Setback

Well, as I sit down and write this, I feel like we had our first setback. To be honest with you, I also hope it's our last.

With our last update, we wrote that we had turned in our application. Within a day of turning in our application, we received a message at home asking Jason to call the agency back, because they had some questions on the information we submitted. I have to admit that I was surprised that they were processing our application so quickly, and for that I must give them a lot of credit. We didn't get their message until after hours, so after a restless night I called them back the following day. The gal processing our application wanted to clarify my diabetic condition. After reading back my diagnosis date, and a list of the medications that I currently take, she said that she wanted to make sure that she had all of that information correct (I informed her that she did - she was reading it right off of our application info). Then she informed me that she received my physical report back from my doctor, and that my doctor had listed my medical status as being "satisfactory". It turns out that most international adoption programs have strict medical guidelines, and even having diabetes puts us on the edge of meeting the stringent guidelines. Apparently, a diabetic who is only taking care of himself in a "satisfactory" manner does not meet the guidelines for the two countries that we are the most excited about: Korea and Russia. If left as is, we could not even apply to adopt from Korea, and there is only one region in Russia that might even give our application a fighting chance. Now, notice that I said "if left as is". That's why we're calling this a setback, and not a screeching halt to the entire process.

The gal processing our application informed me that she felt we could still fulfill the international guidelines if she had more information from the doctor, and if that information proved that I was taking good care of myself (I guess the officials overseas want to make sure that I am going to be around for a while). In all honesty, this report from the doctor was a real slap in the face for me. I cannot say that it was undeserved, because although my diabetic care has been complicated by other factors lately, I have probably been a little more lax than I should have been too. In the past 5 months, I have been meeting with a lot of different medical specialty teams, and I feel like we are making progress on these other issues. Now, it's time for me to get disciplined again about my health, which means detailed blood glucose monitoring, and regular exercise again. The good news is that I have been able to do this before, so I will not be learning new disciplines. It's more like re-introducing my body to disciplines of years past.

We didn't feel that we could leave this situation "as-is", so I scheduled a follow-up visit with my physician for early December, and I have a Hemoglobin A1c test scheduled for mid-December. It's the A1c test that will score my diabetic health for a 3 month period leading up to the test. That should be a good indicator to the doctor about how I'm doing with my management.

A bit of good news - we received tentative dates for our required pre-adoption classes (PAC). The next set of classes are available the third week of January, and we are hoping that we can get into those classes. Otherwise, we will have to wait until the third week in February. With the timing of these classes, it means that I have a little time to get my medical records straightened up, and I won't be holding up our process any more than what is usual and customary.

We do have a few prayer requests for you:
1) That Jason can convince his doctor to provide a better health report.
2) That Jason's test results in December show some fantastic results.
3) That we can get into the January PAC sessions.
4) That Jason's shift back to a disciplined lifestyle will prove to be a rewarding change, rather than another frustrating endeavor.
5) That we grow closer to each other and God as we work through this process.

One Step Closer!

Hip hip hooray! We are finished with the application! It was not an exciting job (in Jason’s words “This is boring”), but it was necessary for the process to start. Here is a glance at what we had to fill out:

General information about ourselves: name, aliases (Jason Bourne and Jennifer Gardner- oops those are different aliases), address, age, race, profession, and income.

Health history: medical history about us and our parents. We had to get physicals for both of us along with a list of medication that we have taken in the last 3 years. Fawnda had to get a letter from her doctor stating that she has been tested and treated for infertility, and Jason got writer’s cramp filling out all of his medical information (hmmm – writer’s cramp – should we have put that on his medical history info???)

Family information: name, age, marital status, number of children and profession for each our siblings.

Home/community information: description of our home, resources around our community (medical clinics, shopping, parks, libraries, churches, community center, etc.) and ethnic breakdown for our city.

Information about our adoptive child: general information about what kind of child we are looking to adopt, what room we are planning on for them in our home, what supplies we have or will get for our child (car seat, crib, etc.).

Recommendations: We had to ask 3 of our friends to vouch for us and write letters of recommendations. They could not be family (related to us that is- we definitely feel that these friends are like family). We truly appreciate the time that these friends took to write these letters for us - we cannot thank them enough.

We also had to make copies of birth certificates, marriage certificates and tax forms.

Background checks: We had to get finger printed and sign several forms permitting them to do a full FBI background check. (I hope they don’t find out about that one thing with that guy at that place! Shhhhhhh) : )

So we have now finished another step!! Now, we must wait for them to review the application, and then we will receive some dates for our Pre-Adoption Classes (PAC), which is a 2 day workshop for educating prospective adoptive parents on the whole process (before, during and after). We are looking forward to attending this workshop soon!!

Please pray that the agency will review our application quickly and that all will go smoothly. Pray for the PAC experience for us, that we will learn a lot and that it will encourage us to go further in the process. Pray that we will not get overwhelmed with the next steps. We hear that the paperwork mentioned above is nothing compared to what is about to come. Yikes.

Fawnda's Poems

I bet you didn't know that Fawnda is a poet. For those of you who are musically inclined, maybe these would make good song lyrics some day.

Here's poem #1:

We are waiting

We are waiting for you
We don’t know where you are

We are waiting for you
We don’t know what you look like

We are waiting for you
We don’t know your name

We are waiting for you
We don’t know what you have been through

We are waiting for you
We love you even though we don’t know you yet

We are waiting for you
You will be such a blessing to us

We are waiting for you
You will bring us so much joy
We are waiting for you



Here's poem #2:

We are wild about you

We are so excited meet you,
There has been so much that we have been through
We will make you part of our home
To get you, far away we will roam

We know that God picked you just for us
In Him we have put our trust
We have learned to wait on the Lord
For us He has so much in store

I can’t wait to hold your hand
And play with you in the sand
I will pick you up when you fall
And come running when you call

I have been dreaming of the day that you will come to stay
It seems like that day is far away
I can’t wait for you to be my child
About you we are totally wild