Saturday, January 14, 2006
Monday, January 09, 2006
Another small hurdle
We finished our Home Study!! Ok, so it's been almost 2 weeks, but I was hoping to include that our fingerprints had come back too. No such luck.
For our home study, our social worker came over and interviewed each of us individually and then together. She asked us to recite our life stories from birth until today and then asked us a bunch of personal questions. Although these interviews can last for more than 8 hours (usually split up over 2 or more days), ours was a quick 4 hour appointment. Phew, I think we got through it unscathed. Our social worker is great and we all really seemed to get along. She even loved Frisbee!
The next step is to get approval from the INS, but we can't even send them our paperwork until our state background check comes back. We were assured that it would be any day now, but this is the government we are talking about.
I also found out today that we have to redo a bunch of the paperwork for our dossier. It isn't holding us up yet, since we are still waiting for the state to get their gears moving. However, it is a bit depressing to have to go back to all these people and ask them to redo work that they spent so much time putting together in the first place. The main person is our doctor, who has been so patient and understanding. He has had to redo a form twice and write us each personal letters. Now they have to be redone just because a date was incorrect. I feel awful calling and asking, but it has to be done.
Once our dossier is in order we send it to the INS for approval, which also may take a while. Then all the paperwork is taken by courier to DC to be authenticated by the US government, then translated, then sent off to China where it sits for a month before being logged in. It isn't until that point that they actually consider us a "waiting parent", and we will be "waiting parents" for at least 7 months. The length and complexity of this process is all very discouraging.
In other news, we are well into the remodel of our mud/utility/pantry room. Maybe someone out there can think of a good all-encompassing name for it....
Yesterday we were framing in a new wall and tearing up the old vinyl on one floor. Unfortunately, as the vinyl was removed, we realized that half of the floor was rotten. The problem is two-fold:
1. The side of the house was originally left open to the elements and water was allowed to come in. This meant that with all our wonderful Oregon rain, the boards on that side of the room always remained damp.
2. The floor boards were attached to flooring joists which were laid directly on top of the dirt. Yes, we did find some pests, although no termites, thankfully!
After careful consideration we decided that the only course of action was to tear up the remaining floor and replace it with a concrete slab. This sets us back at least a couple of weeks, which is only really an issue considering we have scheduled the new electrical to go in next week. Since we don’t want to have to reschedule the electrician again, you all can guess what we will be up to this weekend…… Get in that floor and let it dry a couple of days so that people can at least walk on it!
We had also hired a guy to install our new doors and windows. He had planned to start work today however it seems that he has bailed on us. Not too surprising, since our job is really small potatoes. Perhaps we are going to have to learn the art of framing and installing the new openings.
I guess when all is said and done it is a good thing that the adoption is taking so long. Maybe we will be finished with this stage of the remodel by the time our daughter arrives!
For our home study, our social worker came over and interviewed each of us individually and then together. She asked us to recite our life stories from birth until today and then asked us a bunch of personal questions. Although these interviews can last for more than 8 hours (usually split up over 2 or more days), ours was a quick 4 hour appointment. Phew, I think we got through it unscathed. Our social worker is great and we all really seemed to get along. She even loved Frisbee!
The next step is to get approval from the INS, but we can't even send them our paperwork until our state background check comes back. We were assured that it would be any day now, but this is the government we are talking about.
I also found out today that we have to redo a bunch of the paperwork for our dossier. It isn't holding us up yet, since we are still waiting for the state to get their gears moving. However, it is a bit depressing to have to go back to all these people and ask them to redo work that they spent so much time putting together in the first place. The main person is our doctor, who has been so patient and understanding. He has had to redo a form twice and write us each personal letters. Now they have to be redone just because a date was incorrect. I feel awful calling and asking, but it has to be done.
Once our dossier is in order we send it to the INS for approval, which also may take a while. Then all the paperwork is taken by courier to DC to be authenticated by the US government, then translated, then sent off to China where it sits for a month before being logged in. It isn't until that point that they actually consider us a "waiting parent", and we will be "waiting parents" for at least 7 months. The length and complexity of this process is all very discouraging.
In other news, we are well into the remodel of our mud/utility/pantry room. Maybe someone out there can think of a good all-encompassing name for it....
Yesterday we were framing in a new wall and tearing up the old vinyl on one floor. Unfortunately, as the vinyl was removed, we realized that half of the floor was rotten. The problem is two-fold:
1. The side of the house was originally left open to the elements and water was allowed to come in. This meant that with all our wonderful Oregon rain, the boards on that side of the room always remained damp.
2. The floor boards were attached to flooring joists which were laid directly on top of the dirt. Yes, we did find some pests, although no termites, thankfully!
After careful consideration we decided that the only course of action was to tear up the remaining floor and replace it with a concrete slab. This sets us back at least a couple of weeks, which is only really an issue considering we have scheduled the new electrical to go in next week. Since we don’t want to have to reschedule the electrician again, you all can guess what we will be up to this weekend…… Get in that floor and let it dry a couple of days so that people can at least walk on it!
We had also hired a guy to install our new doors and windows. He had planned to start work today however it seems that he has bailed on us. Not too surprising, since our job is really small potatoes. Perhaps we are going to have to learn the art of framing and installing the new openings.
I guess when all is said and done it is a good thing that the adoption is taking so long. Maybe we will be finished with this stage of the remodel by the time our daughter arrives!
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