Approved.

"[Future Papa and Future Mama] have prepared themselves well for their adoption journey.  They have read suggested material as well as additional literature on international adoption of children.  They have familiarized themselves with the culture and traditions of the Taiwan.  [Future Papa and Future Mama] have a deep faith, strong family values, and mutual goals.  Their relationship can be described as loving and secure.  Their references could not say enough about how well [Future Papa and Future Mama] interact with children through volunteering at their church.  Friends and family form a supportive network which will welcome and nurture an adopted child from the Taiwan into this home.  This adoptive family meets all the requirements to adopt from the Taiwan.  [Future Papa and Future Mama] are physically, mentally and emotionally healthy and able to parent a child at this time. It is with great pleasure that [our amazing home study agency] recommends and approves [Future Papa and Future Mama] for the adoption of one male or female child, 0-24 months in age, from the country of Taiwan."

Those, my friends, are words that bring me to tears.  The words above are the final words of our home study report, a ten page long document that is the result of four interviews with our social worker, one home visit, four letters of recommendation, and countless other forms.   

WE ARE APPROVED! 

This week, our social worker sent us this wonderful report.  Then it was reviewed by me, Future Papa, His Hands (our adoption agency), and our social worker's supervisor.   Today, our social worker puts the final and official copies in the mail to send to us.

Which means...

...we are another step closer...

...to our precious future child!

So first, we took a minute to do this...

{source}

And now we are back to paperwork!!  What now, you may be wondering.  Well, next we send one of the copies of our home study to the United States Central Immigrations Services Department (USCIS), along with some other forms, to complete the I-600A process.  The I-600A is the "Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition."  The purpose is to "generally speed up the part of the processing relating to the qualifications of the prospective adoptive parent petitioner." Essentially, it is something that we need to become pre-approved to adopt internationally in both the United States' and Taiwan's eyes.  It's a multistage process, but this is the first step.

Thank you to all who have helped us through this leg of the process, with prayers, letters of recommendation, and so much more.  Now, I'm off to prepare the form for the I-600A...a nice break from constantly wondering when we will be getting our referral!

Happy Friday,
Future Mama

New to the blog and wondering what a home study is like?  Well, we aren't experts, but here are all the links to our experiences...we chatted about everything from "what to wear when meeting the social worker" to "how much cleaning to do for the home visit"  Welcome to our over-sharing ;-)

We are told to start our home study!

Preparing for the first visit

Reflections on the first visit

Our second visit (individual meetings with the social worker)

Preparing for the home visit

Reflections on the home visit