Timeline Update

Hurry up.......... and wait. We understand that better than ever! When we started the home study process, we knew it would take several months. After the meetings and interviews and home visit are complete, our social worker will write "the home study" which is the document that states we have gone through the legal and educational requirements, and that we are fit to be adoptive parents. This document is what we've been working toward this whole time -- it's basically the culmination of months of hard work and one of the biggest -- maybe THE biggest -- hurdles to get through in this process.  Once the home study document is completed, we can officially become 'active' at our placement agency and our profile will be shown to birthparents.

In the back of my mind, I was hoping that everything with the home study process would be completed and we could be active with our placement agency by Christmas time. However, we've experienced some delays beyond our immediate control and we now know that will not be possible. Andy and I have stayed on top of things, but not everyone on our team feels compelled to move things right along with quite the same spirit that Andy and I do. Clearly our team members have other clients and other responsibilities and we totally get that -- but as in most team sports, we can only go as quickly as our slowest team members go, so..... we're being very patient. Such is life, right?  So here's an updated timeline:

• Three meetings with our social worker will happen in December, including our actual home visit on December 21st
• Once those are complete, our social worker will work on completing the Home Study document -- we are told this could take up to a month to complete (so hopefully mid-late January?)
• Once the home study document is complete, then our placement agency will review it and we will become active

So... here's to hoping we'll be active by the end of January!!!  Keep your fingers crossed for us.... we're ready!!

Putting Together Our Profile

We have been hard at work, putting together our profile for our placement agency. I know I mentioned we were working on this in a post a month ago, and it's true... we're still working on it! This is definitely a SLOW process!

Profile Part One: The photos. We are getting together 50+ pictures that show us, and what we do. We have categories that we have to fill (couple together, husband doing hobbies, wife doing hobbies, family and friends, etc) and we have to write fun captions for each of them.  That's the part we're working on now -- it's not as easy as it sounds! I've included just a few of the photos we're including throughout this post.

Profile Part Two: The words. We have to write an introduction that is supposed to 'catch the interest' of birthparents (50-75 words) and make them want to read more about us (What, can't they tell from our pictures how AWESOME we are!?!?). We have to write about our families (150-250 words), and also about our home & neighborhood (150-250 words). We have to choose six other topics, and write between 100-250 words for those as well. Some of the choices are: What does it mean to be parents?  What qualities do you love and admire in each other? What makes you unique? What are your strengths as individuals? What takes priority in your life? What made you who you are today? What will you tell the child about his/her adoption? and lots more...

The hardest one is the "Dear Birthparent" letter. This is 500-700 words, where we get a chance to speak from our heart, and try to explain to someone who we are and give them a reason to want US to be the people they choose to parent their child. That is no simple task, seriously...  but I wrote about that in a previous post, so I won't bore you with that again.  Just know that it's something we are putting a lot of thought into, and hopefully it will "speak" to the right birthparents.

And last but not least, there is the part that seems simple, the "Favorites" section -- which actually hasn't been that simple at all! Who knew picking a favorite movie could be so complicated!! But we're getting there... we plan to submit our profile by the end of the week, at which point our placement agency will put together a print profile (almost like a brochure about us) and an online profile as well. This will be so exciting to see!!  Hopefully we look like the kind of people who would be good parents...!!

Getting Educated

As part of our home study process, we are required to complete certain education requirements by the state of Wisconsin. I think that each home study agency may have their own way of getting their families complete the requirements -- some require meetings, some require seminars, etc. For our agency, we have a group meeting (coming up soon!), and we watch DVDs and read, read, read. 

We received a binder and a DVD set... we have questions that we have to answer after watching and reading. It feels like being a student! We sat down and watched the first DVD this weekend, and I wish I could say we absolutely loved it... but let's just say that we both took a nap after the first one was done.  Even Andy, who never, ever naps!! The content itself wasn't all that bad, but the delivery was hard to get through. Picture being in a church and the pastor/priest is very, very, VERY animated and every...... single....... word........ is........ enunciated........... and.............. IMPORTANT.......... and LOUD!!  I think I might start talking to my classes that way. They'd love it, I'm sure!

So, one DVD down... three to go. 

There are many, many articles, too -- they cover a range of topics and I'm sure they're just as exciting as the DVDs!! But we'll be working our way through them over the next week or so, and then we'll have to cover them at our home meeting with our social worker.

Each thing that gets checked off the list is another step closer to being parents!!