Orientation Complete

Yesterday was our orientation. There were 2 other couples and 3 individuals in the meeting. One of the individuals was a woman who stated that her husband was not able to make it. The other 2 may be adopting as single parents, but I am not sure.

One of the couples has a birth mother from out of state lined up. They will be going through the law firm side of the process and will have much less expense. Another person expressed an interest in adopting a sibling group and was looking for a toddler more than an infant. The rest seemed interested in newborn domestic, like the Husband and I.

One couple has used the agency a few years ago and were still completing their home study when they got word of a stork drop. They know they won't probably get that lucky this time, but are very excited anyway. Their story reminds me that I need to really get things together early in the process because you just never know what can happen.

The seminar was probably very informative to someone who has not researched adoption and the laws in their state, but I have been reading up on it like crazy, so while some of the info I had already found was explained in greater detail, I don't feel like I learned anything new and surprising. It does count for 3 hours of our 10 required adoption education hours, but the class actually lasted well over 4 hours.

We have decided to sign with the agency after the first of the year. We just want to get through the holidays right now. We would not start the home study before then anyway.

I did find out that there will be a form for the Doctor to fill out when we get our physicals. The Director told me I could call one of her staff members and she would probably give me the form early, but I think we will just wait until we sign up.

We also found out that we will need 5 copies of our profile. Since we only need this small amount, I will probably do them in actual scrapbooks. I have lots of free time at work and really, the cost of the supplies, many of which I already have, will probably be less than making color copies of a large profile. She told us to include lots of pictures and said that we can do one book and submit it to them and they will pass it around the staff and critique it for us. We will definitely be taking advantage of this as they would know better than anyone what birth mothers are looking for in a profile.

We also found out that they average 50-55 waiting families. They say that they make every effort to match a family and child within 1 year. If a family is approaching their one year mark, they start looking at the stork drop option for them. She said they get quite a few stork drops each year.

That is really all the details we learned right now. Until we sign I will just be working on the holidays and decorating and painting the house. I will also be gathering pictures and probably working on our profile and birth mother letter a little bit too. The agency sent samples and I am sure I can find a ton of guidance and ideas online.