Home Study Submitted for Approval

Happy Friday, All!

I received an email this morning. Our caseworker has submitted our homestudy to her supervisor for approval! We are technically still waiting on the results of our drug screening, but she is confident that we are drug-free so she is moving forward.

The homestudy must first be approved by our caseworker's supervisor and then by the South Africa Team of the agency. Typically, they will have some questions or want some clarification on something so it will probably take a couple weeks until it is approved.

Upon homestudy completion, a fee of $4,300 will be due to the agency. We haven't quite figured out where all that money is coming from, but I'm sure we'll figure something out! We will also file our immigration paperwork along with a $720 application fee at this time.

We will be able to start applying for adoption grants as soon as the homestudy is approved. Please pray that we will be approved for some (lots of) grants. Without them...well, I'm not sure how we will pay for everything that is to come!

One super exciting aspect of having an approved homestudy is that from now on, we are allowed to express interest in children who are available for international adoption. There are already children listed on our agency's private site, and as new children become available, the South Africa team sends out a message to the families in the program. Now we will be able to notify them when we are interested in a child. That does not guarantee that we will be approved for that child in particular, but at least it will not feel as if our hands are tied when we see a little kiddo that we would love to make our own.

Keep praying! We still have a long process ahead of us!

Love, Sarah