mentally stable.  Individual is capable of successfully providing for adopted children."

You would think the 20 some page homestudy document and numerous meetings with the liscenced social worker would be good enough for that, but NO Thailand needs a letter from an actual Psychologist.  I have been on my search for psychologists who could evaluate Chris and I to provide such a letter.  Several said it would require 6-8 months of appointments and testing until I finally found one that would do with just one 2-hour meeting and the fee is only $500.  Much better than the alternatives.  Chris and I have filled out all the required forms for meeting with the Prince William Family Counseling office (about 25 pages of our life story) and we meet with them on April 18th.  Hopefully, our meeting will go well and we will get this new requirement to be added to our dossier paperwork.

Updated Homestudy/I-800 Update Paperwork 
We are also in the process of updating our homestudy to get an extention on our I-800 form.  The I-800 is only good for 18 months and ours will expire in August 2013, so we need to get re-fingerprinted and an update for the homestudy before then.

There have also been some Virginia state laws for adoption that have changed since our initial homestudy, so we will need to accomplish those also.
So far the homestudy forms we need to complete for the update are:
* The Virginia child abuse clearance update
* Medical updates for four of us (Chris, Lisa, Christopher and Joshua) which includes new TB tests, and statements saying we are all "free from communicable and contagious diseases", in "sufficiently good health that the placement of a child will not jeopardize the health/safety of child or self"
* Updated confidentiality statements
*Authorization to release homestudy
*Auto Insurance
* Financial Forms (paystubs and tax returns)
* Another adoption training Course

AND It is all
 SOOO
 Worth it

Why Wouldn't I???

WHY Wouldn't I
I never tire of hearing others that are being blessed with adopting or seeing adopted children on friends blogs or in person.  Adoption has blessed so many people that I know and I am so humbled that GOD has chosen us to be on this same path for our family and our little girl.  I don't know how many tears (mostly happy) I have shed over the past few months with news of friends starting adoption paperwork, families who just brought home their new children or pictures of children who NEED parents.

One of my favorite songs now is "Why Wouldn't I" by Peter Eide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kQC_9sstfs

He does does a great job of describing his family's desire to adopt and what a blessing it's been to all of them. I love the title of his new song -- Why Wouldn't I? Instead of wondering if YOU should adopt or why YOU should adopt, maybe we should be asking the question why shouldn't we?