Fotorny Family Adoption

An easy way to keep friends and family updated on our adoption process.

4/3/08

tfotorny | April 03, 2008 07:29

April 3, 2008

This adoption process is turning out to be a real test of my patience.  Overall, I'm doing really well.  I have my moments when I get really anxious because I just want to get my daughter and begin loving her.  I love her already and I don't even know who she is yet.  We can't inquire yet about any girls we're interested in until we have our homestudy completed.  I'm excited to announce that we have our homestudy scheduled for April 12th!!!  The homestudy will take about 3 hours to do.  The social worker sounds very nice and easy to talk to.  And I can say I'm not freaked out about this part of the process (I was freaked out about it months ago).  It's exciting that this is actually starting to happen.  I'm not sure how long the homestudy will take to process (according to what I've read on the Internet it can take up to 120 days to complete).  Hopefully it won't take that long but at least I'm prepared to be "patient" to get our approval.  Please continue to pray for our family and that God will lead us to our daughter.  We appreciate your prayer support for us!

     

 

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3/24/08

tfotorny | April 03, 2008 07:24

March 24, 2008

There's only three places where you can get fingerprinted here in our general area.  One place conveniently is at PSU where Scott works.  So today the boys and I picked Scott up from work and we walked over to the place to get fingerprinted.  It was a bit expensive but oh well, it needs to be done.  It felt strange getting fingerprinted.  It was a neat process though that the boys enjoyed seeing -- they scan your fingerprints into a computer so no more messy ink pads. 

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Update from 3/15/08

tfotorny | April 03, 2008 07:18

We got all of our paperwork turned in and were waiting for the homestudy to be scheduled.  Then we received an email stating that a new Pennsylvania law, as of Jan.1, 2008, requires that all perspective adoptive parents (and anyone working with children) must be fingerprinted along with the background checks.  Another  delay.  Our new family motto is "another delay but it's okay!"  Kind of cheesy, but hey, it works.  

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Update from 2/21/08

tfotorny | April 03, 2008 07:15

February 21, 2008
        There's not much that has changed with the adoption process since our last email.  We're still doing some paperwork -- it's more of a "gathering" of paperwork.  We need to have physicals and it took me a month to get mine scheduled for the beginning of February but thanks to an ice storm that day, I had to be rescheduled and the next opening is tomorrow.  Of course, the weather forecast is calling for a snow and ice storm again tomorrow!  It's very frustrating for me because my schedule really limits what days I can schedule appointments on.  So we'll see if I'm able to get out tomorrow for the appointment.  I'm trying very hard to take it all in stride and to be patient.  We're waiting on grant approval from the national adoption agency to find out how much they will pay towards our home study.  We know we're approved, but we just don't know how much money they will contribute or when we'll find out.  As soon as our local adoption agency gets the grant contract from the national agency, then our home study will be scheduled.  The home study is when they come to our house and inspect it, and they'll also interview our family -- basically put us under the microscope. 
          We are connected with an adoption support network based in State College, PA.  It's a group of families who are going through the adoption process now or who have already adopted.  We have gotten some emails regarding the struggles some of the families are having with their adopted child.  It could really scare us and discourage us into not adopting if we allowed it.  But we strongly feel the Lord is calling us to adopt.  This is something our family truly wants as well.  The enemy wants nothing more than to discourage us through the "horror" stories of another family's struggles, or through delays in appointments and paperwork, etc.  One family wrote how there's a spiritual battle waging against them because Satan doesn't want a child to be set free through adoption.  There's a spiritual battle going on over our future daughter and our family as we carry out God's plan to bring a little girl into our family.  Please pray for our family and for our future daughter. 
Prayer Requests:
  • For our family to stand strong in the spiritual battle, and that we won't get discouraged with delays, stories, etc.
  • For God to clearly reveal to us who our daughter will be and where she is.
  • That God will be working on her heart now, and ours, in order to prepare her and us to be a family.
  • For paperwork and appointments to come together in God's timing.
We thank you for your continued prayer support for our family. 

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Update from 1/2/08

tfotorny | April 03, 2008 06:43

Dear Family and Friends,                                          January 2, 2008
       We're starting this periodic newsletter regarding our adoption to update everyone since so many people have been asking us how the process is going.  You are a memberof our support system and we value your prayers for us as we begin this journey.
       Over the weekend we started filling out the paperwork to begin the process.  Both Scott and Traci need to have criminal background checks and child abuse history checks done as part of the home-study process. We are sending these forms out first because they will probably take the longest to process.  These forms have put our minds to work as both of us need to list every place we've lived, and even the people we have lived with, since 1975.  It's a good thing we started with these forms first!  So a lesson learned so far that we pass onto you as a little tip -- keep track of where you have lived because you never know when you'll need that information.  Certain jobs and even volunteer work can require you to get the background checks and you'll need to know that information for yourself.
       The first adoption agency we were going to work through is about a 45 minute drive away, and we were going to adopt through the SWAN (State Wide Adoption permanency Network).  God seems to have closed that door, but He is good and He seems to have opened another door for us.  We discovered there is an adoption agency right here in our town with about a 10 minute or less drive.  This agency isn't affiliated with SWAN (which would limit us to adopting only a child from Pennsylvania), but it is affiliated with AAN (Adopt America Network) which will allow us to adopt a child from any state. Maybe our daughter isn't from PA.
       Traci's biggest question regarding the adoption is -- out of over 100,000 children in the U.S. waiting to be adopted, how will we know which one child is the one for our family?  We guess that we will "just know" in our hearts.  We are seeking the Lord's guidance for every step of the way.  Traci admits she is a very impatient person, but God has graciously answered her prayer and has granted her a sense of peace and even a calmness for the long process ahead.
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God Answers Prayer with a License Plate
       A few days before Christmas, Scott decided we would ask God to reveal an answer to us on Christmas Day by using a license plate. On Christmas Day, we were driving to Traci's parents' house.  After the boys prayed for safe travel, Scott prayed asking God to use the license plate of the first car to pass us as soon as we got on I-80 to be the state that our daughter will come from.  We were coming up the entrance ramp of I-80 followed by another car.  We were just beginning to merge onto I-80 when the car on the ramp behind us impatiently drove out around us into the passing lane and flew by us really fast.  We could tell it was an out of state plate.  A few seconds later a car from PA went by.  We tried to catch up to the out of state car but it was driving too fast.  We slowed down to normal speed and by this time, the car was almost out of sight.  Michael prayed that God would let us catch up to the out of state car so we could read the license plate.  Within what seemed like a few seconds, we were caught up with just the PA car in between us.  We were planning to get off at the next exit to get gas and the out of state car got off at that exit too.  We were right behind it at the stop sign at the end of the exit ramp.  The license plate was from Kentucky.  The chances of a car from Kentucky being on that area of the highway are highly unlikely.
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       We are excited at what the new year will hold for us.  We know that God has a little girl set aside somewhere in the U.S. for us -- perhaps she's in Kentucky.  We can't wait to find out who she is, and to see how God will reveal who she is to us.  We would appreciate your continued prayer support through this process that we are just beginning.
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Prayer Requests:

  • For our paperwork and home study process to come together in a timely fashion.
  • For calmness as we go through the home study process.
  • For Traci to get the house organized and ready for the home study visit.
  • For God to lead us to the little girl He wants us to have.

 

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