Things are progressing nicely with the adoption paperwork. This week I was able to complete my LiveScan fingerprints for the homestudy and my fingerprints for the I-600A.

We met with our social worker for the first time in her office on Wednesday. I thought we were only going to have an introductory session, discuss adoption in general, and schedule our individual and home visit (interview with both of us). But as it turned out, we also completed our group interview. She asked us these questions:

1. Name / birthdate and occupation. Name / birth year and occupations of our parents and brothers and sisters. And where everyone lives.

We were thinking, "these homestudy questions are pretty easy".

2. Why are we adopting and why did we choose Russia?

We are choosing adoption over childbirth, although we have never tried to get pregnant. We both have always wanted children and have been interested in adoption for many years (various television programs). When we started talking about having children together adoption came up and quickly became our desired path. We did alot of research. There are too many children already out there who need parents. Traveling to Russia compared to giving birth (& breastfeeding, etc) feels like a more natural choice for us.

We chose Russia because they have an established program (#2 in popularity) and we can adopt two children at once. My great grandparents are from Russia and Ukraine and we would like to adopt children where we can naturally bring some of that culture into our family.

3. What ages are we interested in? Boys / girls / siblings?

Sibling girls (if possible) between 3-6 years old. We are open to a boy & girl; and non-sibling girls because we realize that children don't come into the orphanage at the same time and/or go to different orphanages when the leave their homes.

Our social worker recommended that we meet with our agency director in the next few weeks. She thought it would be a good idea to find out what types of referrals are coming through (and timing) to make sure our homestudy incorporates ages / sibling preferences that can be reasonably expected.

4. Are we aware of the health issues associated with older children? What health issues are we willing to deal with?

We discussed attachment, malnutrition, parasites, and developmental delays due to orphanage life. We explained that we were not interested in a special needs situation (although we appreciate those who choose that path) but are willing and able to deal with the typical issues associated with children coming from neglect and/or orphanage life.

5. How did we meet? How did our relationship grow over the past four years?

We told the fabulous story of how we met on the internet (yes, classy) and did the long distance relationship thing for 1.5 years before moving together to California in 2004. We've been married since Aug 2005 and probably would have gotten married sooner if we knew adoption had a "length of marriage requirement".

6. What do we like about each other?

I'll tell you offline. But my meticulous organization skills were mentioned.

7. Are we planning to raise the children with a religion?

We discussed how M was raised Catholic and that we have been shopping around for a Catholic church for the past six months. We think church is one way to teach good values and to meet others with similar values. Since I was not raised with religion, I mentioned that when I was growing up I wished I knew more about God. M and I think we've found a church that we like, and for the past month have been taking RCIA classes together. We decided that if we were going to do church as a family, that I should know why we are going to church and "believe in it".

8. Am I planning to work or stay at home when the children get home?

It's too early to tell since we are not planning to be home with the children until Summer 2007 or later. We have looked at pre-school options and due to the ages of the children we will request, will definitely send them to pre-school part-time in order for them to socialize with children, learn english and learn everything else in the curriculum. Since M works from home, and my manager has assured me flexibility with my hours / schedule, we will just wait until we meet the children and then decide what will meet their needs the best.

We also reviewed what paperwork was in / wasn't in. And scheduled our 1:1 appointments. Michael will be meeting with her on 11/29 at her office. Then on 12/7 she'll come to our home to complete the homecheck and my 1:1. I think there's a good chance to have this wrapped up by the end of the year!