We are less than a week away from our first home visit! There isn't a ton we can do to prepare, but we have been going through the house, decluttering, organizing and making sure we meet all the safety standards. A few things they check for: Fire extinguisher on each floor of the house Working … Continue reading Just checking in while we wait
As Josh and I watched figure skating tonight, I looked over at him and mentioned that from this point until forever, I will be cheering for Team USA and Team South Korea at all Olympic games. It's amazing how quickly I am already feeling attached to this place and culture. I also had the same … Continue reading 2018 Olympics!
Our home study visits are in 2 weeks! I am really, really hoping we can be completely done with the home study by the end of March. I was already eager to get through it as quickly as possible, but the out-of-state clearances and change of home study company just made it tough. Friday will … Continue reading A little more about the timeline
I just finished emailing our social worker to get our 3 home visits on her schedule! It feels like the last month has been a mad scramble just to get to this point, but I am so ready to get our dossier to Korea as fast as we possible can. Parts of this process feels … Continue reading A little Monday morning rambling
Today seems like a really good day to write about grief and loss. We completed the Hague training on this topic a few days ago, but it's weighing heavily on my mind today. My granny passed away this morning, and while she was very ready to go, I still find myself grieving. I feel low … Continue reading Adoption begins with loss.
The last week has been a whirlwind of appointments and paperwork, but we are this.close to having everything ready for our first home study visit! Josh and Elliott had physicals last week, and I had mine this week. Jackson is up-to-date on all his medical care, so it was as easy as getting a form … Continue reading Paperwork updates + our first weird encounter
It's so funny to watch Jackson and Elliott process what we try to explain to them about the adoption. Because of their ages, we've been very careful about how and when we have shared details with them. Right now, they know that we want to have a baby brother or sister by the time Jackson … Continue reading A word from the Brothers
Some good news! The very first step for us with our agency was to submit a short summary of our home study, a family photo and a paragraph about why we want to adopt to ESWS for pre-approval. This isn't required for every family adopting from South Korea, but we are using an out-of-state agency … Continue reading Pre-approval granted!
So we're officially working with a new home study agency. It's wonderful that we found another one so quickly. I'm trying to be really optimistic about that. The new agency requires a lot more from us - including two additional references and applying for a lot of state and federal information that our original agency … Continue reading Round 2
This is a post I can't believe I'm writing already. We fully expect setbacks and twists and turns during the process. It's pretty much par for the course. Today, we learned "Hague compliant" and "Hague accredited" are different things, and that difference is a big deal when adopting from South Korea. We are working with … Continue reading Our First Setback
Five Sewells 