Adoption Brain! Who Knew???

 

Who knew, right?  I mean, I've known with each adoption, especially when expecting Ian, I went through what appeared to Jode and me as pregnancy symptoms including morning sickness, dizziness, fatigue and weight gain.  But when "adoption brain" hit this week you could have knocked me over with a feather.  I couldn't believe it.  Not me, the one who's so organized, the ultimate administrator.  Wow!  It hit me like a brick.  Now, not only am I double checking everything I do, I'm still fretting over whether it's correct once I hit "send"!   Now I'm wondering when this stops and hoping desperately it's at least as soon as all our paperwork is submitted.

Speaking of, we had to make a tough decision this week when the agency we have been working with for our homestudy once again made unrealistic, not based on law or regulation, requirements of us.  After quite some time of jumping through every hoop they put in front of us just to get our homestudy completed, we finally had enough!  We are now finalizing our homestudy with a certified investigator rather than an agency.  Had I known this initially, we would have gone this route in the first place.

For those of you adopting from a non-Hague country, according to the USCIS web-site, you have the option of using a certified investigator.  The cost of this is about 1/4 of what you pay using an agency.  I don't know about you, but that means a lot to me.

I found our certified investigator by searching for "SCDSS certified investigator" which then lead me to a page with every county in SC.  I clicked on our country and low and behold the Social Worker who maintained our foster care license for the past five years, was on that list.  She's also become a family friend so we will definitely recommend her to anyone else in this great state looking for a home study. 

Your continued prayers as we continue on this journey to bringing precious babies home are appreciated. 

With love,
Jode, Kelley and kids,