Home study- small step forward, ho!

We got an email yesterday from Erin, the agency social worker reviewing our home study that she was forwarding it on to Lina for review and approval! We are really happy! We are also glad because we needed to do a few revisions ourselves since Ann, who did our home study, is on vacation and apparently we did ok. Ann did a great job and changes consisted mainly of re-formatting, spelling corrections, and eliminating redundancies. Still, it was pretty time consuming. I definitely have a renewed appreciation for what social workers do when preparing a home study!

I also appreciate the meticulousness of our agency in finding any discrepancies, suggesting additions/subtractions, and overall thoroughness. Their commitment to helping us through the process smoothly has been amazing. Lina will now look at it, hopefully approve it, and then forward to Ann for her approval of the changes. The best part is we were able to accomplish the corrections while Ann was away so we didn't lose precious weeks in between.

We are definitely getting closer to having that vital piece of the puzzle done so we can move on to getting USCIS approval. A small step, but we'll take it!

One of the many benefits of being a US citizen

Yep, I got out there and exercised my constitutional right! And since he had the day off school ( a SC thing, I guess), I again took my son with me. It was relatively painless and hardly any wait at 12:30pm- the last name grouping we are in (R-T) is usually one of the worse so I was glad we were in and out in about 15 minutes.

I absolutely love taking Case with me when I vote. It is such a prime time for learning the hows and whys of choosing our government. I also take the opportunity to reinforce why it is each citizen's civic obligation to vote. Being in 3rd grade, he is totally into it now and has been paying attention to the (ungodly amount of) political ads out there. We have talked about why some can be misleading and the need to read the issues and where the candidate stands for ourselves.

While in line, we saw other people we knew- neighbors, teachers, friends- and it was such a prime time to talk about why we vote and how blessed we are in the US to have the right to vote. We talked about what "government for the people, by the people" means and how other countries have to wait for days in line to cast their vote. He remembered a little bit about voting for President 2 years ago, but that time he was more fascinated by the electronic ballot and thought it was kinda a game (thanks alot Leapster- lol). Thus, unfortunately the one point that stuck was that he couldn't vote because he wasn't an adult. This time was very different. He has studied SC history and we are voting for governor so he really was interested. We went to the electronic voting booth together and I went down each candidate and the job they were running for. I did have to be brief since we had that 3 min limit, but he understood it for the most part. We then talked about the proposed amendments to the SC State Constitution, their importance, and what it actually means to "amend" something. He was completely captivated by the process and said he "loved voting". What more can a US mommy ask for?

So I realize we are on the right track with one US citizen and look forward to teaching our other son-to-be about the whole process here as well. And while I used to wonder if we could really help a child from another democratic country "get it", I now realize through my own experience that he will be too little to really have learned about one system over another. There will be many opportunities to teach the lessons of electing our government (and how it is similar and different from others) and like Case, he will probably first be interested in the video screens and electronics and then love the system. And I am SO looking forward to sharing it all again with our second child.