I cannot believe it has been this long since my last post.. but I also can't believe it took that long to finish up our home study! We began our home study in March after we completed our application and I thought, "Oh, we'll breeze right through this and be finished in a couple of months.." Well, I definitely spoke too soon! Just finishing most of our paperwork and interviews took us through July, and I still thought it would only take a couple of weeks to finalize everything. Again, I would eat those words! Finally this week after 7 months, 3 interviews, too many phone calls to count, and tons of paperwork, we can say our home study is complete!
I know most of you are wondering what that even means. Basically, it means that we meet the requirements set by the state of Alabama to adopt. Our next step is to be approved by immigration and prepare our dossier for Colombia. These are steps that happen simultaneously. The dossier is just a package of documents that will be sent to Colombia to begin the next part of the process, actually being matched with a child. Compared to our home study, the dossier requirements will be a breeze. Our only hurdle right now is in having to deal with insurance companies and the mental health clinic regarding getting a psychological evaluation. Once that is done, this part of the process is easy. It is expected to take 3 months for us to receive our immigration approval so that we can then forward our dossier to Colombia. Of course we are praying that we will receive approval faster than that.
We are continuing to raise funds since we are still a long way from our goal of $35,000 (the projected amount for our total adoption). At this time we're selling the various crafts that I've been making (coasters, magnets, and Christmas ornaments) and the hand pottery necklaces. If you are interested in any of my items please let me know or you can visit my Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/skthomas15. We are also looking for new ideas for fundraisers so if you have any great ideas please let us know! In addition to fundraisers, we are now also able to apply for grants so this will likely become my new hobby. Grants are very limited because of the high number of applicants so please pray that we will be able to get at least one or two to help with our expenses.
We want to thank everyone for your continued support thus far and ask you to keep remembering us in your prayers!
