Welcome to my Words.

Introductory Ramblings, very sweet and benign cause I'm hoping to show this to little eyes in a few months.

Okie dokes. My husband and I are working on adopting children from the state foster care system.

We've completed PRIDE training, learned physical restraints, filled out about three hundred sheets of paperwork and homework, forced our loved ones to write glowing reccomendations, and are now at the phase where we need CPR/First Aid classes (Saturday), TB tests (tomorrow), Fire Safety inspection (tomorrow), and our Medical Histories (Friday). I also have to connect with my inner scrapbooker (bleh) and put together a family book. I'm planning on recruiting my graphic designer sister for that, however.

Seeing as how we only began this process in earnest three weeks ago, we're feeling pretty good. We're moving along at a good clip, and will be done with all our forms, visits, and paperwork by the end of this month. We're expecting a call this week to set up our home visits, as we've been "fast-tracked" by our lovely non-profit agency. So far as we can tell, the only thing we'll be missing come next weekend, from our end, at least, is our Policy and Procedure class, which takes place during the first week of July.

We are actually frantic with excitement. The whole reason we are going into adoption at this point is because of two boys we saw on a state photolisting. One look at their faces, some critical reading of their bio, and we were hooked. The aforementioned fast-tracking is so that we have a shot at these boys, since no one really knows how long it will take, or how little time it will take, for their case to go to decision. I read often that there are usually many families considered for waiting children, but is that just the littlest ones? What about a sibling group that includes a teenager and a kindergardener? Are they less likely to be "pinged" by prospective parents with homestudies in hand? Or will we actually have enough time, so that in 3 more weeks when our homestudy is complete, we will be able to throw our hats in the ring? All I know, at this point, is that their social worker told me on Wednesday that they were still available, and as long as they are on the website, they will still be available-ish. Most of the time, she said, the worker gets the most inquiries in the first 24 hours, and children are pulled from the site when that thresshold has been reached.

I have to admit, I am in love.