Moving Forward

After getting the news about Bulgaria being one of the only countries we could adopt from, Chris and I really started to settle into domestic adoption. One of the first things we did was call my aunt. She is a wonderful resource on domestic adoption because she used to council birth moms looking to adopt.

When she came over, she settled some of our biggest fears with domestic adoption (i.e. open vs. closed, birth mothers backing out, etc.). She informed us that, when going through an agency, it is very unlikely that a birth mother will back out because they have support and counseling throughout the process. She suggested a semi-open adoption where only first names are used, so that we could meet before hand and be given medical histories. Patty (my aunt) is currently working for Catholic Charities which is an agency for adoption.

There are some really great things about Catholic Charities that set them apart from other agencies. First, you do not have to be catholic to adopt from them. Instead of a very loose guideline of fees, they take ten percent of your income from the previous year. They do the home study and matching up adoptive parents to children. They are well know throughout the area for support of birth moms, and they have already had nine adoptions since January. We were informed that if we went with them, the home study process would take 120 days to complete. That is with us filling out our paperwork, the social working administering the home study, and the report being written up and filed.

Yesterday we filled out an interest inventory packet about ourselves and faxed it off today. They wanted to know what we would be comfortable with in the way of special needs, ethnicity, birth mother habits/addictions and so on. Chris and I had previously had conversations about this, but yesterday really solidified what we already knew. Chris was able to fax the paperwork off today, and now we are just waiting for them to contact us on the next step.

Meanwhile...
Chris and I have purchased a convertible bed and dresser from Nebraska Furniture Mart. (See attached pictures.) I told Chris, I would like to paint the room before we get anything else. Neither one of us are really big on painting, but my sister-in-law, Jodi, assures me that she will help. So, thanks in advance Jodi! Right now we are thinking of going with a light green. We have also picked up a bottle of Dreft detergent and a package of safety plug protectors for the wall outlets. Sometimes it is the little things that keep us motivated! To all you parents, please give us feedback on what we should be looking into getting. You can see how random we are with our purchases.

Please continue keeping us in your prayers. We really appreciate it!

Blessings,
Chris and Sara