I didn't have a blog in the beginning so I'll recap some of what I can remember. It's not all here, but you get the idea, I hope! We started this "journey" in March of 2007. YES, that was some time ago for you family members who remember it! We first started with a local agency and with the country of Russia. After two lllooonnnggg years of waiting and not liking events, changing requirements, etc I talked it over with Mike and we decided we'd like to try and make a change of country. The government would only allow a One Time Free change of country when you adopt internationally - thank goodness! I did some research, even called our newly appointed Home Study Agency Catholic Charities for some help. (Our old agency closed their local office in Nashville, so we were handed over to CC.) In talking to the director, I found out about this great little country called South Korea. Yes, I said South Korea! :) The director told me about the children, what would be required of us, and other tidbits of info ! I was really nervous to make such a big change of country, but it was what we needed to do! (Didn't know that at the time!) We decided to leave our other agency that closed the local office and in talking to the director at CC, they suggested Holt International - great idea, thanks!
So..... after talking with Holt, we filled out the application and sent it in on March 12,2009! Since we were from Tennessee, we had to be open to accepting a child with Special Needs. This can range from jaundice at birth to more extreme medical conditions, but the great thing is, we could pick out exactly what we were open to, and what we thought we could handle, even make changes to the list at any time if we wanted to! They have a medical check list with a very wide variety of medical conditions. We looked over the list, accepted quite a few conditions (really, it's not that scary!) and submitted it with the application. I was still a little nervous of our big decision to change countries, but it was the best for us! Anyone who really knows me knows I'm not a big fan of change, so really I was freaking out inside, just didn't want to alarm anyone!
We had already completed our home study in 2007 by the previous agency and had completed our education classes also. In updating our home study for the new agency, we had to re-submit all new expense forms, background checks, new physicals, updated shot record on Taylor, work verification letters, insurance statements, copies of our certified marriage certificate, tax forms, birth certificates, etc. When all these forms were completed, our Social Worker from CC came to our house for a visit. She took all that paperwork and submitted our change of country form to update our I600A (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition). Once all was in order our Social Worker submitted the paper work on April 9th, 2009 to USCIS. On May 18, 2009 our I600A was approved, meaning we were "granted" permission to adopt a child internationally. Note: Our I600A had to be renewed once already and will expire 12/17/2010! Our fingerprints had to be renewed twice so far, not to mention updating our homestudy, yes, once again! Speaking of our fingerprints (biometrics is what the government calls them), ours expired on 07/30/2010, so we're now waiting on USCIS to send us an appointment time and date to get re-fingerprinted - AGAIN!
Now moving forward to July 22, 2010. We received our referral!!!! Jessica called me from Holt at 3:30 that afternoon. I was not feeling well and had laid down when the phone rang. I almost didn't answer it, but so glad I did!! She told me she had a child in mind for us, told me a little about him, and asked if we wanted his file to review. I said, " YES PLEASE!!" ((When the agency calls you with a child in mind, they will send you his "medical" file. This includes a couple of newborn pictures, most recent pictures, and all his medical visits up to that point. When we looked at his file, he did not have any medical issues at all!! The only "thing" that put him on the Special Needs list was that his birth mother took pain meds while pregnant, but she had regular checkups and prenatal care. The pain meds were for a herniated disk.)) Our little boy was perfectly healthy. I saw our little boy's picture, and oh my goodness, what a cutie pie! Since it was Thursday, it was too late to have our IAP (International Adoption Pediatrician) look at his file that week. Talk about timing! I was leaving the next morning at 4 am to go to Myrtle Beach with some friends for 4 days! ((Needless to say I had a very hard time sleeping Thursday night! UGGG!)) I went ahead and emailed Kelly Thursday afternoon at Vanderbilt's Adoption Clinic and told her we had a file of a little boy we wanted Dr. Plemmons to review. How about that??? Our IAPediatrician's name is Plemmons! If you know our last name you'll know the close similarity!! Kelly emailed back and said send it on in and she'll have Dr. Plemmons review it. She set up a time for Mike and I to have a conference call with him the following week. We didn't even have to go downtown! They were awesome for that!!
After I returned from my trip, Mike and I had a conference call with Dr. Plemmons to discuss our little boys medical file. ((Korea has the best medical records and in treating these children! The Korean doctors are very thorough and even a little over cautious! These beautiful children are very well taken care of!!)) Gonna have to stop here, I'll pick back up tomorrow and try to catch you up to speed on where we are in our process right now!
