Adoption classes

Today was the first of the three required all day classes. These are all on Saturdays, once a month. The class is in the local Hand in Hand office, which is located in Karin's basement. There were three other couples in the class. It was the first class for us but everyone else had a one class head start on us. That was actually kind of nice because we got to hear from people going through all the steps before we actually had to do them. The other three couples all were adopting from different countries than us (Philippines, Haiti, and China) The class was a lot of hands on worksheets and activities. We learned about different issues with adoption and how to handle them. We learned a lot of what to expect with the adoption. We learned all the things we need to do to make the change easier on the adopted child (No party at the airport and a lot of alone time for us and the child). It was a lot of information to take in.

The Application

It is one month after the orientation and we have everything to turn in our application. The application is only a six page document. This is mostly routine information about employment, family, references, and finances. The big thing is the selection of a country. You're not actually locked in at this point but there are some differences in things needed for different countries so this is the point you select and sign fee agreements for the country. We have decided on Guatemala. There are many reasons for deciding on one country over another. I think I had a hard time choosing but Lara seemed to make up her mind on Guatemala without much difficulty. One of the things we liked about Guatemala was the fact that the children are in a foster home before the adoption instead of the orphanages of some countries. Another thing we liked was the speed and order of the different parts of the adoption. With some countries you are matched with a child fairly quickly and then have to wait a long time to actually take your child home. That seemed like it would be torture for us. Guatemala also matches children very young so we would be able to adopt an infant.

Orientation - The first step

I'm not exactly sure how this started. I think it was probably me that mentioned it first. We have talked about it in the past and it has always been something that we thought we might do some day. I had done a little research on it a few times and found out there were some age restrictions in different countries so I started thinking we should start looking into adoption now so that we had as many options as possible. I had a friend at work adopt from Russia a couple of years ago. I knew he was very happy with the agency they used so we decided to check them out. Lara called and they had an orientation in two weeks in West Saint Paul, or we could wait six weeks for one right by our house. We decided to drive the 35 miles since we don't like waiting much.

The orientation was given by Karin at Hand in Hand Adoption. There were about 10 other people at the session but I think we were the only couple. While waiting for the orientation to start they had a bunch books of photos out to check out. Photos of a lot of adopted children and their families from all of the countries that they worked with. The orientation was 90 minutes long and Karin briefly went over a lot of the basics of adoption. She laid out the process and what steps were required. She went over all of the countries that Hand in Hand worked with and we got sheet showing details from each of the countries (China, Guatemala, Haiti, Philippines, Russia, and Ukraine).

After the orientation we went out for dinner Famous Dave's and discussed what we had learned. We still liked the idea of adoption after the orientation and decided we keep going forward with it.

Welcome to our Adoption Blog!

Here it is. The first post in my first blog. I'm not really the blogging type but this seems like it a good reason to start. If your reading this you probably already know that Lara and I are working on adopting a child. It has been a long process and there is still a long way to go. I have been procrastinating on starting this blog so I am a little bit behind. I have a good excuse though - I have been working on the adoption. I am starting the blog in July but I am going to go back and put in some back dated posts to catch everyone up on what the process is that we have gone through so far. Please keep us both in your prayers and hopefully we will be parents in less than a year. Hope you all enjoy the blog.