Jodi Speaks Her Mind

Adoption Process - Week 3 8/27/2004

Wow, 3 weeks down, many more yet to go…

This week’s contributions to our adoption efforts consisted of the following:

The Official Stuff:

• Each had bloodwork drawn and TB tests done
• Had Employment statements completed, signed, and notarized
• Prepared our Financial Statement for Home Study (also notarized)
• Scheduled our first home visit (in September)
• Some of our Reference letters were sent in
• We signed the I-600A form for USCIS (orphan immigration petition)
• Requested a notarized and apostilled copy of our marriage certificate
• Sent our Agency copies of our passports and driver’s licenses

The Fun Stuff:

• talking more about names
• bought a couple cute outfits (guessing on size)
• premature investigation on in-country phase
• continued reading on toddler adoption
• toyed around with some toddler room decor ideas
• continued reveling in our future mommy- and daddy-hood

A day late to the party… 8/25/2004

August 24 is Ukraine’s Independence Day!

I wonder what our little boy was doing? I wish I could have been there to make him smile or laugh. Of course, he’s only about 10 months old right now, so it is hardly a “missed event” from his point-of-view. It’s likely that we’ll have him home by the next U.S. Independence Day. And of course since he’ll share U.S. and Ukrainian citizenship until he’s 18, I suppose we’ll be celebrating twice!

Adoption Process - Week 2 8/23/2004

We are now into the start of week 3, but I’ll see if I can remember everything we did last week. It’s all been happening so fast!!

Home Study:

One of our major goals for Week 2 was to get through the Autobiography portion of the Home Study requirements. This turned out to be 16 pages long single-spaced. Most of it we were able to complete together but portions of it had to be done individually, as Steve and I had to tell about our parents, childhoods, schooling, and life in general up to and including the marriage. It was not a negative thing to do, as it helps you to begin to look at how you were parented and how that has influenced your own attitudes towards family and parenting. All in all, I’m glad it’s done but do not regret having to do it.

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Browsing Delights! 8/20/2004

I have been so spoiled at home with my Safari web browser that I finally gave in at work and had Steve walk me through switching to Firefox. I have tabbed browsing again! Popup ads will be blocked (more effectively than I.E. I hope), and the Google search box doesn’t take up space where the browser window should be.

I’m quite excited and am reasonably confident that our ITS Department won’t pitch a fit since the U.S. Government suggest switching to alternate browsers due to the security flaws in I.E.

Past meets present 8/19/2004

Georgie’s comment reminded me that I hadn’t yet taken any time to explain my connection to Ukraine and why it is such a perfect match for us. Here is a brief history of my wanderings in Eastern Europe.

Back in college I became friends with several Russian exchange students who were in my Education Core classes with me. They were planning to return to St. Petersburg to teach in the Kindergarten’s there once done with school. They were really fun and they introduced me to a lot of their culture and language (turns out I had a knack for it!). I became close friends with one girl in particular named Anya. After my junior year, they returned home but a new set of students from the same University came and I found them and befriended them as well. It seems I was just drawn to them for some reason. I also decided to use one of my senior year electives and study Russian in my final semester. (more…)