We completed all 3 parts of our homestudy!!!!  The last visit was July 3rd at our home, and the following week we reviewed the rough draft of the written report. Only minor changes were made after we reviewed it, and it was sent to Catholic Charities of Baltimore (our placing agency) for review. They approved it a few days later, and Monday of this week it was sent to the notary public for notarization. I JUST received an email from our social worker saying the final copies were notarized and ready to be sent!!!  I am waiting to hear back from her as to when I can pick it up and what needs to be included in the envelope to the placing agency. Also I will find out when we can begin filing our immigration paperwork. I can't believe it!!!!  We are almost waiting!!!!!!

Today was our first homestudy visit!!!  Our social worker came to the house this afternoon; it went very well as far as we can see. She is very nice and easy to talk to, so I think that really helped us be less nervous and more willing to speak openly. We both had to write autobiographies to turn in with our document checklist, so she had read both of ours and we sort of started the "interview" with pieces from the autobiographies. We discussed how we met, what attracted us to the other person, our biggest joys and our biggest challenges in our marriage, our family lives growing up, our views on discipline, religion, ethical values, and how we will incorporate our child's South Korean culture into his or her life. All in all it took three hours; we also gave her a tour of the house (and got to show her the new lavender nursery paint!!) From here, we have our individual visits next Wednesday, and our final home visit on Friday July 3rd. She said it would take her about a week after the final visit to write up the homestudy report, which we will receive several copies of. At that point we submit one copy plus the required forms to USCIS (immigration department) to file our petition to adopt an international orphan, and concurrently submit a copy with our packet of documents to the hub agency in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore agency will review it for completeness and forward it to South Korea!!!  We will get official notice once it is approved in South Korea and we will be officially waiting!!!!! That will probably be the hardest part, knowing there is nothing else to physically "do" except pack our cell phones around 24-7 and wait for them to ring!  Hahaha. Anyway, I appreciate all of the support you guys have given us, and continue to keep us close in prayer as we move ahead. We are that much closer to Baby Nevarez...every step is progress no matter how small it se

Big news!!!  All of our application and reference letters have been received, and we are approved to begin our homestudy!!  This is the LAST step before we go on the waiting list for a baby! I can't believe it is all happening so quickly, but I know the wait will seem like a lifetime. :) Our first home visit is THIS Wednesday afternoon...we have spent the entire weekend cleaning and reorganizing the house, and we enlisted my Mom and Dad to help clean up and also finish painting the nursery!  New pictures of the painting job will be posted soon. Javier and Dad did a great job, I will be so excited to get baby furniture in there! So after Wednesday, we meet with our social worker in her office the following Wednesday afternoon for separate interviews. Javier's is first, mine is second. Once that is done, our final home visit is set for July 3rd, the following Friday afternoon. The agency will write our report and we will send everything to the main agency hub in Maryland and then to South Korea!!!  I am definitely nervous and excited about the home visits, I just have to keep tellling myself what the social worker told us...they are not looking for perfect parents, they are just looking for parents. Everyone please pray for us and keep us in your thoughts!!!  We are moving forward!

Our paperchase is over!!!  We completed our document checklist and turned in the packet on May 4th....it took just under a month to compile everything we needed to turn in! I'm so proud of us! The next week we completed training, so now we are waiting for our criminal background checks to come in and also for our references to complete the evaluation form and mail that in to the agency. As soon as our social worker receives those things, we can begin the homestudy!!!  The homestudy will be the last step for us, then we will send everything to South Korea and wait for our match!!! Thanks for all of the prayers and well wishes.....we are making slow progress forward, but forward is better than not at all. We love you all!!!

So we had our meeting with our social worker, and it went very well as far as we can see. She was very nice, and made us feel very comfortable and at ease. We received our checklist of documents to prepare while we are going through the adoption education classes, so we are officially on the paper trail! We actually already have a lot of it completed, we are just working on our autobiographies and waiting to get our medical exams. It really feels real now that we are working on everything! The next step after the paperchase and the education classes is to complete the homestudy, which will hopefully likely start in May/June. It usually takes a month or two, then we will be on the waiting list for a referral  while we file our immigration paperwork. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!!!! We are on our way to baby!!!

We submitted our application to begin an adoption from South Korea....and our initial application was approved by the agency here in Baton Rouge!!!  We have our first meeting with the Social Worker on Monday afternoon to go over what documents are required, and hopefully to set up the first part of our homestudy!!!  I will update everyone after Monday....keep us in your prayers!

Okay, so if you have been following our site from its creation, you probably noticed some changes!! Like, there was a lot of information about Kazakhstan and now we are talking about Korea! Everything happens for a reason....the Kazakhstan program was undergoing a lot of changes to policy, procedure, and process. There were many uncertainties both with travel time, referrals, and if we would even get to complete the adoption at all when we traveled to the country. Putting all things together, we decided to look around for other options, and stumbled across the one agency here in Louisiana that places children from Korea!!  I will be working to update the page about Korea when I make one, but for now this will have to do! Korean infants are typically in foster care with a loving foster family, have excellent health records, and tend to adapt much more quickly to affection and love. They are usually one year old or less at homecoming, and can be escorted to the US if the parents do not wish to travel, or are unable to do so. Adoptions are finalized here in the US, and the child is granted a US birth certificate. YAY!!!  We definitely feel good about our choice, and we really didn't lose much time in the switch. The paperwork for Korea is less, so we are actually possibly moving forward faster now!!  Keep praying for us! 

Hello all!  This is my first blog as a soon-to-be parent! I cannot believe that this is actually happening...all things happen for a reason, and so many things have led me to believe that adoption is the right answer for us. I have found myself surrounded by a support group far more encouraging than I could have ever put together on my own, from family to friends, to adoptive parents who have already made the journey that we are beginning, to professionals who are guiding us every step of the way. The door has truly been opened for this to happen, and it is going to be one of the best experiences of either of our lives!