I-600A & Homestudy
Our social worker has been working diligently on the homestudy, and we hope to have approval from both the regional office soon! Once the regional offices approves the homestudy, they send it on to 2 places:
1. Department of Homeland Security (Dallas Office) - awaiting homestudy for our fingerprinting appointment to process our I-600A form (1st immigration paperwork)
2. Holt - awaiting homestudy for approval before sending our official referral
Hopefully, you'll see the dates on the right column fill up soon!
Rai's Room
We're slowly making decisions on what furniture, toys, and decorations will go in Rai's room. So many people have given us ideas, so I hope to post pictures as we get the room put together little-by-little. It turns out that my best friend from middle school (yes, middle school) is pregnant with twins, so we're planning a trip to Babies R Us to start decorating.
Christmas Cards!
It has been so exciting to finally share pictures of Rai with family and friends through our Christmas cards. I can't tell you how great it is to have this approval before the holidays! We'll wait until our official referral is processed to post pictures online. By then, we might receive an updated picture to share.
LifeBook
Now that the semester is over and grades are done, I finally have time to get started on Rai's lifebook. For those of you not familiar with the term, a lifebook is a baby book which contains the story of a child's life through personal stories, pictures, copies of documents/legal paperwork, etc. It was believed many years ago that children were not capable of understanding adoption until much later in life and keeping the adoption a secret was the best solution until the child was ready. Based on our reading, adoption classes, and many other resources, we've come to understand that this concept is no longer supported. In fact, the more information an adopted child know, the better. The lifebook serves as a method for sharing this information. This will be just one of Rai's many books we will read, and as he grows, he'll understand more and more about his birthfamily, foster family, and adoptive family (us).
Although this is far more personal than a scrapbook we might show to others, I hope to get the help of friends and family by asking for your:
- Stories about the adoption and our family in general
- Pictures of our family and friends
The supplies will be in by Tuesday, thanks to our neighbor Paula and her scrapbooking business! Hopefully, I can get organized this weekend and have our pictures, stories, and paperwork for the stages so far ready. Who knows, I might even get a story or two out of Aaron. :-)
Holidays and Friends
This has been a good few months not only for our adoption but also our friends. As I mentioned before, many of our friends are expecting new additions (babies not rooms) to their families. This adoption has been a wonderful way to reconnect with old friends, celebrate with current friend, and meet many new ones as well!
Tomorrow, we're meeting up with three of my old roommates (Biju, Kimsan, and Mili) from college for a holiday lunch. I'm sure the guys are not nearly as excited about our holiday lunch, but they'll live! :-) It's not every day that we can all get together and catch up.
Speaking of old roomies .... a BIG CONGRATS GOES OUT TO KATIE ON HER STEM CELL RESULTS! (Yes, Katie. I'm reading your blog!) I nearly cried reading the good news! Now, I'm keeping fingers, toes, and eyes crossed until your stem cell transplant is complete. Poor Rai will wonder what's wrong with his mother's eyes until then...
I know I've already mentioned the Christmas cards, but have I said how great it is to get Christmas cards and updates from everyone this time of year? It was a rough year with so many great friends moving away, but each card, email, and phone call reminds me of how wonderful it is this time of year to have the holidays as a reminder of keeping in touch with those we are close to.
Well, I've rambled enough for tonight. I'll post again when we have baby news. In the meantime...
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
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