Home Study........APPROVED!

Hi everyone,

We are counting our blessings...the home study has been approved! We are one step closer to bringing home our baby from Kazakhstan. Thanks so much to all of you for your support this far.

Overall, the process went very smoothly. It took 4 1/2 months from start to finish. For the other families adopting -- don't let the length of the home study throw you off. We definitely could have finished this sooner, but we took it at a more natural pace to make sure we stay energized throughout this process. Both Amy and I had a few months of crazy schedules at work and very little free time. The timing is actually perfect, as we are now in a much better financial situation to adopt. All the credit goes to God there...we had been praying about this regularly. We knew we could get the funds, but, obviously, the less debt the better when you're starting a family.

The past few days have been a real whirlwind of blessings. I don't know why everything is happening at once, but it is.

Now it's dossier time! We're off to an awesome start. Amy applied for her passport about a month ago with non-expedited service, since we figured that it was only needed to travel. Right after she applied, we realized that all of our dossier documents need a passport number! We spent a few weeks searching around on the Web and making calls without any luck. We had been given an expected date of November, so it was looking like we were headed for a bit of delay. Out of nowhere, they completed it and mailed it to us! I got an email on Friday that they were processing it, then got another email a few minutes later that it was done and on its way :)

Please continue to pray for us and our baby.

Thanks everyone and God bless...

Love,
Phil & Amy

3 Interviews Later...

Quite a bit of activity since our last post! We met with our social worker on July 26th and had our individual interviews that night. We weren't too nervous and it turned out we definitely had nothing to fret about. Our social worker is a very thoughtful person who clearly understands our motivation behind adopting and that has made the process very smooth. Not getting into legal trouble while we were younger has also helped :). The interviews essentially served as follow-ups to the autobiographies we wrote - they cleared up any remaining gaps and addressed any issues we discussed in our writings. When we were done, our social worker asked if we could meet on Saturday for our in-house, final meeting...

Of course we decided to jump on the opportunity and have her over two days later. That meant one thing though...a LOT of cleaning :). We were a little concerned about the house (Amy much more than me) and we ended up cleaning until 4am the night before she came over. Like the other interviews, it ended up being no big deal and we "passed" our test :). The in-house interview was really to check that we used common sense in our house and it was fit for a new child.

So, here we are, almost done with the Home Study. The meetings/interviews are now done; what's left is some reading and documentation. We will keep you posted...we are getting close to the final stretch!!

Love,
Phil & Amy

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live." John 14:15-19

Busy, busy, busy...

Hey everyone! We know it's been a LONG time since our last blog, and we apologize... June just flew by!

Well, since our last update, we have officially begun the homestudy process! We were assigned our social worker shortly after the last blog was posted. She is WONDERFUL!! Back when we were selecting our homestudy agency, Phil and I were praying we'd be assigned someone who would understand God's call to adopt, and we were!

We will have to have four meetings with our SW (Social Worker) to fulfill OAA's requirements. Our first meeting was a few weeks ago at her house. We basically discussed the overall process, how we're paying for the adoption, and our family's support. The meeting went great and she made us both feel very comfortable.

Our next assignmant was to write individual autobiographies. They were to be 4-6 pages each, covering family history, motivation to adopt, views on child rearing, our marriage, our finances, our home & community, etc... Wow, there was a lot to say!! Mine ended up being 6 1/2 pages and Phil's was 6 (after he adjusted margins and font sizes...)!

The funniest part about the autobiographies was that we wrote them completely independently from one another (except the finance section), finished within five minutes of one another, then switched computers to read them and found that some of our phrases were identical and that we had covered almost exactly the same points!! For example, we both said we "generally have a lean meat and vegetable for dinner" and that we'd be "completely transparent with our daughter about her adoption." It was almost spooky!

We sent the autobiographies off to our SW last week and are having our second meeting with her in a few weeks. This will be the meeting where we're interviewed seperately at her home. then the next meeting is at our home.

We've also started preparing the nursery! Since we don't have any extra money, I thought it would be a good idea to begin preparing as soon as possible, so I could get good deals but still make everything flow together. I'm having so much fun!

We wanted to thank all of you who have ordered items from us, sent donations, or prayed for us. Your support has been awesome and has really touched us. Just a few weeks ago, we received a Father's Day card from a little boy in our Sunday School class. His mother said they were making cards for all the fathers in their life and 3-year-old Judah said "Wait! We forgot Mr. Phil & Amy!" He told his mom he "wants to give a baby to (us)" and tried to draw us a picture of a baby (which came out a "funny robot", according to Judah) and a picture of me with a lizard :) His mom says he leads his family in praying for us every night without being prompted. And with a cute little guy like Judah interceding for us, I don't know how Satan stands a chance :) How great is our God!

Many Blessings,
Amy & Phil

journeytokazakhstan.com

Hi everyone,

We finally have our website up! Check out www.journeytokazakhstan.com. The site shows a few ways that friends, family, and anyone can help out. We are selling various goods, including hand-beaded jewelry, hand-painted birdhouses, homemade fudge, and more to come. I give Amy all the credit for the crafts (the fudge is Mom's own, just like it says on the site...).

There are also a few other ways to help. First - I work for EarthLink in their Voice Operations department. If you didn't already know, we sell a VOIP similar to (but better than :) ) the product you all know from Vonage. It's called EarthLink trueVoice. If you are interested in unlimited local and long-distance for $25/month, email me and I can set up a referral signup. We both get a Visa Virtual Account if you decide to stay with the product for more than 60 days.

Second - Amy is a real estate agent. Like I mention on the website, she is skilled, friendly, precise, thoughtful, and precise in her profession. I did forget thorough...she is that, too :) Anyway, people who don't live in our area (Atlanta metro) can still help us! If you are reading this and you or someone you know is looking to buy or sell a house and they aren't currently represented by an agent, definitely email Amy (amy@nwatlrealty.com). She will research agents in your area and find someone for you that is friendly and competent to help you with your search. The referral costs you absolutely nothing, but you will be helping to contribute in a big way to our adoption! All of Amy's income this year is going toward the adoption.

Lastly, donations to help us cover the costs of the adoption are always welcome and appreciated. Every little bit counts! You can send any monetary donations to the address posted on our site - journeytokazakhstan.com.

Thanks everyone for your support and God Bless!
Amy & Phil

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

The Home Study Begins

So...we are really starting to feel that things are moving along!

We just had our home study orientation and it was awesome. The director of the program was extremely versed on international adoption, down to minute details specific to each country. We just knew immediately that this was the right place.

I have been wondering for weeks what to expect of a home study. You hear various things from different people...one person told me that it was "horrible" for their friend, while another couple said it was no problem at all...Well, it doesn't sound too bad. A social worker will have to come out to our place, but they're mostly looking for common sense things, like making sure we don't have guns or knives lying around. They also make sure there is "ample" space in the house for our child.

Amy and I will be interviewed separately, too. I'm not sure, but there may be reference letters needed, as well.

The best news is that it might only take a month! It's crazy because our agency told us that it would take 3-5 months...

We will keep you updated. We're just excited!

Last piece of news - we're working on our fundraising website. We'll post the URL soon!

God Bless,
Phil

USCIS form submitted...

So, we are moving right along in the process to go get our daughter! Today, we sent in an initial deposit to our agency and submitted the I-600A form to US Citizenship and Immigrations Services.

What's next for us? Well...right now Amy is reading an adoption book called "Two Little Girls: A Memoir of Adoption", we are sorting through a bunch of baby names for our daughter, and we're planning on getting some parenting books soon. We're also about to start the Home Study process (once our contact is back from vacation).

Please pray for strength for Amy and me as well as the continued focus on God's will throughout this process.

Talk to you soon!
Phil & Amy

Paper Pregnant!

We are officially paper pregnant! We just got word that our application for adopting our girl from Kazakhstan was accepted. We are so excited!!

At this point, the paperwork starts. We have a lot of work in front of us and we know that it will be challenging. I think the biggest obstacle will be finding/making the available time to complete it all. Both Amy and I have been working fairly long hours recently. Still, we're not worried about it...it's one of the many opportunities to give Him our burdens during this whole process.

Next steps: contracting a Home Study agency, filing our I-600A (Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition), and getting assigned a Family Coordinator from OAA.

On another note - today is Easter! My friend Mike was in town and we all had a lot of fun eating an early dinner and hanging out at Amy's parents' place after church.

God Bless,
Phil & Amy