The preliminary application and initial talks about country.

Well .. the blog is almost caught up to our lives... Earlier this week Thea submitted our pre-application to Bethany. This is the last free step and it gets you some basic vetting. 


I got an email early Monday from Thea asking for my height and weight, salary, other income (we own a rental property), and the name of my cholesterol prescription. Thinking back, I probably should have asked why I was being asked. Glad to hear she didn't take some huge life insurance policy out on me and buy a book on Amazon about how to service the brakes on a Toyota Matrix. 


Thea wrote me back: 

I said we were interested in China, Ethiopia, and Colombia, that we had a preference for Colombia and explained why [Thea speaks Spanish], asked if our ability to bridge the language/culture gap would help as we near the age limit for a younger child there, and also said that we might be willing to consider a sibling group as long as they were under age 4 and from Colombia. Also minor medical problems are ok. We should hear back from them in 2 weeks. Also, I've been thinking a little bit, and I guess I wouldn't be heartbroken if we ended up with a slightly older child (2-3) from Colombia? I don't know...what do you think? My number one preference is still for a younger child, but with Colombia, I'd at least be able to communicate right off the bat and maybe help w/ the language transition?

Me: 

I'm open to an older child.. do we maybe have some resources we might not think of right away .. maybe there is someone in church who speaks Chinese or Ethiopian.. 

Thea: 

yeah, I guess I'm just anticipating the moment when we're going to have to choose one location over another and if going w/ Colombia means we'll end up w/ an older child, then we'll have to decide how we feel about that. We need to figure out if we'd rather a) have a younger child or b) adopt from Colombia. In your mind, what's the higher priority? I guess I'm 50/50...with a slight preference for Colombia

Me: 

I'd say
60% younger child
40% older child from Columbia

Later the next day Thea got a phone call from Bethany and they said we had preliminary approval for all 3 countries. She was told to expect a packet in the mail in a week or two. 

Up next: Second guessing our choice of agency & settling on a country (hint: it's not Columbia)...