Open Forum

We went to an open forum last night at our adoption agency. The title was 'Parenting a Child with Special Placement Needs'. Since we are open to toddler and up with minor correctable needs our (new) social worker suggested we go.

There were 6 people there telling their stories. Two adopted from MN waiting program, one was domestic adoption but all 4 of her kids have down syndrome, two adopted from China (one out of birth order) and another adopted from Guatamala.

It was very informative and eye opening. They told us their stories, how they came to the decision to adopt and how it has been since bringing their children (some adopted sibling groups) home.

My favorite part was how all mentioned how God had worked in them and through them to adopt there children. One lady mentioned how everytime they thought they were suppose to be going a certain way to adopt God seemed to be shutting the door. When the opportunity arose to adopt their son they were very resiliant but God seemed to keep that door open.

It was also neat to learn about all the services available here in the Cities to help children with special needs. Not only programs, doctors and hospitals but I learned there's a Chinese Charter school in Mpls. We aren't sure if China is where we'll be adopting from. It's high on the list of countries but we are keeping our eyes open so that when we look at the Children of Promise list we don't miss our child who may be in a different country.

I'm very excited for the next step. Although Jeff would like that next step to be next year. Sigh. Did he not just say it was OK to send the preliminary application in? (Which by the way, according to our new social worker is going through the channels of each country to see which ones we are approved for.) Jeff wants to wait to adopt until next year when we look for a house. Hmmm...If we start the paperwork in April and take our time doing it like we did when we adopted Little Man we can drag it out 6 months. That'll put us to October. It takes awhile to choose a child, wait to see if they are still available, and sometimes have to start over and choose again. Once we are matched it can take another couple months to get approval to travel (if we need too). That'll bring us around February. Perfect moving out time. And if anyone knows us, we have a tendency of not doing things the easy way.

So who knows. We'll see where God leads us and I'll keep you all posted.