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Kristen and Rich,

Way to go on getting your profile finished. Wow and your off and running on your homestudy too. Do you guys want to be parents or what!!! Ha Ha Guess you will be in San Antonio the weekend of the 26th. Good luck and you guys rock :D

Jan

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I HOPE we are in San Antonio at the end of the month...it sounds like that is not a very strong possibility if others do not get their stuff in... oh well. I had a question about fingerprinting...the website says that "your operation must first go to the DFPS website to request an online background check" is "our operation" Abrazo? I thought that our home study agency would initiate this for us but they said "no". Any help would be appreciated :) Oh and BTW there is NOTHING WRONG with liking the forum a really whole lot :rolleyes:

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I HOPE we are in San Antonio at the end of the month...it sounds like that is not a very strong possibility if others do not get their stuff in... oh well. I had a question about fingerprinting...the website says that "your operation must first go to the DFPS website to request an online background check" is "our operation" Abrazo? I thought that our home study agency would initiate this for us but they said "no". Any help would be appreciated :) Oh and BTW there is NOTHING WRONG with liking the forum a really whole lot :rolleyes:

Of course one of the Abrazo clan would best answer it, but I can tell you here in TN, the prints are done through a contractor for the state & the TBI (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation). The contractor's site says the background check request (fingerprinting) must come from the Agency as the results cannot be released to the individual. Our Social Worker (who works for an agency) is going to set it up. We just need an update since we did ours last year, but it is the same process as having it done for the first time.

So, it seems very odd to me that your Social Worker could not set it up. Surely they work for someone that does them up. Strange.

So, sorry, I know this doesn't help much, but I'm sure one of the Abrazo staff will be on before long to answer your question. If not, just give them a call. :)

Edited by Adam & Beth
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Hmm... Kristin, is your homestudy worker affiliated with a licensed agency? If not, perhaps that's the problem...?

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Hmm... Kristin, is your homestudy worker affiliated with a licensed agency? If not, perhaps that's the problem...?

I do not think that that is the issue. She said that they are only legally allowed to request the checks for international adoptions. I think that I may have solved the problem. I read further on the site and I think that Rich and I can request one for ourselves and send it to Abrazo.

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I HOPE we are in San Antonio at the end of the month...it sounds like that is not a very strong possibility if others do not get their stuff in... oh well. I had a question about fingerprinting...the website says that "your operation must first go to the DFPS website to request an online background check" is "our operation" Abrazo? I thought that our home study agency would initiate this for us but they said "no". Any help would be appreciated :) Oh and BTW there is NOTHING WRONG with liking the forum a really whole lot :rolleyes:

Congratulations on being ahead of the game and on top of things. Remember, if you have everything in, sometimes the angels smile on you and you place BEFORE you attend orientation. We call that group "tweeners" and I am a tweener from 2002. So, full steam ahead and don't look back!

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I wish we were one of those couples that could possibly attend the end of January orientation, but we haven't received our packet yet. I'm sure the holidays and the mail delays did not help that at all.

I'm getting nervous at all the mounting paperwork though! Yikes! It just seems very overwhelming at this point. We've gotten all our home study papers in the mail and i try to do a little every night after work.

On pins and needles till we hear back from Abrazo.

Nichole & Joe

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Hi, Nichole and Joe! Not to worry, there's still time to make the January orientation weekend. I don't know where you're at in the process, specifically, but I did see your inquiry on top of Angela's desk yesterday... if you're waiting on the application, you could keep busy in the meantime gathering the following supporting documents that'll be needed along the way:

* photos of the outside and interior rooms of your home;

* copy of last year's tax return;

* a floor plan* showing every room in your home and noting the purpose of each;

* an infertility letter from your doctor, verifying that you are unable to get pregnant

* three reference letters on your behalf to be written and sent directly to Abrazo by three unrelated friends or acquaintances.

Plus, you could begin the process of getting FBI clearances, since this sometimes takes awhile (usually your homestudy worker can help point you in the right direction on this), get pre-adoption physicals done (with labwork to include TB, HIV and hepatitis testing, required of all adult household members), and study the updated Abrazo homestudy standards (under Professionals' Corner) to ensure that your completed study, once done, meets Texas requirements if, indeed, this is where your precious new son or daughter is to be born! Hope this helps somewhat...

* This is a new Texas licensing requirement; it appears that a homemade sketch will suffice and it need not be to scale.

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Welcome Nichole and Joe! I just wanted to say hi because you have the same name as my son's birthmom and y'all spell it the same way. Of course, the goof that I am, I spelled it wrong for a year (without the "h"), and she never said anything. :o When I asked her why she didn't correct me she said it was no big deal. But I felt terrible. Spelling a person's name right was always a big deal in my family (I guess because I have a brother named Michael that hates to be called Mike, and a sister named Teresa who spells her name without an "h" (unlike Theresa).) So you think I'd have paid better attention!

Anyway...good luck and Godspeed on your adoption journey...we'd love to learn more about you when you get the chance.

Susan

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Hi, Nichole and Joe! Not to worry, there's still time to make the January orientation weekend. I don't know where you're at in the process, specifically, but I did see your inquiry on top of Angela's desk yesterday... if you're waiting on the application, you could keep busy in the meantime gathering the following supporting documents that'll be needed along the way:

* photos of the outside and interior rooms of your home;

* copy of last year's tax return;

* a floor plan* showing every room in your home and noting the purpose of each;

* an infertility letter from your doctor, verifying that you are unable to get pregnant

* three reference letters on your behalf to be written and sent directly to Abrazo by three unrelated friends or acquaintances.

Plus, you could begin the process of getting FBI clearances, since this sometimes takes awhile (usually your homestudy worker can help point you in the right direction on this), get pre-adoption physicals done (with labwork to include TB, HIV and hepatitis testing, required of all adult household members), and study the updated Abrazo homestudy standards (under Professionals' Corner) to ensure that your completed study, once done, meets Texas requirements if, indeed, this is where your precious new son or daughter is to be born! Hope this helps somewhat...

* This is a new Texas licensing requirement; it appears that a homemade sketch will suffice and it need not be to scale.

Thanks Elizabeth. I will start working on those things ASAP. I appreciate your help very much. We actually just built our home (my husband did i should say). We just moved in on December 2nd so we've got a definite floor plan done and photos. That's 2 steps done :D .

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and thanks again for the help.

Nichole

Welcome Nichole and Joe! I just wanted to say hi because you have the same name as my son's birthmom and y'all spell it the same way. Of course, the goof that I am, I spelled it wrong for a year (without the "h"), and she never said anything. :o When I asked her why she didn't correct me she said it was no big deal. But I felt terrible. Spelling a person's name right was always a big deal in my family (I guess because I have a brother named Michael that hates to be called Mike, and a sister named Teresa who spells her name without an "h" (unlike Theresa).) So you think I'd have paid better attention!

Anyway...good luck and Godspeed on your adoption journey...we'd love to learn more about you when you get the chance.

Susan

Hi Suebee! Thanks for the welcome. I have to laugh because nearly everyone i know spells my first name wrong. hahaha :lol: I don't correct them either!

When did you & your husband adopt?

Nichole

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Well, we received our letter today officially closing our inquiry. We are so happy to have Arianna, but we think it would have been great fun to work with Abrazo (since we pretty much had to do all the requirements anyway!). The ladies seem like a riot. Maybe next time!

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Hi, Nichole and Joe! Not to worry, there's still time to make the January orientation weekend. I don't know where you're at in the process, specifically, but I did see your inquiry on top of Angela's desk yesterday... if you're waiting on the application, you could keep busy in the meantime gathering the following supporting documents that'll be needed along the way:

* photos of the outside and interior rooms of your home;

* copy of last year's tax return;

* a floor plan* showing every room in your home and noting the purpose of each;

* an infertility letter from your doctor, verifying that you are unable to get pregnant

* three reference letters on your behalf to be written and sent directly to Abrazo by three unrelated friends or acquaintances.

Plus, you could begin the process of getting FBI clearances, since this sometimes takes awhile (usually your homestudy worker can help point you in the right direction on this), get pre-adoption physicals done (with labwork to include TB, HIV and hepatitis testing, required of all adult household members), and study the updated Abrazo homestudy standards (under Professionals' Corner) to ensure that your completed study, once done, meets Texas requirements if, indeed, this is where your precious new son or daughter is to be born! Hope this helps somewhat...

* This is a new Texas licensing requirement; it appears that a homemade sketch will suffice and it need not be to scale.

Thanks Elizabeth. I will start working on those things ASAP. I appreciate your help very much. We actually just built our home (my husband did i should say). We just moved in on December 2nd so we've got a definite floor plan done and photos. That's 2 steps done :D .

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and thanks again for the help.

Nichole

Welcome Nichole and Joe! I just wanted to say hi because you have the same name as my son's birthmom and y'all spell it the same way. Of course, the goof that I am, I spelled it wrong for a year (without the "h"), and she never said anything. :o When I asked her why she didn't correct me she said it was no big deal. But I felt terrible. Spelling a person's name right was always a big deal in my family (I guess because I have a brother named Michael that hates to be called Mike, and a sister named Teresa who spells her name without an "h" (unlike Theresa).) So you think I'd have paid better attention!

Anyway...good luck and Godspeed on your adoption journey...we'd love to learn more about you when you get the chance.

Susan

Hi Suebee! Thanks for the welcome. I have to laugh because nearly everyone i know spells my first name wrong. hahaha :lol: I don't correct them either!

When did you & your husband adopt?

Nichole

Welcome Nichole! It's great to see another family from the Midwest!!! What part of Wisconsin are you from?

Paula

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Nichole & Joe, welcome welcome welcome!!! I REALLY hope that it works out and we will both be attending the next orientation! Elizabeth is correct, working on all of those things will give you a head start on the application and the rest of it is fairly uncomplicated to fill out. We had our's done in about 2 days and then just had to put everything together so it took a bit longer. Best of luck!!! Kristin :)

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I wish we were one of those couples that could possibly attend the end of January orientation, but we haven't received our packet yet. I'm sure the holidays and the mail delays did not help that at all.

I'm getting nervous at all the mounting paperwork though! Yikes! It just seems very overwhelming at this point. We've gotten all our home study papers in the mail and i try to do a little every night after work.

On pins and needles till we hear back from Abrazo.

Nichole & Joe

Nichole and Joe,

Just one more friendly welcome to the Abrazo forum. It's always great to see new people joining in and working with Abrazo to make their dreams of a family come true!

-Adam

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Hi Suebee! Thanks for the welcome. I have to laugh because nearly everyone i know spells my first name wrong. hahaha :lol: I don't correct them either!

When did you & your husband adopt?

Nichole

Nichole,

We adopted our son Joshua almost six years ago (I can't believe I just typed that...where does the time go?!) through Abrazo. He will be six on Feb. 15...we were blessed to be there for his birth and have a great relationship with his birthmom Nichole.

Can't wait to follow your journey!

Susan

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Nichole and Joe welcome to Abrazo and the forum family. You will have the best experience working with the girls at abrazo they are all wonderful. The more you can get done before you get the application the better. You can also start working on your profile. A couple from our orientation group ( Holy Flying Fish ) Sept. 2006 was placed with 2 beautiful sisters that same weekend. They were obviously well prepared with homestudy, FBI clearence, and profile complete. Good luck and keep posting.

Char B)

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We are so happy to have Arianna....

Arianna is a beautiful name.

A couple from our orientation group ( Holy Flying Fish ) Sept. 2006 was placed with 2 beautiful sisters that same weekend. They were obviously well prepared with homestudy, FBI clearence, and profile complete. Good luck and keep posting.

Char B)

This story has become 'legendary' as to how quickly things can move in the process once you have everything complete. The first couple in our Group (the H3's --Happy Holiday Hopefuls) matched with their birthmother 3 weeks after Orientation and are expecting the newest addition to their family in April. Several of us (who had their home studies complete by Orientation) received our first Birthmother calls within days of leaving Orientation.

It is an amazing ride and you truly will meet some amazing, fun, kind, and genuine people through the Abrazo program.

-Adam

Edited by Adam & Beth
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A couple from our orientation group ( Holy Flying Fish ) Sept. 2006 was placed with 2 beautiful sisters that same weekend. They were obviously well prepared with homestudy, FBI clearence, and profile complete.

Hey, that's us! It's absolutely true that being prepared keeps you one step ahead. Also -- make sure you have a TON of good pictures of yourselves -- you and Joe -- for your profile. You're going to need a bunch. David and I didn't have many recent ones and spent an entire afternoon staging shots of us doing things together that we normally do but that we don't normally take pictures of!

I know the paperwork can be overwhelming. But I promise you that it's all worth it. After so many years of diasappointment, Cynthia and Alicia are the miracles that make the journey worthwhile. Many blessings on YOUR journey.

Edited by David & Ellouise
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We are so happy to have Arianna....

Arianna is a beautiful name.

-Adam

Thanks! We agree, which is one of the reasons we were happy to keep it for her. The way things look with her bps, it may be one of the few things she will have from them. We really like it!

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* a floor plan* showing every room in your home and noting the purpose of each;

This was not a requirement when we were PIW 8 1/2 years ago....but I bought my home new from the builder (19 years ago!), and just always kept the builder's brochure showing each of the homes for sale at that time with their floor plans (so I have all my neighbor's floor plans too!)

So if you are in the process of buying a new home, or have recently purchased a new home, ask the builder for a floor plan. It's just an idea I wanted to pass on!

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* a floor plan* showing every room in your home and noting the purpose of each;

This was not a requirement when we were PIW 8 1/2 years ago....but I bought my home new from the builder (19 years ago!), and just always kept the builder's brochure showing each of the homes for sale at that time with their floor plans (so I have all my neighbor's floor plans too!)

So if you are in the process of buying a new home, or have recently purchased a new home, ask the builder for a floor plan. It's just an idea I wanted to pass on!

I'm not sure you even need anything Formal. I mean, a hand drawn diagram might work and I'm sure doesn't have to be to scale. You can write in the room dimensions. The pictures of various rooms already show a lot as to what the house layout might be. I did not see this requirement in our packet of information so we have not yet submitted one.

We are from the Green Bay area...GO PACKERS!! hehe

The Pack will be watching the Big Game from the same place my Cowboys will be....the comfort of their own home.

Favre went to college and has a farm in my hometown. He's big down there too. I'm personally not a fan of his, but I do give credit to all he has accomplished.

Congrats to the Packers on finishing 8-8 (especially on taking out the Bears in the last game). I think that surprised most everyone based on how the season started.

There is a place in the Hall of Fame for Mr. Fav-ree.

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