Home Study Report

Here is the huge, thick envelope containing all our information that is needed to start our Home Study.
It contains:
- 5 Application forms (containing details of our finances, parenting styles etc)
- Copies of our Singapore Employment Passes
- Copies of our passports, birth certificates
- Copies of all our education qualifications
- Full medical check ups for both of us.
- Letters from our work to verify our salaries and length of contract with them.
- Bank / financial statements
- Proof that we own a car

We are still waiting on our criminal clearance certificates which need to be sent from Pretoria in South Africa.

We really want to be parents! I have felt such a yearning in my heart and sometimes just dream about the day we get a call to come fetch our baby! What would it feel like?

I read some CRAZY and sad stats about adoption and abortion rates in Singapore.
I was really shocked:

2009 - adoptions: 419, Abortions: 12318
2010 - adoptions: 325, Abortions: 12083
2011 - adoptions: 418, Abortions: 11940
2012 - adoptions: 396, Abortions: 10624

A positive point is that the rate of abortions seems to be decreasing but the numbers are staggering!!

Im praying for my future baby - I'm praying his/her mother choose LIFE, no matter what her circumstance might be!

The next step: Adoption

This picture above is our "Pick-us-we-want-to-be-parents" picture!
This is the picture that is on the front of our folder for our Home Study Report.

It has been a long rd of thinking about going ahead and actually adopting - a roller coaster of emotions.

The seed was planted about 3 years ago when we first arrived in Singapore. We were in contact with various agencies, completed our pre-adoption briefing, had a meeting with a (dodgy) lady who sources the baby and met with a counsellor at another adoption agency to get info on how to go ahead with our home study. However, each time we kinda left feeling overwhelmed and feeling that perhaps it wasn't right?

This time last year we thought we would look into the possibility of trying to fall pregnant again but wanted all our bases covered. So $5000 later, numerous blood tests later, we were no closer to answers (except for the possibility that I might have a blood clotting problem which would prevent the baby from getting a good blood supply through the umbilical cord)

I know it is very easy for people to say "well, try again" but I just did not want to go through it all again!

To cut a long story short - 3 years later the words of a song hit me like a ton of bricks:

"Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior"

That was it! I just knew we had to adopt!

So fast forward to now - taking the process step by step. We are in the process of our home study. The Singapore government actually doesn't require a HSR (home study report) but it might be needed when we try get the adoption legalised in South Africa. We are dealing with a lovely lady at the agency who has been incredibly helpful!

Adopting is very similar to being pregnant - those feelings of anticipation, fears that one might have - more like being emotionally pregnant.
I think we do fear getting too excited too quickly, so we are just taking the process slowly.

Here are some documents in our folder:

Not much is private anymore....

My heart skipped a beat when I saw the word "prospective adoptive parents"..... we might actually become parents!!!

Our police clearance and fingerprints that we need to get from South Africa.

First page of MANY...........

So for now, we are up to our eyeballs in paperwork, cautiously optimistic and excited at the possibility that we might actually, finally become parents!!!!