Sunday, June 12, 2011

Profile books, legal consulations, and Home Study-Oh My!

Well, for those of you who don't know, Josh and I are going to be parents!! But, true to form, we are not going about it in the traditional way. We have decided to adopt! We and our families are very excited and anxious to meet the new addition to our family.
After speaking with several couples who have also adopted, we have chosen to use an adoption facilitator. In essence, what she does is "find babies." We have created a profile book, which is to be delivered next week, detailing our life and our desire to have a child. This will be sent to the facilitator, along with lots of paperwork (and of course $$), who will then present it to potential birth mothers, who will use this to choose adoptive parents for their child.
In the mean time, we are continuing to plug away at the massive amount of paper work that goes along with the adoption journey. As a whole, it is very overwhelming, but we have been able to take small amounts at a time, and finally, it seems the end is in site!
Next up, is what is possibly the most intimidating part of the process-the home study. The purpose of a home study is to ensure that children are being brought into a safe home environment. Sounds simple enough, right? WRONG! Before you can schedule the home study visit (performed by a social worker), you have to fill out an enormous amount of paperwork, including information on all of your family members, your occupation, finances, medical health, criminal record (or hopefully lack there of), and letters of recommendation from friends and family. Our home study is scheduled for this Thursday. Yikes!! I am so nervous, and poor Josh-his to-do list is growing by the day. I know deep down that it will go well, but I still feel that it is necessary to have the house pressure washed, the baseboards cleaned, and every closet re-organized.
After that, we are on the downhill slope (for now, at least). We will hopefully have our profile books submitted by the end of this week, and we have scheduled a consultation with our attorney the follow week to start the legal part of the process.
After months of preparation, all aspects are seeming to come together quickly, and at the same time, which is both wonderful and scary. We will continue to try to take things one day at a time, and just have faith that things will go smoothly and quickly.