First "Class"

Mike and I attended our first adoption class this week. We were anxious to see how many others were starting the process at the same time...there are 8 other couples in the class with us. Everyone seemed very nice but we did not get a chance to interact that much at this class. Our social worker talked about entitlement and attachment during the adoption process. It is comforting to know that even though the process is different than if you were pregnant both of these things do occur just slightly different when you are adopting. We then discussed the "dear birthmother" letter / profile. This is the letter that the birthmothers look through to choose their family. This is one thing I have been anxious about writing. How do you write a letter to someone who will change your life forever?? We got a chance to read over a dozen letters from past adoptive families....after reading a few they all sound the same and one begins to wonder how the birthparents ever decide on a family! I have started a rough draft of our letter....it has a little creative twist which I hope will set it apart from the other letters. We also discussed networking which we need to complete. We have to send out 100 emails with our profile attached....basically telling the world we are adopting. So all of you reading this blog....send me an email with email addresses of anyone I can send our profile to. The overall purpose is to locate a birthmother through an acquaintance. The agency said they recently placed one family this way...though most of their referrals and matches come through the local hospitals. Other important facts from the class: wait time is on average from 1-2 years....some being placed sooner and some waiting up to 4 years. So...we could wait a month or we could wait 4 years. We are hoping sooner than the later.....so help us network!!!! Also....finalization usually takes up to about one year.....6 months (at the longest) for all rights to be terminated. We should be done with all of our classes and homestudy by the first week in October...after that we are officially "waiting"....or as those in adoption land say...."paper pregnant!" They make t-shirts with that statement....maybe I should get one and loom around Babies-R-Us....would that be called networking??

An update on the last blog....Mike enjoyed yesterday at the dealership filling out paperwork for our new Toyota Urban Runner! It is now in the garage....it's a sweet ride as Mike would say. More importantly the car seat fits in the middle back seat. Hopefully we will get to utilize this in the next year!