Approved Homestudy !

So... on today's answering machine was a message that our home study was received by our adoption agency and that although a few pages didn't make it through the fax (they are taking care of that part for us with that agency), that we are approved!

That is a big step out of the way. According to our adoption coordinator, that means, bottom line, we are technically eligible for referral! (Referral is when they give you a picture and information about a child in Ghana that you can accept and agree to have that child join your family or you can decline) Now, we were already warned that this step could take months (over a year for some families) but to think that we are there... is just crazy!

When we get the sealed copy of the home study ourselves, we will send it with our I600A to immigration and there are a few more steps with that while we wait for a referral, and there is also that one last training video to watch/complete, but really, the next big step is waiting for that phone call or e-mail (probably e-mail) that says there is a match, and a picture of our child, and the chance to accept them, and make them ours!

I thought we still had to do the dossier next, but apparently you only do that when you have a match.

I have such a range of emotions running through me right now... I am definitely excited... but also really nervous... and already wondering what our time frame will be like. Will we be one of those families that in a month or two already know who our child will be? Or will we be one that sees many others get the news they are adopting first while we wait and wait and wait, and watch another year pass before a child is in our home? And there is also the part of me that I have to fight that looks at all the other waiting to adopt families as our competition... even though I am fairly sure that this is more of a first come first serve thing.

Will this be a situation like Disneyland where its okay waiting 50 minutes since you already knew that was the length when you got there, or will it be like the DMV, where even if you know the wait time, it doesn't help?

Wow...

I have heard that when you get the referral, it becomes a hurry up and wait thing where you scramble to get things together... then wait for paperwork stuff... then scramble to be ready to travel... then wait for a court date, and so on.

Side note, is that this also means that when we get the heart wrenching e-mails of the waiting kids, we are one of those people that has an approved home study that could choose to adopt one of them instead...up till now, we could console ourselves that we couldn't adopt them even if we wanted to.

So many thoughts swirling... each step seems so much closer to it being a reality. Its enough to make me want to start looking at kid stuff again, and reading about parenting and all that stuff that I put on hold when pregnancy just wasn't happening and even adoption took so long it wasn't worth getting my hopes up.

So exciting... just had to share!

p.s. just got an e-mail back from our coordinator, and she said to expect a 6 month wait at the least, because its a big program at this point. Even so... happy to get an estimate, especially since we originally weren't going to start the process until around now anyways. :-) Oh, and I just realized that those families aren't competition... they are the people that keep my spot moving closer :-D Good luck families... get matches!