Homestudy Done . . . Again!

Well, we thought we were done a week ago, but we had a few more documents for Guatemala to finish up, which we just did yesterday. I spoke with Kelly Jo at Heartsent last week and she said that the government is moving quickly with the rubber stamp 'OK', the I-171 I think, that will clear us for a match, and that we should have that within the next four weeks or so. She also said that there is no waiting list at the moment (gulp), so we could get a match right away (gulp again).

So suddenly what Christopher and I thought would take another three to five months may happen in one. Which we are ecstatic about! But now the weight of all we have to do and learn before the baby comes is setting in. Like outfit a nursery, learn about developmental stages, reorganize closets, babyproof. Oh my!

Before, I would casually browse sites on, say, diapering systems, thinking "I'd really like to be eco-friendly in the diaper department." Now, I'm frantically scanning the fine print and thinking, "there's no way I'm going to handwash a dozen poopy diapers a day" and that pre-soaking and double washing and all isn't so eco-friendly in an area with water-shortage issues. So anyone who has suggestions on the subject, by all means chime in!

Oooh, this blog is getting fun isn't it? We're on to poopy diapers already! :-)

Homestudy Done!

Big milestone was reached today . . . we turned in the last two documents for our homestudy! The 'homestudy' is the stage after you sign on with the adoption agency, before you actually get matched with a child. It took us about six weeks to complete all the 'to-do's: two classes at Heartsent (we've taken the Orientation class and 'What to Expect the First Month Home' so far), three visits with a social worker (Christine was wonderful, very supportive and not afraid to ask anything) and about two dozen pieces of paperwork, from marriage and birth certificates to notarized financial and medical papers. Whew!

So what now? We wait. The first of two waiting periods, really. After Heartsent gets these last two gems from us, they'll compile everything and send it to the adoption section of the INS, and the government will bless us with another piece of paperwork saying we're worthy to be parents (we hope anyway). After that, we're cleared for a match.

Because we're put in a request for a newborn girl, it might be a bit of a wait just for a match. Apparently, there is more demand for baby girls from Guatemala, so the wait can be longer than for a boy. Val, the Executive Director of Heartsent, suggested a great way of deciding how important holding out for a girl was for us. She said, let's check in two months into the wait. If we're chomping at the bit and feeling sex is irrelevant at that point (of the child that is ;-)), we'll swap to a boy. If we're feeling stronger than ever about a girl, then we'll continue to wait, even more confident in our decision to do so. The second big wait comes after the match, when we wait for all the paperwork to be done in Guatemala and the US to approve and finalize the adoption so we can bring her (or him) home.

So thus begins the first of the two big waits. Here we go . . .