Home Study

Today we started the home study. This is a picture of Lisa with Laura, our social worker assigned by Villa Hope. Sorry it is black and white. I don't use this camera as much as Lisa. I have to say that we were nervous going into the interview but Laura did a good job of easing our nervousness. I have to say that it wasn't all that bad and I feel that the time spent cleaning house last night was well worth the effort. We have another meeting scheduled for tomorrow after church and a couple during lunch on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. With any luck our Dossier will be off to China very soon.

January 29, 2006
Today we met Laura after church. We spent about an hour talking about our marriage, what attracted us to each other and other subjects. Laura does a great job of making us feel at ease and we feel like we can open up with her and tell her all about us. We have another meeting scheduled for Tuesday at lunch. We thank Laura for not dragging this process out as the longer the homestudy takes then the further away Alison is from our arms. We know we cannot do anything about the wait and tell ourselves that this is just Gods way of making us wait for the child that is right for us.
By the way, did you notice the roses in the foreground of the picture above? Accident? Maybe, Maybe not!

January 31, 2006
We met with Laura again today at the National Childrens Advocacy Center in Huntsville. What a nice place that is. I believe the home study is complete as far as we are concerned. Laura still needs to type up her part which I feel confident she will do without delay. Lisa and I would like to thank Laura for her work. Hopefully she has found us fit to raise a child. We understand the reasoning for this step in the process and feel strongly that it is necessary and we are willing to do whatever is necessary to bring Alison home. We just feel that their are plenty of unfit parents having children everyday and that is really hard for us to understand. I don't think there is anything we can do about this unjustice so we just move on.

February 7, 2006
Today we received an original copy of our homestudy. We sent off the I-600A form to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) office in Atlanta. We expect to hear from them in about 10 days and will be instructed to proceed to Birmingham to have our fingerprints taken (again). We just keep telling ourselves when we get frustrated that the end goal is getting nearer and nearer with every step.