Adoption #3 update...

Aren't they cute?! I find them like this alot. I love the days where they play together like friends and just can't get enough of each other. Those days are becoming more frequent.

I don't think I have done an update on my blog about where we are at with the adoption process since I announced that we were starting the process again. We made so great headway this last week so I thought that it was a good time.

Since doing the paperwork for our second adoption the process has changed a bit, mostly with the order they do things. It is much more organized and the changes make alot of sense. They have also added a few more requirements to be eligible to adopt through our agency, and those also make sense.

One of the process changes is that you are not able to start the application process until you pay your home study fee (which is non refundable). They have made this change so that they are using their time, resources and money only on serious applicants and to weed out those who go through a majority of the application process and then never pay their fee because they were either not serious about going through with adopting or who if then become pregnant and do not need to adopt.

We paid this fee a couple of months ago and as soon as the payment went through they sent us a package of paperwork . Prior to paying that all we were able to do was the initial entry application, they sent out our Bishop recommendation and we were able to do our state required adoption education. At some point we were given our log in information for the online portion of the paperwork. I don't remember if it was before or after we had paid the home study fee.

We have now done a portion of the on line paperwork. The portion that is done is what I need to fill out in regards to me and my background and my questioneer. Hubs in the middle of busy season and his brain is kind of on low function during this time in regards to anything outside of work, his church calling and his families immediate needs of attention. So i am waiting to catch him on a good day to see if I can get him to get some of his portion done of the online paperwork. We have plenty of time to get it done anyway because we are only about half way through our off line paperwork.

Which brings me to what we have finished in regards to the off line paperwork. Like I said we have already received all ten of our state required adoption education hours on the seven specific topics required. I am so glad that we got that out of the way at the beginning of the process since it was such a frustrating part of our last application process. It was all due to good timing though, so thankful for that.

On Friday I was able to mail out a large part of our off line documents. This included our Oregon State background check docs, our Montana State background check (which had to be notarized), our fingerprints done at the county court house, copies of birth certificates for Hubs and I, copy of our marriage license and Temple sealing certificate, Hubs's medical report (I need to call the doctor to get in for mine and will be getting the kids's filled out this week when I go for Oak's 18 month check up), employment verification, enlarge copies of our drivers license's and enlarged copy of our insurance card.

In regards to the background checks and the fingerprints. You never know how long it will take. It happens alot that paperwork gets lost somewhere and then you have to redo it. It has never been a problem in either of our last two experiences so lets hope that it is the same this time. Also I am not worried about it because we are not in a hurry. Although I am shooting for April (ish) again. And that is just because we are at about the same point in the paperwork at the same time of year as the last time we did our paperwork and we were approved the end of April.

Other off line paperwork still needing to be finished is, our infertility report (this is a new requirement which I will explain in a minute), mine and the children's medical reports, our caseworker still needs to send out the paperwork to our personal references (not sure of his hold up there, but after emailing him about it this week I think that will be happening soon), financial statement and a copy of our last tax return showing annual income, and home study where we need to do a safety checklist, and a few other documents that just need to be read and signed, and paperwork showing showing the information of where, what, when and how we got our adoption education. We also need individual and joint interviews.

In regards to the infertility report that they have added as a requirement to go through the agency. We have to have our doctor fill out a report that says what the logistics of our infertility issues are and how likely we are to ever get pregnant (like in a percentage) and also what action has been taken with procedures and testing. This was a bit of a hard thing for me to think about having to do. I wasn't exactly how we were going to go about this since it has been 5 years since our last procedure and 6 years since our last testing. I can't even remember the name of our doctor although I know what clinic it was at. Also we never finished out our testing because towards the beginning of our testing they found a serious problem that was more than likely the cause of us not getting pregnant after 4 years (at the time). We talked to our caseworker about the issue and he helped ease my worry. I haven't yet, but I will be trying to hunt down where our files may be and who can fill out our report for us. But if that doesn't work out we will probably just have my primary care doctor fill it out for us.

The reason that they have added this requirement is to decrease the amount of adoptive couples to those who are in the greatest need to bring children into their families. There are so many families who have been waiting such a long time for to adopt and there are so many families who have adopted and then have gotten pregnant. With the percentage of unwed expectant parents choosing adoption down to under 1% and the amount of adoptant parents increasing, this change is giving those in greater need a better chance.

Another requirement change is that you can only adopt through LDS Family Services if you have two or fewer children. This means that this will be the last time that we will be able to be matched (to a baby) and adopt through our agency. They however will still allow couples to apply and do their home study through them, they just will not help you find your baby through their agency. This would mean we would have to do our own work in finding our fourth (if there was going to be) baby. And then we would have to find a lawyer to do all the paperwork for placement as well as for finalization. They have added this requirement for the same reasons of adding the infertility report. To decrease the amount of adoptive couples so that those who are in greater need have a better chance.

Another thing I have been working on is a blog designated for helping expectant parents who are choosing adoption to get to know us better. I mostly have just needed to update the one I had done for our second adoption. It has been a lot of fun though and I have been kind of using it as a journal of thoughts and have updated it with where we are at in the process. It is private right now with only me having access to it, but as soon as we are approved (or maybe a little sooner) I will make it open and share it with everyone.

Wow this ended up being really long, sorry! Give yourself a pat on the back if you made it through all of that.