Home Study

Last week we had our two Home Study visits with our social worker from Holt. The Home Study is basically where they come see where you live and how you live, and find out all about you and your family. The agency wants to get to know you better and make sure there aren't any red flags that come up, and the Chinese government wants to see it as well so they can get an understanding of the families who are adopting their children.
It's interesting, some potential red flags in the eyes of the Chinese government are: 1) spanking as a discipline philosophy and 2) going to marital counseling. The agency however, doesn't have a problem with these and just leaves these details out of your Home Study if they apply to you and they think you're fit all around.
Most of the time our involvement with the adoption consists of filling out forms and obtaining documents, neither of which necessarily touch the heart. Doing the Home Study and getting to know our social worker went a long way in bringing everything home and making the adoption seem more real and tangible. We got more and more excited as we discussed the details of being matched with our daughter and bringing her home.
I also had a moment where the reality of having two children hit me a little harder. I feel like I finally got to a good place with Malia, of feeling like I have somewhat of a handle on things and life. Not having a growing belly to remind me everyday of what's to come made it harder for me to mentally prepare myself. I'm glad we're approaching the end of the paperwork phase and having more personal interaction with Holt where everything feels more, well, personal.

The App Is In!

Whew! As we previously mentioned, China won't accept my US passport as proof of citizenship, so I've had to assemble a laundry list of documents to the US Center for Immigration Services to try to get my Certificate of Citizenship. Why don't I have one? I have this vague recollection of missing my appointment back in, like, 1984 because of a soccer tournament. I can't even remember if I scored a goal that day to at least make up for some of the pain in the fanny this has caused us.

Well, the documents are in (along with a hefty $460 check). The funniest piece of it was submitting my Family Census Register from Korea. For those of you who've never experienced life in a developing country (at least Korea was in 1972), let's just say that the documentation for stuff is... well, different. My Family Census Register is literally on this thin, see-through paper. It might even be made of rice. It's all in Chinese characters and it traces my lineage for multiple generations. Like hundreds of years, I think. That stuff is important in patriarchal societies like Korea. I'd love to see the look on the immigration officer's face when they try to figure out what to do with it.

We're just hoping it won't take the full 6 months to review and get my certificate. In the meantime, we're going to keep moving on other stuff (e.g., home study, compiling dossier) that is not predicated on the proof of citizenship being in place.

Thanks, all, for caring enough about us to read this blog and ask us how we're doing. The support and encouragement has meant a lot.