What a Great Day!

Twenty minutes before our social worker was set to arrive for our home study update this morning, I got a call from my parents that a letter from NARM arrived. I gave them the go ahead to open it and they read me the happy news that I passed!!! Yeeehaw!! How fun to have Andrey here to share in the joy. Even our helper cheered. I jumped up and did a happy dance. I did not expect to get word so soon! Wahooo!!!

The home visit with our social worker went fabulously - better than expected. We were able to ask lots of questions and now have a much clearer picture of how this whole thing works. This is what we learned:

• Our social worker really likes us and is hoping along with us that we'll get matched soon
  
• Our application has been released and is indeed available for matching (we thought this was the case but couldn't confirm it till now)
• Very few children come from foster families. The majority come from institutions varying in size and quality.
  
• How matching works: ICAB informs children's homes when a child in their care has been approved for matching. The social worker appointed over that child has to travel to ICAB in Manila and look through the list of available approved parents. The SW chooses a list of 5 parents who's parameters fits the criteria of the child in their care. The files of those five sets of parents gets pulled and the SW is able to look through them in detail. Out of those five, the SW chooses a first and a second choice. Every Tuesday, ICAB holds a meeting in which the SW presents the reasons for choosing those particular parents. Every Thursday, ICAB meets to determine if they agree with the choice of the SW and chooses the parents they feel are best out of the two options (or I suppose none if they disagree). Then the proposed match goes to the board and if the board approves it then they inform the adoption agency and the agency informs the parents. Now, our SW told us that because social workers have to travel, sometimes long distances to get to ICAB in Manila, they will wait until they have several children in their care up for matching before they go. This really does help me understand why this process takes so long.
  
• According to our SW, we shouldn't have to wait the usual 4-6 months from match to custody. That period of time is how long it usually takes for the processing of the immigration papers needed to take the child out of the country. Since we live in Cebu and once we are matched, it could take 1-2 weeks for the match to be approved by ICAB and at that time, we would be able to pick up the child right away. It was hard to contain my excitement at hearing this! (We still need to check with our agency that this is in fact true so even though I'm excited I'm reserving a space in my mind for this to not be the case in the end)
• Apparently for children under age 2, parents can take them on the same day they meet the child, whereas for older children parents must visit a few times before taking the child?? I find this strange. From what I've read, even children under age two benefit from a more gradual transition (less traumatic), getting to know the parents at least a bit before being taken away by them as strangers. She told us we'd be able to visit over several days and spend time first before taking custody if we want.
  
• Once we take custody, there is a 6 month post-placement period, during which we will have three home studies. At the end of this period the adoption will have to be finalized in the US.
  
• Because of the recent change in the determination of an orphan from a legal process to an administrative process, children are now becoming available for adoption at younger ages. For domestic adoption, children as young as 3 months may be classified as orphans and become available for matching and in international adoption, children as young as 6 months may become available, whereas before, it was 6 and 9 months, respectively. So far, the youngest age of child at time of match that I've heard about was 9 or 10 months.
• Even though we requested a single child age 0-36 months or a sibling pair ages 0-48 months, our SW thinks that the most likely scenario for us is that we'll be matched with a single child under age 2 yr 0 months, including a decent possibility of a match with a child under age 1. She thinks this because of the fact that we are still "young" (relative to other applicants, I guess) and childless.
  
• If we were to get matched with a sibling pair (less likely but still possible), she said it's more likely we'd get twins over getting non-twin siblings, since the sibling groups of two that she sees have an older sibling who is most often over 4 years old.
• We should prepare a book with photos of us and our home so it's ready when we get matched and can be sent directly to the child so he/she can at least see our faces before we meet in person and take them home with us
• Apparently we need a crib. We showed her our baby room with it's double bed and she said, "Uh... I think you need to get a crib." Ha ha, yes, we had thought of that but weren't sure we should in case we get a three year old.

So about the crib... Now that we know (think) we may not have much time between getting matched and taking custody, maybe we should get a crib! Until how old does a child use a crib anyway? We were just thinking a mattress on the floor because we've been expecting a toddler but now I realize maybe even that is a dumb idea. Somebody please inform me because I have no idea and it appears I need to get a move on here! Advice anyone??