First Adoption Meeting

Our meeting yesterday...it went great!  We left feeling encouraged and ready to tackle the home study process head on!  As we were leaving I told Jesse I felt so excited  to begin. I felt like it was completely do-able rather than being completely overwhelmed as I thought I would be, wondering how we could ever become a waiting family! He told me it was probably really because of all the prayers offered on or behalf by you all.  I couldn't agree more.  So thanks to all who prayed for us and continue to pray for us as we start the infant adoption program. It means more than you could know.

We met with our social worker who will be leading us through the home study process and potentially a placement.  She is so wonderful.  She makes us feel comfortable and she encourages us about everything.  We learned about each step that we will need to complete for our home study and then how a placement and adoption would take place.  We also learned about different options for outreach to birth mothers rather than through Family Core.  I will do my best to explain everything.

We will start by completing a home study through Family Core.  A home study is required for any family wanting to adopt or foster.  Each agency has a little different process that you go through but generally they are about the same. With Family Core the home study will consist of five different meeting with our caseworker.  The meeting yesterday counted as the first one. The next will be after we finish the application packet.  Then we will each have a meeting with our case worker individually and the last meeting will be when they come to our house to inspect and be sure it is a safe environment for a child.  Through Family Core we will start by completing an application packet as I said earlier.  In the packet we give general information about us, our jobs, finances, education, medical history, references, etc.  Also included in this packet is two pages filled with detailed questions about pretty much every aspect of our lives.  They want to know about us, our family, how we handle certain situations, why we want to adopt, our marriage and the list goes on and on!  These questions are to be answered by Jesse and I individually.  This seems to be the most time consuming part of the process.  After Jesse and I finish the packet we will have our second meeting with our social worker.

Throughout the process there are a list of things that need to be completed and given to our social worker at any point in time.  Here's a list of some of these things...

-Foster Family home license application and information
-Fingerprints/Background checks
-Medical evaluation of both Jesse and I
-TB tests
-Vet Records for pets
-Birth Certificates and Marriage License
-Tax Forms
-Online adoption training classes
-CPR certification

While we work on completing all of the above things we will have our individual meetings with our case worker and once we are done with everything she will come to our home to have our inspection/final meeting.

After completing our home study we will make a book of pictures and information, telling all about us and our life, to give to Family Core.  They will show this book to birth mothers who are looking to make an adoption plan.  The birth mother has the option to chose us and begin an adoption plan with us through Family Core.  Usually birth mothers come towards the end of their pregnancy, but before the birth, to make an adoption plan.  We were told that often the birth mother would want the adopting family to be there for the birth and stay in the hospital with the baby for the two days it will be there.  This totally depends on what the birth mother prefers though.  The birth father and mother then have 72 hours after birth until they can sign off that they are giving up their baby for adoption.  During those three days they can change their mind at any point but after they have signed at 72 hours there is no way to reverse the adoption.  After a placement there would be a few home meetings from Family Core to be sure the placement is working and the child is in a healthy environment.  Finalization of adoptions usually take place in court around 6 months after the child is born.

Family Core, on average, places around 4 babies a year with waiting families through their infant program and they work with around 8-10 waiting families at one time.  Last year they only placed two babies through their infant program.  This means that it could potentially be a while, after becoming a waiting family, before we would actually be chosen by a birth mother.  For this reason there are other options we can consider to become connected to birth mother.  A few of those options are; using an attorney that specializes in connecting birth mothers and adoptive families, word of mouth to people who may need an adoptive family, or going out of state with some larger adoption agency's that have more placements each year.  These are all options that we can consider doing to speed up the placement process.  I will go into detail on them in the future if we would decide to pursue any of them.  Last year Family Core also had two families use their home study services but became connected to birth mothers some other way than through them.  So they do have families that use these other option, that I mentioned above, for accomplishing an adoption.

At our meeting yesterday it just so happened that the fingerprint guy was there that day!  We were able to complete our fingerprinting for background checks at our meeting. This is great because it's one more thing checked off the list.  The results of background check can also take anywhere form 3 weeks to a few months to get back so getting the prints sent off as soon as possible is really helpful!

Sorry this is such a long post! We learned so much yesterday and are looking forward to getting busy completing our home study so we can become a waiting family and be that much closer to meeting our child! We hope to be a waiting family by harvest or before.  Thanks for the continued prayers!