Well, I realized I haven't updated for awhile so this is what is happening around here in terms of adoption:
- We had our first interview at the agency, and it went well! We met the counselor who will be working with us throughout this first half of the process, and she seemed great (of course!). So far everyone we've met at our agency has been wonderful. The interview was mostly a chance to meet face-to-face, to discuss our history and why we are choosing adoption, etc, and our feelings on open adoption. We passed (whew!) so now we have some next steps to take that include:
- Signing a contract and sending more money! Because of that, this week we have been:
- Wrangling with our bank to give us a loan! This has been slowed by the fact that Lonnie's credit has mysteriously disappeared from one of the leading credit agencies (better than having it hijacked, I suppose!), causing our bank to wonder about our trustiness. Luckily the other credit agencies had everything right, so now that the bank got those we've received word we have been approved. Hooray!
- Next, we will get to work on our "profile" which includes biographies, the "Dear Birthparent" letter, and a photo collage. Anyone out there have pictures of us doing something interesting?
- Soon, our counselor will be working on the homestudy, which includes more interviews and a couple visits to our house to make sure we don't live in a shack.
- In the meantime, I have been looking around for an infant care class so we know a bit about what we are doing once the Main Event happens. You see, we have absolutely no friends or relatives with babies, in which to try out our diapering, feeding, or baby
annoyingsoothing theories on. Which is fine, plastic babies at the class will work wonderfully for a start... - However, some places seem not to want us because we are adopting! The major university hospital/network that shall remain nameless (where we go for all medical care) tells us their class most definitely will not be appropriate even though the class description says it totally focuses on newborn care, not labor and delivery (every item on the online syllabus is something that is interesting to me and applies to us, for crying out loud!). They tell us we would be better suited to the adoptive care class Somewhere Else that focuses on older babies because "many" adoptive babies are not newborn, so that's not what we want (you mean a 6-month-old is going to be coming out of that birthmother at the hospital? Whew, glad they cleared that up for us...that could have been awkward!). We try to tell them ours really and truly will be a newborn but they ignore us and stop replying to our emails. Hmmm....I suppose we could sign up under fake names and I could stuff my shirt....
- Fear not, the Only Place In Town that actually offers an adoptive baby care class (usually for older infants) agrees with us that our baby may in fact be a newborn(!) and will let us take the regular newborn class they also offer. Yahoo! Now we won't break the baby! The next class isn't until September, but that should be fine...
Posted by Jean on July 13, 2005 at 06:48 PM PDT #
Thanks for the kind words! Yes, I know there are lots of folks to help, and most of this stuff is not to be worried about. However, what freaks us out just a bit is thinking of those 3 days where we will likely be in the hospital (without all ya'll) under the watchful eye of the birthmother and her family (before she signs any papers). You are kind of under a microscope there...it is a stressful time. Some birthmothers already have kids, and know how to do everything, and I imagine us bumbling around will be really uncomfortable, for us at least. Irrational fear, perhaps....who knows yet how things will turn out! But, anything to make those days less stressful the better, methinks...the classes will hopefully help a bit.
Posted by Kristin on July 13, 2005 at 09:48 PM PDT #
Posted by Dawn on July 28, 2005 at 02:11 PM PDT #
Posted by kristin on July 28, 2005 at 09:07 PM PDT #