Jessica set this up

So, this is Ryan again. Last night we met a couple that works with N. people here in Fort Worth. Jessica set this up of course. I don't consider myself shy in any way, shape, form or fashion...but when it comes to going to a complete stranger's house...that's another story.

Jessica heard about this couple through Lauren, the girl that cuts our hair. She's great too if anyone needs a referral. So, Lauren exchanged their emails or something, the next thing I know we're going to their house. It's always odd. You never know if they're huggers or shakers. Are you supposed to accept what they offer to eat or drink? Take your shoes off at the door? It's like going into a different country, you know? What to do. What not to do.

Things went really well. I knew they would. There's just always that chance that you'll sit on their cat or realize that they have a cup of noses in their freezer.

We spent about two hours with the Shafer's. We heard about their call into ministry, how they met, their work with the N. people. Jess and I plan on having them over sometime soon. Good people those two.

Our new friends have done some work with a N. church in Irving and have offered to go with us to visit sometime. I am looking forward to that in the same way as meeting the Shafer's...excited, but cautious, but mostly excited, and almost certain it will turn out good, but cautious. They do the whole service N. Songs, preaching, all of it.

I told Brandon that I really want to learn to speak the language so he is going to send us some resources. I hope they don't speak in clicks. That would be difficult.

Okay. Thanks for reading.

ryan

Not sure how she does it...

So, I wanted to write a little bit in here to make people think I'm involved. Just kidding. I am, but not as much as I'd like. But maybe more than I should be.

"Dear people holding up our adoption, please get your stuff together." I just tried to fill out some further questions that our social worker needed. I get aggravated because I know she asked this stuff already. And I know we've answered the same questions for other people in the loop. Why can't they just get together and talk?!?! Play Go Fish with our info. Something. Jessica quickly set me right by reminding me that she usually does this stuff without complaining. Of course, she does almost everything without complaining. I hate that about her. And I love it too. I'm not sure how she does it. I shouldn't whine about it. I'll try not to anymore.

By the way, 'dossier' is pronounced 'dah-see-ay'. And it is in fact not a large yellow machine used to move dirt. That would be a 'dozer'. The things I'm learning.

This past Sunday, Father's Day, the thought occured to me that we are adopting children. Not infant. Toddler or runner possibly. The process takes about one year. So that means the child(ren) that God has for us are already alive! I was a father on this past father's day! I know it's a stretch, but God already has them picked out. It's strange and surreal knowing that.

Errands to run. Thanks for reading.

ryan

Overwhelmed to say the least!

So our second home study visit went very well also. We had to think about our worst childhood memories...I'm so glad me and Meredith get along so much better now! Ryan enjoyed telling our social worker that even when Meredith moved back home temporarily after being in Shreveport that we started fighting again. I'm not sure I remember that...but it's true we didn't do well living together!



We received our adoption planner that lists in detail every document that makes up our dossier. The dossier is basically a collection of documents that will be sent to the N. government. I'm a little overwhelmed since reading it...maybe because there are some things in there that I don't fully understand yet..especially about Citizenship and Immigration paperwork. I did spend about 3 hours emailing questions to the home study agency and preparing some documents this afternoon though. I do feel somewhat better now that I got some of the things figured out. I have a list of questions going that I will ask our case worker when I talk to her Thursday. I could see how this process could take up to 4 months to finish for some families...especially families who have children already. I am so thankful that I have a job that I have days off during the week to work on all of this.



Another cool thing is I am in contact with a guy that serves with a ministry that serves N. people. We are trying to plan a time when we can meet he and his wife. He's really excited to tell us about the culture and introduce us to some N. people. I am really looking forward to meeting them.

More to come...

Home study

We just finished part 1 of the home study...it went really well. The social worker was really nice and laid back. She was adopted and has adopted herself. Ryan and I were interviewed together then she did a home inspection. I was a little nervous but it went really well. We will meet her again Sunday evening and do individual interviews. Thanks for all the encouraging messages and prayers...they are much appreciated!

Jessica

Getting started...

I guess I should start this blog by giving some details of our adoption. We are applying to adopt siblings ages 0-6 from N. We want one of them to be a little girl. Ryan wants a little girl so bad! The adoption agency is telling us it could take approximately 1 year to complete the adoption but we will find out more in the next few months about the estimated wait time. In case you're wondering where N. is...its a small country that sits between India and China. It is the home of Mt. Everest. Our children are in an orphanage. We are in the first stages of the process...we have to prepare our dossier which is a collection of paper work that has to be translated and sent to N. where the government matches us with a sibling group based on our preferences. This can take up to 6 months.



So we mailed off our adoption contracts today. We first stopped by FedEx to see how much the notary service would be...it was going to be like $60 so we went to Southwestern because we found out someone will notarize documents for students for free!! We go into the lady's office and told her we needed our adoption documents notarized then with a big smile she said "we adopted our daughter from Guatemala 8 years ago", so she was more than happy to help us! How cool is that!



We are required to complete a book for adoption education. We completed the chapter on food and feeding last night. Our assignment is to find a common recipe from N. and cook it for ourselves. This ought to be fun! It seems like their cuisine is similar to Eastern Indian so lots of curry dishes and rice. We've tried Indian food a few times since we've lived in Fort Worth, and we both seem to like it. It can be heavy though! I'll let you know what we made and how it came out. This is just one of the many issues we have to think about when preparing to bring home our children. One of the big concerns Ryan has is the language barrier especially with the older child...but they say that kids learn another language really quickly and we'll get really good at sign language too I'm sure! We have found out there is a N. group of people here in
Fort Worth so we're going to try to connect with them so they can teach us about the culture.



Our home study is scheduled for Friday so I'll update on how that goes!



Thanks for reading and praying for us...