The Home study was completed in June 2001 and my experience was most informative and enjoyable. I had a wonderful social worker from The Board of Child Care, Inc who was very helpful and patient with my rather difficult schedule. I was out of town for much of the process and she was kind enough to work around my schedule as much as possible. How- ever, this process was so important to me that I did my best to make sure I was where I needed to be to complete it. Nothing was going to get in my way.
Anne Pearce, the social worker, and I forged a good relationship during this time. I value her advice and support. We talked about almost everything aspect of parenting, especially single parenting, and the need for a strong support group. I'm fortunate in that I have some good, supportive friends and family to whom I can turn if I need help. She helped me through the process of deciding to adopt one or two children. By the conclusion of the home study I'd decided to adopt only one but was approved for two, just in case. My gameplan was to adopt one initially and go back for the second after a few months with the first. This approach seemed to make sense because it would give me time alone with the first and time to measure the impact of a second child on the first.
I sent in my I600A appli-cation previously and paid all the money so when the Home Study was complete, it was sent immediately to the INS office in Baltimore. I wasn't sure how long it would take to process and was VERY pleasantly surprised to find it was approved before the end of the month! The Baltimore INS office is really on the ball and a far cry from the horror stories I've heard about other locations. I'm very lucky to be in Baltimore, I guess.
Before I would be underway, I needed to attend to some other issues. My dear friend, Jayne was failing in health at age 89 and her hus-band of 65+ years passed away in April, 2001. At her request, I pulled out of the project that had me travelling so much so I could care for her on a full-time basis. In between my diuties to her, taking care of her affairs and such, I got all the various documents I needed for my adoption. By the fall of 2001, I was "paper ready" but none of the children on the tape came across to me. The agency suggested I travel to Estonia to visit a child another couple had met and wanted me to meet. At that time I could visit other orphanages and consider other children. It seemed like a perfect idea but I didn't like leaving Jayne. We talked about it and Jayne insisted I travel and not worry about her. So, I made the plans with her blessing. It was now November, 2001; thirteen months since I'd started the home study process in October 2000. My how time flies!
