Updates on our Adoption Journey

Back during the first week of April, I wrote about the many steps Jackie and I were taking during her spring break towards our adoption process.  Since then, we spent a good couple weeks preparing all the paperwork we needed to our agency - stuff about our family history, our relationship with our family and with each other, hobbies, interests, etc.  Then we kind of sat for a couple weeks with nothing involved in the process.  Yesterday, that waiting for the next step ended.

We traveled down to Indianapolis for our "home study class," which was basically a seminar put on by the agency giving and discussing information on the process of adoption once one is on the list - things involving how are bios are shown, the financial expectations, how one is matched, meeting potential birthparents, what to expect at the hospital, etc.  Much of the information was useful, if not a little overwhelming (and other parts, redundant from a prior seminar).

This coming Tuesday, we have our actual home study.  One of the social workers will come up to our home, "inspect" it for any obvious safety issues, interview us some more about our life, relationship, and life/parenting philosophies, and begin writing our home study document.  Then, once this is done, we continue to wait.  They say it takes about 4-6 weeks for the document to be completed, and once that is completed and reviewed by us, we become "active," and start waiting for a potential match.  Truly, its exciting stuff, to think that before July we will start being shown to prospective birth mothers seeking to place their child for adoption.

It won't be complete waiting around doing nothing.  We are having a garage sale next weekend to assist in raising money for the adoption.  Once we are active, we will be immediately buying a car seat and some other things we have to have in case we have a "fall in the lap" adoption with little notice.  That means a little discussion and research to see what makes sense for us.  Jackie will probably casually work on the nursery room this summer, so we have that in place for whenever the time comes.  I will continue to run calculations over and over in my head figuring out the best way to pay not only for the adoption, but for the things that come afterward.

But as those thoughts will swirl in my mind from time to time, while I sit here tonight, listening to the wind chimes on our back patio mixed in with the crickets, I'm simply excited about the possibilities that may await us in the near future.