It was this time last year that Mike and I were going to adoption orientation after adoption orientation, gathering information and contemplating our options. After several updates, we kind of stopped talking about it, so those of you who were following along may have been left wondering what the heck happened.
Basically, we thought a lot about what kind of adoption experience we wanted to have. Being two people who have no previous parenting experience, we became less and less confident about our ability to parent, right out of the gate, an older child from the foster care system. We began to see a future for us where our first child is an infant or young child, and once we have some parenting chops under our belts, welcoming an older child or two into our family. But see, that first step, that infant or child, that’s not an easy thing to accomplish.
Immediately we began saving, in a separate account from the one that paid for our Europe trip. But with all the ups and downs of life, after a year, we have not made it very far at all. We’ve saved very little. Every time we get ahead, we fall behind again, and it has been very discouraging. Then when November rolled around and I realized it had been a year, I got even more discouraged and decided it was time to take some initial steps. I needed forward motion – just saving money wasn’t active enough to feel like we were making progress.
So first I got in touch with an organization called DA Blodgett. They specialize in foster care placement of older children, but they have a small foster to adopt program for younger children. Unfortunately you have to get on a waiting list to even join the program, to even get on the list of people they call when a child is available. So we’re on the waiting list to be on the other waiting list.
The next thing I did was contact Greater Hopes, the organization that we were incredibly eager to work with. I wanted a refresher on the process, to know what the first step was and how much it cost. We don’t need to save ALL the money we’ll need for an adoption before we start, we just need enough to get started. Unfortunately I chose to contact them right when the holidays hit, so I haven’t heard anything yet. Hopefully soon after everyone gets back into the swing of things we’ll hear back and maybe soon we’ll be able to apply to get started.
Forward momentum!
And then, who knows. We cross our fingers and hope we can become parents as quickly as possible.
Shan & Mike 