Adam & Beth

Yeah, I figured the $3 charge might be a gimmick, but $6 was a drop in the bucket to everything so I figured why not get it done quickly - just in case! -A

Ours last year and this was electronic. You just roll your finger across a little fingerpad and it comes up right in front of you digitally, no ink, no mess...very easy, very fast. I paid the $3 expedite fee and my results were back to our agency within 10 days. I think the fee for the background check (fingerprinting is just a part of it) was like $55 each. -Adam

Gotta love the Golden's. Our Golden, Siena, has been a faithful pet and will be a great friend to our child I'm sure. We included a picture of her in the profile (maybe this one below) to let any birthparent know that we are a pet friendly family. There is a Dog/Cat thread on the forum HERE if you care to share info on your pets. Our wedding pics were nearly 10 years old so we left ours out. Space was at a premium on the 6 pages of our profile and that one didn't make the cut. Plenty of other pictures of just the 2 of us and pics with family to show our family relationships. It's an individual choice. Good luck -Adam

As always, get your Official answers from Abrazo, but enough of us have been through the process that I believe we can answer this....as Kay has already provided some great links. Yes, I am almost certain, you will need an FBI background check (Fingerprinting and background check) so that it encompasses a national database. If you have selected someone to complete your homestudy (agency/social worker), they should be able to refer you to the right place to have it done. I believe the background check must be performed yearly until placement. We just had ours done again earlier this year. I believe ours was once done by Identix but the contract was bought out by another state contractor. I found our information on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation website. You might try the same for the KBI (Kentucky Bureau of Investigation). -Adam

If you have an old one (pastor/minister/priest/rabbi....) that would be able to give a form of personal reference, you could use that as well. Sometimes a simple move across a big city might have you relocate churches. Just a thought. -A

A BIG Welcome to Darren as well Perhaps we'll get him to post on here after Orientation. -A

Very nice poem Elizabeth. God has blessed you much talent with your creativity and writing. Wishing you a Sun-Shiny Day with calm kids, stress-free calls, lots of laughs, and may your car keys magically appear in your purse when you are ready to go -A

I caught it tonight We're invited. . .we're invited So excited. . .so excited Cathy and Brian too Just another note of Congratulations. By the posts on so many threads, you would think someone is QUITE excited about all this And good news! WE TOO are EXCITED for YOU! -A

Congrats on the new pepper...Trail Boss!

Cathy, sometimes you never know just how fast things will move along. We applied right about the time of the last scheduled Orientation for 2006. We figured we would be heading to San Antonio some time in Feb 2007. Little did we know, we got a call asking if we could be there in 2-3 weeks as there would be a December Orientation. We were very excited and it kicked things into High Gear Good Luck! -A

Of course I'm no expert, but as I understand it, your homestudy (meeting TX standards) must be complete before you can take placement of the child, so yes, I would think you would want to be as close to done as possible. The catch with the TX statues as I understand it, is that your last social-worker visit must be within 30 days of taking placement. We have our agency doing our homestudy on 'hold' right now as our original homestudy expired but we did everything we need for the update and even already paid for the final visit/update since we thought we were taking placement within a few weeks. So, they told us to just let them know when that special time comes and they will do everything in their power to get the final piece complete. -A I'm sure one of the knowledgeable Abrazo gals will answer your question soon though

Congrats to all those who have blessed with children through adoption and the Abrazo experience. May God smile favorably upon you all and may all of us PIW's wait patiently while he prepares our special familes as well -A

Argh! I don't know that I've heard this one directed to us, but I have heard this one and it just makes me want to say: "Okay. Imagine your kids are no longer in your life. How does that feel? Would you be HAPPY?! NO! okay, then please- think before you speak. Now let's move on." Actually I got one last night from my SIL who is in the hospital with complications regarding their forthcoming 3rd child. She said "I think Everyone should have to experience preganancy at least once to know just how difficult it can be". I said " I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THAT OPPORTUNITY. ". She realized the way that came out and there was no need to apologize because she is and always has been on our biggest supporters of our adoption journey. sometimes people just don't think before they speak. -A

I agree . It is certainly a process I feel I have grown from and has enlightened me in so many ways (I'm not claiming to be all-out 'enlightened' though ).

Thanks Jenny. I don't let it bother me. I just kind of shrug it off as I know the many blessings that await us when our child (and Birthmother) finds us -A

I was thinking of this the other day and thought of you Toni. I was wondering how many times you must have heard that line by now. Your preganancy is a blessing of course, but I imagine you hear that phrase about "SEE!...." a lot. I mentioned we were adopting to someone I did not know well yesterday but who heard me mentioning our nursery. They said "Adopting huh? That's Hard. That takes a long time" They were completely in the mindset that we were in the 1-2 year wait for a baby from overseas . I would gladly have taken a "Oh, okay" or "Oh, that's great. I hope it works out for you" as opposed to a "oh, that's hard". I already know how 'hard' it is. If only I too could get people to see the bigger picture. -A

Ah, if only it took a little booze to grow the family Probably not till she's in her 30's Then it will still be a TMI! TMI!!!! (too much information) moment.

Thanks for the clarification E! (p.s.: I hope you and the kids are enjoying your vacation time with your dad ) -A

They received our references just fine when we applied, but what I later learned was that per the Texas requirements for adoption, we had to also have 3 reference letters sent directly to the attention of our case worker for our homestudy. So, you may want to give your references a heads up to save a copy of the letter (or be prepared to write another in the future) as they will need to also address a copy to the attention of whoever conducts your homestudy, assuming you use the same references. We were caught a bit by surprise on that step as we thought the 3 references sent to Abrazo were sufficient for that requirement. Further review shows that Abrazo requires 3 and the State of Texas requires 3, individually. -Adam

Hey I see you are at an even 1,000 posts with this post above, CONGRATS!

Thanks, Adam. I will go ahead and submit our application today since I'm off and put a note about submitting the separate check (if approved--hopefully when approved). Cathy I could be wrong, but if you want, you might just ask whoever answers the phone at Abrazo as I would think your request is a common question (what to submit and when). Have a good weekend, Adam

Cathy, as always, the final and official word will come from one of the nice ladies at the Abrazo office, but from my memory, the Orientation check is definitely a separate payment and you would not submit it until you have been approved/invited to attend an Orientation session. -A

Laural, If you are happy with your experiences in the Methodist denomination, have you considered looking into other Methodist Churches in more diverse neighborhoods/areas around Atlanta? We attend a United Methodist church and I know there are TON of them around Memphis and some have much more diverse congregations than others. Also, if your church does not offer something that you have a need for but are happy otherwise with your church, would you feel comfortable asking the pastor or other church leaders to help you find programs at other churches that you could participate in? It would be similar to what you refer to about outside prayer groups and would not necessisarily take you away from your regular church attendance. Hopefully they are open minded enough to know that this is for your personal spiritual growth or well-being and they would do what they can to help you find what you are looking for. Our church often publicizes other ministries taking place in other Methodist churches in the Memphis area. They know that our church alone can not always offer everything to everyone. The small groups aka prayer groups that started last year have been a big success. I haven't joined one yet but am considering it as I like intimate groups for discussion. It's nice to have a group of people you can confide in and ask for their support whereas I might not mention some things in a larger group setting because I don't feel as comfortable. Good luck and God Bless, Adam

No, you brought up something that I didn't have a clear understanding of either. I too was thinking that you did not have to be logged in to view the profiles. So, it's good that we have that cleared up so we all know Thanks Heather, Adam