HONU adoption puzzle progress

 HONU Adoption Puzzle Progress

My family came to visit over Christmas and we were able to put together the HONU Adoption Puzzle together as a family. This means so much to us to have some of the many people we love help contribute and put together our family puzzle. Putting this together brought tears to my eyes seeing all the names of people who have sponsored a puzzle piece and prayed for us! We truly cannot wait to share with our child each and every name of the people who have prayed & loved them before they were even here! 

Seeing names of family, friends we see often and friends we barely see, to people we have never met..this has truly been one of the most humbling experiences in our lives and we have only begun this journey! 

We got confirmation that our profile is ready to be activated after our home study is complete! This means our online and paper profile are ready when we are to be shown to birth parents. As exciting and as soon as that may sound, we are still waiting to be financially ready :) Please pray that this part of the process will go smoothly and encourage us to grow deeper in our faith and our love for each other as we continue to wait! 

When the home study is complete, we are hoping by end of February it will give us a better idea of how much more we need to save for the rest of the adoption process. We know that as soon as our profile goes "active" a match could happen at any time and the money has to be ready. 

In the mean time, the time is going by fast and we are blessed to be able to enjoy some much needed time and love with friends/family in the next couple months! 

We still have plenty of empty puzzle pieces if you still would like to sponsor a puzzle piece feel free to click the Donate button in the upper right hand corner or email me at jkguderian@gmail.com and i'll send you our address :) Check out the original Honu Adoption Puzzle blog post for more details.

Prayers are greatly appreciated and please know that we are deeply thankful for each and every one of you taking the time to read/follow our blog.

I found this turtle symbolism and I just LOVE it! How true is that! <3

We cannot wait to meet our little Honu! <3 

Aloha & Love from our family to yours~

One step closer...Home Study preparation...

Happy Holiday season everyone! Along with holiday joy celebrations, Bryan and I are still working on continuing on in the adoption process! In the last month and into the new year we are working on putting together our "home study". What is a home study you ask? Well it is a basic overview of our life - including criminal background checks, finances & even our personal relationships. We are told it is one of the lengthiest steps, we are starting to see that. But luckily, we are not in a huge hurry through this whole process as we know it is all in God's timing. Don't get me wrong, I get inpatient, but we just remind ourselves often to be humbled with all that we have, especially around the holidays!

Our adoption agency is based in the mainland in Kansas and surrounding states so they do not offer someone to come out to Hawaii and do our home study for us. (Even though I don't think they would have minded coming to visit us in Hawaii ;) ) Instead what they do, is they have a local adoption agency perform the home study and report the many many page study to our child placing agency (in Kansas) for review. 

HOME STUDY STEPS

What we have done so far:

-- Filled out a lengthy application regarding our health, financial status, demographics, family, pets, & discipline statement. Turned in this application w/ our last years W-2 forms.

-- Paid the $350 application fee for the local adoption agency to process our application and help us set up the paperwork/clearances. 

-- Turned in more paperwork regarding consents, discipline policy agreement  medical risks form, birth & marriage certificates, employment verification form signed by our supervisors, multiple kinds of background check forms for all the states that we have lived in (MN, WI, HI).

--Got our fingerprints done to be processed for criminal history records.

-- Bryan and I each filled out a home study outline of 50 questions. Questions were regarding our childhood and how it impacted our upbringing, our adulthood and how we have got to where we are today, about our marriage and how a child will impact it, about how we plan to parent, how we came to certain decisions thus far in the adoption process, & questions about our home and community. 

-- Reference letters have been sent to our agency. Thank you to those we asked to complete them. <3

-- Guardianship information form (We already have to know who we are leaving the child with if something happens to us before we even get them!..I get why we have to do this but still!).

What we still have to do:

-- Pre-adoption Training classes

-- Medical clearances from our doctors

--Social worker to come to our home x 2

-- Pay a $200 processing fee for our child placing adoption agency to review this local agency's take on our home study before it gets approved

-- Pay between $1,000-$3,000 for the full homestudy 

It has been a lengthy process but we are ok with that. We have actually learned a lot about ourselves along the way! :) Answering those 50 questions really made us reminisce on our blessed chlildhoods and made us thankful for everything we have been through together thus far! The future is bright and we cannot wait!

 We again want to thank those who have given us a sponsorship for a puzzle piece/s as your donations are going towards this whole process! Every step of the way we are so thankful for you all for your prayers, support and love. We are going to start putting together the puzzle soon to show its progress!! 

We hope you all have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS "MELE KALIKIMAKA! 

Aloha & love from our family to yours~ 

Pictures are from Dec 18th 2016- Make a Wish Foundation 5k called Jingle Rock Run.