Dainis Graduates with his MBA

After two years of hard work, Dainis graduates, and we are both so excited to move on to the next phase of our lives.  We have been researching, praying, and thinking about our future over the past two years while Dainis worked on his degree.  We both feel led to adopt internationally.  Our hearts are still with  Colombia.  We are so excited to become parents!

Our 12th Anniversary

It is hard to believe we are celebrating our 12th anniversary!  It seems like time just flew by.  We had such a great time last year that we decided to go back to Carlsbad.  This time we stayed at a hotel right at the ocean, so we could walk there.  We are so thankful that I could walk there.  I am improving slowly but surely.  There are two main beaches.  We stayed at one and the other was only a mile away by car.  We had a great time and knew where all of our favorite restaurants were.  This time next year, we may be parents!!!!

Construction Projects

During the month of March, we did some construction to our house, in order to prepare for the adoption.  We moved from one side of the house to the other, which allowed us to have an extra bedroom and bathroom.  It was a lot of hard work but turned out great.

Our Home Study Search Begins

INTERNATIONAL
CHILD FOUNDATION, Inc.Hague Accredited, Licensed & Non-Profit Adoption & Home Study Services

When you start the adoption process, the first thing you do after you pick your agency and get accepted into their program is to start a home study.  Usually the agency you choose to work with for your adoption does your home study, along with the rest of the process.  We knew after researching the different agencies that our agency would be out of the state of AZ.  So, we would need to have two agencies.  One agency would be our home study agency and one would be our placing agency.  All of our documents and communication with Colombia would be through the placing agency.  So, we now had two tasks.  First, we had to decide on our placing agency.  Second, we had to research and find an agency to do our home study!  After researching and talking to reference families, we choose an agency called International Child Foundation for our home study.  We started talking to ICF in February.  We really like them, and they have been very communicative and helpful with all of our questions.  The home study includes two interviews with a social worker at our house, gathering of different documents, and filling out lots of forms to learn more about us, along with an autobiography from each of us.  The different documents included birth certificates, marriage certificate, physician report regarding our health, finger prints, reference letters, and background checks.  The background checks had to come from each state you have lived in since you were 18!!  Dainis was easy because he only needed checks from MN and AZ.  Lori, on the other hand, has lived in GA, AL, NC, TX, SC, OK, MN, and AZ!  This took awhile.  Once we are done with our adoption, we will have taken three sets of fingerprints.  One set will be for the home study, which will be processed in AZ.  One set will go to the FBI for our US documents.  The last set will go to the FBI for our Colombian documents.  After this process is complete, ICF will write a home study report.  After our adoption is complete, we will continue to work with our social worker from ICF.  All countries require post placement reports.  These documents will go back to Colombia reporting how the kids are doing in their new home.  For Colombia, they require reports up until the kids have been home for 21 months.

Therapy 2010

I started my first therapy session at SWAN Rehab today.  Up until now, I have done several weeks at a time all day.  We decided to try something new this year.  We are now going to go for one week, two hours a day, three times a year.  I will be here from February 8th-12th.  It will be more of a check-up then actual therapy time.  We all felt after seven years of hard work, we were ready to take it down.  We will see how this new schedule goes this year.