We've completed the homestudy process and the dossiers are getting completed and sent over to Russia. Now we're in the waiting phase. The short answer of 'how long?' is 6-9 months once Russia has our paperwork (provided everything goes to plan).
The homestudy consisted of five meetings: two group, two individual and one house visit. The group session was mostly our social worker talking to both of us and the individual ones were mostly us talking to her. These took place at her office. Then she came to make sure that we do, indeed, have a house.
We've continued to do reading (including a set of parenting classes done online) and found a few more things to think about:
- Read Deuteronomy 10:18-19 (see also Psalm 68) to see more about God's calling to His followers in regards to adoption. Note especially that part about Father to the fatherless.
- Remember that 'adopted' is a past tense verb--not an adjective. And adopted kids are not 'less than' biological children.
- Preserving the child's culture is important, especially once they reach adulthood. This is when they are seen 'on their own', without the family nearby to help configure who they are.
- I can't help but think how much we need to 'normalize' adoption as a way to build a family. There are a lot of stupid things people say, but if we made adoption more desirable, less of a 'treatment for infertility', I wonder if there would be a lot less of those unthinking statements.
- We're going to have to keep in mind the orphanage setting and not overwhelm the children with too many toys, colors and stimulation all at once. We also will probably have to 'shut down' for a little while to get the children used to us being the primary caregivers.
I've marveled a few times at how God has guided and protected us along this journey. We recently met another couple that's using Partners for their Russian adoption (as well as Lifelink for their homestudy) and heard their trials as they tried to find a reputable adoption agency for each part of the process. The fact that all the 'prior' stuff went so smoothly in our case is a testament that we are indeed supposed to be following this path!
We took the recommended recipe to a Lifelink picnic!
Book recommendation: The Connected Child by Karyn Purvis
Recipe recommendation: Sharlotka 'Gost' na Poroge'
New product recommendation: Trident Vitality gum
3 comments:
Oooh! This gives me chills. If I ever say anything stupid, give me one of those looks and say, "well, that was stupid!"
Love you guys and are very excited for you.
So are the kids!
sooo excited for you guys! what an amazing adventure to the precious that God has known since the beginning of time were meant to be yours. praying for you always and anxiously waiting to meet the new addition to our family! =)
thankyouthankyouthankyou for prayers! Politics have us a little worried, as Russia and the United States do not always have the best relations...
We also are just about in the 'tough stage', where there isn't anything new, but people keep asking.
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