Our finally home study interview was Monday. It also went great! We just had a few wrap up questions. Now our social worker will write her report and send it to be edited and approved. In around two weeks we should get a copy. So now we wait!
Fun fact: Russia has the worlds largest forest reserves and is know as "the lungs of Europe" and is second only to the Amazon rain forest in the amount of O2.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
interviews 2 &3
Scott and I had our individual interviews Friday morning. They went great! Just more questions that were easy to answer. I will say it again...our social worker is awesome!!! You feel like you are talking to a friend about life, your goals, and plans. Last interview is scheduled for Monday at 6:00pm!
We also did a little shopping this weekend...I will post pics tomorrow of what we got!
Fun Facts:
The Russian alphabet contains 33 letters. 11 vowels 20 consonants and 2 pronunciation signs.
We also did a little shopping this weekend...I will post pics tomorrow of what we got!
Fun Facts:
The Russian alphabet contains 33 letters. 11 vowels 20 consonants and 2 pronunciation signs.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
interview #1
We met with our social worker for interview #1 tonight! It went GREAT! She was super nice and very sweet. It lasted about 45 minutes. She took a tour of our house and asked a bunch of basic questions: how did we meet? why we want to adopt from Russia? childcare plan? ect....
We meet again tomorrow for our individual interviews and then again on Monday.
So rounds 2 and 3 start tomorrow at 10!!
Scott is a rock star! He came home from a coaching clinic in Greensboro today and immediately started working on what is pictured below. I love, love it!!! It is on the wall behind the changing table and bookshelf.
Fun Facts: Russia was the first country to launch a man into space. His name was Yuri Gagarin. He was the first man in orbit and successfully flew around the globe several times on April 12th 1961.
This is not to be confused with Alan Shepard,first American astronaut, whose flight was suborbital.
We meet again tomorrow for our individual interviews and then again on Monday.
So rounds 2 and 3 start tomorrow at 10!!
Scott is a rock star! He came home from a coaching clinic in Greensboro today and immediately started working on what is pictured below. I love, love it!!! It is on the wall behind the changing table and bookshelf.
Fun Facts: Russia was the first country to launch a man into space. His name was Yuri Gagarin. He was the first man in orbit and successfully flew around the globe several times on April 12th 1961.
This is not to be confused with Alan Shepard,first American astronaut, whose flight was suborbital.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Updates
We have been busy,busy in the Riley house over the past two weeks!! We went to the beach for a week over the 4th and during this last week have been preparing for our home study! We meet with our social worker on Thursday, July 21st. This meeting will be conducted at our house. She will interview us together for the first meeting. The next day,Friday, we will each meet with her individually. That will take care of meetings 1,2,and 3. So we just have to schedule one last meeting with her for the following week. That will finish our home study!! I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!!!
All of our paperwork has now been submitted for the home study. We actually placed the last few pages in the mail today. We got our SBI clearance while we were on vacation and finished our 10 hour online class. We also completed our community resource sheet. The community resource sheet is designed to help you begin to think about your child care plan and what medical/physiological resources may be needed in the future. So glad to have that completed. We now have a great list that includes doctors who are covered in our insurance plan and their phone numbers. We also found a great pediatrician in Raleigh who specializing in working with children who have been adopted internationally and she is taking new patients! Hooray!!
We have also put a new ceiling fan in the babies room and I just had to share a picture. It might be the coolest ceiling fan EVER! It has a world globe light fixture and moon and stars on the blades. Scott found it at Home Depot. He also installed it himself, which is a big deal in this house because the electrical is not the most up to date. Picture is below!
Fun Fact: Moscow’s metro system, Metrostroy, is one of the largest in the world.(Second actually to Tokyo) Today, it consists of 9,915 trains that travel on 12 lines spanning the city. Nine million passengers use the Moscow subway each day. It is bigger and busier then New York's subway and London's underground put together. It was built during Stalin's rule and is said to display some of Russia best architecture. Half of the stations are deep level stations and doubled as bomb shelters during WWII and nuclear fall out stations during the Cold War.
Picture of one of the stations. I had to share...I was shocked a subway station could look like this!
All of our paperwork has now been submitted for the home study. We actually placed the last few pages in the mail today. We got our SBI clearance while we were on vacation and finished our 10 hour online class. We also completed our community resource sheet. The community resource sheet is designed to help you begin to think about your child care plan and what medical/physiological resources may be needed in the future. So glad to have that completed. We now have a great list that includes doctors who are covered in our insurance plan and their phone numbers. We also found a great pediatrician in Raleigh who specializing in working with children who have been adopted internationally and she is taking new patients! Hooray!!
We have also put a new ceiling fan in the babies room and I just had to share a picture. It might be the coolest ceiling fan EVER! It has a world globe light fixture and moon and stars on the blades. Scott found it at Home Depot. He also installed it himself, which is a big deal in this house because the electrical is not the most up to date. Picture is below!
Fun Fact: Moscow’s metro system, Metrostroy, is one of the largest in the world.(Second actually to Tokyo) Today, it consists of 9,915 trains that travel on 12 lines spanning the city. Nine million passengers use the Moscow subway each day. It is bigger and busier then New York's subway and London's underground put together. It was built during Stalin's rule and is said to display some of Russia best architecture. Half of the stations are deep level stations and doubled as bomb shelters during WWII and nuclear fall out stations during the Cold War.
Friday, July 1, 2011
SBI
Today we were fingerprinted at our local police department. We will send these prints to the SBI(State Bureau of Investigations). We need their clearance for our home study. We also went to the clerk of court and had a background check done in our county. So it goes:
county background check
SBI background check(or state)
FBI background check
So two down! We just have to get a letter of clearance back from the SBI.
We also made a trip to the register of deeds to get a copy of the deed of our house(I know, how crazy is that!). So overall it was a busy, busy day! Very productive! AND our agency received all of our reference letters!!! Very awesome!
So close to being down with the home study!!! Just have to finish those four interviews with the social worker and wait for a few documents to come in the mail: clearance from the SBI and proof of coverage from our life insurance agency. Oh and our certificate for completing our 10 hours of online education. We have about 1 1/2 hours left.
Peak of the babies room below!!!
county background check
SBI background check(or state)
FBI background check
So two down! We just have to get a letter of clearance back from the SBI.
We also made a trip to the register of deeds to get a copy of the deed of our house(I know, how crazy is that!). So overall it was a busy, busy day! Very productive! AND our agency received all of our reference letters!!! Very awesome!
So close to being down with the home study!!! Just have to finish those four interviews with the social worker and wait for a few documents to come in the mail: clearance from the SBI and proof of coverage from our life insurance agency. Oh and our certificate for completing our 10 hours of online education. We have about 1 1/2 hours left.
Peak of the babies room below!!!
The pictures have a glare but you get the idea. So EXCITED!!!!!
The Rileys
Russia Fact: Russia is #2 in all time gold medals won in the Olympics. The U.S. is #1.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Home study Part 2
A lot has happened in the last few days!
We got the information we needed to start our dossier. I will do a separate post on that. It made the home study paperwork look like a kindergarten assignment!
We have also been assigned a social worker!! Hooray! We have actually already been in contact with her. She is the representative for Raleigh families who are working with CAS. She is also the coordinator for their Kenya program. Super nice lady who was very helpful to us when we first got started. We will be meeting with her four times. The first visit will be in our home. Then we will meet with her separately and then again together for the last visit. We were able to schedule our first meeting for Thursday, July 14th. We are really excited to get started. Her goal is to get to know us as a couple and as individuals. She will discuss our reasons for wanting to adopt along with our parenting plan.(and probably a bunch of stuff in between!)
On another note I had my physical on Thursday which went great. I just have to go back for a TB test on Monday and then they will check that on Wednesday. Scott has his appointment for Monday. So we can check this off the list!
Small surprise...we also have to get clearance from the SBI for our home study. We found this out on Thursday on our way to Hilton Head so we haven't had a chance to follow up on this yet. From what I understand we have to get one of the local police departments to finger print us.(all ten prints!) We would then mail that to the SBI with a bunch of paperwork. We plan to try and tackle this Monday...or at least try and figure out were we need to go to get fingerprinted.
We have also been working on our ten hours of online education for our home study. We are about a fourth of the way done. The classes are not that bad and reiterate what we have reading from our suggested reading list.
It seems that things are moving along at a good pace!!
The Rileys
Fun tidbit: We have read many times in several different books that it is common practice for everyone to wear hats when they are outside in Russia. BUT, not baseball caps! Apparently if you take your child outside without a hat it would not be uncommon for an elderly lady to stop and scold you for taking your kid out without his hat! Guess we are going to have to find some hats for him while we are there! I am not looking to be yelled at!
We got the information we needed to start our dossier. I will do a separate post on that. It made the home study paperwork look like a kindergarten assignment!
We have also been assigned a social worker!! Hooray! We have actually already been in contact with her. She is the representative for Raleigh families who are working with CAS. She is also the coordinator for their Kenya program. Super nice lady who was very helpful to us when we first got started. We will be meeting with her four times. The first visit will be in our home. Then we will meet with her separately and then again together for the last visit. We were able to schedule our first meeting for Thursday, July 14th. We are really excited to get started. Her goal is to get to know us as a couple and as individuals. She will discuss our reasons for wanting to adopt along with our parenting plan.(and probably a bunch of stuff in between!)
On another note I had my physical on Thursday which went great. I just have to go back for a TB test on Monday and then they will check that on Wednesday. Scott has his appointment for Monday. So we can check this off the list!
Small surprise...we also have to get clearance from the SBI for our home study. We found this out on Thursday on our way to Hilton Head so we haven't had a chance to follow up on this yet. From what I understand we have to get one of the local police departments to finger print us.(all ten prints!) We would then mail that to the SBI with a bunch of paperwork. We plan to try and tackle this Monday...or at least try and figure out were we need to go to get fingerprinted.
We have also been working on our ten hours of online education for our home study. We are about a fourth of the way done. The classes are not that bad and reiterate what we have reading from our suggested reading list.
It seems that things are moving along at a good pace!!
The Rileys
Fun tidbit: We have read many times in several different books that it is common practice for everyone to wear hats when they are outside in Russia. BUT, not baseball caps! Apparently if you take your child outside without a hat it would not be uncommon for an elderly lady to stop and scold you for taking your kid out without his hat! Guess we are going to have to find some hats for him while we are there! I am not looking to be yelled at!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
passports part II
Scott's passport came in the mail yesterday!! We can now officially leave the country. CAS(Carolina Adoption Services) has already received two of our reference letters. Which is AWESOME!! We really appreciate everyone being so prompt turning those in. We had to have seven reference letters in total.
2 family
2 personal
1 neighbor
2 employer (one each)
We are now waiting to be assigned a social worker...which should happen this week.
Here is a picture that makes me smile.
Savannah was so exhausted after a day of playing at the beach she decided to take over one of the lounge chairs.
And lastly a few pictures of Scott working on the babies room...only a sneak peak. Not ready to reveal too much yet!
AND YES...that is Carolina Blue on the walls! Lowes actually has paint choices that are specific to your college of choice.
2 family
2 personal
1 neighbor
2 employer (one each)
We are now waiting to be assigned a social worker...which should happen this week.
Here is a picture that makes me smile.
Savannah was so exhausted after a day of playing at the beach she decided to take over one of the lounge chairs.
And lastly a few pictures of Scott working on the babies room...only a sneak peak. Not ready to reveal too much yet!
AND YES...that is Carolina Blue on the walls! Lowes actually has paint choices that are specific to your college of choice.
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