Police Department Success and DVD Training

Good news, everyone (keep your fingers crossed)!

We successfully completed our Background Checks and had them notarized today! Yay! So, barring any unusual comments from the adoption agency, we can close that chapter of our adoption story at this point and hopefully never have to return to the Metro Nashville Police Department. It took us a record 40 minutes today and no real drama. The only drama was a lady that fell off a desk while we were waiting. Philip helped her pick up the desk and the papers that went everywhere. Oh my... What we ended up having to do was to hire a notary to go with us to the police department. She witnessed the guy sign that we do not have records and that our background checks were clear. We also had the traveling notary go to Philip's doctor's office to witness his signature on a letter that states that Philip is healthy enough to be a father. We are very close to getting everything finished now! The only things left are for us to finish our DVD training and attend an Infant Care Class at a local hospital.

Speaking of the DVD Training, we have a set of 4 DVD's that we have to watch, take notes on, and then take tests on. In the end, if we score over 80% individually, we will receive a certificate and can then send in our paperwork. These DVD's are interesting, but very long and taxing on the brain. The 1st DVD was about Brain Development and Sensory Experiences. I'm not sure what the 2nd DVD is about, but we will soon find out. We each scored 100% on the first test!! :) The next Infant Care Class that I can find is on August 14th, so our goal is to have our paperwork mailed on August 15th. We'll keep you posted!

Thanks for your interest and for reading. Have a great week!

171H is back!

Happy 4th of July!

We hope you all had a great holiday weekend.

A couple of new developments since our last post.

We received word that we were turned down by Shoahannah's Hope for a grant for our adoption. So, we will receive no financial assistance from them. We hope that this means that they are helping lots of other families who need more financial assistance than us to adopt orphans throughout the world.

Hallelujah! We received our I-171H approval last week. YAY! Now, all we have to do is finish 10 hours of DVD training (something new they are requiring), an infant care class (also something new), and go back to the Sheriff's Department (ugh...yes, I know), and we will be ready to send our paperwork to Ethiopia. Unfortunately, we weren't able to work out anything as far as the notary at the Sheriff's Department, so we will hire a traveling notary to go with us some time this week. She also has to go to Philip's doctor's office to have a letter notarized (They don't have a notary in their office.) saying that Philip is healthy enough to be a father. Once we get all of those tasks completed, we will send our paperwork to the adoption agency to make sure that we haven't forgotten anything, and we should be all set. So, hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, we can say that the paperwork is finished.

Thanks for all of your love and support. Have a great week!