The Adoption Option

My spot for thoughts, feelings, rambles, and updates as we journey through the adoption process. Highlights: Dossier arrived in Thailand ~ Sept 26, 2005; Approved ~ October, 2005; Matched ~ August, 2006; Referral received ~ January 2007; Traveled & Home ~ June, 2007; Finalized!! ~ December, 2007

Friday, May 20, 2005

Chugging along

The dossier document collection is going great - we found out that we don't need to get new marriage or birth certificates issued, which will save us a lot of time. I called all my doctors and they are all ready and willing to get the letters out ASAP. Now we have to just get photos, copy some documents, and filling in more application type paperwork. It's really got some great momentum going now and I don't see why these papers shouldn't be sent to WACAP within a week or so. I know I've said that before but now things seem to really be moving and since I really looked over stuff and got it all organized it should be good.

We are still waiting to receive a draft of our homestudy - our social worker said she'd try to get the draft done before heading out of town, but we have not received anything. She left for her sons graduation two days ago. Hopefully she got her draft at least back to FRC for the agency director to look over. I spoke to WACAP and they have not received a draft as of yet either. I'm planning on calling FRC today to see if they have heard anything from Gail.

Friday, May 13, 2005

Well that's over

Okay everyone warned me and everyone was right, the interview was no big deal. It was actually a little like therapy. We got to answer questions about ourselves, our dicision, our families, and Ian. The time flew by (about 2.5 hours) and our social worker, Gail, is really cool. It helped that she was so open about herself and her own experiences - that made us feel really comfortable around her. She also has 2 adopted kids so seems so enthusiastic about the entire process. It was also nice that she's worked with our agency before (not with the Thailand program) and knows their drill and how they like things done. I had a big fear about things getting messed up because of bad communication, but I can put that behind me.

So now ahead is the dreaded dossier I keep talking about. This weekend I'm going formulate a plan and make my own check of list that's organized in do-able chunks. One day I'll have to drive around to all my doctors, another day Sam will have to get our marriage license and his birth certificate, and so on. It'll be done before I know it. Keep your fingers crossed :)

If people are reading this feel free to leave comments. I don't care if there is no one out there because I love having an outlet for my emotions, but if you are it might be nice to know :) We get so much support and we thank everyone - we'll need it a lot more in our months of waiting through the nothingness.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Tomorrow

Well tomorrow we welcome a social worker into our house and ask her to deem it safe and secure for a new child to enter. Weird, huh? I wish all the crack whores has to go through this kind of process before having children - or those people (I won't even pretend to know who they are) who throw their babies away in dumpsters....why doesn't anyone go look at their house? Ask them questions about social issues and health. They don't have collect letters from doctors, banks, friends, family, co-worker, and so on before being able to welcome a baby into their home.

I don't know what to expect tomorrow - I'm not sure what kind of questions she'll ask or if she'll tour the house and peek under cabinets. I know it's all part of the process, but as if going through infertility treatments didn't seem remoralizing enough now we must seek permission to have a second child. I'm feeling anxious and probably nervous which is transforming into bitterness and humiliation. By the time we bring home our new child all this will be so far in the past I probably won't even remember but for now it's frustrating.

After tomorrow I'll start my hunt for dossier documents. I thought I'd be doing it the past few weeks, but so much else has been doing on and every time I look at the list it seems more and more impossible to complete. But at least I know that is the final stage of paperwork and really the last thing we have to actively do towards this adoption - besides traveling to Thailand.

Time to finish our cleaning. Wish us luck.