Home study visit - done!

Yesterday was our first home study visit. I was really nervous about it. I imagined the social worker sitting there with a checklist asking yes/no questions and writing comments about every wrong answer we gave. You know, like a job interview but a million times worse. ;) Thankfully, my mental images were completely wrong. We did have to answer questions about why we were adopting and how we chose China, about our family and children, and preferences for the child we are going to adopt. The social worker was very personable and put us at ease quickly. I think Buddy having Down syndrome was beneficial because we have already dealt with First Steps, we have therapists' names, and we know how to get started if the child we adopt needs any sort of PT/OT/ST services. Our social worker seemed relieved that we already had these resources and are already in the realm of having a child with special needs. Miss Bibs woke up from her nap during the question period, so she was dancing around the table and peppering the social worker with her own questions (ha!). He gave her a pen and piece of paper and she proceeded to draw a picture of herself (circles and scribbles). He then gave her another piece and asked her to draw a picture of her new brother. Instead she drew a fish and an "ock." We finally figured out it was supposed to be an ostrich and the ostrich was going to eat the fish she drew. Hm...so new brother is still an abstract concept for her.

After the questions, he had to check out our house. We tried to tidy up as much as possible with 2 toddlers who are bent on taking out every toy and piece of tupperware daily. He checked to make sure we had working faucets/plumbing/toilets, a working stove, a working refrigerator with food in it, child-proofing on outlets and cabinets with cleaners, all the bedrooms (I guess to make sure the kids had beds?). Miss Bibs got to flush the upstairs toilet in the kids' bathroom to show it worked and she said, "We like to flush the toilet because it makes the pee pee and poop go bye-bye!" Obviously, she's very shy around people she just met. ;)

We felt very good about the visit and are looking forward to the next (and final) visit in a couple of weeks!

Fingerprints

We had to go get fingerprinted yesterday as part of our home study and state background check. Daniel went first and was out within 5 or so minutes. I have been fingerprinted once before to be a substitute teacher, but it was paper and ink back then (does that make me sound old?!). Now they use a touchpad and digital images. I think I preferred the ink and paper. I either have abnormally long middle fingers or ridiculously short pinky fingers, but we couldn't get all my fingers to show up on the touchpad. I asked if I could bend my fingers to bring my pinky up and the lady doing the fingerprints freaked and said, "No! Your fingers have to be flat!!!" Well, alright. So we tried repeatedly to get my stinking pinky fingerprints. She would press my fingers down and tell me to stop wiggling them (again, I had no idea I was wiggling my fingers!). And then the lady told me my fingertips were too sweaty. Hm...I'm not sure I have much control over that. After about 20 minutes, we finally had all the fingerprints that were digitally acceptable except for 1. She said that she could have 2 that were not "passed," so we could send them. This definitely makes me look forward to the next fingerprinting session we have to do for the federal government. I hope their system is better! :)

With anticipation,
The Knueppels

We are not alone!

In the past few weeks, we have found out that some of our online friends (Instagram buddies) are adopting from China and then on Sunday we found out a couple in our neighborhood that attends the same church we do is adopting from China, too! We are thankful to have friends who have gone through this process before us cheering us on and are thankful to be finding friends who will be walking along with us (mostly) at the same time. I have been saying prayers of thanks for these little blessings of knowing that we have a community on this journey. :)

With anticipation,
The Knueppels

Home study paperwork - check!

We sent ALL of our home study paperwork off today, which included an autobiography for Daniel and me (it is HARD to write about myself!), financial statements, CPS checks for each family member, FBI background check paperwork, information about our family and extended family, and lots of other vital records. Thankfully Daniel is very organized and we had all of our vital records in one place and easily copied and we plugged away on getting everything else done quickly. I think it took about a week to get everything ready to go...which meant a lot of frantic typing and writing in the evenings after the kids went to bed. So, tonight we rest. Fitting for a Sunday, right? OK, so I might do some Just Dance on the Wii instead of resting, but we rest from paperwork at least! :)

With anticipation,
The Knueppels

All the details

We have been working at a hurried pace to get our home study packet completed so we can get the information to our social worker and get this part completed! Daniel and I both had to write an autobiography as part of the home study packet...and I'll be the first to say that writing about myself is difficult. I am not always a details person and they want A LOT of detail! (This thrills my scientist husband to no end, let me tell you.) Anyway, the autobiographies are complete, the CPS forms are filled in, the FBI background check forms are almost done, and the 20+ additional pages have a few details missing, but are almost ready to go. We are aiming to have this all in the mail by Monday! And then the fun begins with even more details, I'm sure. ;) I think we are going to have a fantastic relationship with paperwork by the end of our journey.

With anticipation,
The Knueppels

T-shirt Fundraiser

We are doing a fundraiser to help defray some of the adoption costs. These t-shirts are being printed through Fund the Nations. We LOVE the design and have picked the option of it being printed on a super-soft shirt. The shirts truly are super-soft, but can run a little smaller than normal shirts, so if you are unsure on size, definitely size up. I have one of this type of shirt from a friend's fundraiser and it's my go-to shirt in my closet because it's really comfortable (and because I love the message on it!). The shirts are $20 and all proceeds will support our adoption!

How it works: 1. Decide what size shirt you need - the shirts are available in Adult XS - XXXL (XXL and XXXL are $2 more per shirt); 2. Send your payment to thethomps@gmail.com at PayPal - please include your name, address, and shirt size in the note section (and please select the payment to family/friend option and please make sure you incur any additional PayPal fees on your end); 3. If you decide to order an XXL or XXXL shirt, the cost is $22; 4. The fundraiser will end Thursday, September 25. At that time, I'll send the final numbers to be printed. The shirts will ship directly to us and we'll get them out to you!

Our goal for this fundraiser is 50 shirts. Please feel free to share this post, any pictures of our shirts with the ordering information, re-Gram, Tweet, Facebook share, you name it. We would love to see people from all over wearing these shirts to spread this amazing message!

Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts!

The Knueppels