Another step closer

We had our home study visit this past Saturday and it went really well.  We should have the final report in 30 days or so.  We have to gather a few more items for the report and send them to our social worker but we will be done with this part really soon.   The best news is that since we were a client of his from our prior adoption, he charged us much less than he would normally charge for a new international home study. 

Even though we had been through the home study process before, I still fretted about the house being perfect (which is nearly impossible with a 6 year old and an 18 month old tearing it apart as fast as I can pick things up).  We had a really nice visit together, then he talked to Davis by himself (I evesdropped on the questions - mostly he asked Davis about our discipline methods and whether he was excited about having another brother) and finally talked to me and Chris individually.  The last part was a safety inspection and since our house is already baby proofed that was no problem at all.

Our social worker did warn us about the Dallas office of USCIS.  They are notoriously slow in processing the i600s and usually send back letters saying the application is not complete without including a name/number to call for more information.  Typical government bureaucracy!  Nothing that I didn't already know but still upsetting.  I really want to get our dossier into Rwanda by July but it will totally be out of my hands. 

Making Progress

The social worker that we used for our home study when we adopted Samuel will be doing our home study for our new adoption as well.  I really like him and he thinks this home study will be pretty easy for him since he'll just need to update our old one and add a few additional things needed for an international adoption.  That does not give us much time to clean up the house but I know we can do it and the SW is pretty laid back so it does not need to be perfect.  I'll probably take a day off of work in the next week or so to get the house picked up since our weeks and weekends have been so busy lately. 

I also have my physical scheduled so we are moving along.  I think I have all of the official documents (birth certificates, marriage certificate, etc.) that are needed so hopefully once the homestudy is complete we can file our i-600a and officially start the waiting process.  We'll continue to work on our dossier during that period too but the dossier requirements are not too bad.

There are 9 families in Rwanda now picking up their 12 kids and most of them have blogs that I have been folloiwng.  It is making me very anxious to be there too.  Soon.

Visit with RE and Adoption Update

I am tired of doing nothing so I decided to be proactive and made an appointment with my RE to discuss other options. All I have done so far is clomid/femara and IUIs. With my unicornuate uterus, I have been too afraid to do injectibles due to the risk of multiples but after talking the the doctor, we have a game plan. Next cycle, I will go in for day 3 blood work and then I will schedule an operative laparoscopy to check for scar tissue or endometriosis that might be preventing my tube from grabbing my eggs. Depending on how that comes back, I will either move on to injectibles with IUI or IVF. Luckily I still have some insurance coverage available (although meds are excluded). I am excited to be doing something (waiting for an adoption match is brutal!) but nervous at the same time.

A few questions for anyone that might know the answers: What is the recovery time for laparoscopic surgery? Would it be a problem for me to have this surgery the day before we go on vacation? Vacation will include a 4 hour car ride and there will be a lot of walking around that week. What is the cheapest place to get injectible meds? Is it better to go to a local pharmacy or is an online pharmacy better?

On the adoption front, we are in the process of updating our homestudy. When I called our social worker to talk about the update, he was surprised that we hadn't matched since almost all of the other couples that he works with using our facilitator match very quickly. I'll tell you that made me feel great! I called and they suggested that we open up to additional ethnicities. They thought that would counter the fact that I am not a stay at home mom. Its all very frustrating. We'll talk to the SW about that and probably have our updated homestudy include some additional ethnicities.

Thats it for now.