Perhaps a little more introduction is necessary for those who are unfamiliar with our family. I'm Andrew Wells, my wife is Angela Wells. We are more commonly referred to as Andy and Angie. We live in the mid-western state of Missouri. We've been married for more than seven years and have two biological children, Jack (5) and Jude (20 mos.).
That's us. I don't usually look quite so psychotic.
We are in the process of adopting a little girl from China. Don't worry! You haven't missed anything. We are still in the early stages of the adoption process. We have finished most of our preliminary paperwork and, just this weekend, we had our home study.
A very nice lady from St. Louis named Susan came to interview us last night and see our home. Of course, Angie and I were overly nervous about this whole visit, thinking we were to be judged on every detail of our home. We spent the week cleaning areas that probably weren't even noticed and fixing things we never use. We had been assured by friends that the home study was mostly to make sure we weren't operating a Meth house or something, but we wanted to make our best impression.
Our son Jack was very helpful during the tour of our home. He showed Susan his bedroom first, the Jude's, then Mommy and Daddy's. He wanted to skip unnecessary rooms, such as the office, the living room and the kitchen, so he could show her the downstairs with all of his video games and toys. Naturally, Angie and I wanted to down play things like video games, and we were pleased that he could remember where his toothbrush was for her.
Then I corralled the kids in the basement, while Susan interviewed Angie solo. Solo interviews? Did we know about this before hand? We hadn't rehearsed our answers! You had to get stories like this straight for the police, right?!
Luckily for us, Susan chose to interview me the next day. She found her way back to our home this morning with more ease than her original journey here last night. I told her my life story, which I will now spare the rest of you. Then she interviewed us together. The second part of the interview consisted mostly of questions about our outlooks as parents, as a couple, and as potential parents to a child of a differing ethnicity.
It was really all very laid back, and both we and Susan had a very fun time of it. I think she really enjoyed hearing my stories of my family and growing up in Maine. Considering Angie and I have very similar personalities, I'm also sure Susan enjoyed Angie's stories of her family and Missouri as well. We each had different funny stories to tell about our meeting and engagement, and Susan said she had rarely been so sure of a couple that should adopt from China.
We are very excited about our future addition, and now that we've actually met someone in an official capacity for this little endeavor of ours, it finally seems like something that will actually happen one day. We have a long road ahead of us, of fingerprinting, authentication of documents, and a whole lot of waiting. They are saying the wait time for a child referral from China at the moment is about 18 months from the time that the documents are submitted to the Chinese government. And we a re still a few months away from that.
I hope to update this blog on a regular basis to keep people informed of our progress, and to show off my wonderful family. I hope you'll join us here often.
We are in the process of adopting a little girl from China. Don't worry! You haven't missed anything. We are still in the early stages of the adoption process. We have finished most of our preliminary paperwork and, just this weekend, we had our home study.
A very nice lady from St. Louis named Susan came to interview us last night and see our home. Of course, Angie and I were overly nervous about this whole visit, thinking we were to be judged on every detail of our home. We spent the week cleaning areas that probably weren't even noticed and fixing things we never use. We had been assured by friends that the home study was mostly to make sure we weren't operating a Meth house or something, but we wanted to make our best impression.
Our son Jack was very helpful during the tour of our home. He showed Susan his bedroom first, the Jude's, then Mommy and Daddy's. He wanted to skip unnecessary rooms, such as the office, the living room and the kitchen, so he could show her the downstairs with all of his video games and toys. Naturally, Angie and I wanted to down play things like video games, and we were pleased that he could remember where his toothbrush was for her.
Then I corralled the kids in the basement, while Susan interviewed Angie solo. Solo interviews? Did we know about this before hand? We hadn't rehearsed our answers! You had to get stories like this straight for the police, right?!
Luckily for us, Susan chose to interview me the next day. She found her way back to our home this morning with more ease than her original journey here last night. I told her my life story, which I will now spare the rest of you. Then she interviewed us together. The second part of the interview consisted mostly of questions about our outlooks as parents, as a couple, and as potential parents to a child of a differing ethnicity.
It was really all very laid back, and both we and Susan had a very fun time of it. I think she really enjoyed hearing my stories of my family and growing up in Maine. Considering Angie and I have very similar personalities, I'm also sure Susan enjoyed Angie's stories of her family and Missouri as well. We each had different funny stories to tell about our meeting and engagement, and Susan said she had rarely been so sure of a couple that should adopt from China.
We are very excited about our future addition, and now that we've actually met someone in an official capacity for this little endeavor of ours, it finally seems like something that will actually happen one day. We have a long road ahead of us, of fingerprinting, authentication of documents, and a whole lot of waiting. They are saying the wait time for a child referral from China at the moment is about 18 months from the time that the documents are submitted to the Chinese government. And we a re still a few months away from that.
I hope to update this blog on a regular basis to keep people informed of our progress, and to show off my wonderful family. I hope you'll join us here often.
