Updates....

We have had a very busy few months, and I can't believe it has been so long since I have posted an update. Lots of things have been going on...

First, I called our homestudy agency a few months ago to request that we get started on our homestudy update so that we could update our USCIS paperwork which will expire in June. They are a very small local agency that deals mainly with domestic adoption, and when I called them they told me that they are no longer working with families who are adopting internationally because they don't have enough IA families to make it worth their while to become Hague compliant. They weren't sure that they could provide us with an update that would be acceptable under the new Hague guidelines. I contaced USCIS, and was told that they also did not know and were awaiting guidance. Well, we certainly didn't want to wait around to find out that a homestudy from this agency wouldn't be acceptable, so we decided to switch homestudy agencies. The great news is that now we will be able to work with the same social worker that provided our homestudy for Amelia's adoption (she was not able to work with us when we first started this second adoption, but now is working with an agency that will allow her to provide a homestudy for another agency). We are thrilled to be able to work with her again. The bad news is that we have had to do a lot of the paperwork AGAIN for the new agency. We are also required to take the 10 hours of adoption courses, which we have never done before. They are actually really good. SO hopefully we will be done with the homestudy process and get our USCIS paperwork updated soon and be able to put it behind us for another 15-18 months!

We have also been talking for quite a while about special needs adoption, but I always was the one to say that I would not switch to special needs unless I felt strongly pulled toward a specific need. Well, for the last year or so, I have definitely felt a pull, and finally I felt like we just really needed to take action. We were added to our agency's list of families waiting for a waiting child on Feb. 28. We were told that it will still be at least a year, based on the needs that we said we would be willing to consider and the age of the child we requested. With our agency, we are also able to stay in the NSN line. I will say that I feel like we have made the right choice for our family, and putting ourselves on the waiting list has just felt like what we were supposed to do.

Tonight I helped with a fundraiser/silent auction/dinner that our local FCC group does every year, and I won two of the auctions that I bid on (unlike last year where I was severely outbid on everything). We have now added another gorgeous mooncake mold to our collection (above), and a basket that contained an awesome cookbook of food from Hunan Province. It even has a recipe for the famous steamed eggs that Amelia ate until we thought she would pop. I can't wait to test out some recipes! Best of all, the money all goes to provide medical care for children in China. I already can't wait until next year!