Week 3

We met with our prospective homestudy agency this morning down in Madison and we were very pleased. It is a very small company - owned/run by two women - very organized, and extremely nice. They have been doing homestudies since 1987. They were refered to us by the Luebke's who are the couple that we met that adopted through CCAI this past summer. So we know they are familiar with our adoption agency, plus the personal reference is always reassuring.
Now we start with all the fun stuff. We will fill out the first round of record/criminal background check papers and send with it a $300 application fee. Then we will meet with Julie, the homestudy lady, 4 different times, twice in Madison, twice in our home. China requires four face to face meetings with prospective parents. Then Julie puts together a discription of our home, character, finances ect. that becomes part of our dossier. At least I think that is how it works. The total cost of the homestudy will be $2100, that includes the $300 application fee. $900 will be due at the second home visit and the final $900 will be due when the homestudy is completed. The homestudy usually takes 4-6 weeks to complete.
We also got to attend a Valentine's Ball fundraiser yesterday for Roy and Kari, some friends of ours that are also adopting from China. They are at about the same stage we are right now. We are hoping to do some fundraising together with them so we will be working on that the next few weeks.
So that is where we are for now! Jennifer