Japan Adoption Videos

One fun part of the adoption process was how many people came along and supported us and joined the adoption journey with us.  As part of that process, we created two different videos.  

The first video was after we received our first pictures of the little boy who would soon be our son and we were beginning to make arrangements for five of us to travel to Japan for a three week stay.  Jason wrote a book and dedicated all the proceeds toward the adoption (you can get the book here). We called the first video: The Journey Home.

Our adoption was such an adventurous experience! Our son is so loving and has fit so wonderfully into our family.  About a year after making the above video, we were finalizing our adoption and I had the privilege of making another video!  The song that I used as the background on this clip was our son's favorite song that he had happened on when listing to song on my iphone.  As I listened closely to the words, I couldn't imagine another song that fit so well with how we felt!

I hope you enjoyed getting to see how our journey unfolded!  I'm still absolutely amazed some days that we actually reached out and touched this dream of adopting from Japan.  Love our family!!

Japan adoption timeline

I've had a lot of requests for additional information through e-mail, our Facebook adoption page, and friends on the timeline of our adoption from Japan.  I thought that I would start off with a post about our general timeline of the adoption.  Keep in mind, the age of the child and special needs that you are open to can dramatically effect the timeline that I'm posting below.  This is just an idea of what we did and how quickly (or slowly) it went. Enjoy!

November 2010 - International Social Services of Japan (ISSJ) sent information on what was needed to adopt through their program ISSJ English Website

February 2011 - We chose Catholic Social Services based out of Anchorage, Alaska to conduct our home study and be our licensed "child placing" agency as required by ISSJ.

April 2011 - Homestudy was completed and mailed to ISSJ

July 2011- ISSJ contacted Catholic Social with a few additional questions

September 2011 - Approved as pre-adoptive parents for Japan.  Also received our I600A approval from US.  Ensured that all passports were still valid and ready for travel.

October 2011- A picture was sent to us as a potential match

November 2011 - Everything was approved for our match and we could move forward with travel plans. A picture book (that I made on Shutterfly) was mailed to the orphanage (Children's Home) in Japan so that they could introduce our son to our picture prior to our first meeting.

January 2012 - Travel and spend three weeks in Japan.

February 2012 - BRING OUR SON HOME!

April - August 2012 - We had three post placement visits from Catholic Social.

September 2012 - Finalized the adoption in Alaska!

So that is a quick snapshot!