Wassup, Doc?

I had my doctor's visit this morning, and got the results of my tests, and had the health form filled out. It was went really smoothly, and I am apparently the picture of health. (My cholesterol is 170! I didn't need that for the adoption application, I just figured, hell, since they were taking blood, they might as well give me a full work-up. My LDL-HDL ratio is exceptional too.) And... I might have fudged my weight a little-- but it's the nurse's fault for asking me instead of actually making me get on the scale. If I was a nurse, and I was going to ask people their weight, I would just automatically add about 20lbs on to whatever they said.

Wade already had his appointment a week ago, so he just needs to get his employment verification form signed by his boss, and then we can finish up the financial form, and read/edit each other's essays/personal statements. Then, this packet we've had for several months will be ready to be sent back to the agency.

Fingerprinted

Hi, I know it's been a while. It's summer, things and people move slowly. I think both of us have our essays done, and we went for our fingerprinting appointments this morning. They don't use ink anymore, which should've been obvious to me if I'd really thought about it, but I didn't, and as a result, I was sad. You just have your hands held over two different sized scanners, one that does your whole hand/all fingers together, and then a smaller scanner where each finger is rolled back and forth individually. All your individual little whirls show up on the computer screen, beep, beep, and you're done. Nothing to it. Still, I wanted to walk out of there smiling, with smudgy inked fingertips. Oh well.

Next on our list is the drs appointment, but we need to find out if we have to get referrals for the blood tests since we have new insurance.

There is a new director at our agency, who sent out an email introducing herself, and letting us know there was other new staff as well. She mentioned in her email that she has two adult children who were adopted from Korea, so while I didn't know the story of the previous Acting Director, it's nice to know that the new person has been down the same path that we're currently on.

After the drs appointments, which we should be able to take care of in the next few weeks, we just have forms to be signed by our employers, and a few other short forms to fill out before we sign up for the first two modules of the classes we have to take. We really don't have any free Saturdays in August, so I'm thinking we might have to push it until September, or take off from work to go. Which I really don't want to do. My work schedule has gotten a little less flexible than it used to be since we are currently under martial law, imposed by our new evil overlord. Who I'm going to have to ask to sign my form. And I don't want to. Maybe I'll ask my old boss, and back-date it to when he was my supervisor. It was just a few weeks ago. I really don't want to have to discuss the adoption with Voldemort if I don't have to.

Anyway, that's where we are!

Fingerprinting Scheduled

We are each still working on our essays/personal data sheets and it's slower going than I had originally thought it would be. We should be done very soon though, and we made our fingerprinting appointments for Saturday July 12. Naturally, the office closest to us closed down at the end of May. The other sheets that need to be filled out are not an issue, and should take little time at all. We also have to make drs appointments for physicals/blood tests, and find out when we might be able to take the Parents in Progress courses. I'm hoping we can have everything needed for this packet sent back in by the end of July. So there probably won't be too much activity between then and now.

Personal References

Well, we are moving along with our Personal Data Information Forms. I'm nowhere near done, and some of the questions are causing writer's block. I'm not sure what page I'm on, because I'm composing in Google Docs and its one giant, scrolling page. I skipped a few questions to go touch upon later, too. The one about my greatest achievement is really throwing me. I don't know that I have one. Or, I don't think that what I really feel was a great achievement would be viewed as such by others. Beyond that, I am up to the Parenting section, which seems to be about 2/3 of the scroll down.

In the mean time, our Personal Reference questionnaires were were mailed out to the selected individuals, and we've confirmed that star witnesses Jeannie, Samantha, Wendy, Dave F, and Dave M, have all received the forms. The completely confidential forms. And let's not forget special guest star Myrna as The Neighbor. I believe that both Samantha and Jeannie have completed theirs already and sent them back in. You both rock! (Unless you wrote hideous things about us, in which case you suck. Hard.) We will be keeping an eye on the rest of you-- especially individuals historically prone to tardiness. (You know who you are.)

I also meant to see about scheduling the fingerprinting, but I forgot to bring the forms to work when I left the house this morning.

Even More Paperwork

We received the snail mail packet yesterday, all of which is to be completed and returned together with our filled out Personal Data Sheets (that 16 page magnum opus from my last post.) The new forms consist of:

• Financial Statement form
• Medical reports for each of us, that need to be completed by our doctor, and include results of HIV and Tuberculin tests (I guess that's for tuberculosis? Is that a blood test?) Interestingly, they want our heart rates, but not our cholesterol numbers.
• We need to send them directions to our house and a map
  
• Authorization to release employment verification information that our supervisors have to sign (thank God they sent that to me, rather than directly to my boss, lest it get lost in one of many black holes around his orbit)
• We have to make an appointment with Sagem Morpho to get fingerprinted
• We have to send in photocopies of our certified birth certificates and marriage certificate
• One photo of what is to be the baby's room (hopefully they will be ok with the baby's room looking right now like a giant walk-in closet with windows), and one picture of each of us separately (you know this is going to take me longer to take the picture than to fill out the 16-page form)
• Begin filling out the I600A immigration form. I read some scary stuff about this one, for instance, if you fill it out incorrectly, you have to resubmit it, with the $700 fee each time. They are supposed to help us with this, however

Once all that stuff is in order, they will invoice us for the home study, and then it usually takes 6-8 weeks to get the fingerprint clearances, medical reports, and personal references before they set up the appointment with the social worker to come to our house. We have our work cut out for us, at least.

That's Personal! (Data Information Form)

Today we received via email a "Personal Data Information Form" which each of us has to fill out. It's 16 pages long, and that's before I even wrote anything on it! It reads like a Blue Book exam from hell, with all the essay questions about yourself. I'm not worried about it in the sense that I think I'll have trouble filling it out--hmmm, I'm incredibly self-centered and an excellent writer... I mean, come on. It's just that I will find myself wondering what the "right" answers are to some of the questions. Except, there shouldn't be any "right" answers, since it's about you, your life, and your feelings. Still... the intro paragraph clearly warns you that everything you put must be "accurate and truthful" or it may result in your application being denied. I am pretty sure what is put on these forms will in large part create the basis for our home study. So I can't help but wonder what sorts of things a social worker would be looking for.

The form needs to be completed and returned with a bunch of other forms which I think are coming via snail mail. I have no idea what the other forms consist of. Also, this should signal that our personal reference forms will probably be mailed out-- so be on the lookout for them (you know who you are!)

Since I know your curiosity must be piqued by what exactly is on this form, I will give you some sample questions below. And no, I'm not giving you my answers.

• Have you discussed your adoption plans with your extended family? What is their attitude towards adoption?

• How do you plan to include the culture and traditions of the country you have chosen in your family life?

• Briefly describe your parents' marital relationship while growing up. What would you do differently?

• What do you feel was missing in your childhood?

• Who was the most influential person in your life? What qualities did this person possess? (I can only suppose they mean real, not fictional people.)

• Describe the things you like about your spouse.
  

• In what ways would you bring up your child as you were raised? What would you do differently?

• What types of discipline did your parents use? How effective were these disciplinary methods used by your parents. (I still think being sent to my room, with my cable tv, was a very effective method.)

• What have been the most fulfilling accomplishments in your life? (Uhhh... sadly, "finishing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" is probably not the best answer. Even if it's true.)

• Please share the religious faith and/or beliefs and values you hold most important and how you plan to pass them on to your child.

And so on... wish us luck!

Friday Phone Call

Happy Memorial Day!

On Friday, we had a scheduled phone call with the Acting Director of our branch office. It wasn't a big deal at all, and basically seemed like she just wanted to go over the information we put on the original online application, and I guess, make sure we were serious about this (i.e., not drooling morons, and not batshit psychos) before moving on to the next step-- which is a big whole mess of paperwork. She also wanted to answer any questions we might have, except as she pointed out, we probably know as much as she does right now. (Because there are unknowns when dealing with a foreign government, and there is so much information available on the web, specifically on their web site. They really aren't trying to hide anything from us, or sneak up with any "gotchas!")

The one thing she said, which seemed to be cause for concern, was that right now their main office was told to put on hold all home study packets that were being sent over to Korea. The Acting Director seemed to think this was because of the recent tragedy that occurred in the Midwest, and that Korea might be making their mental health requirements a bit more stringent. Since they are trying to supposedly phase out their international adoption program by 2014 anyway, they have been using this horrible story to say, "See? See what happens when we send our children overseas for adoption?!" Or something like that. The Acting Director seemed confident that this was only temporary, and that all the home studies would be kept in the proper order and eventually sent over.

So after the holiday weekend, our big packets will go out, and at the same time our reference forms will go to the non-family individuals we selected to fill them out. I'm really curious to know what is on those. I suspect someone will tell me. ; )