Korean Culture...

We had our first Korean meal. Wes had a delicious bowl of seafood soup; including squid, shrimp and mussels, Oh my! I had bibimbop. It was actually delicious!
We did this in celebration of our trip to the Office of Homeland Security for Immigration and Citizenship. One step closer to making our newest family member a US citizen.

Homestudy Talk

On to the next step in this process! Tomorrow morning our social worker will be visiting our house. You know that meeting I talked about before that involved us, a one year old, a three year old and our pets...yea, that's it! Should be interesting. (Thank Heavens my mom will be coming up to watch the boys while we are talking to our social worker.) Our social worker will be checking out our home and doing an "interview" to be able to write a GIANT report (our homestudy). This will be sent to South Korea in a few months. It tells everything about our family and lets them know that we are prepared for accepting a child into our home. 

We met our social worker for the first time last week. We had a meeting at her house to work on some paperwork and prepare us for our home study visit. We were both a little unsure about who this person would be, you just never know! Fortunately, she is pretty wonderful. She has a garden, a dog and chickens...need I say more? She is also no stranger to adoption, she has adopted three children from Ethopia...twin girls and a boy. WOW.

We've also started working on our "parent education" classes. We are required to read books and take online courses to help us to prepare for our child. It's honestly been pretty interesting. It's pretty surreal to read about the lives that children can come from. It puts things into perspective.

Once again, I shall conclude in asking for some prayers from you guys. Right now, half way around the world my child (most likely son) is being carried by his birthmother. I ask for you to pray for his birthmom to care for herself and our child. Pray for his health and that he already feels love.

(To clear it up, we haven't been assigned a child yet, but according to how the timeline works, he will most likely be born in or around October. So, it's time to pray for him. Oh, and I realize that I refer to him as a HE. I really have no clue. There is a really good chance it will be a boy (I'll explain why in a future post), so therefore we call him a he!)

Oh the Waiting...

We've got a bit of movement in the adoption process. If you didn't know, it's a very slow process...It seems that God thinks you need to play a waiting game, no matter how you get your children, pregnancy or adoption! Oh the waiting!

Our psychological evaluation went great. As I mentioned before, it was a three hour session of answering questions and taking multiple choice "tests" (over 500 questions). I guess it's pay back for all of the multiple choice tests I give my students. :] There were some very interesting questions, most of them were what you'd expect to see on a psychological evaluation. There were a couple that caught us off guard. "Does it bother you to receive random ads in the mail?" and "Do you enjoy archery and collecting stamps?" Interesting, right? The funny thing is, I really did collect stamps as a kid...I hope that isn't a red flag for a crazy person! hehe. 

Our next big step will be July 23rd, we will be meeting with our social worker to give her our giant binder of adoption paperwork. This includes bank statements, three letters of recommendations, letters from our employers, letters from our bank, utility bills, physicals, marriage licenses, birth certificates...on and on and on! . (Other than buying a house, I don't think I've ever signed my name so many times.) Then, July 28th she will come to our house to evaluate our home to make sure it is acceptable to welcome another family member! At this meeting E-man, J-man, Harrison (our dog), and Jack (the cat) must be present. Sounds eventful! After she writes up her part, we will be finished with our home study! So once again, keep those prayers a coming!

I realize that I'm rambling a lot. Bear with me, it is my way keeping you all updated and documenting the process.

Homestudy Prep

We are currently in the process of preparing our home study paperwork. We have had every single crevice of our past investigated at this point. FBI background checks, State Police Background checks, Spouse and Child Abuse Registry Checks, Court Checks. Sheww! I think it is safe to say that our backgrounds have been checked up one side and down the other!

We are also in the process of getting blood tests and physicals done. They require your organs to be in tip-top condition. 

Our next big step is the Psychological Evaluation; a three hour evaluation of our sanity! Well, that one could be a little tough to pass. This is something that only South Korea requires. When I was talking to the doctor that will be doing the evaluation, he said that I can't be all there, being that I have two children under 3 and planning to adopt. Oh, let's add in that I am a middle school science teacher. I don't think that I can be "all there". One can only hope that some how we can pass the evaluation! We go for this appointment on Monday, June 29th.